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I was in my car driving to do some Music Therapy contract work at 2 nursing homes (about 45 minutes out of Tallahassee, FL where I was living at the time). I was singing along to the radio when they interrupted with a news bulletin telling about the first tower being struck. I couldn't believe it and at that point it hadn't been confirmed as terrorist action. I was still driving when they reported the second tower being struck....at that point I knew something was very wrong and I started driving faster so I could get to the facility and see the news. I got there and the directors wanted me to get started with my music group immediately. They said the residents were getting agitated (they had dementia) because of all the chaos of the morning. The room where the group was had a big screen TV and I positioned the group so that I could see the TV (on mute) while the residents faced me. I saw the first tower collapse while I was in the middle of singing a song. We sang hymns for the rest of the group. I still had to go to the next group (at another facility) where there wasn't any TV.
When I got in my car to head back to Tallahassee I remember feeling nervous and not safe being in a capital city. I knew Bush had been in FL that day and his brother Jeb is/was the governor of FL. My apartment was only a couple miles away from the capital building and I kept thinking something bad was going to happen. Traffic was horrible as I was heading home and I decided to cut through FSU's campus...classes had been cancelled that day and traffic was gridlocked there too. I ended up turning off the radio because it was information overload and I felt powerless. I finally made it home, called my family and was glued to the TV the rest of the day.
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