"Ordinary" Day

Boston is my home, I love this city. It's been home for 13 years and I have walked past the block where the bombs exploded hundreds of time. I was just there yesterday with Adam for the marathon like any other person. What strikes me as I talk to friends and read on Facebook is just how common my experience is. It was completely ordinary that we were downtown today. Why wouldn't we be? It's also completely unremarkable why we started walking away from the marathon about 10 minutes before the explosion. My story is completely ordinary and it's been repeated thousands of times in the last 24 hours.

My April 15, 2013

• We helped some friends move some furniture
• I enjoyed french toast with caramelized strawberries at Ball Square Cafe
• We took the T downtown and walked over to the marathon finish line from Park Street
• We stopped by the new Restoration Hardware gallery in the old Louis building that just opened on Saturday
• We joined the crowds of marathon runners and their joyful families greeting them
• We stopped by Pret A Manger where I bought a bottle of cold pressed Fuji apple juice and Adam got a coffee
• I wanted to go to the new Nordstrom Rack on Boylston
• I was feeling super tired and I wanted to get home by 4pm in order to prep for a meeting I had tonight
• We walked away from the marathon finish line toward the Boston Public Garden where I took a photo of the adorable little straw hats someone had put on the ducklings statues
• We walked up Charles Street, I noticed a marathon runner and their family enjoying a big meal at Bin 26
• I stopped by Moxie to see if they had an iPhone gloves, but they were out
• We hopped on the T at Charles/MGH
• I fell asleep on the train and we got off at Davis Square
• We walked home and our cleaners were still here
• I went upstairs to work on my blog since it was the 10 year birthday of my blog
• Someone emailed me asking if we were still planning to meet since there was the bombing in Boston
• I thought "what bombing" and looked online only to find my Facebook newsfeed flooded with posts

As far as I can figure, the bombs exploded at 2:45pm, right around the time I was admiring the adorable ducks in this photo at 2:47pm. I had no idea what was happening until an hour later when I got an email at 3:53pm when I was sitting on my bed with my laptop.

At my meeting last night, one guys said he was standing right on the corner of the explosion with his wife 5-10 minutes before. She wanted to get some free fries from B.Good so they left and got fries and heard the blast. My friend Zristen almost moved her dental practice into the building right in front of the blast 5 years ago, but the deal fell through at the last minute. I have friends who ran the marathon yesterday and are all safe. The scene of the explosion is not some far off place that I've only seen on TV. That's my backyard.

However, I don't want to dwell on what could have been and how close we were or how close our friends were yesterday. I was lucky. All my friends were lucky and I'm grateful. I can't hide in my house and refuse to leave. I can't avoid Boylston Street and downtown Boston. Maybe it's foolhardy to feel this way, but I can't refuse to participate in this city's life.

Boston is my home. These are my people.