On Sunday, October 26, we returned to the grad students' apartment at Piazza Capponi, scene of our toga party (which now seems like months ago) for another grad student birthday party, this one much more subdued. It was to be a surprise party for Nancy V., an MFA candidate in the Fibers department, but I nearly blew the cover when I was spotted in the neighborhood by Nancy herself as she walked with Layne, both of them headed to the apartment for what Nancy thought would be some scholarly discussion. I quickly made up some lame excuse about spending my spare time wandering to see some new and different sights on a lazy, rainy Sunday night, and high-tailed it away so that I wouldn't blow the deal any worse. Blast it, no stores around here seem to be open late on Sunday evening, or the ones that are don't seem to have the selection of local vino that I'm used to. Yes, we're going to have a more subdued celebration this time, but that doesn't mean we won't all bring a bottle of wine to the party....

...also on this day, my Pompeii traveling companion and fellow baseball pool entrant Mitch flew back to South Carolina from Rome, arriving at his home airport I'm guessing at about the same time the Florida Marlins won game 7 of the World Series over the Cleveland Indians and turned him into a winner of many concert tapes. A true champion that Mitch is, there's not an ounce of quit in him. He gives it his all. 110 percent. He leaves it all on the table. He plays the hand he's dealt. He establishes the running game, he, uh ... well, you get the idea.

back to kellytravels index page | classwork picks up the pace