Is it true I went to Europe or was it all a dream?

interestingly enuf, i have all these souvenirs all over my house seemingly from my first trip to europe. here's what i've got - and some of them are gifts:

- small green see-thru plastic spoon from Italian gelato shop (make mine creme caramel)

- 25 postcards including one of "The David" which I saw at a museum in Florence

- a picture book about Pompeii - was I really there or did it appear in a dream?

- cute laura ashley-type plastic bag with more postcards

- a book on gaudi's la pedrera, his whimsical fantastical apartment house in barcelona

- two packets of bigelow's camomile tea bags in yellow wrappers to remind me to begin drinking herbal tea in the morning like i did aboard the ship

- business card from limo service that took me to and from jfk airport inscribed w/email address of the driver who had bipolar disorder but then changed his hectic lifestyle, went off all meds, and is doing fine. i gave him the most recent compass and my life story and keys to recovery. he was blown away by meeting me but i'm used to these amazing coincidences. a woman from pakistan was the other rider. she's studying for her medical exams here in the states cuz she wants to emigrate. a year ago in lahore the insurgents became the talk of the town and everybody's afraid now. can you imagine if there was gunfire and high death tolls at the edge of my county? oh, i forgot there is. north philadelphia.

when i woke up at 10 a.m. this morning, i felt the ship rocking beneath me. when i closed my eyes last nite to go to sleep a stream of images from my trip flashed by my eyelids like a fellini movie. i was so tired i could barely speak to scott. speaking in fact seemed useless. how could i explain my trip to him? or anyone other than sarah, my constant companion?

'you went to pompeii?' he said, sitting up in bed. 'i didn't know that.'

'yes,' i said, scrambling outa bed to show him the picture book of pompeii. 'it was the highlite of my trip.'

'how about michaelangelo's david? did you see that too?'

'yes, i said, 'that was the highlight of my trip. it was pure white. huge.' exhausted, i went to fetch a postcard.

'what else did you see?'

'well, it was a tour of some ports on the caribbean.'

'you mean mediterranean.'

'yes, mediterranean. i'm very tired. we went to florence and i saw the most beautiful countryside i've ever seen. it's unexplainable. i'll have to show you photos. the countryside was the highlight of the trip.'

sarah put some of my photos on flickr. she goes by the name 'saperday' which is what i called her when she was young find them here.

people said to me today, i'll bet you're so tired you slept all day. to them i said, not really, scott and i just got home from an hour-long bike ride at lorimer park, the best bike ride of the year. you know why? there were whole stretches with no people and we zoomed real fast on our bikes, hair streaming (well, he hasn't any and i'm not quite all bald yet) but it felt fantastic. when it was over i said to him, we shoulda worn our helmets.

forgot to mention the real highlight of the trip: being with saperday, my beautiful daughter. when we went to sleep in our cabin i sat on her bed and kissed her softly goodnight. that was a thrill.