Pipe Dreams....

There's nothing like a public emergency to welcome you to New York. My good friend from the University of Minnesota, Jamalyn, officially moved to New York on Monday for work. She has been staying with Scott and I for the last couple nights until she gets approval for an apartment on the upper east side. New York is a culture shock for many people when they move. Imagine Jamie's surprise when she exited a building near Grand Central Station yesterday afternoon and saw a mob of people running away from a large cloud of smoke in the street.....

Now imagine witnessing 9-11 in New York. I remember being afraid when I saw the buildings fall on TV that other places in the country were going to be hit. What if the hospital my mom was working in was hit? What if places in Minneapolis were hit? How scary! Imagine being in New York where they actually were hit, and feeling the fear that that city could be hit again at any time and having loved ones and friends or even just neighbors die in that event. Finally, imagine in the present, a large cloud of smoke and ash rising from a nearby street near Grand Central Station and the Empire State Building. What would you think had happened??

Jamalyn reported that after the steam pipe blew up on 41st and Lexington Avenue yesterday, chaos ensued. The pipe, releasing steam that was up to 200 degrees, exploded with such force as to cause telephone lines to be knocked down and flipped over a tow truck. She said she had never seen anything like the crowd of people running down the street, some crying, some reporting that the Empire State Building had blown up. It reminds me a bit of my social psychology class where I learned about eye witnesses often being inaccurate, and large masses of people cause very suggesting behavior, people believe things that aren't true because so many other people believe it.

My poor friend! Poor New York. I am so thankful that it wasn't a terrorist attack as people feared and that it was just a tragic chance event that killed 1 and injured around 30 people. It really hit a sore nerve in some people.

ANKLE UPDATE:
In other, less world-related and less fascinating news, I have re-sprained my ankle according to my physical therapist. We are back at square one people. This is not pleasant and my limping is probably at the worst its been other than after I stopped wearing the boot. I won't find out about my MRI results until Friday, but I plan on being VERY conservative this time with this injury. NO unnecessary walking, constant elevation and ice multiple times a day. Please keep me in your thoughts and pray to your higher power (whether it be spiritual, humanist, etc) that it heals more completely this time. I am antsy to get back to working out and really don't want any more months lost to this stupid injury.

PS: A friend of mine who works at 39th and Madison just described an email she received from her office manager which included a reassuring message about using emergency masks when outside the building from emergency safety kits because of the small about of asbestos released into the air by the pipe yesterday (which by the way was from the 1920s). Totally comforting.