has anyone heard from Glentickle?

I am so glad to see everyone checking in but have seen nothing from Glentickle and am worried. if you know anything please post it or email me. thanks.

Ayla, I've emailed him but haven't gotten a response. Hopefully he's just so engrossed in what's going on that maybe he doesn't really feel like coming around....I mean sometimes I feel GUILTY for coming around at a time like this...but I realize it's one of the only temporary distractions I have.

I'll try to email him again....and hope for the best.

I am sure you are right, nontkl. this whole thing has me a little buggy. thanks.

Sporadic...

Depending upon his exact location, service has been very...spotty...both for dialups and cable users at this time. There was a LOT of switching and phone connections routed through the WTC, and repair isn't a high priority until the rubble is searched....he may just be down. Q

Good point Qjakl...I did email him again however and hopefully will hear something (also, God forbid, perhaps someone near to him could be in trouble....I know he has his own business so he probably wasn't down there (though that is kind of an absurd conclusion....he certainly could have had his operations down there...but I seem to remember him mentioning he was more in midtown).

Anyhow, I'm more uptown, so I forget that those downtown are having problems like electricity, phones, etc....

Oh my...Ayla, thank you so much...you've just made me cry. I am here, and have indeed been having trouble getting on line. To find -- to see you ask about me -- to find I have friends here -- I mean, I already feel like a part of a community here, I already feel like I have friends here, but now this feels so much more real. Nontkl, I did get your email, and didn't answer it right away because there was so much I wanted to say. And now I don't know what to say. Thank you so much for asking about me, Ayla. I've missed reading those poems and stories you used to post more frequently. I don't know what to say. God bless you. I don't even believe in God, I must confess...but God bless you all.

glentickle, I'm so glad you're okay! Thanks for notifying us, we were all in sorrow.

It's good to hear from you finally. For the most part, the Members here have been good about keeping an eye out for the ones that live in the NY or DC area. It's touching, especially at a time like this.

Be well, All.

Glen, it is so good to hear from you! thank you so much for being ok and for letting us know... in that order.

I've seen posts asking about you Glen and Ayla, I'm glad to hear you both are ok.

We care out here for our brothers and sisters and it brings me a little more peace as I hear from all of you on the East Coast.

DK

Darkknight, Mia, Hal, Ayla, Nontkl, gjackal...

I just want to post again to say how comforting it is to see everyone here checking on everyone else. The one consolation through all of this -- if you can call it that -- is the sense of togetherness, the sense of community, that has swept through New York City. And though it seems natural to me that people should react so, I know others who are surprised by it; heart-warmingly surprised and amazed.

I have two good friends from Denver...actually, they're from a suburb of Denver called Littleton, which you may remember as the site of the Columbine High School shootings several years ago. Both of these friends have younger siblings who attended Columbine, who were inside the school when the event occurred. One of them was the best friend of Dylan Klebold, one of the shooters. I have seen how they are still healing from that incident, though it occurred several years ago now.

One of them lives in New York now, and by coincidence the other one -- and her little sister -- have been staying here, with me, for the past several weeks. And they have all said that the community reaction in New York to the Twin Towers attack is the most beautiful thing they have ever seen; in Littleton, they said, the Columbine incident tore the community apart, as everyone began pointing fingers at everyone else, and lawsuits began piling up. That's the reason they don't want to stay there anymore.

I was born and raised in New York City and I have lived here my entire life. I have a love/hate relationship with this place; I have been talking for years about leaving, calling it an uncivilized place to live -- but I thrive on the energy here as well, and so here I have stayed, always talking about how one day I will finally move out. On Wednesday of this week, when 90 bomb threats were reported in the aftermath Tuesday morning, I said "that's it. It's time to leave." I spent the next three days at my sister's house in the suburbs, but before I left my mind was changed again. A feeling has been awakened in me; I can't call it "patriotism" because it isn't a sense of pride in my country. What I feel is "city-otism," an overwhelming desire to stand my ground and support my city, my people, my community.

I am amazed that I should say this. New York has always been my city. But my "people?" My "community?" Never before have I felt this. So I returned on Friday, and found I could finally connect to the internet, and I found that even in here people were sticking together. I burst out into tears, Ayla, when I saw your post asking about me, and kept crying when I saw that others had responded; then I saw other posts in which everyone seemed to be asking about everyone else, and I stopped crying. I just felt too good to cry.

Why have New Yorkers pulled together, while those in Littleton were torn apart, by their respective tragedies? Is it that now we are facing a common enemy, whereas in Colorado the enemy was some force from within? --I do not care now, and will not think about it until long after emotions settle. Right now I am taking great strength, as so many are, from the camaraderie, the brotherhood and sisterhood, the human togetherness that has mounted in response to this...this event. To find that spirit present even here, where we are all faceless to each other, is the pinnacle of human compassion. My love goes out to each and every one of you.

glen