I have a serious case of procrastination and extreme exhaustion. For the past few months I've been so freaking tired. I've gone to the doctor a millon and one times. FIrst for a fracture in my foot, and then for my voice, and then for my tiredness, and then for my lungs, and then for a horrible cough. Tomorrow i'm going for my throat/voice again. I've had my blood tested and just about everything else. They're not sure why I'm so tired all the time, but I'm going to the gym today to see if it's a lack of exercise that has me so freaking tired. This past Thursday was my 27th birthday. I had a great time. It was a lot funner than last year's birthday and 25 too. We all went out for a family dinner on my actual birthday; Becky, Jeannette, Drew, Jordin, and Kelly joined us too. We laughed and ate and celebrated my birth. It was wonderful to be with all the people that I love in this world on a day that always makes me feel extra special. After dinner, we went next door to an Irish pub for drinks. Oh and Mei mei came from Michigan. She got to join us for the very end of dinner and all the drinks. She's a keeper for coming... ain't no way I'm throwing her back :). The party continued for two more days. Friday we went out for Happy Hour and to a bar with Beck, Cynthia, and Amy's friend Liz. Saturday we spent the day shopping and sight seeing, before getting ready for my Karaoke extravaganza. I love karaoke! It just makes me so happy to see people enjoying life and feeling like rock stars! My favorite part was singing group songs with the whole bar. The best songs were, Lean on Me, The greatest love of all, Mr. Boombastic, and jojo singing a high pitched John Legend song. The whole place cheered for her because of how badly she did. It was hilarious! The night ended with like 15- 20 of us heading to Sutra for some dancing. I'm still so tired from 4 days of partying. Perhaps next year it will only be dinner or a cupcake! Now on to Italy... I never wrote about the italian portion of my trip and I just have to. After changing our route between which cities to visit and in what order to visit them followed by a dozen or so different train times, we finally decided on leaving early in the morning and heading to Florence first. We were so pumped to be heading into Italy for our collective first time. Some 45 minutes into our train ride, a sexy Italian guy got on the train. At first he was just standing there, then he got this phone call and started chatting then arguing away. Although I could tell he was arguing, the fact that he was doing it in Italian made it one sexy argument. After a while, I asked jojo to get up and look at him since he was standing behind her. She got up and looked and when she did he lowered his voice. I guess he thought she was looking because he was being too loud, when really she was admiring his sexiness :). After an hour or so of relishing in his beauty it was time to get off the train. Of course Eve and Jojo packed like they were MOVING to Italy, so we held everyone up as they got all there bags together. They exited first and I followed. As I attempted to pick up my one suitcase and carry it off the train, Mr. Beautiful reached over and said, "leave it there, I'll take it, " in perfect ENGLISH! I about died. He spoke to me, he really did. He carried my bag off the train and then off he went. We had to connect to another train. I smiled the whole way to the other platform thinking of how lucky I was to have had a sexy Italian help me with my bag. After standing on the new platform for 10 minutes or so, who did I see standing off to the side... you guessed it... Mr. Beautiful! I wasted no time, shoot when was I ever going to be in that perdicament again? I walked right over to time and asked him (while showing him my ticket) if we were on the right platfom and he said yes. After he was done with his cigarette he came over for a chat... yummy! We found out that his name was Marcello, 28, and a lawyer from naples. We talked about where he was coming from and some how got onto the topic of music. We asked if they ever played bachata out there and he responded with the lyrics of a famous bachata song. We laughed and held back from jumping on him after that. He helped us get all our bags on the train and find our seats. As we walked into the train, I just looked at the girls and mouthed, "I love him... I love him.... OMG I love him,"it was hilarious. He ended up sitting with Ev, because Iwas too shy to sit next to him. We ended up walking over to them and chatting with him some more. Here's how it went, K: Here's my sister's card, call us or email us if you come to Rome M: Your sister? really? How many of you are there? K: There are 5, and you M: We are 5 too, what number are you? K: I'm number 4, you M: Me too. When's your birthday? K: The 16th of April, yours? M: 16th of August... wow Then we said our good byes, because we were pulling up to our stop. As we said bye he was frantically writing something. He hugged us all and gave us two kisses (mmm hmmm about died then too) and then he gave me a piece of paper... with his number on it!!! ( I love him... I love him!!!) We spent a day and a half in Rome admiring the legendary city and eating some of the best food I've ever tasted. The pasta was OUT OF THIS WORLD. I inhaled an entire plate of pasta... in less than five minutes, it was just too good to let any of it go to waste. I called and emailed Marcello and we made tentative plans to meet up in Naples. I didn't think I'd really go down there alone, but it was a possibility. After he offered for me to stay over night, I knew there was no way I was going to go. I told him the most I'd do is go down there for a few hours, perhaps a meal. He ended up calling and we made plans to meet. Jojo and Ev were petrified, but they also thought it was ridiculously romantic to go to Naples for a date with such an amazing man. So they gave me self defense tips and a black berry and wished me well. I headed to the Roma Termini train terminal, bought a ticket and headed 2 hours south of Rome, to Naples alone! To Be Continued... Peace, Life, and Love, Kristel | 
