My Ride Or Die Chick

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of traveling to Italy with one of my oldest friends, Linda. (She is not old, the friendship is. 🙂 ) We’ve been busy with life in the last several years, she running a successful doggie daycare and kicking cancers ass and me teaching middle school and launching a teen into the world. We decided we needed some adventure and to celebrate my retirement, so off to Italy we went.

Now the last time the two of us set off for an adventure we ended up in Martha’s Vineyard. We rode scooters, drank too many martinis, and jumped in a car with strangers to make a midnight run for hot doughnuts. I should say right here the drinking and scooter riding were not done together; I’ll let you decide on the drinking and doughnut run! Linda often says, were the kind of friends who could have fun in an empty parking lot and it’s true.

Italy was everything we thought it would be, amazing food, historic sights, great wine, and tons of laughs. We had so much fun on the scooters in Martha’s Vinyard we tried them again in Rome, this time we were passengers not drivers. Zooming through the streets of Rome with Linda yelling, “I’m going to fall of the back of this freeking thing!” made me snort laugh and is a memory I hope never fades.

Even the Vatican provided us with a chuckle. After weeping at the sight of the Pieta by Michelangelo, the dome in the Bacilica, and the Sistene Chapel… the gift shop was a bit of a letdown. That is, until Linda picked up what she thought were salt and pepper shakers and upon closer inspection uttered, “Shit! This is Holy Water!” On top of that when she returned them to the shelf she missed and they went crashing to the floor. Her cursing and bad aim, hit me just right and I burst out laughing. So much for the decorum of the Vatican.

The thing about a long term friendship is you are ALWAYS there for each other. Laughing in Italy or crying at a family tragedy, Linda is my “ride or die chick.” Linda is just what the urban dictionary says, “someone who is down for you no matter what…your hommie.” My life and my adventures are better because of her, I can’t wait to see where we go next.