September 11 - Ten Years Later

2001 was quite a year for the Anskys. In February, we closed on our house. In May, I completed my MBA in Finance at Baruch College. In July, Lil Ansky was born.

Then September 11 happened. To this day, I'm not sure why but I was running late for work that day. I got off the A Train at Broadway-Nassau St. in the Financial District and saw huge crowd of people congregating on Maiden Lane right near my office. At first I had no idea what they were looking at. As I got closer to the street, I looked up and saw that one of the World Trade Center towers was on fire. Before I could ask someone what had happened I saw a plane fly right into the south tower. BOOM! Words cannot describe what it sounded like.

I wasn't quite sure what to do. Do I run for it and go home? Do I go into my office which is built like a fortress and could be considered one of the safest in New York City? I knew my brother worked on a low floor (I don't remember exactly which one but it was in the 20s) in one of the towers so I called him to make sure he was OK. The explosions knocked out the cell service because the call did not go through. I decided to go to my office and try to send an e-mail to his 2-way pager (remember those). Thankfully he made it out safely and he was going to his girlfriend's (now wife) apartment in the Village. I told him I would be in touch and that I might need a place to stay that night. I remember talking to Mrs. Ansky on the phone at the exact moment the towers collapsed. My office is 2 blocks from the World Trade Center and I remember the windows shaking and rattling when the towers collapsed. I was on the phone talking to Mrs. Ansky when the towers collapsed. I didn't know what was happening at the time so I told I would call her back (which I did). My mother was teaching a class in NJ and the person answering the phones refused to interrupt the class to let her speak with me. I don't remember how I replied but I'm pretty sure it went something like this "in case you don't know, both World Center Towers were struck by airplanes. One of her sons works 2 blocks from where it happened and her other son works IN the towers. Now interrupt her [expletive] class and let me talk with her!"  My dad was even harder to get in touch with. At the time, he was teaching in a huge NYC Public School. No one in the school knew where he was and his cell phone wasn't working. Finally, he got in touch with Mrs. Ansky who told him that we were both alive and accounted for.

The next few hours were spent watching TV and learning more about what happened. Security had locked down the building and did not allow anyone to leave until 3:00 p.m. When we got the all clear from security that it OK to leave, I wasn't quite sure what to do. I wasn't a runner then so one option was to walk all the way to the George Washington Bridge and then hitch a ride home from there. The other option was to spend the night with my brother and his girlfriend and figure out what to do the next morning. I stayed with my brother that night, and thanks to my brother's colleague who also spent the night I got home to NJ Wednesday morning.

For a few weeks after the attacks on the WTC, my office was closed and we were working out of our office in NJ. When the main office did re-open, it opened the cafeteria to anyone involved in the recovery effort. There were firefighters, police, and military eating breakfast and lunch in our building. The bone-tired looks on their faces stay with me even 10 years later. I remember struggling with what, if anything, to say to them. Did they want to be talked to or did they want to be left alone? I decided "Thank You" was a simple and appropriate thing to say.

Fast forward 10 years.......in the weeks leading up to the 10th anniversary, I was thinking about how I wanted to mark the occasion. Since I had a 2:45 long run on the calendar, I decided that I would run from the NJ side of the George Washington Bridge to Lower Manhattan. I thought it would be a good way to infuse my long run with some meaning. Sunday was cool day, humidity was low, and there was plenty of cloud cover.

I was feeling some pulling in the back of my leg so I kept the effort nice and relaxed. Despite a uncorroborated terror threat, I was happy to see runners and cyclists out getting their miles in.  As I was getting closer to Ground Zero I started to get chills. A lot of memories started to come back. I thought about seeing the 2nd plane hit the World Trade Center. I thought about my brother who worked in one of the towers and how thankful I am that he made it out safely. I thought about the looks on the faces of everyone involved in recovery effort when they came through my office's cafeteria in the days, weeks, and months afterward.

When I got to what is now called the New Wold Trade Center site, I stopped for a few minutes, as did many other runners and cyclists, for a few minutes of reflection and a prayer. I turned around and the 2nd hour of the run felt great.

I pass by Ground Zero/New World Center Site every day on my way to work. In the years since the attacks, I'll freely admit that I have become somewhat desensitized to the significance of what happened there. Not that I have ever forgotten what happened, but when you're rushing to get to work it's very easy to develop tunnel vision and ignore the huge construction project right next to you. I am very lucky that I live close enough to Lower Manhattan to be able to do what I did yesterday. It helped put things back into perspective.

Ground Zero - September 11, 2001 (not my photo)

New World Trade Center - September 11, 2011 (my photo)

Observations From Six Flags Great Adventure

This past Wednesday we spent the day at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ. I'm not much of a thrill seeker but, after some arm twisting from Mrs. and Lil Ansky, I did try a new ride, Skull Mountain. Turns out it wasn't that bad. Think the Runaway Mine Train or Thunder Mountain but in the dark. No big drops, just lots of rapid twists and turns.

Spending a lot of time in line or walking around is the perfect opportunity to people watch. Here is a snippet of what I saw:

• Lots of overweight parents with overweight children. I kid you not, we witnessed a ride operator take someone off the ride because the safety bar would not close. Needless to say, this individual was not happy and starting yelling and screaming at the ride operator and threatening a law suit. Sorry buddy, rules are rules. If you are so overweight that the safety bar can't close or you can't fit into the ride, then you can't be on it.
• It is easier to eat unhealthy than healthy. Almost all amusement parks make it easy to make poor eating choices. Funnel cakes, nachos, big pretzels, pizza, burgers, candy, OH MY! Wait....I forgot about the really big sodas with $0.99 refills. You buy the big cup at the beginning of the day and you can refill it for only $0.99! I think there was one out of the way place where you could buy a salad.

          Mrs. Ansky and I are not the type of parents to 100% not indulge nor do we not allow Lil Ansky to have a treat. She enjoyed her Dippin Dots ice cream and a lemonade but she knows better not to ask for the big soda. Since we are kosher, we cannot eat most of the food in the park. Last year, there was a kosher food provide, but for whatever reason there was none this year. Usually we make PB&J but we decided to switch things up and make some Dr. Praeger's Fish Fillets I also had some leftover salmon croquettes that Lil Ansky ate. We also had plenty of fresh fruit, almonds, and granola bars. I also prepared a homemade pizza with lots of fresh veggies for the trip home.

• The Mrs. and I were also surprised by the way kids were dressed. We saw plenty of normally dressed parents and their children (not 16-18 year olds, I'm talking between ages 10 -14) were dressed in, shall we say, in less than flattering clothes. Maybe I'm old fashioned or too conservative for current society but there is no way I would ever let Lil Ansky leave the house in some of the outfits on display on Wednesday.

Despite the heat, we had a great day!

July 4th, 2010

I have to admit July 4, 2010 was probably one of the best Independence Day holidays I've had in a while. I spent a lot of time with family and friends. Every July 4th there is parade down one of the main streets in my town. Even though I live a mere 8 miles from New York City, July 4th still has a very small town feel in my town. Residents line the curb and some of the parade groups throw candy to the children. Here are some pictures from this year's parade:



Later in the evening, we went to a local park for a fireworks show. There was small town aura as children played on the playground, played ball and threw frisbees while their parents set up folding chairs and blankets. Everyone clapped, ooohed, and ahhhhed as the fireworks lit up the sky in celebration of America's 234th birthday.

Thank you to everyone that has helped preserve our freedom and way of life.

Observations From Recycling Day

The first Friday of every month is recycling pick-up day in my part of town. Newspapers are tied up in neat bundles and a month's worth of glass and plastics are piled high in extra trash cans or similar receptacles. Many of these bins are placed on the curb without covers so it's easy to peek in if you're out walking the dog, heading work, or like me, out on a run. Let's just say you can learn a lot about the people around you by peeking into their recycling bins. Here is what I learned:

• The wine drinkers: I was amazed how many bins were filled just with wine bottles. I know red wine has it's health benefits but people are knocking off  1 - 2 bottles per day.
• The aluminum can beer drinkers: REALLY? I had no idea folks in my 'hood drank Keystone Light.
• The soda and juice drinkers: maybe it's me, but I find soda disgusting. Even when I was younger, I was never much of a soda drinker. I just never liked the taste. I see so many bins filled with empty soda (not all diet) bottles. Then there are the bins that are filled with huge jugs of juice drinks. I enjoy a glass of 100% pure orange juice with my breakfast but that is not what I'm seeing the bins. I'm seeing drinks such as Tropicana Twister. According to Men's Health, one 20oz. bottle has 340 calories and 60g of sugars. I'm not a fan of drinking your calories and the sugar content is just nauseating. .

As for what's in my recycling bin, there's the occasional bottle of wine and scotch but for the most part, mine is filled with water bottles, Gatorade (used only by me for running related activities), canned vegetables (beans, mushrooms, etc..), and tomato sauce jars.

Observations From the Movie Theater

 I just came back from seeing "Toy Story 3" with Lil Ansky and a friend. The purpose of this post is not to review the movie (we all enjoyed it), rather I wanted to share a few observations with regards to movie theater food.

• When I bought the tickets, I was told that I had accumulated enough rewards points for a medium drink. I handed the coupon to the cashier and she started to fill what looked like a pretty big cup. I asked "that's a medium?" She replied with "yes." I then saw an even larger cup next to it, which must have been the large. Thankfully, without any arm twisting from me, Lil Ansky and her friend agreed on the iced tea. I still felt it was a lot for them drink between the 2 of them so I took a 3rd straw and they let me share.
• We usually share a small popcorn as a special treat when we go to the movies. Today, her friend did not want  popcorn so she decided on candy as well. Lil Ansky currently has a palatal expander in her mouth so sticky candies such as Twizzlers are off limits. As my luck would have it she chose one of the better candies, a Kit Kat Bar.
• I saw plenty of children walking in with a large bucket of movie theater popcorn. I can't believe parents get that for their children. A large buttered popcorn has approximately 1,200 - 1,600 calories. Even if they share it with a sibling, that's still 600 - 800 calories per child.

Even the healthiest of eaters have their indulgences. Mine are ice cream and baked goods. Personally, movie theater concessions are not something I like to indulge in. Every time eat movie theater popcorn, I leave the theater feeling sick to my stomach.




What are your indulgences?

From the Archive: My Thoughts on Memorial Day

I wrote this post last year on Memorial Day. I made some minor changes for this year, but the message remains the same. If you remember reading this last year, I apologize for the repetition, if you're reading it for the first time, I hope you enjoy it.
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Memorial Day in the U.S. is known as the "Unofficial Start of Summer." Families and friends get together for barbecues, go the beach, take advantage of sales at the malls, and enjoy a day off from work. Very few of us take the time to realize what Memorial Day is all about. It's a time to remember those who have given their lives protecting our country and to thank living veterans for their service. We see coverage on TV of the President (this year the Vice-President) laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but how many of us go to a Memorial Day observance in our town? I admit, I'm just as guilty of this. I was out of town this year celebrating the marriage of our neighbor's son.

When I was studying abroad in Israel, I remember observing Memorial Day (Yom HaZikaron) in Israel. It is so much different. I forget the exact time it occurs, but at some point during the day a siren is sounded throughout the country. People literally stop what they are doing and pause for 2 minutes to remember the soldiers who have given their lives to keep Israel safe from their enemies. I was on a bus to Jerusalem when the siren sounded. Everyone on the highway stopped their cars, got out and observed a 2 minute moment of silence right there on the highway. It's a sight that I won't forget.

I think the main difference between how Americans and Israelis observe Memorial Day is this: In Israel, there is mandatory military service. At the age of 18 every boy and girl is required to serve in the Israel Defense Forces. Every Israeli knows a soldier that has given their life or is currently serving in the IDF. Here in the U.S. it is a lot less personal. Speaking for myself, I don't have anyone close to me who served in the military. Whatever you are doing this Memorial Day weekend, please take a moment to remember those who served and are currently protecting this great country of ours and if you see a veteran of any war, please thank them for serving.

An Unnamed Harricane Reared Its Ugly Head

Thought I'd share some pictures of the damage caused by Saturday's storm. There were approximately 200 trees down in my town. I am still without power but everyone is OK. All of these pictures were taken within a 4 block radius of my house.

A tree ripped up someone's front walk.

This big one came down about 4 houses up the block from me.

 

Amazingly, these house didn't sustain major damage. Power also didn'

t go out on this block.

This one came down further down the block from me.

Around the corner

Where's the rest of the utility pole?

Whistler Blackcomb On the Brink of Foreclosure

There was an interesting piece on yesterday's American Public Media's "Marketplace" show about Whistler Blackcomb, the site of many of Olympic skiing events, is on the brink of foreclosure. Fortress Investments, Whistler's owner, built luxury condos on the resort right before the real estate market tanked. This resulted in Fortress missing a debt payment in December and the possibility of foreclosure could happen as early as Friday. Negotiations are underway to avoid foreclosure but the possibility is still there.

Read the full story here.

It's Sad How a Bad Meal Can Ruin an Otherwise Great Day

This afternoon Mrs. Ansky, Lil Ansky, and I had tickets to see Mary Poppins at the New Amsterdam Theatre. The show itself was definitely Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. The one negative had to with the seating. Seriously, who designs these theatres? It was worse than flying coach.


After the show, we headed back home for dinner. We don't eat out much so we decided to try a new kosher place in my town. Mrs. Ansky doesn't want me embaras anyone so I'll rant in general terms. We had to wait over an hour for our order to be completed. When we finally got our food, it really wasn't that impressive. We've had bad experiences before but the owners made up for by comping us desserts or by passing around finger foods while we waited. Nothing here. Just a lot of frustration. It bothers to me no end that owners of kosher restaurants feel like they can get away with bad service just because they are offering another kosher dining option in the community. This particular establishment just lost a customer.

I'm a Proud Dad!

After growing her hair for a good portion of 2009, our daughter finally got it cut tonight. She will be sending 8 inches of her hair to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program that uses hair donations to make wigs for women and children fighting cancer. Mrs. Ansky and I are very proud of her.

Before :

After

 4 locks of hair ready to help cancer patients

What Life is All About

This past weekend, my wife and I celebrated the bar mitzvah of the son of good friends. For those of you that don't know, when a Jewish boy reaches the age of 13 he enters in adulthood and is obligated to observe the laws and commandments passed down from generation to generation.

I try not to get too emotional or philosophical on this blog, but something struck me about this weekend's celebration that I need to write about. The Rabbi's wife mentioned to my wife that what makes a successful celebration is not how much money someone spends on the affair, but the people are what make the celebration memorable. We have been to many Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and weddings where the guests were "not that into it." Rather than dancing many  guests will sit at their table and schmooze. At this past weekend's celebration, everyone was into it. People sat and schmoozed when dinner was served, but for the most part everyone was singing, dancing, and doing everything they could to help make the celebration memorable for the Bar Mitzvah boy and his family.

Here is where I get philosophical, as I get ready to celebrate my 37th year on this planet, I am realizing more and more the importance of celebrating happy occasions with friends and family. We have friends and relatives who have recently lost a loved one, been out of work and have a family to support, and some are dealing with health problems. Regardless of the challenges you are facing in life, take the time celebrate the happy occasions that come your way. You don't have to celebrate with elaborate parties, a beer with friends, a phone call, an update to your Facebook status, or a Tweet on Twitter is good enough.

At Jewish celebrations, and sometimes during the 7 day mourning period know as Shiva, it is customary to say "may we continue celebrating happy occasions together in the future." When we I got home from the Bar Mitzvah, I included this saying in my Facebook status. A colleague from work commented that this is what life is all about, being able celebrate good times with family and friends.

Indeed it is.

Thanksgiving

On Wednesday, I was having a conversation with some co-workers about the types of foods they eat on Thanksgiving. I found it interesting that everyone does eat turkey but also incorporates cultural foods into their meal as well. A Latino co-worker has rice and beans, an African-American with Southern roots has macaroni and cheese and collard greens, the Italians I work with have different pasta dishes. So leave it to my mother to include Matza Balls, the quintessential Jewish food, into our Thanksgiving meal. However, instead of serving them in the traditional chicken soup, Mom made this unbelievable curried carrot and parsnip soup. Instead of the dumplings, we had Matza Balls.

 
Bubby, my 98-year old grandmother, who still lives on her own in the Lower East Side of Manhattan brought some Lower East barrel pickles and sour cherry tomatoes

and a cabbage roll

After the soup and sour stuff, it was time for turkey, dressing (stuffing prepared outside of the bird), cranberry sauce, rice, and brussels sprouts.

The bird before carving

The bird after my brother took a knife to it

The Dressing

I didn't take pictures of the cranberry, rice, or sprouts. We also enjoyed some good kosher wines
During dinner we spoke about what we were thankful for. We all mentioned family, friends, our health, and being able to practice our religion the way we choose to without fear of persecution. My dad said it best, he was thankful for the 4 generations of our family being able to have Thanksgiving together, Bubby (my dad's mother), my parents, my brother and myself (and our wives), and my daughter, and niece (Bubby's great-grandchildren).

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Off-Topic

This past Sunday, after visiting my Bubby (Yiddish for grandmother) on the Lower East Side, my family decided to check out Governor's Island. We had a great afternoon picnicking near Fort Jay and enjoying the spectacular views of the Statue of Liberty and Lower Manhattan. But what I wanted to write about was our experience on the City of Dreams Mini Golf Course on the Island. Each hole is designed by a different artist or group of artists. Despite what the website claims, some of the holes are quite frustrating but they are all fun.

Anyway, for those of you that don't already know, I am an observant Jew. Other than when I'm at work and other social situations, I usually wear a kippah/yarmulke on my head. The reason I bring this up is that there was at least one, most likely 2 or 3  observant Jewish families playing mini-golf ahead of us. I'm not sure if it was one family or more than one but there were a lot of children with their mothers. Let me just say that these children were not the best behaved. My family would be playing a hole and some of the children would drop their ball and play right in front of us as if we weren't there. The children were swinging the putters like baseball bats on these works of art. The next thing I know, I hear one of the older children yell "Ema (Hebrew for Mom), [insert child's name] broke the hole!" I think the jaws of everyone near by dropped at the same time. So what did the mother of the child do? Rather than disciplining him, she said "don't worry about it. Let's continue playing and someone will fix it." I was appalled. If that were my child, I would have taken her off the course, given her a good talking to, and taken her home right away.

As a member of the same "tribe" I couldn't help but feel somewhat embarrassed by what happened. Unfortunately, there are still people in the world who think that because I'm "one of them" that we behave the same way. My daughter isn't always the best behaved, but she understands not to disrespect other people's (public or private) property.

The whole situation left a very bad taste in my mouth.  I could go on and on but I won't.

Statue of Liberty Trip

I don't know what the rest of the week and Labor Day weekend will bring but so far the highlight of my staycation has been yesterday's trip with my daughter to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty. I can't remember the last time I was on Liberty Island, probably when I was my daughter's age (8). We picked up the ferry from Liberty State Park rather than trying to find parking near Battery Park in NYC. I work not too far from Battery Park and I've seen first hand the crowds of people waiting on line to go to the Statue. The crowds at Liberty State Park were much smaller. There was no wait at the security checkpoint and only a small line ahead of us for the ferry.

We had bought our tickets in advance but in order to get to the dock, we had to walk through the restored Central Railroad of New Jersey (CRRNJ) train station Neaarly two thirds of the immigrants who passed through Ellis Island went on to CRRNJ where they boarded trains to begin their new lives in America.While we were waiting the for the ferry, daughter and I both knew it was going to be a great day. The skies were clear and the view of Manhattan was spectacular. Visibility was so good that we were able to see the George Washington Bridge.

First stop on the ferry was the Ellis Island Immigration Muesum.My daughter is too young to truly appreciate Ellis Island so we decided to skip it and spend the afternoon on Liberty Island.

First thing we did when we got to the Island was eat lunch. There was a nice area along the water where we could sit and eat. Tickets to go all the way up to the crown were sold out but we were able to get tickets to go up the the pedestal observation deck. In order to go into the statue we had to go through a security checkpoint similar to that at an airport, empty pockets, go through metal detector, etc...  The first thing we saw after clearing security is the Statue's original torch. Then there is a small exhibit with replicas of the Statue face and feet and other stuff related to Lady Liberty. We didn't linger at the exhibit because daughter really wanted to get up to the pedestal.  One thing I forgot to mention...while we were on line for security a park ranger came out to inform everyone on line that the elevator to pedestal was out of order and that we would have to climb

this many steps in order to get to the pedestal observation deck. There were  a lot of moans and groans from those on line but daughter and I said "no problem." After the exhibit we started walking up the stairs. Daughter asked to stop for a few minutes here and there but we finally made it. Upon reaching the observation lever daughter said "that didn't feel like 156 steps!" I did remind her that we had to walk down as well.  "No problem!" she said.

A park ranger told us to look up and we could the inside of the Statue. Then it was time to go outside. The views from the pedestal were incredible. Here are pictures:

Ellis Island with Jersey City in the background

Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg Bridges

Verrazano Bridge

Lower Manhattan

I just realized that I haven't posted any pictures of Lady Liberty herself. Here is one from the 11 pointed star. Finally after some soft serve ice cream, we boarded the ferry back to Liberty State Park and from there we drove home. It was a very special day.

My Weekend in 3 Parts: Part 3 - Six Flags Great Adventure

After my run on Sunday, my wife, daughter, and I drove down to Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ. Our daughter earned a free ticket through a school reading program. Read for 6 hours and earn a free ticket. The staff activities office where I work offers half priced tickets so we only paid for one of our tickets. Not a bad deal if you ask me. Shortly after we left the house it started to rain. We thought about not going but our daughter's ticket expired on August 9th and she was really looking forward to going. It rained the whole time we were in the car and our daughter was starting to get disappointed that her special day would be ruined. Thankfully the rain stopped as soon as we pulled into the parking lot.

My wife is quite the thrill seeker so she was looking forward to riding the extreme coasters. I'm just the opposite, just looking at some of the rides scared me. Our daughter will go on anything she is tall enough for. She does like to watch the ride first to see if it's something she can handle. Just like the Disney parks in Orlando, Six Flags has characters walking around. We took pictures with Mr. Six, The Joker, Mr. Freeze, Tazmanian Devil, Wiley E. Cayote. The Riddler (Riddle: What goes around the world but never leaves the corner?), and Pepe le Pew.

Here are the extreme coaster my wife went on:

El Toro

Nitro

Great American Scream Machine




Rides we all went on:

Log Flume

 

Runaway Mine Train

Rolling Thunder

Fly Me to the Moon 3d Adventure

Parachute Training Center

   

Enchanted Teacups






While my wife was on Nitro, daughter and I took rides on:

The Big Wheel









and

Congo River Rapids. We went twice and got soaked. 

We enojyed Dippin Dots for a snack before lunch. I do not ear dairy after meat so we made sure to have our ice cream before lunch. I had cookie dough and our daughter had rainbow ice. The rainbow ice tasted like the ice pops I enjoyed as child from the Good Humor truck. Even though we packed food, we didn't feel like walking to the car for lunch so we took advantage of the Kosher food provider in the park and enjoyed a hot dog, falafel, and a hamburger. Even though it was pricey, we try like to support kosher food providers at amusement parks. If the kosher clientele does not suuport them, it would go out of business and our park experience would be less enjoyable. So thank you to Reuven Rachmani for an enjoyable lunch. 

We left the park around 7:00 p.m. and it started to rain again. Talk about getting lucky! Rain during the drive there and back but nothing in bertween. The food we didn't for lunch, came in handy on the way home.We were all hungry so we ate our sandwiches for dinner. We arrived home around 8:30 p.m. exhausted from a day of fun.