i finally got ahold of ben late last night. he was the last of my new york and washington dc friends that i was able to get ahold of. i'm just thanking whatever forces are responsible for their safety.

i spent the entire day trying to reach ben after everyone else had checked in in one way or another. when i finally got ahold of him, he told me it all happened while he was still in the shower. he never left his house to head into work in manhattan. he watched the towers collapse from the roof of his apartment building. after a while, ben said the only mildly humorous thing i'd heard all day:

"a whole lot of postcards just went out of date."

yep. i hope they find as many survivors as possible…

as always, our hearts and minds are with everyone in the beautiful and shaken cities of new york and washington dc.