yah!

well, i have done a pretty unforgivable thing, and that is completely overlook (in my blogosphere, at least) the visit of a dear friend which lifted my spirits to soaring point. yes, suzanne capehart graced my little island home with her fervent presence and i found myself on the familiar docks of not of a wooden ship, not of a gold ship, but of the most sturdy, unsinkable ship of all--friendship.

suz's bus was supposed to come into siracus circa 1 pm on sunday (last), but i left my house too late and by the time i walked to the bus station all that greeted me was an empty bus marked "palermo". i had found her bus not but her person. if this was anyone else, i would be a little worried that he or she was now wandering aimlessly along the little unfamilar streets of my town, wondering what the hell that sound was (it is almost always a stray cat, or else the horrific popping sound of a pigeon being run over by a vespa), looking for a mouth with lips not permanently turned down at the ends (many of these Italians can't help it, but their mouths at rest give them somewhat of a "bitch face"...stereotype? der. but my observances support this claim). but this was suzanne, who is a champ, and because she wasn't behind the wheel of a car (loveeee you) i was not too worried about her.

i took the back way home by chance and suddenly stumbled upon a very German-looking girl, pigtailed and wearing a luxurious blue parka, focused on a map, sporting very familiar Asics sneakers. this was like getting smacked in the face with a giant inflatable replica of the wooster campus dipped in a smattering of love. no but really, it was cathartic. later suz would recount that hearing her name echoing off the cobblestones was one of her most precious memories (sorry suz, not to quote you on this..) but little did she know it was also one of mine.

so we spent a glorious few days chilling. in italy. together. which never managed to not seem completely weird and strange and crazy to me. it was if our friendship had continued straight on from december 12th and picked right up a month later, no stress. which was amazing. suzanne loved the city, which made me so happy--i would boldly encourage her to, you know, move in, if i didn't think vienna was basically her in a city. even though she was felled for a day by the weird sickness that's hitting everyone here pretty methodically (oops) she was such an incredible force.

so much so, in fact, that at least four of my friends said watching us interact made them really, really, really want a friend to visit them. basically, this sounds very dramatic, but i appreciated the effort she made (bus to bratislava [SLOVAKIA], flight to milan, flight to palermo, 3-hour bus to siracusa) more than she/anyone knows.

so to wrap up this heartwarming post with the only photographic evidence that we were together (WHAT WERE WE THINKING) taken at a bar where the superbowl was put on for us (minus commercials, but still):
grazi mille girl! ti amo!