So This Happened

So this happened today.

My brother had to take his car to the shop and my daughter had to go to school to take a test. So I dropped off Mollie and then went to pick up Mitch, who was taking me out to breakfast. And on the way to breakfast my brother's phone went off with an alarm and the above was the message.

I can't even explain what happened. We were both in shock and wondering if this was real. My brother noted that the sirens weren't going off (we have air sirens) and he suggested we go on to the restaurant so we did. When we got there people were milling around with their phones out, a lot of concern and questions going on.

Mitch was getting phone calls and texts and trying to pass the same good sense message: no alarms means it's probably not true. Hold tight.

Mollie called me. She wanted to know where I was and if I was okay. She said that we probably weren't going to die but in case, she wanted to mention that dying on a Saturday while at school taking a test was just a mean joke by God. I told her we were surely safe, I love her and not to worry.

We went into the restaurant and got coffee. We were checking online for information and finally got an All-Clear. We made some jokes, ate a little, drank a shitload of coffee and were as kind as possible to the waitress who admitted that they were all shook up and could barely handle doing their jobs after this scare.

We went home. I had planned to bake bread today, something I haven't done since I was a teenager and I'm glad that I did. It was something that made me concentrate and the kneading was good for my soul.

Then I checked Twitter and Azteclady had sent a message saying she hoped Mollie and I were okay. And suddenly I wasn't. Suddenly I realized that a ball of tension was twined inside me because truth is, we thought we were about to get bombed. I started to cry because my 16 year old daughter called me to say goodbye. I stood among strangers and wondered if I was going to die with them at a Hawaiian greasy spoon instead of with the person I love most on this earth.

I thought of how I was glad to be with Mitch because despite our political differences, I love and trust him and he kept me grounded. He kept a lot of people grounded at a moment we needed it. I thought about how Carolyn and Lea would be hurt if a bomb fell and they didn't know my fate.

I cried and I still feel tears and tension. It's going to take a lot for this to uncoil and let me loose.

More than anything, I thought how awful it is that when we got a message that we were being bombed, not a single person wondered why. We all knew why. And I despise, with every fiber of my being, that horrible troglodyte who brought us here.