Santa left the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert in my stocking. I am obligated to read what Santa leaves for me though in the past Santa has pushed it a bit. I won't name any particulars, Mom (Five People You Will Meet in Heaven could have been called Five Books You Shouldn't Read on Earth).
I really love the following passage from Gilbert's book and am looking forward to finishing it.
"Traveling is the great true love of my life. I have always felt, ever since I was sixteen years old and first went to Russia with my saved-up babysitting money, that to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice. I am loyal and constant in my love for travel, as I have not always been loyal and constant in my other loves. I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless newborn baby-I just don't care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it's mine. Because it looks exactly like me. It can barf all over me if it wants to-I just don't care."
I am remembering being so sick in Ireland that I had to see a doctor. I had somehow managed to lodge a fish bone in my throat a few nights before in Galway (a whole other story) and my throat became infected. I took the advice of many Irish friends...bread, milk and a wee bit of Jameson, but I eventually came down with a fever. I had to take the bus from Doolin to Lisdoonvarna to see a Dr. Collins. When I got there I had to sit outside Dr. Collins office/cottage until he opened up. I was so afraid he wouldn't see me because I didn't have my insurance card or an appointment. When a man opened the door at 10am I said, holding my throat for dramatic effect, "I'm really sick, I don't have my insurance card and I don't have an appointment, do you think Doctor Collins will see me?"
The man replied, "I don't know love, that Doctor Collins is a mean, nasty ole fellow." I started to dig through my purse for Euros and the man started laughing. The Irish love to make jokes. The man was Dr. Collins. In less than an hour he had me fixed up with antibiotics and cough syrup....ALL FOR LESS than 10 Euros. What a deal! And, with the hills of County Clare as a backdrop. Sweet, sweet Ireland.
