Visitors, I love you!

Company's a comin'!

I love having visitors. There's nothing like old family and friends to bring out those parts of you that have laid dormant all of these months or years. People from your past, good people from your past remind you of the person you once were, the things you once loved, the way you once felt. Like an old song, having a visit takes you back somewhere. And when your company leaves, you feel a little more hopeful about things.

I believe in both hosting and being a visitor.

And one of the best things about visitors is doing all of the kitschy stuff that you don't do on an average Saturday but only do with out-of-towners. For example, this weekend one of Dave's very best friends is visiting with his wonderful wife, and we're all going to eat Italian in Boston's North End, the thing we do every time visitors come. And I love it. I love, love, love it. When I'm an old lady reminiscing about my time in Boston a few things will stand out to me, and one of those things  will be drinking wine and eating penne in a little, warm, hole-in-the-wall brick hovel somewhere off of Hanover Street.

And maybe I'll be too full to continue the festivities but will instead roll myself home and into bed with Eragon.
Or A Clash of Kings.
Or 1Q84.
Or My Antonia.
Or the Windup Girl.

P.S. My brother is coming in a few weeks. My brother! I cannot wait.

Budapest circa 2007