Friday

Ben is safe in Italy. Kevin is sending me emails, saying how much he wants me to be in Capri with them. Ugh. I'm happy that Ben is having a good time, eating gelato and pizza and yelling, "Ciao!" to all the vendors on the street. But I don't wish that I was there.

After a bumpy first part of the day and with much support from my clients and my friends, I pulled it together and really attacked all those freakin' files. I stepped in - last minute - and subbed a class at Capital tonight. One of the 'regulars' there said, "You look like you've been crying, Janeen." And damn it if I didn't get weepy again!

The high point of the day was getting the Valentine from my dad. I was seriously shocked; never before have I received anything from my dad with such great sentiment. Normally, if he gets a card, there's some lewd joke or a funny reference to parenting. And I know that his wife didn't pick it out; she just doesn't do that. The cash was nice, too.

My dad and I talked early this morning - at about 6am - and he was attempting to help me through the uncertainty of not hearing from - as he calls them - "the boys." He touched in several times during the day and we talked one last time tonight. I don't remember a time when he sounded so sympathetic and real. As we hung up, he was talking about crafting a snarky reply to Kevin's email response to me...which Kevin had conveniently copied all of my family members on. Anyone feeling a bit 'o guilt???

So it was a bittersweet ending to a wild day.

And speaking of bittersweet, I (mostly) stayed out of the chocolate although there was an incident with the seasame sticks...

Tomorrow, I have double classes to teach and movies to watch and more files to organize. I'm taking to bed with me a vision of Ben - laid out in Heathrow on a bench - with a sleep mask covering his eyes, visions of gelato and pizza dancing in his head...