Vigilant

I haven't been very vigilant at blogging...but that's because i've been vigilant at watching for terrorists. That's what the british news keeps telling me, anyway. Here's a little story about my last day in London on Sunday...i'm in Reading, UK now which is a London suburb for the most part.

So I thought my life was over….
Of course we arrive in london right when terror plots are set to go off…I’d expect nothing different. I go back and forth between these feelings of “I’ve really taken a bite out of life, and any time is a good time to go” then I jump to “Something could really happen…oh crap!”
Those internal dialogues haven’t really mattered though, because deep down I’ve never honestly thought that I’d fall victim to something like that. I can say this with certainty after an experience I had on Sunday.
Security was ripe, especially since we were staying in the very area that the two car bombs were set to go off in. Those were discovered early Friday morning, and it was now Sunday afternoon. There had been another similar incident; however that happened all the way in Glasgow. You might venture to say I was a bit laxed by the time Sunday had rolled around.
We had just checked out of our hotel, but we were going to grab a quick bite before heading to Reading. We walked across the street at our hotel (Trafalgar square) at the cross walk with a bunch of other pedestrians. A car was approaching as the rest of us were finished crossing the street. As we step up to the curb to get out of this car’s way, we hear a thunderous explosion. My eyes pressed closed as a profanity spilled out of my mouth. My body was paralyzed by the sound of the explosion, and my mind was tingling as I processed other people’s screams around me. That round of thought process happened within 3 seconds perhaps. Next we started walking again, staggering as we processed that the car had merely backfired. We caught our breathes and took a few steps forward when we saw two foot police running frantically straight toward us. I still do not know what they were screaming, however I saw the look of terror in their eyes. They were pursuing the explosion they had heard from across the square, but they weren’t aware it was only a backfire. Kids were following the police screaming the whole time as well…I’ll admit that even though I knew what was going on…the look in those cop’s faces scared me to death all over again.
I realize now I was lucky to have been on the side I was on…because then at least I knew what the explanation was. I will say that while my eyes were pierced closed, my mind thought this “So THIS is it?” I honestly thought my time was up. I’m so glad I processed everything in 3 seconds!