Something  outside just blew up. I was just sitting here watching TV and then there was a bright flash of light behind me through my closed shades, followed almost instantly by a huge BOOM. It scared me shitless. 

I knocked on my neighbor’s door. She’d heard it too. We both looked out the window. There was no smoke, no visible signs of fire, no sirens going off. No one else in our whole apartment complex was even looking out their windows to see what happened.

What. The. Fuck.

One of the scariest parts of living in DC is that whenever you hear something like that, your brain involuntarily thinks, “This is it. I should have moved.”

And now I’m also thinking I have no idea how people deal with experiencing that every day, hearing those things go off all around them. Because there are people somewhere experiencing that, right now. People who are seeing that flash, hearing that huge boom. Again. Right by them. Or steeling themselves for the next time they will. Because they know there will be a next time.

I’m scared for them. And scared for this country, too. We’ve been so lucky. So far. I hope to god we stay lucky.