Where to start

I thought about starting with the good stuff.  You know, Italy.  But this whole going to Italy thing was quite a journey for me, so I think I'd rather start sooner than that.

Therefore, I will start with Tuesday, March 16th.

Laundry is done, passports located, last minute to-do list made.  Only one more day to get it all done.

Around four in the morning, I woke up to hear Jeff mumbling.  (I learned later he was saying, "No, no, no.") And he restless, sort of rocking side to side.  I asked if he was okay and he said, "No.  I think I'm going to throw up."

Crap.  Are you kidding me?  I've known you for 3 1/2 years and you have not thrown up a single time.  And now here we are, 36 hours before our flight leaves for Italy and you need to throw up?!

I didn't say that.  But I thought it.

And I also thought:
What does he have?
Will I catch it?
How long will it last?
Is it contagious?
Should we still go?

Luckily, the puking stopped by noon and in the meantime, we determined that he had food poisoning. Arby's.  And when he was saying, "No, no, no," it was because he kept falling asleep and dreaming of food which made him even more nauseous.

But even though the puking had stopped, he still felt bad and was very weak.  He was too weak to even pack.  Instead, he laid in the bed and I held up every shirt he owned for him to say yes or no.  And then I packed for the both of us.

Also, in the midst of all this, I needed to buy some euros.  I searched on the internet to figure out where the best place in Philly was and I ended up here.  The process itself was pretty painless, except for the fact that they would only take cash for euros (couldn't use my debit card) and when I tried to take $500 in cash out at the ATM, my bank said, "Whoa, there, lil' missy.  You don't normally take out cash from ATMs. And you never take out that much at once.  Is that really you?"  So they put a hold on my card and I had to call them and verify the last three transactions and then wait for them to release the hold.  It wasn't a huge hassle, but it took longer than I wanted it to.

After that, there was a little shopping to do, and then I spent the evening wandering around the house trying to see if there was anything else I needed to pack or to do or to stress out about.