Note to Visitors

I made my way down Boylston Street today.  I'm not sure what I wanted to find there - just that on the first day the street was re-opened, it seemed important to bear witness.

I did not take pictures.

I did not take pictures because when I arrived at a place where windows remained blown out; where construction was under way; while workers were rebuilding and repainting; at a place where blood was still visible on the sidewalk - tourists were taking pictures.  more than that, tourists were taking pictures of each other at the site. 

how do you caption that picture? Hey - this is me standing in a place where 8 days earlier people were maimed and killed while gathering to watch an international sporting event?

i kept thinking about my sister when visited Auschwitz many years ago - she was baffled by the tourist telling his (very young) child - "see honey, that's where they burned people"

i don't know what to what to say.  obviously, i also was a tourist of sorts today - i was visiting the site of a brutal act. but i was nauseated by the proximity; not inspired to photograph...

also, while I only have 7 readers, I still want to put a link to the one fund - please give if you can.

also (again) here's a tee shirt that was designed by a friend of the elf. if you were looking for a #bostonpride shirt, I recommend that one.

Things that please me

So, all of us in the greater Boston area have had a pretty rough week. In other years I have been waiting for friends at the finish line of the marathon. On other Thursdays I have been outside that 7-11 at 10 pm.  The Watertown press conferences were in the parking lot of my Target.  The brothers lived a 15 minute walk from my apartment. It is all a lot to take in, and a lot to deal with. And it is easy to be angry, and to become irrational, and to focus on the evil, and the ugly, and the terrifying.  But I can’t imagine that helps. Or at the very least, it hasn’t helped me.  So given my love for lists, I’m giving you a few things that I love today. Remembering them doesn’t sew up my heart, or the heart of anyone else – but there is so little to hold on to, and this is what I have.

1. Social media – with several friends in Watertown, it was reassuring to me to know that, even if they were all in the backs of their apartments, clutching their dogs and laptops and beers in the dark, that they were safe. As much as Facebook and Twitter can frustrate and annoy me, I don’t know how I would have gotten through the day. Ditto for text messaging, email, skype and facetime – to assure the people outside of the (617) that I was still keeping body and soul together.
2. My cat – for being fuzzy, and snuggling up near me while I was on hour whatever of round the clock coverage with no additional information.  Sometime a fuzzy face is what is needed.
3. Social Wines in Southie – particularly for their amazing dog. And for being open during the small window between us being let out of our houses and the final chapter of Friday’s story.
4. Walking along the Charles River on a beautiful afternoon. Even yesterday with the 4:20 enthusiasts, the irritable geese, and the obvious and awkward break up happening on a bench by the footpath.  Fresh air, sunshine and people smiling as they go by served as a wonderful return to real life.
5. J.P. Licks vegan ice cream – I am lactose intolerant, and had given up the hope of every walking down the street with an ice cream cone again.  They fixed it.

This week, man

And so I give you many pictures of La Milo to raise our collective spirits...