Missing
For over a year Jackie and I have shared this blog as our common ground - a little virtual island between Bell'Italia and Pazz'America.
It was wonderful, bellissima, even stupendo (come noi) to be on actual common ground over the last couple weeks. Each time we got together it was like an entry in our own mental blogs - the ones we all keep in our memories. So we didn't write, but instead talked and laughed (and "stole" quotes from the greeting card store, talked about bull fights with Indian vegetarians, and went to the Cheesecake Factory not to have cheesecake).
So good to see you, Jackie! And see you again, soon!
From all of us, miss you!
-Corrie
a long trip home
I had so much writing time in America, but somehow I chose not to use it, and Allora Aspetta has been relatively untouched since my "vacation" home. Now I am back in Macerata, my new "home," which in its own way feels somewhat home-like. Greeting Antonello's family (my inlaws), walking through town this afternoon, the way the summer air feels in the evening, breezy and tinged with song, sweet on my skin.
I talked to my parents before I left about what home meant to me. I said that I will probably always consider Indianapolis my home. I can walk through my neighborhood and feel like I know it, say "Oh, that family added a deck," or "That house is for sale? wow." And then I can sit, curled up on my couch in front of the television eating a handful of grapes, and think: "This is where I really want to be."
So here's to two homes: Macerata, where Antonello and I are making our lives, where each step can be as new as I want it to be, yet the memories from years I have spent here still speak to me, day in and day out. And to my house in Indianapolis, my family, my friends, the city, the neighbors down the block who still say hi to me when I walk by. It's nice to have a home away from home, but every time I leave one or the other, my happiness is always tinged with sadness; there are always goodbyes to be said.
-Jackie
p.s. sorry to anyone I didn't see: Jeff, that means you! Thanks to everyone I did see--mom and dad, Paul, Aunt Jing, Corrie, Cass, Eric, Maura! I miss you already!
