Aside from one crossing where two routes that are no longer running are still listed, the map is correct. Let me emphasize this: Before two weeks had gone by after the attacks, the staff of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which New Yorkers love to hate, was able to print millions of copies of accurate, revised information to keep us on the right track.

It was only a few hours after the attack that the subways were running again. Within hours of the attack, what was working in Brooklyn included my telephone and computer line. The mail was delivered; the garbage picked up.

But we are all jittery. Rumors can send our hearts racing. Something I read online Monday had me terrified all day. Pictures in the Sunday paper made me break down crying. But unless the remains of the WTC are in your face -- which they are in all of lower Manhattan, where the air stills smells of smoke, and concrete dust irritates throats -- we are moving. The rest of the city is not a war zone.

Of my two children in public schools, the younger was back in school two days after ``it,'' and my middle child, whose school is being used for the recovery workers, is going to classes in a borrowed school on a split shift. Even before students returned to school, however, his math teacher had e-mailed my son's class a homework assignment. For some reason, he was not terribly pleased at his teacher's effort.

My husband's agency's central office is in the area that still needs to be cleaned up. He's begging seats and phones from contractors while everyone works in field offices. His agency has had fewer complaints than usual.

We will rebuild. It won't ever be the same, of course, and whatever is put up on the WTC site probably will not be as extremely cool as it was.

Everyone here has an almost story, except those with real stories. They have their own voyages to travel, which the rest of us cannot do for them. Our hearts ache, but we cannot carry the thought of so many all the time.

For a while, things were very different. Our mayor seemed to be a different person -- calm, rational, statesman-like. Now he's back to usual, suggesting that he be allowed to continue in office -- oh, he doesn't know for how long, for a few months maybe -- against all democratic processes. We are definitely getting back to being ourselves.

A car-pooling rule is now in effect. People in New York, damned if they'll share their cars, are getting up earlier to cross into Manhattan before 6 a.m., when the rule takes effect. Some were quoted saying they'd drive the extra 20 miles to reach crossings outside the car-pool rule.

Walking along a busy street in Brooklyn this week on my way to the video store, I noticed many shops, most owned or staffed by immigrants, displaying American flags. A woman screeched as she walked by one store, ``Don't you dare put up the flag! That's our flag! You can't fly it!'' I really, really wanted to punch her out. Wanting to beat up someone on the sidewalk in New York? How normal can you get?

There is a suggestion running around the Internet that the WTC be rebuilt with four towers, instead of two, the second of the towers a tad higher than the others. We have not yet put one brick on top of another, and yet, in a way, I think we've already given the proverbial single-digit gesture of disrespect to the terrorists.