"Melissa" Allman Brothers Band

One of my all-time favorite songs. I never really listened to the lyrics until today. The words seemed somewhat appropriate.

Today's Confession I'll call THE PEDANTIC

I met THE PEDANTIC you guessed it, on an educational trip to Rome, London, Paris, Normandy and Florence. I was a chaperone taking my first trip with students oveseas and learning the ropes so that in the future, I could be in charge of organizing and eventually leading more trips. THE PEDANTIC was also on tour leading his own group and so our groups were combined. The PEDANTIC was from Upstate New York and was recently divorced. His sister was also on tour as a chaperone. He was all swagger and of course all the high school girls swooned over him. His doting, protective sister had Resting Bitch Face-- well, actually she was a total bitch, so it was just Bitch Face to me.

I am not sure when things started-- on these trips you are constantly on the move and communicating with tour guides and such. But since we were taking a bus to different countries, there was plenty of drive time to get to know people. THE PEDANTIC taught AP European History and liked to enlighten everyone who would listen to all of his embellished facts. He also used words incorrectly like IRREGARDLESS. Ugh.

The sister did not like me. And she made it abundantly clear. Still, we managed to go off on our own to explore cities. In Florence, we got lost down alleyways holding hands and finding secluded restaurants to kiss and drink wine.

Our last night in London, my group had to leave at 2 AM and his at 4 AM- we stayed up talking and kissing. But what do you do when the trip is over? We did the long distance calling thing. He suggested we both buy a copy of The Kama Sutra and would read it over the phone (I didn't have a smart phone with facetime) to each other. He would fly down to visit and come to school with me and hang out with the other Euro teacher through the day. He talked about moving to BTown and going back to school It wasn't practical, as he had 3 boys and one had a serious learning disability. He shared that he grew up in poverty and would sometimes have to go without or sell belongings for the family to get by. He told me about Marshmallow Fluff and how you add it to peanut butter and put it on bread. That's what he would eat as a child.

THE PEDANTIC didn't last long-- because how could it, really? But he burned me to my core. He told me that he met a woman doctor in a Starbucks and they were getting married. Fools Rush In.