barlo,
my experience was similar to yours in the feeling of disbelief that I had... i was at work, and people were saying "a plane was flown into the world trade center!" People were scrambling like crazy to get to their computers and look at news websites and streaming video feeds, and it was hard to get into those websites because they were overloaded. I was just in complete denial. I remember saying (or thinking) "it's possible that there was a pilot error, or some problem with the plane's navigational system, or the control tower or some such thing..." I just couldn't wrap my brain around it unless I thought that it was just some sort of tragic mistake. The second plane hit and all I could think was that it was just a horrible coincidence. Then the news that another plane had flown into the Pentagon. Then there was absolutely no question was going on. And what was there to do? There was some frantic discussion with co-workers and then try to get some work done even as my frantic mind engaged in denial. In the days and weeks after, when I wasn't working, I was glued to the television watching the constant coverage but as many times as I saw the same footage and heard the same facts and names, it was like a horrible dream... it just wouldn't sink in, it was like an out-of-body experience, or like I was watching it all in some foreign language I could not understand. It was just incomprehensible to me. And then there was the completely impotent feeling that overcame me, like suddenly I would have absolutely no control of anything else in my life ever again.