My Underhanded Luck

I have spent a lot of time the past couple of days reflecting over my recent travel experience in Italy, I finally realized just this morning that I have what can be considered "Underhanded Luck".  It is somewhat similar to one of those underhanded compliments people can give.  For example "I really like your hair a different way" or "It is so much nicer when you smile than how you normally look" or "Oh you seem really nice, but I actually wanted to talk to your friend".  Yes, I have heard everyone of these "underhanded compliments". 

So when I flew out to Rome last week and landed in London to have a man arrested 7 rows behind me and 2 isles over for having explosive material with him, I thought, this has to be my get out of jail free card.  I realized that it COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE, but they were able to catch him in the act and then much like the Titanic, put him with those in economy so the poorer could go down first and the first class could be saved.  Either way, I was able to walk off the plane and with no harm.  Underhanded luck.

My first night in Italy I was walking through the streets of Rome with my big black tote bag I purchased at DSW (for those that aren't lucky enough to know, this is the Discount Shoe Warehouse) and my strap broke.  What luck, my purse broke in Italy.  I had no choice but to purchase a new Italian leather bag so that I would have something to carry my personal items in home.  Underhanded luck.

I had to fly Iberia airline out of Rome to get home on Monday and our first stop was supposed to be Madrid.  Unfortunately a woman on my row, just 3 seats over started having what I can only assume is a heart attack so we had to make an emergency landing in some random town in Spain....I think, I actually don't even know.  So we were an hour late getting into Madrid of which I of course missed my connecting flight back to the states.  Let me also tell you I always fly Continental, but I chose originally British Airways because the flight was cheaper and I'm all about saving money.  British Airways to Rome (possible terrorist on flight one) switched to Iberia for home (rerouted for emergency medical landing and delayed into Madrid) then of all things the only way Iberia could get me into Houston would be the following day, via Continental.  The lesson is that I should have stuck with old faithful from the beginning.  I was put up in an airport hotel by the airline for the night.  After getting lost in quite possibly the largest airport I had ever been in, Madrid, I finally make my way to this hotel which divided itself into a hostel as well...Perfect.  My meals were comped, this was a plus.  It was a buffet, not exactly a plus.  But no matter who you were, how comped you were, how many people were with you, at whatever table you sat, they opened up a bottle of water and a bottle of wine and left you to your good senses.  Underhanded luck...and a little drunk too.

I arrived safely into Houston late Tuesday evening completely dumbfounded by my previous adventure.  After some solid sleep, I came up with the conclusion that if you stand next to me you will not get struck by lightening, however, I make no promises for the person standing next to you.


Happy Friday!

I am Drawn to Couples

Here I am on my NRomantic NRoman holiday secretly hoping it will turn into the two days of a blissful romance with some amazing Italian man and where do I find myself?  Walking through the brick roads of Rome with an American couple I struck up a conversation with at my hotel.  Now I'm not complaining, they were quite lovely and so kind to take me under their wing for the evening.  But I'm curious how I surround myself with couples in my every day life at home and I come to travel alone in one of the most romantic cities in the world (sounds a bit like an oxy-moron thing, I know) and I am spending my Friday evening with a couple from Canada who live in DC.

I feel comfortable with couples I guess, I feel more at ease striking a conversation up with a couple than I do with a man I don't know.  I'm curious to find out why.  Funny thing was while we were walking along by the Trevi fountain and I declined their offer to take a picture of me, just me, by the fountain, I passed by no less than 5 guys walking alone, clearly traveling and I'm walking with two people who could have been my parents.  Okay, maybe I'm giving myself a little too much credit here and thinking I look much younger than 30, but I digress.  I am still the tourist with the camera bag so big strapped to my shoulders and the patagonia wrapped around my waist because it was just warm enough not to wear it walking with the nicest couple, but clearly I looked like nothing short of a doofus.  I don't know another way to explain it.

I saw couples in love tonight; I saw families exploring new and exciting things together for the first time; I saw friends laughing together throwing coins into the fountain hoping each other was the only one watching...I missed my family and I missed my friends.  I had the great luck to find the nicest couple to take pity on me for an evening and let me interrupt their first time away from the kids in 13...THIRTEEN years.  They listened to me tell stories about the people in my life who's stories I love to tell because I believe they are worth hearing.   I was reminded tonight about compassion.  But let's be honest here, after realizing where I was, in this romantic city...ALONE, I look forward to one day being reminded of Passion.

Thank you to the lovely couple, Brook and Jan who let me tag along and showed me not only Rome, but kindness and also a feeling of being home in a far away country...with a friendly couple.

My NRomantic NRoman Holiday

Well I'm not exactly on Holiday in Rome and it is certainly Not Romantic, hence my joining of the word No with Romantic and Rome... I'm here for work. I arrived in Rome yesterday, weary of traveling all this way alone, but hopeful I could handle the job at hand. Let me first tell you, I have a fear of flying, but have never let that stop me actually from traveling, however the way I do it internationally is by taking an anti-anxiety pill that actually intensifies positively with alcohol. It's a win-win, Really. So about two hours left of my first leg of which I was anticipating a 4 hour layover in London, I decided it was time to pop the second of my anti-anxiety, just to get me through the next hick-up, which would be landing.  As we were taxiing to the gate the captain comes over the loudspeaker with the following announcement "Ladies and gentleman, you will not be able to de-board the plane once we land at the gate because the authorities will be boarding the plane". I'm thinking to myself, maybe this is normal for an international Houston to London flight. I have NO IDEA. 

After we stop and I look out my window to find the British Armed Brigade made up of 6 men waiting for what I am assuming is the either plane in front of us, to escort some celebrity in first class off the plane (oh how I wish) or on the 1 in 200 thousandths of a chance I have actually one of those travelers on my flight who has caused some havoc. Can you guess which of these was the final scenario? Yep, and this possible terrorist was sitting 7 rows behind me, 2 isles over. After getting no information from the flight crew or the very handsome british brigade of which my anti-anxietied head was secretly wishing I could flirt with, I just sat back and watched them escort a man with plastic bags over his hands off the plane only later to find out he may have had explosive material on the plane and was moved to my section of the aircraft because (we were poor) or because there were fewer people to surround him. This is the start to my NRomantic NRoman holiday!

I arrived in Rome tired but full steam ahead with meetings and deadlines to make. After a few hours, I went around the town with my very own Italian tour guide and historian, my company's Italian sales rep. Do not get any ideas, we spent much of the conversation talking about his wife and children and my dog.

Before I left for this trip I kept hearing about blonds getting special treatment, cat calls and whistles in Italy. So far I've gotten a possible terrorist, a father figure, an Irish Fed asking me where I was from and a waiter feeling pity for me.

I have been reading the book by Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed, she is the same author who wrote Eat, Pray, Love of which I obsessed over 2 years ago.  This book now is about she finding out the reason and/or the concept of Marriage.  Eat, Pray, Love was her journey of becoming single again and coming through a divorce and spending 4 months in Italy, 4 months in India and 4 months in Indonesia.  So far I have realized that though her words are moving, funny and worth reading over and over again to learn about life's complexities and intricacies, the only thing Elizabeth Gilbert's life and my life have in common is that we have now both eaten in Italy and we were both born.  Of course because of her time in India, she has been born and born again.  

I don't have the tenacity to meet strangers, I shy from flirtatious looks and I am completely ignorant of attention.  Or is it that I look so utterly unapproachable because of my natural scour that the attention isn't curious, it is more pity?  I have 3 more days in this romantic city, 3 days to try to build up this inner "hi there, how are you?" verbal part of me that now I only try to show by merely turning my seat in the direction of introduction, but putting my face into a book, computer, cell phone or magazine.  Where did this shy part of me come from?  Anyway, this is just the start to my NRomantic NRoman holiday.  I don't know that I will fall in love with a NRoman Gawd while I'm here, but I sure hope I can at least turn this paid working adventure into something more than the Eat part of my journey!  Until then...