staying safe in boston

It's been a while since I've posted, and I was writing up a big post for this week, but all of the events of the week in Boston have just put me off of the idea of posting about cake icing or gardening.

I moved to Boston fresh out of college in 2007. I made friends right away, I went out to dinner and to shows and to dance nights all the time, and in less than a year of being here, I met and fell in love with the man who would later become my husband. I've worked several jobs here, went to grad school here, made huge life decisions here. I recently bought a home in a suburb of Boston. I don't know whether it's more apt to say that I adopted Boston or that it adopted me, but either way, in the last six years, Boston has become as dear to me as family member. My thoughts and prayers are with all the people struggling and hurting in our country right now (the explosion in Texas, flooding in Chicago), but I can't help but be partial to my city, where my heart is, in more ways than one.

Everyone deals with strife or fear or terrible news differently. Some people reach out to others, and some people turn in. In the last week I've discovered about myself that I am one of the people who turn in. After receiving bad news, I like best keeping my thoughts and feelings to myself, to my very close family, at home. This morning my suburb (and later most of the Greater Boston area) went into lockdown as the manhunt for the suspected marathon bomber continues, so we were literally all forced to "turn in." I can see from friends' blogs and facebook pages that this is a problem for the people who turn to others in times of strife, but this is exactly how I would choose to spend a day like this. So I'm sorry for the relative silence, and though I was about to pick up blogging again this week, bear with me while I get my footing again. I need to turn in a little.

To end on a nicer note, we woke up to find that the orchid a coworker had given me as a housewarming present last summer had bloomed again overnight. It was a really beautiful contrast to all of the dire news this morning.

I'm literally a fair-weather blogger, and now that the warm weather is back, so am I, so expect future entries on the before-mentioned icing and gardening, as well as nightshade-free Tex-Mex cooking (I promised a reader I'd write an entry on that months ago!). In the meantime, please stay safe, everyone, and love each other as much as you can.