I'm Pretty Sure Ben Stiller Was There

How's this for a good laugh? The other night I found (and immediately plucked) around five gray hairs. I know! Not really my favorite. Is it bad to pluck? Does that mean that I will now grow a skunk stripe down the part in my hair? Is this what's going to happen before I'm even forty? Wait...make that 36?? When the time is right, I will fully embrace my gray hair...though I will not call it gray, I will call it silver, all drama teacher-like. But you know what...the time is just not right for me yet. I don't like this. And you know what the funny thing is? I have a pimple on my nose! Yeah, how does *that* make any sense at all? Gray hairs and a pimple. I'm so confused. You would so love to see a picture right about now, wouldn't you. Yeah, cuz that's gonna happen.

Okay, moving on. I will now tell you a story. It's not my story, but I have been given permission to tell it.

My sister has been living and teaching in Thailand for a year now. She just finished and is halfway home. She made a pit stop in Italy for about a month, but she'll be home soon. This will be her story. And I really am only sharing it (cuz it's funny) to emphasize the fact that despite what she tells me...she is in ITALY, and I am in Oregon. I may mention this a few times.

About six months ago, while my sister was in Thailand, she took a "holiday" and flew to Italy to visit my brother. He is in the military and stationed in Italy. While there, she met a booooy. He is American and also in the military, a good friend of my brother's. They really hit it off and have continued to keep in touch the rest of the time she was in Thailand. It's very romantic. It will make a great love story someday if they end up being together. I always joke with her that she had to go all the way to Thailand, to go to Italy to fall in love (okay, at this point we will say like-like-like). It really has great potential to be very, very romantic. You know where I met my hubby? Target. Enough said.

So she has been very much looking forward to going back to Italy to see this booooy. Who is really not a booooy, he is all grown-up and would probably very much like to be referred to as a man. I just like writing, "booooy."

Well, she made it back to Italy. I'm sure the reunion was just like you see in the movies. Slow-motion running through the airport baggage claim, hair blowing in the (baggage claim area) wind, some Celine Dion song playing in the background (hey, it could happen). There were fireworks (or horns honking just outside). So very romantic.

They had all these plans. While she was there, they were going to go to Ireland. Maybe Scotland. Long train rides together. Bike rides (I may be making this up) through beautiful, lush, countrysides. Sipping wine in little, candle-lit corners somewhere in Venice.

Well, now that she is actually there, plans took a turn. He had taken leave so they could travel, but his supervisor cancelled it last minute, and he had to work while she was there. So they could only travel on the weekends. All of a sudden, she was on vacation and he was very much not. She was "stuck at home" all day waiting for him to get home from work. When he would, he would be exhausted, as you tend to do from working hard all day. She was ready to roll, get out on the town. Kick it up a few notches. He wasn't, cuz he's back in real life, and she's on vacation. She's writing me, relaying all this, disappointed and near tears. Not what she imagined. She had the whole romantic movie going on in her head, and this wasn't it. She even asked me, "Is this what military-life is like?...Marriage?" She almost said, "stay-at-home-mom." I could feel it coming.

I had to remind her she was in ITALY (and once again...I am in Oregon). Told her she needed to get out of the house immediately and see Italy. She mentioned not wanting to do it alone. I reminded her she lived in Thailand alone for a year, traveled to Laos and Bangkok (something like 10 hour train rides) all alone and managed to stay alive and have a great time.

So she decides to walk into town, find a coffee shop or something. See the countryside. The next call I get, she is freaking out. While she was in town (she added that she somehow got lost too), the booooy calls her and tells her he has to leave town, immediately, and he is actually on his way to the airport. It's the military, sometimes there is no warning...you just go. She thinks he is kidding ("Yeah right, I'm walking in town and have managed to get lost...please come get me."). He isn't kidding. He has to leave--for a week.

As she's walking down the side of the road, trying to find her way back to his house, he actually drives by, pulls over, shows her where to find his house and says goodbye to her. This is their goodbye. Then he's off. Everyone is sad, sad, sad. She is laughing and crying the entire time she's telling me all of this. I'm relaying the story to my hubby and he goes, "So what part did Ben Stiller play in this movie?"

Exactly. I'm laughing and crying back to her, cuz this is just getting funny now (poor thing). So she'll still be there when he gets back, but for the week, she will be staying at his house, alone. Even though my brother lives there, he doesn't actually live close to the booooy. AND to make it even better, he flew his girlfriend in from Romania (yes, he had to go all the way to Italy to go to Romania to fall in love, I mean, like-like-like), so he is preoccupied.

She's going on about all of this being "bad signs" for the relationship with the booooy, and I'm trying to encourage her not to go there yet, that this could just be a really good story, for later. And remind her that she is in ITALY, and I am in Oregon.