note how i mentioned i might nap after my last post?

well, i most certainly did not. stayed up all night and then hopped on a plane to nyc shortly before seven a.m. i had to be searched at burlington--that whole handheld metal detector device is slightly intimidating. the national guardsmen packing heat were exceptionally intimidating.

but we hopped on the plane and flew off to new york. well, laguardia, anyway. then we hopped on a bus and rode to new york. our bus driver only almost hit a big truck once (translation: very safe ride into the city). i knew the skyline (or absence in the skyline, as the case may be) would shake me, but it was very surreal. felt like i wasn't really seeing it properly (but then again, that might have been because i was remarkably loopy due to sleep-deprivation).

trying to follow a bus' progress in the city is next to impossible. we knew we had to get to times square, so i made a decision and got us off the bus as we stopped at columbia. short subway ride got us to the square, and we walked the tiny distance to the good ol' ny times. want to talk about an intellectual orgasm for a journalism major? walk into that building, walk up to the desk, say your name, and have the front desk person ask you to just wait over there, she'll take you upstairs shortly. erica and i stood there, amazed that we were spending the morning in such an amazing place.

the whole colloquium bit was decent--we mainly sat around listening to people talk about how we, as editors, have the right to excercise editorial review when it comes to advertisements and op-ed pieces. um...yes, paging captain obvious. captain obvious, please respond... but there were good points raised, and i did learn some surprising facts about people who try to target college newspapers in the hopes of getting ridiculously controversial pieces run. and i was humbled (almost a smidge more than i would have liked) by my fellow editors and the newspapers they run. crikey...to be running a daily newspaper right now would be insane...granted they have huge staffs and only have to oversee, but still...

i only started to fall asleep once, but everything was ridiculously hazy and my body felt fuzzy the whole time. i seriously felt like i was drunk or something. odd feeling. note to self: never not sleep the night before an interview! just sitting in a room and only occasionally participating was hard.

we met the publisher, which was cool. he gave closing remarks and i was impressed by his convictions, logic and sense of humor. while some editors were walking up afterwards and asking him all these questions or asking for autographs and/or other forms of sucking up, erica and i walked up to him, introduced ourselves, shook his hand and thanked him for the opportunity to attend. he seemed surprised (i'd like to think pleasantly) that we weren't joining the masses in hanging onto his every word.

afterwards, we had a couple hours to kill before getting back to laguardia, so we went to ground zero. we didn't get on the viewing platform, but we were right there, across the street from it all. it hasn't hit me yet that i was there, that i saw the building ripped open, that i saw the space where the towers were (where the towers i always adored were), that all of the signs, flowers, flags, candles, and letters were for people who died there. well, obviously i know that they were there for that purpose, but knowing that i was at a site where thousands of people had lost their lives exactly six months ago...odd. humbling. surreal. but i'm glad i was there, especially making my first trip back on that day. i took pictures of it all--for three reasons. 1) photo of the week material for defender 2) so i had a record of my own of what i saw and 3) so i didn't have to process it all. seeing the photographs will be just as hard as being there.

i wanted to see the tribute of light...we walked right by the structures with the lights set up, but, as it was daylight, well...you do the math. we were riding on the train out to queens at dusk, and the skyline was breathtakingly beautiful. the sky around the city was turning into an inky indigo color, but the sky seen between the buildings and in a halo above them was still turquoise, a little gold around the edges. the chrystler building was lit up, and others were just starting to become lit. it was absolutely gorgeous. i was watching it, waiting for the switch to be hit and the towers to light, but it turns out they were lit shortly after we lost view of the skyline. and, while i hoped to see it from the plane as we left, that area was directly behind the plane as we flew away. so i didn't get to see it. but, with everything else i'd seen throughout the day, that was fine. i was content.

now, i offer advice. never, ever ever ever fly twice in one day. i do not know how businesspeople can do it. i felt like i was living in a fucking airport.

always give appreciation to the subway. beautiful, beautiful thing.

do look up when you are leaving the subway. we passed a poem of sorts when leaving times square. on the beams above our heads appeared a series of signs. the put together the following: "overslept. so tired. late for work. i'll be fired. why bother? so much pain. go back home. do it again." it made me chuckle.

do be nice to people when asking for directions. everyone we spoke to was fantastic. the men and women of the NYPD earned even more of my appreciation when they were so damn nice to us, particularly on what had to have been an emotional day. and the guy at the shop gave us free postcards. ;)

do sleep the night before such an adventure.

ok, time to write a story for f.