The Black Family Weblog

I’m a little late on relaying the next portion of our story.

On 9-8 we purchased tickets for the observation deck of the WTC. I had been up on top a few times before, but this day stood out to me as we were taking a good friend there for his first time. As we were waiting in line for access to the elevator, a small child was screaming and said defiantly that he did not want to go. His dad told him that they were indeed going. More screaming. As they got closer, the child was hysterical. He was afraid to go up the elevator. His dad said, “We are so too going, I’ve already purchased tickets!” Well the end result was they did not go up. The dad walking away dejected and grumbling about purchasing the tickets and not going up.

Another memory I had that day was we had our picture taken on the top, not on the observation deck, but somewhere on the way. They were selling these pictures for $10 each. We laughed at our picture, but did not purchase it.

The rest of the day was spent at the Museum for Natural History. We caught a train up to the museum for a fun day exploring. We then took a train down to midtown and ate at the Russian Samovar. Here we got a taste of Russian culture. We were told that we had to drink a shot of vodka to compliment the house (restaurant). We did so, not really keen on hard drinks, with a little bit of reluctance. After our delicious meal (and seriously, this was some of the best ethnic food I’ve ever had) we were told that we had to drink 2 more shots to compliment the chef. To this day I am not sure about the custom. We were glad we took a bus into the city that day.

I vaguely remember Mike Mussina pitching an almost perfect game for the Yankees against Boston in Boston. It was in the 9th, 2 outs, when he gave up his first hit of the night. So sad.

On Monday I was fortunate to not have to work outside of the office in Newark. I spent the day going over code for a Cisco access router and learning the in’s and out’s of that.

Tuesday was a typical day of taking the bus into Newark. I was a little early that day as my boss had plans for us to travel into midtown for a demo. I arrived 15 minutes early, purchased a bagel and soda, and made it to my building to hear the news that a plane had struck the WTC. It was approximately 8:50 (or so).