A Very Sad Day in Paris

I have put off writing this post because I just don't know what to say...

On Friday night, November 13th, a small group of terrorists launched a coordinated attack on our new home. At least 129 people were killed and nearly one hundred more are in critical condition. Of course, the actual "toll" is significantly higher when you include everyone whose lives have been affected -- all those families and friends who will never be able to see or speak with their loved ones again. It makes me incredibly sad.

A tribute at the Place de la République

I haven't been able to process everything, so here are some miscellaneous thoughts and impressions I've had since Friday:

1. When the attacks began Melanie was asleep on the couch and I was playing a videogame with my headphones on. I was hearing a lot of sirens and commotion but I honestly thought a lot of it was coming from my game. Didn't find out about the attacks until I checked Facebook.
2. At least two of the attacks happened less than two miles from our flat. I'm sure we would have heard the explosions/gunshots if our doors/windows had been open.
3. My friend Steve lives near one of the attacks. He was getting a drink Friday night and he had to run home to get away from the gunshots. Scary.
4. Melanie and I were planning to go out to dinner on Friday, but we moved it to Saturday because Mel gets a little superstitious and didn't want to go out on Friday the 13th. (All day long she said she felt "scared".)
5. We cancelled our dinner plans for Saturday. I don't think we were scared to go, but I'm VERY excited about this particular restaurant and we were afraid we wouldn't enjoy it as much as we otherwise might.
6. We were watching CNN (the English version) last night and it made me sort of angry when I heard a reporter say, "We've just gotten some horrible news..." (My first thought was that they discovered some more casualties, or several people in critical condition had died.) "One of the people killed in last night's attacks... was an American." Well over a hundred people were killed and the horrible news is that one of them was an American? Really??? (That kind of biased reporting has been happening for years, of course, I just never noticed it before.)
7. Melanie and I feel sort of... detached... from everything that has happened here. When we watch the stories on CNN we still think of Paris as a beautiful city in Europe... not a place that we live. I keep thinking, "Those poor poor people over there." Then a minute later I think, "Oh, wait..."

It was another glorious day so I walked down to the Tuileries Garden for a bit of quiet introspection. Despite the recent chaos and tragedy here, I was once again reminded how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place.

Le Jardin des Tuileries was created by Catherine de Medicis in 1564, it was eventually opened to the public in 1667