THE LAST FIVE ...

Closing up shop
- Wednesday, Aug. 02, 2006

It may be time for a change
- Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Entry in the air
- Friday, April 21, 2006

Still here
- Thursday, April 20, 2006

Music of the moment
- Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Or ... BE RANDOM!


GOOD READS

101 in 1001
American Road Trip, 1998


OTHER PEOPLE

Chupatintas
Dancing Brave
Fugging It Up
Kitty Sandwich
Mister Zero
Sideways Rain
Ultratart
Velcrometer


THE BASICS

My crew
Latest
Older
Notes
Our host
Profile

Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2001 - 9:10 p.m.

You were here

Yesterday I took Casey up to Hoboken to look at apartments and drove around looking for parking while she looked at the first two and met the tennants looking for a roommate. I listened to the Mets and Pirates on the radio and then parked in front of a fire hydrant for 15 minutes while she finished at the second apartment. With some time before she had to be at the third, I drove her up Washington Ave. (or Street?) to find the place, and then we stumbled upon a parking space. I squeezed into the spot on the left-hand side, just barely making it in between a late-80s Volvo and another smaller car and took her to the door of the building.

While she went upstairs, I walked down Washington, noticing all the American flags hanging in doorways and a group in a laundromat looking up at a TV where the Yankees were getting ready to play their first game back since the terrorist attacks. Just past the laundromat and a bagel shop -- Bagels on Hudson or something -- was the 8th Street Tavern, so I stepped in for the bathroom and a beer. I always trust a bar with the location in its name -- it's easy to remember where it is, so people will keep coming back. There were a lot of empty seats around the square bar in the center, so I sat down to watch the Mets until Casey called.

She met me and we walked back to the car and then drove down to Jersey City to see two of her sorority sisters in a nice, new complex down at the southern end of the city, near Liberty State Park. After we parked on Warren St. -- "Warren Cheswick Street!" -- we walked to their building and looked across the river at the eerie glow coming from lower Manhattan -- the flood lights illuminating the ongoing, 24-hour cleanup effort at the site of the World Trade Center, now known as Ground Zero. A light cloud of smoke and dust continued to rise from the site, and the buildings closest to the lights remained dark. Driving into Jersey City during the early evening, we saw the new Manhattan skyline for the first time, now looking more like any other city than distinctly like the best city on Earth. Where it used to be a huge island of high-rise buildings, with two clusters -- Midtown and Lower Manhattan -- rising above the rest, each with a distinctive centerpiece (the Empire State in Midtown, the World Trade towers in Lower), it now looked almost empty. The Empire State Building stands alone now, high above New York. You can almost see the sadness on the building.

As we drove on the Newark Bay extention of the New Jersey Turnpike, the Statue of Liberty stood in the foreground, Manhattan just beyond it. Looking closely, we could see the smoke and dust cloud as it rose toward the sky and took in the new scene in silence.

# # #

So she's gone now, and it's not like I can go back to my "normal" life. I don't have a routine anymore. I realized that after two weeks together -- an extra five days tacked on because of the messed up flight schedules -- my life is forever changed for the better. My routine involves her now, and without her here, my routine is altered. I want her back, but I must be patient.

Of course, all that aside, my life couldn't go back to normal. Nobody's can. Casey arrived on Sept. 5 and we went into the City for an interview and walked around Manhattan and had a good time and enjoyed ourselves. We went back two days later for more of the same, and I saw the drummer from Mudvayne at the MoMA. That New York isn't there anymore. It crumbled beneath the World Trade Center towers. Everywhere we go, we're reminded that we now live in a different America, and as a result, a different world. All the American flags are a reminder. The fortified military sites are a reminder. CNN and MSNBC programming are reminders. MTV's flag logo is a reminder. Subway's commercial is a reminder. "God Bless America" during the Seventh Inning Stretch is a reminder. The Mets wearing NYFD, NYPD and EMS hats during games is a reminder. The eerie feeling of so few passengers at Newark Airport is a reminder. The sign "Absolutely no knives beyond this point" is a reminder. There are too many reminders ...

But gradually, we will work back to some sort of normal life. We will never forget, there will always be reminders, but someday we'll wake up again and not think of the World Trade Center and Pentagon and Pennsylvania crashes right away.

Someday, we may wake up again and smile at the sunshine.

I could lie to myself
and say I like it
but I would love it
if you were here

-- Sarah Harmer, "You Were Here"

Previous page: Fly the flag
Next page: Everyone's your friend in New York City

� 1998-2004 DC Products. All rights reserved.

Yeah, sorry I have to be all legal on you here, but unless otherwise indicated, all that you read here is mine, mine, mine. But feel free to quote me or make fun of me or borrow what I write and send it out as an e-mail forward to all your friends, family and coworkers. Just don't say it's yours, you know?