Departure

Chicago - 11:45 am Central

After a 3 hour drive and saying goodbye to my parents, I walked thru the door of Terminal 2 at O'Hare. After finding my gate, it was time to find lunch. I passed up several $10 lunch options, finally settling on a decent airport meal at Pizzeria Uno for $5.

...didn't know it then, but pizza wasn't exactly the best choice.

Philly - 5:00 pm Eastern

After a smooth, fairly spacious flight to Philly, I had no more than one hour to get to the other side of the airport. ...and I was hungry against - it was sorta dinner time. I think i was already losing my sense of time. I found my gate. McDonalds was staring me in the face right across from my gate. That was the last thing I wanted, so I headed all the way back toward the beginning of concourse F where I'd passed a food court. Most of it was more fast food and ice cream. I guessed I had no more than 20 minutes to get back to the gate.. I picked the shortest line ...more pizza. After eating quick, I made my way all the way to the end of the concourse where my gate was. By the time I got back, they were 1/2 was done boarding. But my section didnt board until the very end, so no worries.

US Airways - Somewhere over the Atlantic.
Time: ...i've lost all sense of time by this point

I had an aisle seat in the middle section of the plane - 4 seats across the middle. At the other end sat a seasoned visitor to Italy. She'd been to Italy several times already. Once upon a time, she supposedly turned her 6 week trip into almost a year-long visit. It looked like she was on an AARP tour. There were a ton of gray heads in the few rows behind and in front of me.

Next to the seasoned traveler sat beautiful Miss Hawaii. ...well, not really, but she could have been. She was headed to Siena for a semester and had her Italy travel book out, picking out cities she wanted to visit. The seasoned traveler suggested the "small Tuscan towns." I nearly choked on my in-flight dinner when Miss Hawaii responded with, "Now... where would they be."

- - Maybe it was her traveling for 10 hours longer than I had been (having flown from Hawaii to Phoenx to Philly and now onto Rome) that was getting to her head. ...or maybe Miss Teen South Carolina should get Miss Hawaii a map.. - -

But the seasoned traveler didn't seem rattled or surprised. She simply responded with a kind "Look in your book under Tuscany."
- - - Who woulda thought. Tuscan towns are in Tuscany. ...since when?? - - -

After going in and out of sleep for the rest of the flight, I finally heard the captain say we've begun our descent and we'd be landing in just under an hour. At this point, I was awake for good. One of the AARP travelers across the aisle tapped me on the shoulder and commended me on the amazing job I did sleeping thru the flight. He sounded like he wanted to begin a quest for the fountain of youth; he "didn't sleep a wink" What can I say? I like to sleep. and I'm good at it.