Blood on the streets

L caught that awful flu strain that's been in the news; after being on the mend, she stayed up too late too many nights and fell right back into full-blown rib-bruising hacking. Meanwhile, my German friend got stuck in Germany with visa troubles (thanks, terrorism!) and L was supposed to go pick up her plants. But she's sick, so I did it for her. Both L and my German friend live in, while not completely sketchy areas, places that are at the earlier stages of gentrification. Or so I thought until today, when, as I passed a dark alley before my German friend's condo, I noticed a trail of fresh blood leading from it down the street past where I was headed. I did my best not to get any of it on my Keds. Then, as I was driving through a busy (and by busy I mean 16 total lanes of converging traffic) intersection, a woman at an auto body shop nearby was screaming so loudly at a tow truck driver that I could hear it.

Ah, East Cambridge and Somerville, you have just enough grit to make a gal from the sticks such as myself feel like she's really alive.