Unemployment Office Tragedy

Today was interesting. I got a mandatory invitation to the Unemployment Office at 75 Varick St. in lower Manhattan (TriBeCa) for last Friday, which I couldn't make. The follow up to that date was sent to me as the "FINAL NOTICE!!" for next Friday, which I cannot make, either. The next date I could have made would be Oct. 10; however, I found out this morning last minute that I could go today or Monday at certain times. So, I went today.

The first practically unintelligible lady collecting our information (who was excited to meet me, the guy who called her about missing the ferry!!) said the whole orientation process would take no less than 2 hours. TWO HOURS!!! I didn't know that! But, I figured, the only thing I had to do today, really, was look for birthday presents for my godson and his dad, and others for his sister and mom. So, I sat patiently and made small talk with Angie across from me who kept smiling at me apologetically when I scoffed at something in the automated presentation under my breath.

The most unpleasant lady imaginable finally entered the room and led the session. She rattled off her information to us with inexplicable speed and close to her so that the people in the back of the room (who cared) had to ask her repeatedly to "please repeat that". She could not stop talking about the economic woes of our country and the current influx of "so many people from the financial sector who need jobs because of Morgan Stanley and WaMu and Lehman Brothers, and AIG - can you believe that they're still posting jobs for Lehman and AIG? Why would they do that?" And on and on and on, droning like we had nothing better to do.

And who calls me to be my personal counselor for the next 35 1/2 minutes? Mrs. "economic woes" herself (joy of joys), who told me that she would get me out of there quickly. (Yes, I kind of watched...) I sat and pleasantly acted as though every word she spoke was eloquent, necessary, interesting, worthwhile, and wonderful morsels of information - almost to the point of "taking notes" - to move along the process more quickly so I could get back onto the NJ-bound ferry. This whole experience left me feeling like I spent the afternoon in a Kafka-esque novelette.

Writer's Block: 9/11

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Sadly, I have waited and waited to answer this Writer's Block for 9/11. It's sad on two fronts: 1) On 9/11 this year, we didn't have the TV on while I was playing with my 1.5 year-old nephew at the beach and didn't realize that it was 9/11/2008 and 2) things in that area of town haven't progressed as noticeably as they should have by now. Politics, red-tape, a plethora of billionaires wanting "their share of the new construction", and baffling delays have staidly kept away the future.

I was driving to work that day listening to the news on WXPN (from Philadelphia). Even still, when I begin to talk or write about that day 7 years ago, my eyes tear. My sister's screams on the phone about the towers falling still rip into my mind; the earth shook in my heart that day and the world changed in that moment. I sensed my Weltanschauung falling apart over the phone line and in my tears outside my Princeton office building.

I didn't go into NYC for about 2 months afterwards; I didn't want the destruction to be real. I rented all the movies I could that contained the towers to see them again in all their glory and the pristine NY skyline as it was; as it should have still been.

My first flight out of the area was around Halloween to Minneapolis, where there were threats of a terrorist attack on the Mall of America. I specifically went to that mall in reckless defiance to the threats. Less than 2 weeks after that trip, I was in Chicago. The cab driver asked me where I was from and then whether I knew someone who had worked in the towers; I had to answer, "Yes, quite a few people. They're all alive, thank God." I pretended to take a call so I could cry out the window because I couldn't continue talking about it.

Change can happen over time without realization of its coming. 9/11 was an instant, drastic, painful change. And I even feel so small talking about it because it's so big.