posted October 05, 2002 05:44 PM
I want to share something that I wrote this year about September 11th...I don't know where to start... I'll be babbling so feel free to ignore it. I just want to type about it somewhere, you know?
NYC. I love it. I've always considered it home even though I spent my childhood in Arizona, Wisconsin and Texas. When I was 14 I moved up there because my dad lived there and I had been visiting every summer since I was 8 and I knew i'd fit in there. When we moved into our building it was abandoned. I guess you could say my dad was a squatter. WE had no plumbing (this was when I just visited when I was 8 or so). There was a bathroom on the 3rd floor but we lived on the 5th floor. We had to go to a public shower for our baths. I didn't care.. it was NYC and everything was cool. Once all the drug dealers were kicked out of the building... the new tenants bought the building from the city. This is how I have my apartment there. The building was totally re-done, everything works, the backyard was spiffied up and it's pretty. We pay about $300 a month maintenance on a 2 bedroom apartment now. That's unheard of anywhere in or around NYC - hehe.
My apartment is right were it says "East Village"
Anyway - I moved up there when I was about 14. I considered it the city of opportunity. The neighborhood was still a bit scary but back then it was just something you adjusted to. I found things that I loved and blocked out everything else. We were really close to some really hip places. St. Marks is 3 blocks away... the street that draws the coolest people and artists. We are a 15-20 minute walk from CBGB's and Broadway... 25 min walk from Washington Square park. The Ramones and Iggy Pop lived in our neighborhood and were always around. One of the ex-GoGo's lives in our building still (before they got famous =P She's on the Behind the Music special).
My dad took my brother and I to the WTC a couple times. I used to get dizzy looking up at them because they didn't seem to end. I loved the fountain in the plaza. It was just the prettiest thing and I could have stared at it a long time. I have pictures next to it somewhere. I remember the lobby downstairs and waiting to pay to go upstairs. I remember being excited in the elevator and my ears popping because it moved so fast. I remember being on the top floor and the windows went from the floor to the ceiling so I'd stand against them and look down and feel dizzy all over again and wonder what would happen if the window broke and I fell out. I remember going to the roof and being disappointed we couldn't go all the way to the edge because of the fences.
From our roof... we could see the Chrysller building and Empire State building to one side and to the other side the World Trade Center. We used to have camping nights up there... drag up sleeping bags and sleep up there all night watching the lights and planes go by.
Our apartment is in the back of the building so we over look the small backyard and a big tree that grows there. The only other buildings we coudl see besides the other apartment building across from us and Iggy Pop's old building... were the WTC. They were so tall. The tree in the back grew huge... and blocked a lot of that view except from one window where we could still see the buildings.
I got a job when I was 15 or 16 on 8th street on the west side. I'd ride my bike there or walk and spend my lunchs at Washington Square Park where you could see the WTC there, too.
I had a couple boyfriends that lived in the shadow of the WTC. Rick, for instance, was very close. I'd meet him at his place and we'd walk over to the WTC at night... make out by the fountain, go to the park and look up at the buildings. I video taped him lipsyncing to Careless Whispers with the WTC in the background (GOD I wish I could find that tape because it's sooo funny).
When I'd fly anywhere to see my mom or what have you... when I'd come back and see the skyline and the WTC I knew I was HOME. I always got emotional and full of awe that I lived in the greatest city in the world.
The last time I left NYC to move to LA... the WTC was the last thing I saw.
September 11th, 2001. I woke up. Must have been 10 or 11am. With the time difference everything had already happened in NY but I was clueless. I usually went right to the internet to check mail but instead I lay on the couch just closing my eyes wondering why my phone was rining but I had the machine turned down. I just lay there for 20 minutes.
Vincent woke up and went in the other room to check his email. 10 minutes later he ran into the living room looking frantic.
"I think something really bad just happened in New York" was all he said and he turned on the TV.
Of course that coverage was all that was on the TV. We started watching right at a part when the second plane hit. We didn't know the towers fell yet. We were glued to the TV. I had tears just streaming down my face and when they fell...
I just expected to wake up. There was no way that could have happened. Then I listened to my answering machine and it was all my friends checking to see if I was alright. Then my thoughts turned to people I actualy knew in NYC...
My father and brother had no reason to be down there but then I didn't really know and I couldn't get in touch with them. Our apartment isn't far from the WTC. They closed everything off to everyone below 14th street and that included my neighborhood. My cousin Mike would skateboard sometimes down by the WTC. I didn't hear if he was alright for days.
I saw Nile online that night, thank goodness. He had been in the city that day. One of his dear friends was on one of the planes that hit the towers.
My brother in law.. paramedic... he WORKED in the WTC. He escaped, leaving everything at his desk. Triz, one of my logest friendships, nurse. I didn't hear from her for days. She was working, or rather, more on call on location because there weren't many to help. She spent most of her time helping firefighters with exhaustion.
Watson and Lucy, luckily, live all the way uptown.
Alexandra... worked 4 blocks away from the towers. She just got to work when the second plane hit. She managed to get a hold of me on her cell phone as she was walking miles uptown, covered with dust and soot and crying. I don't know HOW she got through to me but I'm so thankful she did.
Lunita.. had a job interview that morning downtown but was running late.
Then people I knew from the club scene.. Andrew... worked in the WTC but called into work sick that day.
Seeing the footage of the aftermath.. not necessarily the site itself but other things. The MacDonald's down there that was destroyed.. sounds stupid.. but I had POSTCARDS from that MacDonalds because it was my favorite because it was SO COOL. They had a granda piano and someone to play it during lunch, neon lights everywhere, very snazzy. All the ambulences at St. Vincent's hospital. I worked at Funhouse 2 blocks from St. Vincent's. That hospital was where they planned on taking all the 'survivors'. When I had my ectopic pregnancy I went there... had surgery there.. visited friends there... Hunter was born 3 blocks from St. Vincents at a birthing center affliiated with the hospital. If there had been a problem with his birth we would have been rushed there.
Union Square Park and all the memorials. I used to go there when I'd cut school and feed the squirrels. Very friendly animals.. they'd climb onto your lap if you had a peanut. It's very hard for me to accept that I wasn't able to go there myself and light a candle or something.. even something little.
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Don't wanna be your enemy... because I'm not the one you WANT me to be - Duran Duran 1997