Raincoats and Big Umbrellas
Like Corrie, it's taken me a bit to realize everything that's planned for this week. While Corrie and Cassie arrive tomorrow morning early in Rome, it didn't really sink in until today how close they are, and how soon this week of vacation, family, friends, and celebration will arrive.With a week and a half behind me of constant English lessons, website design, and frantic cleaning of the house in preparation for a Sunday wedding lunch and many guests (that's right--Antonello and I are celebrating our wedding for the 3rd time back in Italy), it's been hard to focus on what exactly all of this prep work means. It means my family and friends will be here, that home will be all of the sudden complete. It will be a true week of Thanksgiving--for friends and family, for a life in Italy and America all at once. But, as I cleaned and shopped and booked hotels and taught English, the idea of all of these wonderful aspects of a week off had little time to occur to me.
And so it was today, with the afternoon thunderstorms, that it all clicked.
Walking home, with rain pouring down, everyone carrying colorful umbrellas in the dark, I thought, "Why all of the sudden has the temperature changed like this? Why has the weather made a complete turn around?" I watched a man with his dog walk by, both dressed in rain coats. I watched lightning brighten the sky.
And then it dawned on me. I smiled. Rain pounded on my umbrella and soaked my shoes, but I smiled anyway. I remembered what the rain meant in Italy.
It meant that the Americans are coming. In fact, I thought--smiling bigger now as the dog in the raincoat looking at me funny--they are almost here.
Corrie and Cassie--you're almost in Rome! I can't wait! Mom and dad, I will see you on Saturday! Have a safe trip!
-Jackie
