After finally overcoming my incredible Australia jet lag, Brian and I headed off to Midland to catch up with the Kennedy's! We took off out of Houston on a quick 1.5 hour flight, and I think Brian was sweating the whole time - it was a bumpy ride into West Texas to say the least...I feel like this is becoming a trend in my air time. Anyways, we went from gloomy Houston to sunny Midland. After relaxing in the backyard with beers, Wesley whipped us up some delicious steaks before we hit the town to see Rodney Parker.
My favorite part of the weekend was our Saturday morning walk around the neighborhood with Turk. Jenna, Turk, and I were about a quarter of a mile ahead of the boys the whole time, slackers. Their neighborhood has changed so much, new houses are going up all over the place, so we were busy checking things out to notice that we had lost the boys. About 2 miles into the walk, it was clear that Turk was tuckered out so he spent the rest of the day napping. It's easy to forget how relaxing life in West Texas can be, maybe my next job should be Midland...
Alas, it was finally time for me to go back to work. After catching up with one of my coworkers she asked me to do her a favor and speak to someone when I got to Fano. Naturally, I pretended to know exactly what she was talking about, but walked away completely confused thinking that I must have missed an email asking me to go back to Italy. I double checked my email and came up with nothing, so I assumed that precious lady was confused. I walked into my first meeting of the day and was given a stack of papers to take with me to Fano...umm whaaaat? Finally, I cornered one of the managers, and sure enough I was heading to Italy for the next month.
Talk about a mix of emotions. I kind of wanted to punch myself for even being halfway upset about being asked to return to gorgeous Italy, but the real reason that I was so sad is that now I am going to miss out on the Johnson wedding that I had weaseled my way back into. Of course Julie and KJ completely understood, but it's still such a bummer. I also had to break the news to my parents, and while I was talking to my mom I casually mentioned that she should just come with me - fully expecting to be rejected immediately. As soon as I heard her pause before saying no, I knew I had a chance...sure enough, after a little persuasion, LISA AND BRAD ARE COMING TO ITALY!!!!!!
Thanks to mom and dad, I've spent most of the weekend planning out an Italian getaway for my amazing parents. So far, they've got Florence, Pisa, Cinque Terre, Siena, Rome, Pesaro and Fano on the agenda, and I couldn't be more thrilled - I hope they are too ;) I'm counting the days until I meet them in Roma!
Needless to say, I made it here safe and sound. I took my normal route from Houston to Frankfurt to Bologna. The past 2 times I've been here I've taken the train 2 hours South to Pesaro, but since I'll be here for a full month I decided to go ahead and get a rental car and take a shot at driving in a foreign country. They drive on the right side of the road here, so I've got that down. The down side is that there aren't too many automatic cars over here, so I'm back to a manual transmission - good things I've had so much practice in Malongo. I successfully navigated leaving the airport and getting on the highway, but once I got into Pesaro I was lost. It took me a good 45 minutes of circling roundabouts one too many times, stalling, and nearly going the wrong way down a few one-way streets - but I made it!
I decided that I definitely needed some more practice, so I got up this morning and took a test drive to the Fano office, about 30 minutes South of Pesaro. Things started off a little rough when I couldn't figure out how to put the damn thing in reverse. I sat there for about 15 minutes before I gave in and had the bellhop do it for me. In my defense, the Fiat has this lever on the stick shift that you have to pull up in order to get it over into reverse - tricky! Anyways, I successfully made it all the way to and from the office. I'd consider only taking one wrong turn and stalling twice and huge success! We will see how things go tomorrow with morning traffic...
Until next week, xoxo!
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