Surreal

It's been a strange few days here in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. The Virginia Tech tragedy has its tentacles all around the area. Lots of folks around here either went to Tech themselves or have a kid there. In my small office of 50 people, I think we have four or five graduates and at least one person whose son attends (and is an Engineering major no less). Around Fairfax, lots of kids Mark and Jennifer know from school are there so it's really hitting close to home. I know that bad things can happen everywhere and you can't totally protect yourself from crazy. I know that intellectually, but seeing the names of the dead along with high school photos from schools nearby is making it very, very real.

It also all seems to exploitative at this point. All the networks have been camped out there and even all the morning shows are broadcasting live. Oprah today was from the campus. I'm glad they cancelled class the rest of the week so a lot of the kids and professors can get out of dodge and try to get some perspective on the whole thing.