The Treasure in the Tin Box

As much as I appreciate how easily it is to communicate in this age, I do miss letters.  A long awaited letter that had been touched and licked by the sender and sometimes smelled like them, set my young teenage heart aflutter.  Depending on the contents, it was something you could read, dissect, analyze the meaning behind those words, re-read, tear up, crumple, uncrumple, kiss, burn, or tuck under your pillow.  More importantly, it was something you could keep forever to remind you of who you were or were trying to be, who you loved and who loved you.  I'm fascinated how words on a page can make you smile,  remember, move you to tears, inflame your passions, and make you fall in love--sometimes all one letter.  

It's a bit sad to think that we now live in a world where we barely write letters;  where children are not even taught to write in cursive; where the sweet sensation of holding a letter has been replaced by the glare of a monitor, or handheld device.  In an age where communication is so instantaneous, we no longer place much value on written letters and how we would have to wait days, weeks, or even months for a reply to a letter.  I sometimes wonder if we've dumbed down our messages to each other because we know how little effort it takes to send them and how little value they have when received.  In this electronic age, has our communication improved?  Do we really sit down and think about what we want to truly say before we e-mail it?  I still remember at times taking hours to write a letter. Sometime there would be multiple balls of crumpled paper around me, because I just couldn't sort my thoughts, or couldn't convey how I truly felt.  Writing a two or three sentence letter was just a waste and a disappointment to the person who was to receive your words--yet we now do that all the time!

Having moved to the U.S. at a young age, I still remember the weekly letters my mom wrote to her parents.  She had a tin box that held the old international "par avion" envelopes, lined paper, and pens.  That tin had a place of honor in our home.  I still have a lot of those old letters and postcards my grandparents, now deceased, had sent us.  I so grateful to have them.  To be able to see their handwriting, and how it changed  depending on mood, or to be able to make out a letter blurred by an errant tear, is a treasure I fear we have now lost.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13184821@N07/5553992494/in/photostream/lightbox/

Easter Prep

Mara!!!!

EPIC FAILURE!  Grrrr!

Where's Toto?

So I thought I was having a crappy day yesterday.   Got up and just felt "off."  No headache, not any specific ailment I could point to, but just ....not quite right.  It was a yucky cloudy day and I was so tired and really had to just drag my sorry ass out of bed.  Luckily I work from home often, so my 20 foot commute was most welcome.  I signed on and my internet connection was just wonky.  For some reason my network wasn't working so I had the pleasure of having to access a kind neighbor's open network (thank you Roger's Guest Network, whoever you are).   Then I was on a conference call for 3 hours, and nothing was accomplished, another call for 2 hours--yup, nothing accomplished.  Got some more things done and before you know it 5:00pm rolled around.  Still not feeling "right", I thought, yup a nice warm shower followed by a hot cup of tea while snuggled on the couch sounded good.  Got in the shower, and got  as far as lathering up my armpits before my dog began barking like a crazy woman and whimpering. Immediately I thought, "she's hurt herself."  I grabbed a towel and ran to the living room just in time to see the sky turn an algae green to a deep black and a howling wind along with constant bursts of lightening.  Then I started seeing branches coming off of trees and then trees snapping intwo like twigs, and then trees started to get uprooted.  Then I thought, "fuck, this looks like a tornado," got away from the large window put on jeans and went out into the hallway.  The 1 year old shih tzu next door was whining and barking like crazy,  so with her mom's permission, I brought her over.  She and Lulu respected each other's space, although Lulu did "continually supervise" her from atop the couch.  Within less than 5 minutes the storm passed over and it was all over.


Apparently, the National Weather Service had issued a tornado alert prior to this storm.  It would have been good to know, HAD I been watching tv or listening to the radio.  Oh well.  I probably would have thought---"yeah, tornados don't happen in NYC."  WRONG!

So the aftermath looks like this...

We're doing fine.  Luckily we had no damage to our place.  Some of our neighbors had their windows blown out and balcony furniture strewn out onto the street (found several blocks away).  Unfortunately, there was one fatality.  One poor lady had a tree fall in her car and she was killed instantly.  Another highrise apartment building two blocks away had a wall collapse in between two apartments!  Funny enough, a mere 2 miles away--no damage whatsoever!  

Never Forget

 

The Towers

I was on the bus heading home and the route inevitably took me to the site of the World Trade Center.  Each time I pass by there, I get a lump in my throat.  It's impossible for anyone who lived through that time, to not feel affected by it.  Passing by there today was worse than the average day.  Every 9/11 the old feelings of extreme vulnerability, fear, guilt, relief, rawness, and sadness felt that day resurface.  The anxiety and frustration of the constant calls in the vain attempt to reach a loved one only to hear a busy signal or a recording saying that your call could not get through.  The feeling of heaviness in my heart as I looked out the window that day and seeing those behemoth landmarks crumble and take with them the lives of 2000+ innocent people in one morning.   

I walked home that day because all buses and subways leaving Manhattan were stopped.  Cars crossing the bridges out of Manhattan would stop and drivers would offer rides to the elderly or disabled.  Complete strangers hugged and comforted each other.  At the other side of the bridge people provide bottled water and assistance to the "bridge walkers."  It was an awful day, but I also saw another side of people that day.  A humanity that seemed to have been lost, reappeared that day.  It's a shame that over the last 9 years we've reverted back to how we were before.

In 1982

1982 in the courtyard between the towers.  This sculpture, now battered, stands a few blocks away at Battery Park.

with my mom, on the rooftop observation deck

with my dad, sitting at the observation deck

Goodbye to blogless-blog month

Outside my window at 11:59pm 8/31/10


It is now September-where did the summer go??  Anyone else feel like buying a composition notebook, a #2 pencil, and a 64 box of crayons with the built in sharpener?

I LOVED the smell of these badboys!