Well, It’s My Birthday Too, Yeah!

I turned 53 and Paige turned 52 the same week and we GOT TOGETHER in Italy to celebrate!

Here were the best parts:

-breathing the same air

-having excellent food, a lot of it cooked by John, especially vegan for me

-going to the Mediterranean Sea and getting my feet wet in it twice

-giggling together

-visiting the Apenine mountains together—seeing a beautiful monastery (Montecassino) and a beautiful church, and an off season ski resort that was giving The Shining vibes, but turned out to be okay

-driving together and visiting to our hearts’ content

-church in Paige’s wonderful Italian ward

-watching 3 Idiots and laughing with John

-talking to a bunch of people we love who called for our birthdays

-swimming and going on walks with Paige

-walking around three volcanos and writing this blog post in the shadow of Vesuvius

Paige and John are such excellent hosts! And they live in such a beautiful place! It was so great just to be with them and appreciate how they are doing hard things with such tenacity and grace. 

Thank you to Alan Wimmer and Mallory Sheldon who made it possible for me to be gone the week before school ended! From what I heard without much contact is that things went well for G and E. And Alan worked a lot.