This is Deputy Digby Pancake.  Sometimes persons say that they feel like a fish out of water.

I would suppose that Girl Person and Boy Person feel like that a little bit right now in that Italy place.  Half the time, Girl Person says that they have a hard time communicating because they are still working on their Italian language skills.

The other half of the time, they are trying to figure out trains and pathways and directions and well, what water to drink.  Yes. What water to drink.

I know that there is fancy water out there.  The kind of water you get in a clean bowl and the kind of water you drink out of a puddle.  There is also the kind of water that I like to drink out of creeks or even on the road.  Yes, the road.  I like that dirty flavor.  To each his own.  Brickle seems to like only water out of a bottle.  Like Boy Person.  But never…never…get water with gas.  Yes.  Gas.

You see, in this Italy place, you always have a choice of beverage.  Wine is cheaper than soda, Girl Person says.

In the Cinque Terre, they have many special wines that they make only in the area.  Yeah, the persons don’t feel like a fish out of water with wine.

But when you just want water, your choice is very important.  For Girl Person, she loves the frizzante, or as they call it, “with gas”.  I would fit right in.  But for Boy Person, he has strong opinions.  Never.  Ever.  Will he pick frizzante.  He wants natural.  But when you are in a little store and the owner says to hurry because he is closing, well, if you are Girl Person, you panic, you grab the first water and you run out the door.

And you also pick the wrong one for Boy Person.  Who is very thirsty by the way, because he has hiked for 10 miles that day though the Cinque Terre.

The persons were all excited when they finally got back to their room with a view.  They had their bread, their tomatoes, their wine, their olives, their artichokes and zucchini.  And Boy Person was excited about his water.  Oh, he was real thirsty.  Girl Person handed him his bottle.  Of.  Frizzante.  With gas.  Girl Person realized her mistake right away and thought maybe, just maybe, she would be better off to jump in the sea to get him some water.

It’s not often that someone has such a strong opinion on water, Girl Person told me.  But for Boy Person, this was the end of the world.  He started saying it was bitter and full of minerals, and Girl Person remarked that those were the reasons she liked it.  He said she could have it and that he would be thirsty.  Nothing Girl Person said would help.  She told him to leave the cap off to take away the fizz.  She told him to hold his nose and drink.  She told him to drink it fast.  Nothing she said helped.

But eventually, he had to drink it when you are miles away from a store that was already closed at 6:45 when the sign said 7.  During his rant, all Girl Person could do was laugh and laugh more and tell him that water was water.  And he disagreed.  But he wasn’t getting the point.

Girl Person told him that there was a lesson in the water.  She told him that water is water, wherever you go.

There are persons all over the world, right now, with a favorite drink, a favorite dinner.  We are all in different places, but what we like is special to us.  And we like many of the same things!  Some things are universal! Everyone likes to think that we are different from someone across the ocean, across the world.  But we are more the same than what we know.  In our travels, everywhere we go, many things happen that are the same.  Even here in this Italy place, Girl Person told me.

She said at night, when she walks around here, she smells dinner on the stove.  She sees parents with kids pushing them in strollers.  She sees dogs and their owners walking.  She sees children playing and people shopping, and neighbors greeting each other.  She sees people drinking coffee…although the kind of coffee may be different.  Even though the water may be different, we all enjoy many of the same, basic routines and joys in life.

To each and every one of us, we live for something.  What are you living for?  That time in the evening when you can cook a good meal or talk to a friend?  That time in the morning when you look out your window and hear the birds?

Water is water.  Living is living.  Life is life.  Choose what you want…with lots of fizz or to natural!  Be bubbly or be still, but be happy.  Live life to its fullest.

And realize that we are all more the same than what we know.  Maybe when we realize that all of us just want to be happy and that life is more about the simple, good things that are basic, maybe then and only then, will we realize that those things are the most important to being happy.  Stay thirsty for life.  Drink the water.  But don’t give Boy Person frizzante, y’all.

The persons will be looking around at houses here today to see if me and Brickle would like it! Stay tuned to our Facebook page for updates! We wonder what they will find!

-Deputy Digby Pancake

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