Commute Home

It's about 6:30 pm and I'm on my way home. It's a bright sunny evening and as I approach the post office there is extra personnel directing, first auto traffic, and then once I'm inside, people traffic, as everyone rushes to get their taxes filed and post marked on time. It's nice having the main post office located a block away. It stays open until midnight everyday so I have no excuse for not getting something mailed.

After finding out I needed an extra 20 cents to mail my federal, glad I checked, I walked through the hallways to the back connection the post office has to South Station, the big train station for Boston, and come out on the tracks. A train was just boarding and along the line of pedestrians, there was about four police. When I walk in, and stop for a quick snack to hold me over, I start noticing more and more police... And a lot of police dogs on duty roaming around smelling bags. I must have seen about a half dozen in less than five minutes.

I make my way down to the subway entrance and more police, and more dogs, and additional men in military gear with semi-automatic guns slung over their shoulder. All the armed personnel are fairly casual, in relaxed stances. But it is unmistakable that something has changed.

I heard about the explosions at the marathon race just as I was hopping onto a conference call at work. It was a little unbalancing, but I just put it aside and carry on for the moment. Twenty minutes later, when I'm back at my desk I google to find out what happened. Everyone at work was a little apprehensive traveling home, some debating whether it was wise to take the subway after such an incident.

It's very strange and although nowhere close to 9-11 it hits closer to home quite literally. In 2011, I was with my mom in a small town in middle America. Although devastating and I knew people in NYC, it was far enough removed. There was very little likelihood the next attack would target where I was. There was no concern for safety. In fact, we were in the place where people would exodus towards, leaving the big cities if this turned into some apocalyptic thing.

Now, it's real. It's surreal, especially since I vaguely remember years ago someone hypothesizing about future targets and the Boston marathon was on the list. I'm sure this will quickly go from this surrealness to an over saturation of the same news getting hashed and rehashed to the point I leave off listening/watching/reading the news. It's strange how the news industry can take something so raw and desensitize you to the event.

Thank you all for your emails of concern. Just know that I'm safe and sound writing this and so far know no one who was effected by this terrible event.