MEETING AT OUR "DENTAL SALON"

"So which one of you has the appointment?" As usual, the staff looks a bit puzzled to see us cosily making ourselves at home in the waiting room. Let me explain. 

My very dear writing partner and I share many things, including our dentist. She lives closer to his office where I spend much of my life (see "Taking My New Front Teeth For a Swim" https://franceoritaly.blogspot.com/2013/07/taking-my-new-front-teeth-for-swim.html) than to my isolated house that is reachable only via unspeakable roads. So we often choose to meet at the office when I come for my dental appointments. That our wonderful-and-well-worth-the-wait dentist always runs very late doesn't hurt our plans to have our own little visit. 

Although I have written on the subject before, in July 2013, (ON THE COMFORT OF HAVING A WRITING PARTNER   ), I don't think I really explained very well what it has meant to me to have, at long last, a writing partner. With a writing partner there is always someone "nearby" who can be trusted to give great critical advice or a second opinion about whatever I am writing or mulling over. Today, it being Wednesday (the only day he comes here from Rome), I will be there, and E and I will have a chance to catch up in person, in addition to our constant cyber meetings.

And because she is so modest and discreet about her own multi-talents, I feel privileged to be an extra set of eyes for her. Her poems, drawings, photographs, and varied examples of her skill as a wordsmith deserve a wider audience than me. Some day I, along with her many friends, would like to see an exhibit of her own works of art. But in the meantime, we enjoy our dental salon and

find encouragement in showing each other whatever we are working on. 

I'm reminded of my favorite quote from "Charlotte's Web":

"It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer." 

I am so lucky to have found her!

I couldn't decide which one of these pictures to use, so you are getting them all. I like the fact that I fell in love with these Italian-made glass pens long before I dreamed I would be living in Italy. This one currently resides in my desk in the States. Would she rather come back home to her native Italy? Maybe not just yet. For the time being, her owner enjoys being able to hold her while stateside, as a touchstone of her adopted country.