A little bit more on Sept 11th

A good friend Claudia, posted a picture on her photoblog (aroundaboutme) that reminded me of something ...

One day, summer of 2002 I think, I decided to take the day off and walk down the Hudson River by myself from the Upper Westside to ... well as far as I could go. It was a time in New York when things felt unhinged. We were all zombies, the world felt different and we were unsure of what to do next. But there was much solidarity between New Yorkers. At some point a woman who was also strolling down the river edge just started talking to me. We walked about 20 blocks together. Her son was applying to college and was thinking of going to McGill. After I left her I walked another dozen blocks when Ron Liem passes by me on his bike. I like Ron a lot. He was on my thesis committee and was part of our "Cytoskeletal Group" at Columbia. We were just north of Chelsea. He got off his bike and we walked all the way to Battery Park City. He was telling me about the weeks and months after the disaster, how it was hard to get into and out off the area. Ron lived a few blocks away from the WTC, but he was in Europe when it all happened. When he came back, he had was a suitcase full of clothes and lived with friends until he could get back down to his place. In Battery Park he showed me this Chinese Restaurant that had opened a couple of weeks before all the chaos. For quite a while the owners were trying to avoid going under because no one was allowed to enter or exit that part of town, but it survived. It's located in a beautiful location, right on the water's edge with a view of the Statue of Liberty. The food was good and cheap. We then talked about life in the area and about where I should go for my upcoming postdoc. We were passing right next to "ground zero" (near the Winter Garden) and just then they were carting those lights off. The lights had been there for half a year, keeping our night skies lit. Solemn and silent.

I've often gone back to that restaurant with Jenni, I wonder if it's still around ...