Have you ever had one of those moments when you just wish you were somewhere else? That would be today. I stumbled across this photo today - yes, it's Rachel again. For those of you who are wondering, Rachel is my boon companion, my Girl Friday, my Boswell, etc. She, much like myself, is not fit for human consumption. We are friends with each other because, basically, no one understands me quite like her. We are kindred spirits of a sort.

This photo comes from the first time we ever traveled together. We didn't start out small - we went to Rome together. It was for neither of us our first trip there. I had been there many, many times as my mother was born and raised there and met my father (who, incidentally, is from Croatia) and married him there.

So, anyway, we're actually sitting in a bar called The Bandana Republic. My cousin took us there and we quaffed a few pints and Alessio, my cousin, snapped this photo. So, as I said, I stumbled onto this photo and I just wished....with all my heart....that I was in Rome and not in a sweltering office in Cleveland, Ohio. For those of you not familiar with Cleveland, you are in a good place. Cleveland, for those of us born and raised here, is one of those love-hate things. But, as I grow older and get more or less resigned to the idea that I will probably die here (but let's hope not - I hold onto hope - I always am holding onto hope), I have grown to loathe and despise Cleveland. But that is all for another blog entry - right now, the point...

I wish I were any where but here. I wish I were in Rome....I wish I was drinking a lukewarm beer at the Bandana Republic (which, for any Rome bound travelers out there, is on the Via Ancona near the Piazza Porta Pia) - I wish I was walking down the Via del Corso crowded by tourtists and gypsies and roasted chestnut salesmen....and I wish I could just drift over to the Via Fratina to the American bookstore and buy over priced used copies of books in English and just walk until I'm spent and pull out the dog-eared copy of Flaubert's Madame Bovary that I just bought for an outrageous amount of money and sit at a table on a strange, curvey medieval Roman street, sipping black, acidic coffee and dreaming of a time and place that never was nor never could be mine.

So, the long and short of it is....I wish I were in Rome. Where do you wish you were?