The thing about a long California commute is that it allows you a lot of time for reflection and thoughts. The past few weeks I've had a lot of wonderful, new people appear in my life. With that comes opening the Italian door, what my experiences were like, the food, the people, life in general and the dreaded question ...of what brought you to Italy.

Maybe it's the long week I've had, a happily full plate of projects at work but tonight on my drive home I wanted to escape work-mode reflecting back on all the conversations I've been having lately about Italy, and my experience there. It reminded me of how much I miss zia- among so many other things. In between pacific coast highway and the five freeway,  tears began to roll down my cheeks as I remembered this woman. A lady unlike any I've ever met and with a heart bigger than the world. I was immediately family, it didn't matter that when we met I didn't speak Italian, I was family. Tonight I missed her like I would miss my own grandmother, with so much else from that bitter-sweet experience.

{me-pre brunette- and zia}