It’s been just about a week since my last post. And what a week it’s been. I’ll admit. I debated all night Monday on whether or not I would post that last entry. In the end I’m glad I did. I share everything else with the internet. And the response was overwhelmingly positive. I read a lot of other bloggers’ accounts of the day and they were all pretty uniform. A lot of confusion, time spent finding out if friends and family were ok, outrage, sadness, and resilience. The world wide outpouring of love for the city that I hold so near and dear to my heart has been so awesome, too.

Best of all it’s Monday and when I woke up this morning the only thought I had was “which of my new clothes am I going to wear today”. This thought was followed pretty quickly by “I hope more patients are released today and others are downgraded from critical condition”. After this was realizing I was running late and would have to bust my butt to try to get to work remotely on time. And that’s normal. Normal. What a nice feeling. Thanks to all those who worked tirelessly to shut down the threat last week. Flags are still at half staff. And people are still fighting for their lives or learning to adapt to a new way of life. Last night driving home the signs on the highway said “We are one Boston. Thank you to all”. The MBTA buses I drove by flashing their route numbers. And then flashing “Boston Strong”. I don’t think we’ll ever be able to say this is “over”. But the threat is gone. And Boston is bigger, brighter, and better.

Even with the mess that was last week I got in a couple of runs and some cross training. Tuesday I wore BAA blue and yellow, but on a Red Sox cap, blasted my Boston songs, and ran along the Charles. Wednesday was the “Wednesday Night Run Club” (It’s so hard to come up with creative names!). I’ve started running with a couple friends (we’re trying to make it once a week) so this was us going out. Thursday was an hour of hard swimming. Hard because I wanted to push myself a little. Last week, a 9 year old girl was repeatedly beating me across the pool. Not cool. Friday was “rest”. Saturday was should have been a run but I had a better window on Sunday so I switched to cross training. And if drinking beer and singing “Sweet Caroline” at the top of my lungs at Fenway counts I totally go it done…

Yesterday was my birthday. I had a bridal shower in the middle of the day and dinner with my family. But there was this nice window in between that was perfect for a run. In the past I might have said “It’s my birthday, I’m taking an extra day off.” and gone to buy coffee and a donut. Instead I changed in a fast food restaurant bathroom (didn’t buy anything. I’m a bad person. Whatever. That food is just so bad) and I hit up the Haverhill Stadium. In reality I ran Riverside Park, but the whole of the city refers to that entire area as the Stadium. My parents and grandparents took my brother and I there approximately 1000 times in my childhood, I sat at a couple hundred of my brother’s little league games there, we used to ride our bikes, or Grammy and Grampy would bring a picnic lunch and watch the boats go up and down the river. Not surprisingly, the place was pretty much the same. It looked a little smaller. And they have a new jungle gym. But there were still tiny baseball players and kids with training wheels. After the chaos of last week worrying about friends and being barred from coming to work it was nice to be out among families in the shining sun. The run was less than stellar thanks to birthday pancakes and bridal shower cake. But it got done. Then there was homemade spaghetti and meatballs (a team effort between my mom and my aunt and uncle).

And cake. Birthdays always have cake.

Here’s hoping the dot of spaghetti sauce I just got on my new sweater will be the toughest crisis this week.

Hearts and normalcy!