Ready or Not, Here I Come Back

Ready or not, here I come back Italy. I took the weekend off and flew (and flew, and flew some more…) to Los Angeles and then back to Roma. By myself; so I guess if you don’t count the very long hours of being folded into the donkey-class, economy coach seat, it sort of counts as a kidless “vacation”…from my vacation. The itinerary bordered on the mildly insane. Some would say that anyone with 4 kids falls under that heading on a regular basis. The Roma airport ticket check-in left me yearning for the precision of the Swiss and even, sadly, the Americans. It was a SUPREME lesson in patience, which indeed is virtuous. The proof of that lies in the fact that I got bumped up to business class for no apparent reason on the 9 ½ hour flight from Roma to DC.
So the trip home was a 2fer: to check on my Dad and to attend my 20 year high school reunion – of which I have been part of the reunion committee for the last year. It was a 2 day stay in South Pasadena and I was able to check in on my dad as he is home now since Wednesday. I’m happy to report that he looks well, and that while he has a long road ahead, his spirits seem good. It was great – if a little strange – to be home again, without the kids and on such a whirlwind tour. I was able to get most of the necessities done while back in LA:
• Talk to some family members and friends to catch up. It took the whole month in Italy to deprogram from cell phone dependency… and most of that was wiped out in the 2 days I was back. At one point during my DC layover I just sat there thinking, “I can actually call anyone I want to. Right now!” and feeling very weird about it. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to talk to everyone I had hoped to talk to.
• Buy peanut butter and ranch dressing. Staples, that apparently, we really can’t live without. Also pick some other necessities that we have run out of. DVDs, shampoo, puzzles, and Bounce dryer sheets for my new Italian friend Cindy who has the only clothes dryer in Rieti. (She’s American.)
• Watch 58 hours of “So You Think You Can Dance” condensed down to 3 with the help of the fast forward button on the DVR. The boys are definitely better this season.
• Eat Mexican food. And lots of chicken.
• Do laundry (with lots of help from mom.) Yes, rather than spend 2+ days doing laundry at home, I brought dirty laundry (and paid extra to do so as it exceeded the weight limit). It was done in far less time and probably 1/5 of the loads that it would have taken in Italy. And it’s soft. Not crunchy from drying on the line.
• Share some (but not all) pictures with mom and dad of the trip. They both enjoyed the “virtual tour” of the apartment that Julia and Edwin did for them.
• Attend the reunion festivities. I know some of my classmates on the reunion committee read this blog, and I thank them for that. They were actually the ones who encouraged me to start it, so if you like reading about our crazy adventures you also have them to thank for it. I actually travelled the farthest to get back for the reunion. Lance almost beat me out as he flew from Germany, but I stopped in DC and he flew direct so I was in the plane longest. Yea for me!!! Just a word about attending reunions: they are surreal. It was fantastic (in some way) to see each person again. Most everyone has grown up nicely. Like a wedding, you make the rounds and try to talk to as many people as you can but there were a few who I was really looking forward to talking to but kept missing them.

Too many people to talk to in not enough time. It seemed to be the theme for the weekend. Not enough time to do everything I really wanted to do. But enough to do what I needed to do.

Thanks to Brian for sending me and watching the kids while I was gone. I hear they had a blast: took in a water park outside Roma after they dropped me off at the airport; drove up to the mountains and went hiking and shouted to hear their echoes; and maybe even took in the local town festival “wash tub race” down the river.


Thanks to the reunion committee and the Dickson family for helping host such a great event. It was worth all of the uncomfortable hours (and hours and hours….) on theplane.

And finally, thanks to mom and dad for everything else. I’ll miss you and be looking forward to seeing you, “soon, soon.”