This post is second in a six-part series by Theresa Elliott on her travels to and from her home in the USA to her home in Lucca.
January in Lucca, 2022
Post #2 of 6 by Theresa Elliott
I haven’t washed my face in five days. I look fine, but I’m wondering if I should be wondering.
The now ‘lost luggage’ I checked in to AirFrance on Monday in Seattle, I strongly suspect went south of the border. The baggage drop-off was a complete cluster, and AirFrance is right next to Air Mexico. I am suspicious my bag is now working on a tan.
I am in Lucca, Italy. Sandy has declared himself an expat on Facebook, we have a small apartment and both have Italian visas. In anticipation of this trip, I loaded up my suitcase with things I planned to leave here so I wouldn’t have to schlep them to and fro, a large part of that inventory being things that help me function on a daily basis. Supplements, medicines, and toiletries. Think: What are the potions and tinctures that keep you sane? And I don’t care if it’s FDA approved or vapors from your favorite crystals, but my version of that is what I packed. New, full containers, unopened boxes, a three month supply of daily antidotes and remedies populated my bag. Not having these things, the stuff that matters because they help keep daily living in check so I can manage being incarnate on this planet, has me a wee bit anxious. The inability to get them in a foreign country only raises the ante.
As I sit here fidgeting with my torn thumbnail, I am also coming to a new appreciation for those little things that make a difference as well. Like a fingernail file, but I’m mostly mad at me for not having one because I shorted the golden rule of travel: always pack items in your carry-on that you cannot afford to lose. Credit cards, passport, ‘i’ anything (pad, phone) all made it in, but not my ‘personal curatives.’ Nor a fingernail file.
“Yup. If you had used the golden rule of travel your suitcase would not have been lost,” said my friend Joanne. So true. So true. That’s part of Irrational Cause & Effect Theory, or ICE as it’s known in certain circles. And it makes total sense that Sandy did get his bag. He doesn’t need its contents as much as I need mine.
My little brother and I share a conviction that’s like the opposite of a jinx. It’s an application of ICE. Whenever we are worried about something, like a plane crash, we confide to someone we are stressing about the plane going down. This will ensure it won’t happen because you were so sure of it, and the worst consequence will be feeling foolish when admonished: “See, all that worry for nothing!” So far it’s working because neither of us has died in a plane disaster.
So, I’M REALLY WORRIED I WON’T GET MY BAG BACK!
Hopefully that’ll do the trick.
©️Copyright Theresa Elliott. All rights reserved.
“Back and Forth Adventures Part Three: On the Third Day She Rested” will appear Friday afternoon. Click here to read “Part 1: My Italian Closet is Displeased.”
