JeremyLaDuke.com

I’m currently on the internet at Western Union in La Spezia, Italy. The obnoxious American comes in. She’s from Arizona, she tells the man at the counter. She’s trying to receive $500 from someone in Arizona. She has no money and needs it promptly. The wire transfer is for a J.C. Doe and here US Passport says Joan Carol Doe. They cannot give her the cash since the names do not match on the order and her ID. She proceeds to get angry. She whips out her Arizona Driver’s License and shows them it says J.C. Doe and that J.C. stands for Joan Carol. They cannot or will not budge. He want to help but the system will not allow him to deviate from protocol. She becomes irate. Eventually she convinces the man to make a call to the head office to see if there is anything he can do. She takes a seat next to me.

I said “So you are from Arizona! Ay?”….reminance from my run in with the Canadians. She proceed to tell me she is from Mesa and is moving to Italy to start a Bed and Breakfast. I said I was from Scottsdale and she exclaimed she went to Scottsdale High School class of ‘67. She asked where I went to highschool. I said in Oregon. and she exclaimed “Where!?”. She told me the love of her life lives in Portland. I told her my family lives there and I went to highschool in southern Oregon and moved to Phoenix for college. We continued to talk about my decision to quit the most enjoyable job I’ve had so far and go travel.

She said, “You are doing what I’m doing. You hit the ‘Fuck It’ button. But it’s good you are doing it now. It took me 57 years to figure it out.”

I laughed and said “Yes, I guess you could say that. People have asked me if I’m going thru some sort of mid-life crisis or something.”

She said, “No, you and I and the rest like us are experiencing a different kind of life.” She proceeded to tell me about her thoughts on the matter and it sounded like she was reading my mind and speaking my thoughts aloud. Our conversation was very interesting. Even though my money was quickly disappearing on unused internet time, as I sat there listening and talking with her, I didn’t seem to mind.

Soon enough she parted and we wished each other good journies. It’s strange how the synchronicities of the Universe work out in our lives. God works in mysterious ways.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 21st, 2005 at 2:59 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.