Where I’ve been and where I’m going

 

So I’m getting divorced, and I had this idea..

What if I just like, went to Italy and ate delicious pasta sensually but also neatly, sitting at a table da sola in a piazza giggling as the golden light shone on my hair, lustrous with all the olio di oliva in my diet, and I would certainly not be feeling a creeping sulfite headache from the wine, and sooner or later, some Michelangelo sculpture of a man would approach me and in perfect unaccented English say, “hey do you know you’re Julia Roberts and this is the film version of the 2006 memoir Eat Pray Love?”

So I know what “you all”* are thinking. Yes, I’m a 35 year old white woman with uncountable privilege. Yes, I am getting divorced after 8 years of marriage. Yes, I quit my full-time job. Yes, I am feeling alternately devastated and excited. Yes, I am going on a SeLF disCoVery jOuRNeY and yes, I am only doing the eat part.

My parents, god bless them, are driving me to the airport and watching my dog for two months while I take a solo journey through Italy, a trip I dreamed of for years, and thought maybe I could do later, whenever that was, but turns out, it’s now, so andiamo!

I land in Milan on April 1, and this is going to be a big Q2 so buckle in. Trying to stay away from IG so follow the twists and turns here, if you’d be so kind.

*You all: the nebulous controlling force over most of my life to this point; also know as “they” or “everyone”; e.g. “But what will everyone think? What will they say?” More on them in another post.