What I did on 17 June 2007

On the day of the deadliest suicide bomb in Afghan history, I:

• finished my morning coffee, wondering if the loud noise had really been a bomb.
• donned my headscarf and walked the two blocks to the office, with eyes lowered to avoid men's attention.
• interviewed someone that may become my boss (I hope he still wants to move to Kabul).
• gasped as the number of dead passed 35, most of them instructors at the Kabul Police Academy.
• edited a research paper on the struggle to reform the Afghan National Police.
• posed for pictures with a Scottish friend wearing a kilt for the Queen's birthday party.
• thought about the families of those who died.
• went for a long swim in the UN pool, followed by a Heineken at the poolside bar.
• asked myself whether I should really turn down law school admission this year.
• tried on a burqa for the first time.
• watched CNN and BBC footage of the carnage that had taken place five minutes from my house.
• contemplated how life does not ever stop or pause, even in the face of disaster.