Ernie Anastos, a local NY news anchor told co-anchor, Nick Gregory, to “keep fucking that chicken” on a recent newscast. I have absolutely no clue what that’s supposed to mean, but figured Kanye West was going to come out and tell everyone about his underwater fantasies or something. He didn’t though; I guess he was somewhere making teenage girls cry. Continue Reading…

It’s been a minute since I last posted anything. The past few weeks have been really hectic. Latina’s moving to a new office in a just under 2 weeks and I have a ton of work to get done beforehand. The new space needs to be rewired and some construction work completed, new service contracts need to be executed, and my mess of a server room needs to be completely cleaned out. I’m putting in the extra time to make sure it all goes smoothly, and will catch up on things outside of work after the move is complete and everything is running smoothly.

Between now and the end of the month, it’s all work with the exception of a Streetlight Manifesto show I’m going to try and get to on the 21st.

Aside from the physical exhaustion, last Friday took its toll on me emotionally. Everywhere I turned, people were bringing up the 8th anniversary of 9/11. I had a hard time restraining myself while a tourist and his family talked about their visit to WTC while on a line at Duane Reade. They made it sound like a trip to a reenactment of a battle from the Civil War or something – as if while the events were true, but what they were seeing had been created for their enjoyment. I seriously wanted to smack this one child in the head after hearing him say it was “pretty cool.”

I worked about 5 blocks from ground zero when 9/11 happened. I wasn’t at work that day; I worked late the night before and stayed home instead of heading in to the city. That night was the last time I walked through the trade center on my way to the E train. I even grabbed a smoothie from a place directly across from the E train entrance, something I had wanted to do for a few years but was always in too much of a rush to do so. I still have the receipt somewhere.

After getting a few hours of sleep, I woke up and turned my TV on and immediately saw the footage of the first plane hit the north tower. I thought it was a movie at first, then realized what time it was and that i was watching a live newscast. I’ve never been as terrified was I was at that moment. Every single employee of my then employer, along with tons of friends and family were in the area and I couldn’t get in touch with a single person. At the same time, a lot of people were trying to get in touch with me, but couldn’t either.

My laziness really paid off that day. There is a good chance that I could have been in the basement of the WTC when the attacks happened if I did decide to head to work that day.

By the time the dust began to settle, I was able to get in touch with all family that were in the area and got news that everyone from my office survived. My boss was hit with debris and ended up in the hosptital, but was physically fine within a few weeks. He was never quite the same afterwards though. I lost a few friends and business associates that day, but was extremely grateful for everyone that did make it out alive.

My office remained closed for a full week after the attacks. The next tuesday, a bomb scare cleared out the building I worked in early in the afternoon. The CFO and I, both of whom live on Long Island, were took spooked to take the subway to Penn Station so we ended up walking all of the way from Wall St. up to 34th. In the end, the suspected bomb turned out to be a box of soap.

Every year, I remember and give thanks to all of the individuals who lost or gave up their lives as a result of the attacks on the World Trade Center. I also remember all of the faces of the friends, colleagues and commuters that I havent seen since then, and remember how lucky I am to be here.

In the end, remember to be a bit lazy now and then. It could just save your life.