From chaos comes order

In rememberence of WTC

I doubt this will make any sense to anybody else, but, to bad.

Some times are better than others. But, for some reason, today is just a hard one. You may hear quite a bit about the people, and, thankfully, most of the ones I knew did make it out. A few didn't. Even though some of them were just aquaintences, the were all new yorkers. Brash and a bit loud, but always friendly. Nobody ever had a problem borrowing a lighter or bumming a smoke outside of WTC 2. Or figuring out who won what game last night and what the bookies were giving for the action on the games that night.

I worked off and on in WTC 2. I was supposed to be there, on that infamous day, 5 years ago. In late August of '01 my trip was postponed out to October instead. Had the tickets and everything. Including my room booked at the Millenium Hilton, the big hotel right across the street for WTC. (maybe that is why it sometimes hits me hard...I should have been there, but, some how, it didn't work out that way.)

Being a bit of a vampire anyway (even by the standards of pacific time), I would often go over and work and wander around WTC in the wee small hours. For a place that was as jam packed and busseling as it was from 6:30AM to 6:30PM, it was equally as quiet at 2:30AM on a wednesday. The crew at Krispy Kreme (in WTC3) wasn't even there yet.

I adore the International Style of architecture (that was the architecurial style of WTC), but, WTC was also different. Its exterior had hundreds of narrow buttresses, that went all the way down to the base. Somehow, leaning against one as I talked to somebody, I felt somehow connected to the building.

It probably seems absurd to "wax poetic" about a hunk of steel, concrete, and glass. But, to somebody who grew up as an urban street kid (and I still pretty much am) there was something comforting in that cold behemoth of glass and concrete.

To some it was an icon of america.

To me, it was my home away from home on the east coast. And I miss it.

If you bother to take a brief moment today to remember those people who lost their lives (I won't use the word "victim". IMO, nobody working in WTC was a victim, they were tough, hard-nosed, warm-hearted people who were doing something that was very cool and unique....working at the epi-center of NYC. To me they were heroes.) Spare another thought for the place as well. Sure, it was a just a montage of steel/glass/concrete, but, to some people who spent a fair amount of time there, it was also a heartwarming & comforting place as well.

OK, I'll stop rambling now.

Posted at 02:53PM Sep 11, 2006 by rdsesq in Personal  |  Comments[2]