It rained today. Seems fitting that the skies were overcast as this was the first Tuesday after 6 years. The mood down in the Financial District was somber. Business people clicking their heels on the pavement to get to work after grabbing their morning caffeine fix. Yes, it was business as usual downtown. A few blocks away from the office you heard the bells at the respective times the planes hit. Surprisingly the subways were running on time, although with much more passengers on the downtown bound trains. I guess they were all heading to Ground Zero to pay their respects.
I passed by the site last night after the gym. Camera crews and stage personnel were busy setting up for today's annual ceremony. It all seemed surreal that I walk the streets that were featured on every news outlet in the world at the most difficult period of time in recent American history.
Six years ago today I was in ARS 154, a class that I took to fulfill a DEC requirement for graduation. I walked back to the dorms after being dismissed early along with all the clueless undergrads. Little did we know all our lives would change. Our campus was largely composed of kids from the city...but there we were, stuck on Long Island, not knowing how our loved ones were even though they were an 45 minute drive away.
Stony Brook was put on high alert, since we were so close to Cold Spring Harbor Labs, a science research facility that had some key government contracts. Who knew what they did there? Certainly none of my circle of friends. We all had our theories but were probably wrong. I can't even imagine what Donelle was feeling. She actually saw the ordeal from her window at school across the river in New Jersey. I remember that conversation. Old friends calling eachother to see if they were all okay even though we had full knowledge that they were miles away. But New Yorkers really know that New York is too small of a town to not be concerned.
To this day it's still hard to watch the specials. My family was one of the more fortunate ones on that day. My cousins made it out of the towers from their respective companies. But on that day, we were all a mess. Not knowing what was going on, and the jammed phone lines didn't help our feelings of nausea for those hours after.
Just do one selfless thing this week. There's too much other shit in the world that happens.
I passed by the site last night after the gym. Camera crews and stage personnel were busy setting up for today's annual ceremony. It all seemed surreal that I walk the streets that were featured on every news outlet in the world at the most difficult period of time in recent American history.
Six years ago today I was in ARS 154, a class that I took to fulfill a DEC requirement for graduation. I walked back to the dorms after being dismissed early along with all the clueless undergrads. Little did we know all our lives would change. Our campus was largely composed of kids from the city...but there we were, stuck on Long Island, not knowing how our loved ones were even though they were an 45 minute drive away.
Stony Brook was put on high alert, since we were so close to Cold Spring Harbor Labs, a science research facility that had some key government contracts. Who knew what they did there? Certainly none of my circle of friends. We all had our theories but were probably wrong. I can't even imagine what Donelle was feeling. She actually saw the ordeal from her window at school across the river in New Jersey. I remember that conversation. Old friends calling eachother to see if they were all okay even though we had full knowledge that they were miles away. But New Yorkers really know that New York is too small of a town to not be concerned.
To this day it's still hard to watch the specials. My family was one of the more fortunate ones on that day. My cousins made it out of the towers from their respective companies. But on that day, we were all a mess. Not knowing what was going on, and the jammed phone lines didn't help our feelings of nausea for those hours after.
Just do one selfless thing this week. There's too much other shit in the world that happens.
*Picture courtesy of Vince.
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2 comments:
new yorkers are a special breed of people.
i admire you guys. stay up, dude.
son, you need to do an exposé on the sneaker stock you got. i'm telling you!!!
looking forward to that.
thanks for the head's up regarding sneakerpimps. if you visit the t.dot, be sure..please be sure to drop by goodfoot on richmond and spadina st.
here's some linkage...
http://www.getonthegoodfoot.ca/
(the site's up and down sporadically so if it's not working today, be sure to check back. a MUST DO if in the area)
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