Patience, Forgiveness, Pasta

It’s day five and my mother Kiki, my 12-year-old Ax, and I are still getting along and having a nice time. We‘ve gotten lost, and had to walk much more than planned. We’ve pre-purchased timed entry tickets for things we didn’t want, and stood in lines for what we did want.  We’ve learned that pasticcerias do not sell gelato. They sell pastries, duh. We’ve hustled to arrive on time for morning tours and been told to wait.

We have remained calm, patient, and agreeable, with each other and with those around us. We have eaten pasta. We have even made pasta — and it was … tasty!!! Perhaps the tastiest pasta Ax (and I) have ever had, and we have had extensive pasta experience.

We’ve each gotten what we need, when we need it. Yesterday, that meant we hit the Lego store for a packable build Ax spent a few hours of the afternoon happily accomplishing. My mother remarked, “It feels like we’ve traveled a long way to stay in the hotel building legos.”

“He’s having a good vacation,” I said. AND, if you compare time building legos at home to time building legos in Italy, it’s like, less than 5%.  Time in Italy looking at art in churches vs. time in California looking at art in churches? 1000%.

So, we each need what we need, even in Italy. Me? I needed a meeting, well, wanted one. I wanted to see my recovery peeps and have a schmooze. I followed the blue dot on google map and it took me one place, then another, then another, and then I gave up and called my people at home, just to brag about how nice I was being to my mother and my kid and how I wasn’t even caring one bit about the wine absolutely everywhere. Which is true-ish. But if I did drink wine, which I don’t, this would be the place to do it. On a piazza, watching the people, while eating pasta. Or cheese. Or pasta with cheese.

So anyway, Ax got his LEGO on and I got my bath and chats with friends and mom got whatever she needed to get — a hair wash, laundry, a nap, chats with her friends.

And then we all resumed loveliness and family togetherness and more walking, art-ing, and eating. I’m gonna keep going.