I can remember thinking about my day ahead as I walked down 23rd street this morning. I’d go the gym, and then get home in time for open mic night at Ristra. I walked into work at 8:45, the same as always, and sat at my desk to read email. A normal day. Around nine o’clock I heard someone on the phone say something about a plane hitting the world trade center. So I went to the MSNBC website, and looked at the headline. ‘What a crazy accident’ I thought.

Minutes later my cell phone rings, my sister Natalie calls to say what happened. She can see the smoke billowing from Jersey City. She’s on her way out. Seconds later my dad calls, he’s thinks I’m still working at 5 WTC. Six months ago I was. So we talk a bit, and he says something about a second plane hitting the towers. I’m a little skeptical, because my dad has a little language barrier problem.

I see Colleen on Instant Messenger; she works across the street from the WTC. She’s using her home account so I assume she hasn’t left yet. I make a comment about her being glad she hasn’t left yet. She says she’s watching the news, and another plane has hit the other tower. Dad was right. I’m thinking ‘shit.. this is no accident.’

Vanessa, my other sister, calls me. I forget what we talked about. Meanwhile people in the office are beginning to bustle off to various areas, watching web tv, televisions or listening to radios. They show the plane hitting the other tower. Looks of shock and disbelief mar the faces of everyone around me. We packed around a bunch of cubicles watching a television at strange angles. Realization strikes people. This is terrorism. We have an office in 5 WTC, as I previously mentioned. I worked there for a few months. We worry for our colleagues.

I return to my desk to find a bevy of instant messages. My friends wonder if I’m ok. I feel loved. We ponder who else we know who works downtown. Colleen has signed off. So several people are looking for her. I reassure them that she’s at home, and safe.

Michelene ims me. She was worried. She wants Joe and I to come to her place, if we get stuck. I ask, ‘Where is your place’. She replies, ’236th and Broadway’. That’s 213 blocks away and the subways are closed. All of NY is now shut down. All planes are told to land. We begin to hear that the plane that struck the tower was a passenger jet. Once again disbelief abounds.

Our phones are not working, and our cell phones won’t connect. My link to the world is AIM. I’m very glad I got it working a few weeks ago.

More people are IMing me. We happily find out that most of our friends are accounted for. CSFB announces that all of our staff in 5 WTC have been evacuated. My best friend Jen, who is in Arizona for a few months IMs me. She frantically worried about me, not being able to get through to me at work or on my cell. She too thinks I still work in the WTC. I reassure her that I am alive. She tells me that she was having a dream that she was showing someone the NYC skyline, and she points out the WTC. And she tells them they should go up to Castle Point because the view is better, and that I live there. Her father wakes her up at 7am with news of what has happened. I think this is majorly freaky.

We hear reports that one of the towers has collapsed. Incredulous, I hustle over to the TV. It’s an unbelievable site. If possible, the shock and horror of the watching crowd increases tenfold. I see a woman walk by crying. They say people saw a 3rd plane strike the tower. I can’t believe that one of the towers is gone. It’s hard to tell from the TV footage, most of the buildings are obscured by smoke.

It’s getting difficult to watch TV. I return to my desk and talk more to my friends about it.

We got an announcement saying that we could leave work, but our building was a safe as anywhere. I believed it. So I went back to watch more tv, and got back to see the 2nd tower fall. It looked like a movie implosion. At this point I really had to stop watching the TV. Everyone who I talked to was totally freaked out by then. I don’t even remember when the announcement about the Pentagon came.

I had to convince my friend that he shouldn’t walk to 236th Street. So we figured we’d try to take the ferry. But of course I couldn’t call. So I went to lunch. And everything in the cafeteria was free. That was nice. So I went back upstairs, and decided to try the ferry with Joe & co.

Walking through NYC was absolutely surreal. There were amazing numbers of people walking in the streets, and no cars. None. People walked around in a daze. I saw people with gas masks around their necks, crying on people’s shoulders. The shelves of stores were empty.

In tragedy there is some good. When we finally got down to 12th Avenue and 23rd Street, I was amazed. From 23rd street down to the Trade Center, there were ambulances lined up. They were from places all over the tri-state area. I saw some from around my hometown. We finally hiked down to the ferry, and the number of people were staggering. People were lined up in 4 snaking lines stretching 12 blocks. Somehow we got on the ferry in 40 minutes.

As soon as we pulled out of the dock and you could see where the World Trade Center stood, you could hear the gasp of the entire boat as they said ‘Oh my God’. It was just a giant black cloud. I couldn’t believe it wasn’t there. It seems like some David Copperfield magic trick.

Getting off the ferry into Hoboken was eerie, something like ET. As we walked off we saw people dressed in special suits with mask. They shuffled off anyone from the WTC into detox. In the bus station there were hundreds of EMTs where they setup a triage. I looked around for Christina, figuring as a Hoboken emt she’d be there but I couldn’t find her. At the entrance of the street, stood an army soldier.

But we had made it home. We stopped by Colleen’s to give her a hug. Home is good.

That night I read the following on some new site, and it really struck home since the Pearl Harbor memorial is one of the most moving things I’ve ever seen:
“It is the largest terrorist attack ever on the United States. And the casualty count will dwarf even that of Pearl Harbor.”

The day after 9/11 I brought my camera with me into work. I have no idea why I went to work that day. Anyway I took some photos in the city and Hoboken, and you can see both the mass of dust and smoke from where the towers stood as well as the shock and sadness on everyone’s faces. I uploaded those photos to my flickr account so you can see them if you like.

We also got smart this time and headed down to the field level to get food. We went with the chicken noodle bowls and Sapporos ($41 for 2 people…yikes). Later on we had some Miller Lite (in honor of the Brewers, not really).

So the amazing thing was we won! I have been to 5 or 6 games in the past 2  years and this is the first one where the home team has won. Martin and Jorge hit homers and AJ was great.

Friday, 8:30am – Wake up

Friday, 9am – Start working (from home today, yay!)

Friday, 3:35pm – Waiting for the bus

Friday, 3:45pm – The bus arrives 10 minutes late

Friday, 4:30pm – Sitting in traffic at the Lincoln Tunnel Helix

Friday, 5pm – Arrive at Port Authority

Friday, 5:20pm – Meet my new friend Alexa at the Au Bon Pain in Port Authority

Friday, 6pm – Grab dinner at Chiptole with Alexa

Friday, 6:45pm – Walk up to the library, take a photo with the Lion mascot. (Side note: Is that Patience or Fortitude?)

Friday, 7pm – Enter the library and get my VIP Adventurer pass

Friday, 7:15pm – Can’t get into the app, get technical help

Friday, 8pm – The doors are closed and we’re locked in until 6am

Friday, 8:15pm – Given the choice of a closer staircase and one across the room, my companions and I decide we are too impatient to fight the crowd across the room and choose Team Fortitude.

Friday, 8:20pm – The event kicks off with an introduction and the revealing of the 7 secrets of the game by Jane McGonaigle.

Friday, 8:35pm – My team heads to the children’s room and unlocks our first artifact of the night. The wall mural.

Friday, 8:45-10pm – We work our way through the Gottesman Room and Map room unlocking many artifacts.

Friday, 10:05pm – I sit down to write my first story. Charles Dickens’ Cat Paw.

Friday, 10:05pm – I discover I can’t sign into the website

Friday, 10:10pm – Find out that our passwords were reset and successfully login.

Friday, 10:35pm – I discover that I can’t submit my story due to server issues.

Friday, 11:40pm – Head down into the stacks for a rare tour. Try to avoid hitting head.

Friday, 11:48pm – Discover someone’s future hidden among the books in the stacks.

Saturday, 12:30am – Go hunting for more artifacts.

Saturday, 1:30am – The website is no longer syncing with the mobile app. Start to manually activate artifacts.

Saturday, 2am – My future finds me. Thanks Reilly!

Saturday, 2:30am – On the hunt for John K to deliver his future. Finally track him down over with Team Patience.

Saturday, 3am – Time for snack/Red Bull break. Find people asleep in the snack room..

Saturday, 3:15am – ..And on the tables in the Rose Reading Room.

Saturday, 4am – Breakfast time!

Saturday, 4:30am – Having written 8 stories, I decide it’s time to go take some photos.

Saturday, 5am – Jane announces that even though they won’t be able to bind the book we’ve succeeded in writing it!

Saturday, 5:20am – Get on line with the rest of the 500 to sign the book.

Saturday, 5:28am – I sign as an author of the book. I’m officially going to be in the NYPL catalog.

Saturday, 5:38am – I exit the New York Public Library, triumphant. And tired.

Saturday, 6am – Arrive at Port Authority to sit and wait.

Saturday, 7:30am – My bus departs.

Saturday, 8:20am – I am back in bed for a nap.

A few people asked me what I wrote so I’m posting it. It’s nothing special. From what I can tell something like 4000 people applied and 500 were chosen.

By the year 2021, I will become the first person to…
successfully combine cupcake baking, letterpress printing, and knitting into a single marketable hobby: the Personal Crafty Trinity.

What drives you… and what strengths do you have that will help you achieve your 2021 goal?
I live for crafting and I dive wholeheartedly into whatever interests me. From baking divine treats that make all my facebook friends drool, to the 800lb antique press in my basement, to the my burgeoning stash of yarn – I’m all about creativity.

An empty stage before the show starts

It was basically Jad sitting at a table with a macbook, a script, and some sort of sound cue machine. On the other side was Robert (aka Bobby K) sitting at a music stand with his script. I guess I never really thought about how much of the show is scripted, but it’s definitely interesting to see how they mix in the audio clips and the chemistry and interactions of the hosts.

What really made the show special were the illustrations and animations projected in the background and the musical stylings of cellist Zoe Keatings.

Jad and Zoe. Robert is being blocked out by someone's gigantic head.

The subject of the show was the search for Symmetry and I don’t want to go into what its about since you’ll soon be able to listen yourself. The description RadioLab provides is:

Hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich will be performing an upcoming episode on symmetry, and how it shapes our very existence—from the origin of the universe, to what we see when we look in the mirror. We’ll search for love in ancient Greece, head to modern-day Princeton for a look inside our brains, and revisit an unlikely headline from the Oval Office circa 1979.

I really enjoyed not only the performance, but the content. And I’d be very interested to know how people, who attended the show, changed their hair parts the next day.

Here is short documentary on ad mural painters.

via (despite his best efforts not to) my friend John who got it via a friend I need to talk to more, Thomaz

I thought Avenue Q was pretty cute. We didn’t quite get the logic as to when someone was a puppet. I thought maybe all the monsters would be puppets, but Princeton wasn’t a monster.

Before that we went to Marseille for brunch. It was really good and definitely recommended if you are looking for someplace in the theater district. I would make reservations though because it was packed. We had them and still waited 15 minutes.

I can remember thinking about my day ahead as I walked down 23rd street this morning. I’d go the gym, and then get home in time for open mic night at Ristra. I walked into work at 8:45, the same as always, and sat at my desk to read email. A normal day. Around nine o’clock I heard someone on the phone say something about a plane hitting the world trade center. So I went to the MSNBC website, and looked at the headline. ‘What a crazy accident’ I thought. Minutes later my cell phone rings, my sister Natalie calls to say what happened. She can see the smoke billowing from Jersey City. She’s on her way out. Seconds later my dad calls, he’s thinks I’m still working at 5 WTC. Six months ago I was. So we talk a bit, and he says something about a second plane hitting the towers. I’m a little skeptical, because my dad has a little language barrier problem. I see Colleen on Instant Messenger; she works across the street from the WTC. She’s using her home account so I assume she hasn’t left yet. I make a comment about her being glad she hasn’t left yet. She says she’s watching the news, and another plane has hit the other tower. Dad was right. I’m thinking’shit.. this is no accident.. Vanessa, my other sisters calls me, I forget what we talked about. Meanwhile people in the office are beginning to bustle off to various areas, watching web tv, tv’s or listening to radios. They show the plane hitting the other tower. Looks of shock and disbelief mar the faces of everyone around me. We packed around a bunch of cubicles watching a television at strange angles. Realization strikes people. This is terrorism. We have an office in 5 WTC, as I previously mentioned, I worked there for a few months. We worry for our colleagues.

I return to my desk to find a bevy of instant messages. My friends wonder if I’m ok. I feel loved. We ponder who else we know who works downtown. Colleen has signed off. So several people are looking for her. I reassure them that she’s at home, and safe. Michelene im’s me. She was worried. She wants Joe and I to come to her place, if we get stuck. I ask, ‘Where is your place’. She replies, ’236th and Broadway’. That’s 213 blocks away and the subways are closed. All of NY is now shut down. All planes are told to land. We begin to hear that the plane that struck the tower was a passenger jet. Once again disbelief abounds. Our phones are not working, and our cell phones won’t connect. My link to the world is AIM. I’m very glad I got it working a few weeks ago.

More people are IM’ing me. We happily find out that most of our friends are accounted for. CSFB announces that all our staff in 5 WTC has been evacuated. My best friend Jen, who is in Arizona for a few months IM’s me. She frantically worried about me, not being able to get through to me at work or on my cell. She too thinks I still work in the WTC. I reassure her that I am alive. She tells me that she was having a dream that she was showing someone the NYC skyline, and she points out the WTC. And she tells them they should go up to Castle Point because the view is better, and that I live there. Her father wakes her up at 7am with news of what has happened. I think this is majorly freaky.

We hear reports that one of the towers has collapsed. Incredulous, I hustle over to the TV. It’s an unbelievable site. If possible, the shock and horror of the watching crowd increases tenfold. I see a woman walk by crying. They say people saw a 3rd plane strike the tower. I can’t believe that one of the towers is gone. It’s hard to tell from the TV footage, most of the buildings are obscured by smoke. It’s getting difficult to watch TV. I return to my desk and talk more to my friends about it.

We got an announcement saying that we could leave work, but our building was a safe as anywhere. I believed it. So I went back to watch more tv, and got back to see the 2nd tower fall. It looked like a movie implosion. At this point I really had to stop watching the TV. Everyone who I talked to was totally freaked out by then. I don’t even remember when the announcement about the pentagon came.

I had to convince my friend that he shouldn’t walk to 236th Street. So we figured we’d try to take the ferry. But of course I couldn’t call. So I went to lunch. And everything in the cafeteria was free. That was nice. So I went back upstairs, and decided to try the ferry with Joe & co. Walking through NYC was absolutely surreal. There were amazing numbers of people walking in the streets, and no cars. None. People walked around in a daze. I saw people with gas masks around their necks, crying on people’s shoulders. The shelves of stores were empty.

In tragedy there is some good. When we finally got down to 12th Avenue and 23rd Street, I was amazed. From 23rd street down to the Trade Center, there were ambulances lined up. They were from places all over the tri-state area. I saw some from around my hometown. We finally hiked down to the ferry, and the number of people were staggering. People were lined up in 4 snaking lines stretching 12 blocks. Somehow we got on the ferry in 40 minutes.

As soon as we pulled out of the dock and you could see where the World Trade Center stood, you could hear the gasp of the entire boat as they said ‘Oh my God’. It was just a giant black cloud. I couldn’t believe it wasn’t there. It seems like some David Copperfield magic trick. Getting off the ferry into Hoboken was eerie, something like ET. As we walked off we saw people dressed in special suits with mask. They shuffled off anyone from the WTC into detox. In the bus station there were hundreds of EMTs where they setup a triage. I looked around for Christina, figuring as a Hoboken emt she’d be there but I couldn’t find her. At the entrance of the street, stood an army soldier.

But we had made it home. We stopped by Colleens to give her a hug. Home is good.

That night I read the following on some new site, and it really struck home since the Pearl Harbor memorial is one of the most moving things I’ve ever seen:
“It is the largest terrorist attack ever on the United States. And the casualty count will dwarf even that of Pearl Harbor.”

The day after 9/11 I brought my camera with me into work. I have no idea why I went to work that day. Anyway I took some photos in the city and Hoboken, and you can see both the mass of dust and smoke from where the towers stood as well as the shock and sadness on everyone’s faces. I uploaded those photos to my flickr account so you can see them if you like.

NYTimes has a slide show of the plans for the High Line Park. This park will be located on the elevated subway platforms that run along the west side. It looks super rad.

I’ve always wanted to see a building moved. My mom’s house in Little Ferry was moved when she was young.