On November 9, a huge bomb detonated. It wasn’t something I was prepared for; a situation pushed to the back of my mind because the chances of it actually occurring seemed so unlikely, nearly impossible.<\/p>\n
Then it happened.<\/p>\n
Shock, disappointment, helplessness,\u00a0fear and a few other unfamiliar emotions I don’t know how to describe quickly set in. I’m usually really calm in stressful events, and this was no exception. I reeled the emotions back in and got to work, but by the end of the day I felt exhausted.<\/p>\n
The bomb wasn’t a rocket, VBIED, MBIED, BBIED or PBIED that we see around here. This bomb hit the homeland… in the form of election results.<\/p>\n
I’ve now given myself some time to reflect, read some insightful social media posts, wished long and hard for a beer.\u00a0I realized the world will not end and\u00a0I am not in any more danger here in Afghanistan than I was the day before. I was also able look at the entire situation from the perspective of an advertising\/communications campaign person and have to give the man credit; he took a risk targeting uneducated white people who generally do not vote, his campaign narrative catered to that demographic perfectly, despicably or not, and by the skin of his teeth and the shitty electoral college, he won.<\/p>\n
Now all we can hope for a unified nation and no major diplomatic disasters. But\u00a0hell, GW\u00a0seemed like a total buffoon and lacked any cultural awareness and\u00a0he only started two wars, one that I’m still here fighting now. The point is, America will survive, cause that’s what we do.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On November 9, a huge bomb detonated. It wasn’t something I was prepared for; a situation pushed to the back of my mind because the chances of it actually occurring seemed so unlikely, nearly impossible. Then it happened. Shock, disappointment, helplessness,\u00a0fear and a few other unfamiliar emotions I don’t know how to describe quickly set… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s9IVlY-wtf","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":87,"url":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/2016\/10\/28\/shelter-in-place\/","url_meta":{"origin":89,"position":0},"title":"Shelter In Place","date":"October 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"It's 2200 (10 pm) and I just now got back to my room. This isn't an exceptionally late night, I've worked until 10 pm several times since I've been here. The difference being that on those nights, I was working. Tonight, I had very little going on; I browsed facebook,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AFG"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39,"url":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/2016\/09\/07\/pbs\/","url_meta":{"origin":89,"position":1},"title":"PBS","date":"September 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"There has been a lot of terrorist activity in Kabul since I arrived. My first night at RS, the team was dealing with media inquiries regarding the first American casualty from hostile fire since the beginning of the year. This didn't occur in Kabul, but it was a significant event.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AFG"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/chrisdonlon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/image-300x225.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":247,"url":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/13\/newport-dunes-2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":89,"position":2},"title":"Newport Dunes Triathlon 2018 - Race Report","date":"December 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"November 4, 2018 Olympic Distance Official Time: 02:16:251500m Swim: 00:23:10T1: 00:01:3640k Bike: 01:04:51T2: 00:01:2410k Run: 00:45:24Overall: 9th of 18335-39 AG: 3rd of 24 I\u2019m 2 races behind on my blog now, so I\u2019ll try to be brief to get through them both. 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Secondly, I was encouraged to find and meet the Air\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AFG"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chrisdonlon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/image-1-300x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":259,"url":"https:\/\/chrisdonlon.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/28\/fiesta-island-tt\/","url_meta":{"origin":89,"position":4},"title":"Fiesta Island Time Trial - race report","date":"January 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Under advisement of my coach, I participated in the first of the 2019 Fiesta Island Time Trial Series in Mission Bay. She thought it would be a great experience builder and way to re-baseline my FTP for training zones. 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