Italian Holiday Prelude

I need to write a quick forward here to explain the characters in the upcoming Italian Holiday series.

First and foremost, Lane. I met Lane before I left America. We spent some time together as friends, but neither of us had any serious interest at the time. We kept in touch through email while she was trouncing around the jungle and I was getting adjusted to life here. As I learned more about who she is, where she comes from, and where she's headed, I found her more and more attractive. Over the course of the fall, I fell, so to speak, for her. I made my feelings known in late December and spent the next few months trying to convince her to start a "relationship" of some sorts via the internet. I felt that if we made a commitment to talk often and really get to know each other we could build a foundation of good communication and we would know each other pretty well by the time we had a chance to see each other again. That chance was this Italian holiday.

Secondly, Jess. Jess is a mutual friend of Lane and I's. She's an incredible girl. She lives in Rome now and works on a university campus there. She's super cool. She is incredible welcoming and hospitable. She is one of the best friends you could ask for. She asks good questions, likes good conversation, and laughs a lot. She's fun and fashionable and friendly. A wonderful combination.

Third, A-Rod. He's an Italian friend of Jess' that was a huge help in getting us from the airport, to the train station, to all the sites, and to some good pizza and coffee. He was just as fun and friendly as Jess and even had that added Italian flair about him. He also made a couple of mean pastas for us while we were there.

Fourth and Fifth are Brad and Krystal. Brad works with Lane and Krystal is his girlfriend. They have been dating about the same amount of time Lane and I have been and in pretty much the same circumstances. They were our travel partners for part of the trip.

There were a ton of other people that were in and out during the weekend. I need to give a shout out to ML and Micah. ML is Jess' roomie and she was very gracious to let us invade her apartment. Her BF Micah was there for part of the time we were and I know we could have been a major nuisance to them, but they were incredibly cool about the whole situation. ML also had a lot of other friends that were there at different times and all of them were just as fun to hang out with as Jess and ML were.

The next couple blogs will be pics and stories from the past couple weeks. Hope you enjoy.