The New New York Skyline

Ran up to the roof of my office this morning before work started to snap a couple pictures of the Freedom Tower being built.  It's more than half way finished and looking pretty sharp if you ask me....

I never did manage to get to the top of the Twin Towers before tragedy struck in 2001 and it's always been a regret of mine.  We got close once back in the late 90's, when my cousin Robyn had come up for a visit and a group of us ventured into the city to try and get to the top.  Heavy fog had forced the observation deck to close for the night right as we were entering the building.  We were all kind of disappointed but decided to trek around Chinatown for the rest of the evening and see what secret wonders those cramped blocks held.  The thought was always "oh well, there'll always be another time to go."  Truth is, there were many more nights to go from that point on, but I never took advantage of them and then it was too late.  I only ever scaled the Empire State Building because my good friend and his family had come up from Pennsauken to spend a day in New York City and I met up with them since it was only a quick ferry ride for me.   After the attack of 9/11, I started to realize just how much of this city I was taking for granted because, well... I live here.  There's so much to marvel at in this city, things that you see tourists gape at day in and day out, clogging up the sidewalks as us natives try and navigate around them, grumbling under our breath.  Over the last 9 years I have since made a more conscious effort to "tourist it up" a couple times a year.  It's kind of refreshing to make the effort to go see the sights this city has to offer as opposed to letting them paint the backdrop of our daily grind.   I'm hoping to post some more of the photos I've captured from around the town in that span.  Needless to say, once the tower is finished, I'll definitely be making the trip to the top!

A Decade Later...

10 years.  It sounds cliche, but it really does feel like yesterday.  I can remember only one thing specifically from September 10th... I had just gotten a post card delivered to me in my office.  I won a party for 20 people at the adult arcade bar called Barcode (think Dave and Buster's but smaller and not as good), drinks, games, etc all paid for.  How great was that I had thought at the time.  I honestly don't recall a single thing more.  The very next day however, I can remember almost in it's entirety with crystalline clarity.  It's amazing how the human mind works.  I remember the emotions most of all, from the initial confusion when I heard the explosion from the second plane striking the tower while I was riding the Staten Island Ferry into work, to the sudden panic when the realization that it was no accident, but an attack, set in.  The responsibility to put my own fears aside and be the anchor for my girlfriend who's father was supposed to be in that tower.  The sense of relief when friends and family slowly checked in that they were safe to the overwhelming sense of love I felt from friends and family when I had finally let them know I was safe.  Our house on Staten Island had become a base of operations of sorts.  Our friends all wound up there as a place to email, telephone or instant message their loved ones of their whereabouts.  I remember logging on to AIM and seeing the screen get blasted with no less than 90 IM windows all at the same time asking me if I was ok.  I remember the love I felt for my brothers and sisters and my mother and father, how all the little things you squabble over, like who used all the hot water and who ate the last Devil Dog, while they're important in creating the very fabric which is essential to a functioning and loving family, ultimately are just that... little things.  That we were all alive and together was all that mattered in the world. 

So much has happened in my life in the 10 years since... I met my best friend who is more like my third brother, My grandma passed away, I lost my job... and got it back, I got married, my sister got really sick... but thankfully recovered, my father successfully battled cancer and a quadruple by-pass, my brother and sister both had weddings and we welcomed new siblings to the family.  We bought a house.  I was blessed with 3 nieces one whom is my Goddaughter, 1 nephew and a bevy of second cousins.  Lastly we welcomed the two most beautiful miracles these eyes have ever seen into the world.  I look back on these last 10 years and I am thankful.  Thankful for my life and for the blessings that have be given to me.  I take the time, not just on the commemoration days, but every day, to make sure I don't take those blessings for granted because I remember all those people who lost someone they loved on that day, 10 years ago and all the people who have lost someone they loved fighting for this country in the years since.  I remember them and hope that by remembering them and living my own life to the fullest, I can give their sacrifice value.   May we, as a people, never forget what happened on that day 10 years ago, not just to prevent the horrors of that day from happening again, but more importantly to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.