Last week, I was cruising through Alhambra on my way to get a haircut when I was stopped at a red light. While waiting for the red light to turn green, I glanced at a light pole and saw this thing they had for the City of Alhambra. It states "We are caring". And then I looked at the illustrations.

Hm.

Hm.

That green pointy Chinaman's Hat is supposed to be...?? A Chinaman's Hat? Maybe I'm getting all worked up over nothing but why that particular motif to signify an Asian population? Or is that something else that I don't see that the rest of you see? Perhaps a paper pirate hat? I mean, why don't they just plop the person right in the middle of some rice paddy in the village and have them hunched over in knee deep water? Better yet, why don't they put that person in a Mercedes convertible with a karaoke mic in his hand with the hat on? Isn't that the more accurate of Asians in Alhambra? :P

Whoever authorized the art work should have their ethnic allegiance re-examined. And I don't care if it's some 5 year old Alhambra resident who drew this or not - I'm sure there are many other ways of representing the city of Alhambra and its people better - like a picture of a roast duck hanging in the window. :P

:::

It's now 10:00am in Los Angeles. And reports of the World Trade Center attacks have been flooding the airwaves. I've been trying to contact some of K's friends who live in Lower Manhattan all morning without much success. It's highly distressful since K and I have so many friends over there. I hope the rest of you NYCers are faring as well as can be during this tumultuous time. Even for those who aren't on Manhattan or in Washington DC, this is all too close for comfort. So my thoughts are with all of you.

I can only perceive the situation from what I see on the tv, the internet and from the radio. But I can tell you what it's like in Los Angeles firsthand. Most of my friends have been sent home all morning since Los Angeles has been put on an emergency alert. People who work in the Westside and in particularly tall highrises have gone home. It's not a good feeling knowing that 3 of the 4 hijacked planes were bound for Los Angeles and the 4th one bound for San Francisco. Airports have been shut down and so has many of the local businesses. I went out this morning to get some groceries and to go to the post office. The streets and the stores have become a ghost town. I believe everyone is glued to their television and or staying put waiting for more news of what to do.

Everyone I saw at the stores today were in a very somber mood. Hard to keep yourself in a positive mood when you realize just how vulnerable we Americans are to attack. We live our lives from day to day not ever expecting something like this to happen to us, our neighbors, our friends, our relatives. We always think that this can never happen to us. We're invincible because we're in one of the world's greatest countries. We think that America will protect its citizens. But what control do we really have over our lives anyway? We really have none.

September 11th, 2001 -- another day to add into our history books.

Will update later on today again. Check back later.

:::

10:25pm: It's been a long day so far. We still can't reach our friends in Lower Manhattan but have gotten through to our friend up in the Upper East side. She works across the street from the World Trade Center at D&T but today, she didn't go into work since she had a 4 hour conference call to do from home. Some things are really meant to be. We are still trying to deal with the busy phone lines and haven't gotten through to too many people in the outer boroughs but I'm sure they are ok. It's the ones in Lower Manhattan we feel very unsure about since they live right near the World Trade Center.

Not much more left to say tonight, except Peace.

Thanks R for writing to let me know you're ok during mid-air and had to make an emergency landing in Texas. Thanks to J for writing an extremely touching email asking me how things are in the US - your friendship is invaluable. Thanks to the NYers who've let us all know you're doing a-ok.

I'm out.