September 20th, 2013 @ 1:31 am

i tried to look via the waybackmachine on other websites that i used to run/own over the years, but i couldn’t find any post about when 09/11 happened in 2001.  i also am not sure i ever posted about it in general, but the anniversary was just a week ago, and the topic is still fresh in my mind.  i personally don’t have a story about THAT day, but the day preceding.  my ex-boyfriend and i were both off from work and we slept right through it, and we didn’t wake up until around 11AM.

i had chinese food on september 9th, 2001, and i got a fortune cookie that read something along the lines of “don’t stray too far from home, you will be needed”.  on september 10th, i went to my friend becca’s house in montclair, new jersey.  i took that trip over there a billion times before.  it was pretty easy…  just take the 7 train to times square and take the decamp bus from the port authority.  it’s only a half an hour from the city, if that.  my friend frank (from my hometown in queens) had just moved into a house in montclair, right by becca’s apartment, so i killed two birds with one stone and saw them both that day.

for some reason i kept thinking about my fortune cookie.  towards the late afternoon/early evening, becca wanted me to sleep at her house in jersey, and for some reason i just kept pulling to go back to queens.  i’d gauge it at majorly fortune cookie, and partly that i just wanted to be with jeff (my bf at the time).  jeff’s mom was a bartender, so she wouldn’t be home until the wee AM hours, and jeff and i both weren’t scheduled to work the next morning at the video store…  that meant friends would be coming over, or just freedom in general at the house.  i said fuck it, and went home to him.

when you take the decamp bus on that bus route in particular, the view of the NYC skyline coming back to the city is spectacular.  the buildings look so large, because of the angle that the bus drives in on.

i wish i had taken pictures of it at some point, but those were pre-iphone/cell phone in general days, and my sister had stolen my digital camera from me.  i will always have the last time i saw it burned into my brain, though.  by the time i left jersey, it was dark out and the skyline was all lit up.  i remember looking at the enormous twin towers, and just thinking/feeling really strange.  i don’t know how to put it, but it definitely felt like the last time i’d see them.  i just remember the skyline looking like one of those classic NYC wide souvenir posters or something.  it looked perfect.

i was one of the last hundreds or thousands of people to see those towers lit up that night in all their glory.  it’s crazy to think about that.  i almost feel honored as a new yorker to say that.

read more…