#WHERE I WAS

[cruxymox]

a few more photos

[ghost-2501]

I'll never forget:

Was working as a surveyor at the time. My crew chief and I were headed to a job site right across the Hudson, in eyesight of the WTC.

En route to the site, we were listening to the radio in the truck when reports came through of the first tower being hit. Someone from inside the first tower managed to call the radio station:

"It's really smoky, and hard to breathe (a cacophony of noises of people in the background of the call could be heard), but we're doing okay, otherwise."

Little did they know.

My crew chief, an otherwise mean, racist piece of shit, showed a moment of softness. Tears flowed from his eyes, with a look of complete confusion and bewilderment on his face.

"I don't understand. There must be some sort of mistake or something..", he said.

I only responded with a side eye to his comment, thinking to myself, "I know better, there's something more to this."

My suspicion was confirmed once the second tower got hit.

We were a tunnel away from our job site, a tunnel that was blocked by a police cruiser, the cop doing his best to redirect traffic. Seemed like every surrounding public service was running thin.

My crew chief asked the cop, "Can we get through? Our job site is on the other side of this tunnel."

"No one's getting through but EMS, Fire, police and FBI.", the cop responded.

We were stuck, traffic was bumper to bumper, and there was no way to communicate to HQ that we were ok.

I noticed that the cops' flares were about to die out, so I told my crew chief that if we're going to be stuck here, might as well help the cop with traffic. So we pulled our truck out of traffic on to a median, and pulled our cones out to put them in place of the flares the cop put out, and helped him redirect traffic as best as we could.

A woman drove up to me with a look of fear and worry on her face.

She asked me, "Is there another way to get into the city? My husband works in the tower, and I need to make sure he's ok."

"I'm sorry, the only ways to get in from here are the Lincoln tunnel, and the GW bridge, and both of the are closed. I'm sorry.", I responded.

We were there for 3-4 hours before traffic started to lighten up (overstatement), we packed up our cones and drove back to HQ. Both towers were gone by then.

When we got back, the rest of the employees at the surveying firm were relieved to see that we were safe. When I got home, I cleaned up, then rode my bike to a friend's house, to find that my other friends were already gathered, rolling up trees.

We all looked at each other, silent, then suddenly said, almost in unison, "State of emergency."

I smoked so much that day. For weeks, I could see the smoke coming from ground zero from my bedroom window.

Once my crew chief and I were cleared to go back to our job site...the taste/smell of blood and metal in the air was unshakable. Similar to the taste of putting a 9V battery on your tongue.

I'll never forget.

[yeepof]

I understand that tall men are our POV characters, but surely being like a foot taller than everyone around them would have some occasional consequences

[eruditetyro]

good morning let’s hear it for Mildly Cool Outside a round of applause for Mildly Cool Outside

[riacte]

not romantic not platonic but a secret third thing [what would happen between earth and the moon if the earth stopped spinning as illustrated by xkcd randall munroe]

[wankadoodles]

Métis Miku (Creeku)

[mias-back-from-the-dead]

tbh i think the funniest phenomena that's been happening in the last couple years is "youtuber, having gone too deep into the research hole, has been made an investigative journalist against their will"

[raychleadele]

“Why did you follow this person ? uwu”

I’ve been here for fourteen years, do you think I remember? I don’t know who any of these people are anymore. I don’t know why they’re on my dash. I allow them to stay because they haven’t pissed me off enough to unfollow them yet. “Why did you follow this person?” I’m not sure I ever did. They’re just part of my ecosystem now.

[hamsternamedmarinette]

Italian microaggressions

[starrysharks]

ghanaian miku

[cruxymox]

[palatial-monstrosity]

the self care industry will sell you face masks and teas and whatnot so i'm here to remind you not to forget the most important self care activity which is masturbation

[darlingofdots]

my parents are on holiday in their mobile home

they're expected back this upcoming weekend

I just spent ten days in my childhood home to keep an eye on things

I have hidden 100 small yellow ducks all over the house

I am very excited for my parents to be back

[divorced-slenderman]

She took the pages.

[twinkwoman]

it sucks so bad that 'lightning magic' in every media is just some pathetic little strands of electricity. i wanna see some LIGHTNING. show me a magic setting where lightning magic lights up a room like the sun, and the bolt is only visible as an afterimage burned into your vision. I wanna see someone cast lightning and have the thunder rattling the room and shaking everyone to their core. i want lightning magic to be a split second blast of so much power it leaves everyone's senses reeling. c'mon guys don't you know what real lightning looks like? we can be doing so much better than this.

[junkworldusa]

you make me want to draw again

here you go! this is also for my future self.