I was still living in Chicago at the time. I got to work late, as usual, around 8:20am. I took the elevator up to the 7th floor where I sat, got off the elevator and noticed that my floor was empty. There was no one around which was really weird. I started walking over to my desk, and then I saw a co-worker come out of the large conference room (there was a TV in there). My first thought was, "oh crap, I missed a meeting, I'm in trouble". So I walked over there and my coworker just looked at me and said, "WWIII just started". I was like, "wtf?". I walked the conference room and saw the first tower billowing smoke on the TV. About 2 seconds later, the fire alarms went off, and the entire building was evacuated. I worked in the Aon Center, which is the 2nd tallest building in Chicago, and I guess they weren't taking any chances since there were still several planes unaccounted for.

The streets of Chicago filled up with people fast as several other high-rise buildings were evaculated, and my wife and I tried calling some friends in NY with no luck. The rest of the day was spent at home, watching the news unfold.

Bart