Catching David

So I got sick. Real sick. I'm feeling better enough now to be out and about, but yesterday I slept and slept. I'm pretty sure I was feverish and my throat closed and ached; my nose hated me. Sam spent the morning tracking down vitamin C and orange juice in little Italian pharmacies where they luckily understood the phrase "wife sick" and were willing to help.

I finished reading Poisonwood Bible (which I adored until the last 100 pages or so) and read all of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (which I absolutely did enjoy--quick and delightful, if full of some unrealisticly lovely dialogue). I can also recommend The Cellist of Sarajevo, mostly. I found it to be rather, slightly, oh, dramatically written? May I say that when it was about such a terrible event? I think I can. I was in a swoon for it for many many pages, but then it seemed the characters thought thoughts that were too similar, ultimately too simple or something. Nevermind. I'll do a goodreads for each of them soon. All I meant to say is that I read all day, which was nice.

Back to Italy. We're in Italy, but yesterday I wouldn't have known it if the OJ carton wasn't in Italian. When I tried to go out in the afternoon, it only took about thirty seconds before I felt dizzy and terrible and whined for Sam to take me home, which he did. We ventured out again after dark, when it wasn't so hot, and I'm happy to report that I did sort of fall in love. We stayed away from the city center, found this lovely dark restaurant with a red velvet couch-thing and kind waiters and we ate simple, tasty food. I had some spaghetti object with thyme and lemon, Sam had the spaghetti object with an incredible, classic tomatoes and herbs sauce, then we split a grilled vegetable plate with some sort of smoky cheese on the side. And we may have ordered a dark chocolate souffle with bitter orange sauce, maybe, which I might have taken tiny bites of, despite my stuffed nose. As I said, the day had cooled off and there weren't so many drunk teens with cleavage and/or tight jeans. We strolled along, in love, talking about romantic things like ... budgets and grocery shopping. It was pleasant indeed.

Today the heat wave seems to have broken. I'm sitting at the Internet cafe which overlooks the Arno. The back door is open so I feel a delightful breeze. My nose is stuffed slightly and my throat feels ick-ish, but I'm confident I don't have the Pig Sick, which we looked up all the symptoms for yesterday, of course.

One more thing. In my feverish haze, I kept feeling stupid for my last post, which I also wrote in a feverish haze. What was I thinking saying David was a sexy beast? What am I, 12 years old? Yes, sort of, anyway. What really happened when I saw David is that from behind it looked like he was participating in a trust exercise with me, like he'd get the nerve up to fall back into my arms any second. And I would catch the leggy teenager in my arms, under his strong shoulders, and he would sigh the sigh of 500 years, stand, ruffle my hair with his enormous hand, and stride off. The female busts in the other room would sputter jealously.

And that is what I really thought of David.

Comments

Amara said…
That's the point of that statueisn't it? When I read the Michaelangelo book, (was it the agony and the ecstasy?) they said all this stuff about what moment in David's life he was going to portray him, but he then purposefully chose a hardworking peasant for his model --which really went against the grain with everyone else. But you've got to admit, hard work/exercise and the Mediterranean diet did his body good. Not that I'm looking....
eden said…
sorry you got sick! i think it's near-tragic to get sick when on vacation. it makes things harder to enjoy.

i'm glad you're feeling better and i hope your recovery is complete.

i'm also thrilled to hear that you did begin to fall in love at least a little. (:
belann said…
Glad to see the post--that means you are alive at least. Worried about the nasty swine flu as you know. Doesn't sound all bad to be able to read all day while kind Sam went around finding you help. All is well.
Terry Earley said…
We have been worrying about you both through this flu. So nice you were able to make some good memories, and that you are feeling better.
Mike and Emily said…
I'm sorry you've been sickly. I never handle sickness well, least of all on vacation. So glad you're having a lovely time, though. And I love your new thoughts on David. Although, I can't help but imagine that in said trust exercise you'd be unavoidably squashed under his massive (but, oh-so-tight) buttocks.
See Mack Snow said…
Wait, I want to be friends with you on Goodreads! I don't know your last name, though. Hmm. Add me, por favor?

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