Earl Arriives

Our friend Earl arrived from California today. There were real mixed emotions about his coming. He was carting a ton of things that I had ordered over the Internet and had sent to his house: three pairs of Crocs, a bathrobe, and MS Office 2007. Then there were things I needed him to buy like real vanilla, chocolate chips, and brown gravy mix. He haunted me repeatedly to meet him at the airport, but I held fast and refused each time. This is his third trip here and I met him both times before. It takes me an hour to get there by public transport and then I have to pay my way back by shuttle. As it was, his plane was 2 hours late, so I would have been sitting there wasting time and seething. Earl is the only one who comes here more than once and now stays for free. There is a long complicated history here and this is the only reason. His partner refuses to travel with him and this is his only opportunity to get out of the country. He is not confident (scared to death) to travel alone. He is also agreeable to do our banking in CA when needed, so there is another trade-off. When he arrived, I must admit, I was most anxious to see his luggage. I attacked it like a young child on Christmas morning. This evening, we went to the Iguana to say good-bye to Nicole and Lynn. They are both Fulbrighters who are returning to the States. Nicole leaves tomorrow morning. Lynn first goes to London for a few days and then returns to leave, but we will be in Rome. We only stayed for an hour, knowing Earl would be tired, but with Chris, Mark, and Nicole's friend Adam there too, the table was large and made it difficult to hear to carry on a discussion.

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