I want to go get a chai latte from Starbucks, but the anti-war protestors outside my building are going to block me in. So I'm staying here and working instead.

Tonight we will eat Boca burgers, the only food we have left in our dirty, empty house, and then haul a bunch of clothes we never wear over to our new house, which has so much space we'll never be able to fill it.

I hear somebody in the next office listening to NPR.

My cousin and I had a long conversation about the Code Red thing. If the country bumps the terror alert level to red, the city will shut down all public transportation and bridges, and we will be stuck here. Cousin KB is going to drive her car to the city for the next couple of weeks so we can loop down 101 and back up 880 if we get stuck here. And all I kept thinking was ... "I wonder if I should keep contact solution in my office?"

***

War is only just beginning to sink in.

***

I am a spoiled child of a generation who knows only mild conflicts. Even the first Gulf War is memorable to me only because I bonded with my father over it, not really because I was touched by the war. It was over before it even began.

It's been so easy to go about my daily life, getting annoyed over minor inconveniences and all self-righteous about the morality of killing for oil, etc., etc. It's nice where I'm sitting. Chances are no big superpower is going to lob bombs on my head (we hope). Chances are that I'm not going to be executed for expressing my beliefs (we hope) or raped because one of my leader's relatives needs to prove his virility (we hope).

I'm selfish. I'm protected. I'm lucky.