2003-08-15 | 7:02 p.m.

I was walking home when the black out occurred. I cannot begin to express how strange it is to see mobs of people walking out of buildings that are usually quite busy. It felt as if I were watching ants walk out of their homes. People running and walking fast in the oppressive heat trying to find some way to get home. People trying to hail cabs that didn't stop for anyone. Buses that were packed in like cans of sardines. Everyone out on the street was holding a cellphone to their ear to try to get to their loved one's. I won't lie, it hit a nerve. I wasn't in panic mode, but it felt awfully close to September 11th. You could smell the frustration in the air. No one knew what was up apart from a blackout. Eventually word got out as I crossed Park Avenue with a bunch of businessmen that the whole eastern network went down. I heard people asking if it was because of terrorist's but the most information that was handed out at the time was the fact that the network went down. When I reached my lobby my doorman told me to get to my mom's job immedieatly as she was frightened as she knew I was out on the street and couldn't get a hold of me. So I walked the extra block for her peace of mind. I actually sat there for a bit as the art gallery cooled down from the AC being automatically turned off after the blackout and began to hope things would start back up again.

As I hoped for the power to come back on, news started coming in from different people calling in. Some of my mom's co-workers cellphones were working so people from different galleries were calling in to check on theirs. All I heard was grid networks down and who knows when they'll be back up again so when my dad arrived at the gallery (which is conveniently a block away from my house) we all decided to head back home and just wait it out. We walked back to my apartment building where my mom, dad, and I climbed up 12 flights of stairs. 12 people. 12! (I don't know how I didn't pass out or have a heart attack as it felt like a hot oven in the staircase and people were going up and down it too). By the time we got home my brother still hadn't shown up yet and my mom was kinda wigging because she had heard people were stuck in trains so automatically she assumed the worst. After I calmed her down by explaining that my brother wouldn't be on a 4 train coming home we just waited till he arrived. Mom kept pacing back and forth but eventually he walked through the door and that finally kept my mom at peace.

So then we just waited. And waited. And waited some more. It felt like forever till the power came back on. Things really didn't fully work when the power did come back on too. My internet connection wasn't working. Neither was my TV. Our phones were up and down and there was no running water up until a few hours after. We managed to keep ourselves occupied by talking to one another and I wrote in my paper journal by candlelight as I had done as a teenager. It felt odd and I wished we could have AC but I lived through it. I was annoying and very frustrating because it was ass hot but thankfully things are beginning to come back on so slowly and surely things will be back on. Here's hoping another blackout doesn't occur as they really are very irritating. I suppose I should be used to them as I remember tons of them when I was living in Rio. But still, very frustrating indeed.



p r e v i o u s // n e x t