Time Square excitement

I posted last week that I was heading to NYC with my schools Drama class. We had a great time except for Saturday night's excitement. I could have done without that. I have had enough "excitement" in NYC for a life time. (for those of you who don't know me well I watched 9/11 unfold from my bedroom window in Greenwich Village. I saw more than I bargained for and hoped that would be the closest I ever came to a terrorist attack again!)
Well... Saturday evening we had just gotten out of the subway in Time Square at 6:20ish. We were supposed to be there by 6:00 but the subway was running late. We were told it was due to construction, but now we know it probably had something to do with the guys with the poisonous gas being arrested but I don't know that for sure.
Anyway, we got out of the subway and started walking past the Marriott Marquis Hotel. The sidewalks were very crowded so we were walking along the curb single file between the parked cars and the sidewalk (with out knowing we walked right beside the Black Pathfinder with the explosives). We made it about 15-20 yards when we heard a loud 'boom' of some sort... I didn't think much of it at the time because in Time Square there are lots of loud noises that you learn to ignore.(we learned later that the boom was the bomb failing to go off. A few fire works went off in the car, but that failed to ignite the 3 propane tanks, 2 five gallon can's of gasoline, the rest of the fireworks, the black powder and whatever was set to explode it.) However within a few seconds of the boom people started screaming and running. I turned around to see panic setting in and my students started to scatter. By instinct I grabbed arms and told them to run to "George", the statue that we called home base. After a moment people started calming down and things started getting back to normal. We continued to stay in time square because I figured that if it was something major they would have evacuated us. I guess we all learned a lesson that day. Curiosity can kill the cat! Now we know that we along with the other thousands of people should have left the area. We went on to eat 1/2 a block from the area. When we came out they had greatly extended the area that was being barricaded off and we were not able to go back towards Time Square. Later that evening while watching MSNBC we learned exactly what happened. That is when I really started freaking out. Our hotel (The Hotel at Time Square) was about 1 and 1/2 blocks away from the center of Time Square. We heard sirens throughout the night. This was a scenario that was way to familiar and one I didn't wish to be part of again. Thankfully we woke to learn that the bomb squad had diffused the bomb and towed the car away and NYC had mostly returned to normal.
Thankfully we are all safe and home in our own beds tonight! It was nice to be back to NC where yards are full of greenery and flowers. Here is a bit of what is growing in my yard. I appreciated it more than ever this morning! I took time to literally smell the roses today!

I'll be back to posting about the kids tomorrow I promise. It was great to be home and hold them in my arms today!