Connections Meryl Yourish is a woman from New Jersey with an interesting opinion on many things. I started reading her weblog because of something Jonathon Delacour said and I stumbled onto Jonathon because of a link by Dave Winer.
I eventually sent some email about a question she had and also asked if she was Jersey native, giving my information (raised in Ewing and Bradley Beach). It turns out that Meryl spent some of her summers in Bradley Beach, and as she put it, we might have "kicked sand on each other". I still find it surprising when I bump into someone who knows what home is really about. Mostly because it's a small town (although there are a lot of people there in the summer). My sister and I were there last summer, and although much has changed, the flavor is much the same (if a bit more tame; many more families instead of a lot of young singles for the week I was there).
All this brings me back to my trip home last August. One of the things I insisted that we do during our day trip to New York was go up to 'Windows on the World' for lunch (we also hit Central Park and saw "The Lion King"). My aunts made sure we could get seating (I was worried about reservations) and so we were there on August 22 (just under three weeks from the day). It turned out that seating was not a problem because the restaurant I so wanted to show my sister was closed... but we had a great time in the bar. That was the first time I really appreciated how long 'Long Island' really is. We had a terrific view at our table of Brooklyn and everything beyond and it took most of lunch to realize that the long curving strip was the island (this excellent, but sort of upside down view is courtesy of Doc Searls); my plan at the time was to come back and really survey things the next time (so much for plans). I also noticed for the first time the outside observation deck on the south building... I'd never known that it existed. After lunch, I was standing outside the restaurant area, looking straight down at the financial district and there was a guy who I think worked for OmniSky (he mentioned it a few times) who was showing his friend downtown... pointing out city hall and numerous other sites. I learned quite a bit by eavesdropping.
Now of course, it's all gone. I still think about the woman who waited on us, the young woman who came over a couple times to make sure everything was OK, the young man who explained that the suite on the southeast side was off limits because of construction (my Aunts wanted me to see it because they had taken my grandmother there for her 90th birthday; it was part of the grand re-opening after the bombing) and the middle age fellow who finally got us an elevator all by ourselves because Aunt Carol was having one of those attacks, and needed some room. Most of all, I remember thinking... "There's time, I'll be back next year, or the year after and see whatever I missed this time around."
Lesson learned. There is no time. Do it now because there might not be a tomorrow.
2:05:29 AM 
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