Pretty much the saddest thing I've ever heard...

I was driving home for lunch today and heard a news report on NPR about the funeral mass held for the Italian earthquake victims today. I didn't realize that it's incredibly unusual for the Pope to allow a mass to be held on Good Friday, but Italy has declared a national day of mourning and they held the mass outside because the churches had been so badly damaged in the earthquake. I started thinking about some of the small towns I had visited in Italy and realized that 200+ deaths in most towns is a significant loss, to where everyone knew a great many of the victims. I hadn't thought much about the earthquake until today (I don't have cable and I've been working non-stop since before it happened) but I heard this on the radio and I wanted to about bawl my eyes out:

The coffins of four young sisters from the Germinelli family lay side by side, bearing their names and dates of birth: Rosa 1992, Michaela 1995, Chiara 1998, Giuseppina 2002. Each had a large bunch of white lilies wrapped in cellophane with a ribbon reading “From Papa.”

Hug the kiddos today, y'all.

A new section of the interweb, just for Molly.

I've started a blog for my training for the marathon...it's called...
The Mollython. Well, actually, 26.2 Miles of Molly, but you can find it at www.mollython.blogspot.com.

Come watch me complain about the fact that I actually paid money to put myself through this torture. I will post on here too, but I figured I'd take Carrie's lead and separate some things.

I already mentioned it on the other blog, but I missed my first day of training this past Sunday. For the record, there was no way I could have run 3 miles - I wanted to go to the Art Museum with Dan, and I had to leave to fly back to Charlotte at 5, getting home around midnight after a layover in Atlanta. I had no access to a shower after noon, so I skipped it. Lesson learned? It's MUCH easier to just plan ahead and do it rather than fight all week to make it up. I have a rest day tomorrow, which I'm using to make up that three miles. Sucks, but I'm glad the weather will be nice for once!

Picture is from my camera, but Dan took it at the race. It's of a Marine who's about 100 years old who carries the flag through the 10k. At the end, when there were stragglers struggling in, he would run up to the top, meet them, give them the flag and have them finish the race carrying the flag. I thought it was cute, and every single person that he gave the flag to ended up running at a full sprint to the finish line. No, I didn't get the flag, but I wasn't that far down from the stragglers myself!