boston strong

i really want to write all about my epic benelux adventure - and i will - but first i really need to address last week.  as i'm sure anyone who doesn't live under a rock heard, the week began with the boston marathon bombings leaving 3 dead and over 200 injured, as recent stats have given, and ended with a police officer dead, a suspect dead, and the other suspect in custody after the city locked down for an entire day.  this hits me close to home because it is my home - if you didn't know, while i just moved to england, i moved from boston, a city where i had been living the past 8 years of my life.  it holds my former university, my friends, and memories upon memories.

when i heard what happened (via facebook, one of the most reliable of news sources), i immediately went on twitter (another excellent source of news) to try to figure out what was happening.  boston.com refused to load. CNN merely had a "breaking news" banner on their homepage and nothing more.  one of my bff's, caroline, finally gchatted me.  she had been on the T [subway in boston] with her brother  underneath the bombings when they happened.  she told me the train stopped, which don't get me wrong is a normal occurrence as it is potentially one of the worst public transportation systems of all time, but that she knew something was wrong - a gut feeling.  when the train finally pulled into the station and she found out what happened, she went to her school and stayed inside where she was chatting me from.

i tried reaching out to my boyfriend, not thinking he would have been there, but still wanting to know he was safe.  more importantly, i knew another of my bff's, vanessa, was running the marathon as i had donated money to her for the MSPCA.  i began emailing her and fb messaging her boyfriend and her, checking her fb page, and even getting messages from mutual friends asking if i had heard anything.  about an hour or so later the MSPCA posted that she was safe so i shared the news immediately and was so happy.  social networking really worked at its finest last week.  i knew others running it as well and if it weren't for facebook, i wouldn't have known they were safe.  if it weren't for twitter, i wouldn't have been able to know what was going on.  i shared and retweeted the crap out of last week.  see, boston is MY city.  i will always call it home.  as you all saw and continue to see, boston is strong.  we don't take crap from anyone.

i can't wait to go back and kiss those streets [figuratively, let's not get any infectious diseases please] - and i will do so on june 6th!  one of my bff's and former college roomie, erica, is getting married on the 8th.

i cried a lot last week.  i may not have known any of the killed or injured personally, but it really felt like i did.  i know they have the same feelings in the heart for boston that i do, but luckily i also know that they have the same strength and power to move forward.

i will conclude this more solemn of my entries with a giant internet hug to everyone in boston.  for all of my regular readers (lolz, i think it's only vanessa), i will post subsequent entries for each city i visited on my benelux trip later so you can read about my awesome holiday that i had before all this sadness happened.

brb.