I’m using this awesome web font to render the Twitter, Flickr and Projects icons in the header of this new design. Cheap, well designed and easy to use, and it completely removes the need for small icons.
Because I’m using this font and CSS for the rest of the design of this site, the only images I had to use were the ridiculous black and white and color versions of my face.
Finally had a chance to put the finishing touches on a new design for this site. I’ve been thinking about this new design for about four months, and working on the actual code on and off for the past two weeks. The last time I redesigned was in April of 2010—nearly a year and a half ago. For me, that’s a personal record (I’ve redesigned this site 20 times in the past 6 years alone).
The focus this time around was:
A completely new thing for me: I based this design on a theme. I purchased the HIGH RES Theme by JSTN and used that as a base to customize and design on. I’ve been coveting the HIGH RES theme for months now and it was a lot of fun to make it my own.
In addition, I accidentally and shamelessly took Will’s idea for a rounded-avatar header. He claims he has forgiven me, but I’m not so sure.
Was having some wacky shadow issues while working last night. Looks like the 8-bit version of Lion’s window shadows.
I was across the street working in World Financial Center 2 the morning of September 11, 2001. I heard the second plane hit, heard the explosion, and for a moment thought I was going to die. But I didn’t.
I walked out of the building alongside hundreds of others and looked across the street at two burning skyscrapers, amazed and horrified, confused and nervous. We watched as people leapt to their deaths to avoid burning and heard the sound of human bodies hitting concrete after falling 70 stories. We stood, unable to help, unsure what to do next. And then we fled the city. I was on a train in NJ when someone announced the first tower had fallen.
For the next month, I couldn’t sleep without nightmares. I became a news radio junkie. I developed troubling, severe anxiety. I wondered if I would ever feel comfortable on a plane or in a tall building again. I read countless stories about the day and couldn’t stop looking at photos that made me sob. I spent several months unemployed, sitting at home in front of my computer all day, truly depressed for the first time in my life. Everything felt broken and wrong and terrifying. I wasn’t sure how to get back to my normal life.
Little things helped. Spending time with friends, finding a crummy job that gave me somewhere to go every day, something to do with myself. Family. Eventually, I began to heal. I moved to Brooklyn. I passed the WTC site every time I went to see a movie at my favorite theater. I rode the subway without constant fear of terrorism. I flew more and more to various cities in the US, first with the help of large doses of Xanax and then more and more without it. I began to feel comfortable in the world again. I fell even more in love with the city I had always dreamed of living in.
I spent the majority of this past decade living in New York City. The same city I fled that morning, the same city I came back to a few months later, worried but defiant. The city I truly grew up in, for better or worse. I’ve moved away now, but New York City will always be my home.
Stacey and Reflected Ashley
So much fun to be featured at Apartment Therapy again. I’m a huge fan of the site and to be featured once before was a treat—this second time is just gravy.
Mirror
