Why Does it Always Rain on Me

here's my new favorite band, Travis, and today's song:

I'll just tell a quick story, mostly that has to do with being rained on. 

When I was 19 years old, I was called to be an LDS missionary in Rome, Italy.  My first assignment was to the city of Potenza in southern Italy.  After a nearly sleepless night, jetlagged and nervous, I boarded a bus at 5:00 A.M. alone for a 6 hour drive.  My mission leaders talked to the bus driver and informed him that I didn't speak any Italian and that once we reached Potenza he was to let me know when I had arrived at my stop which was called "Santa Maria."  They assured me that my new companion would be there waiting for me. 



About an hour into my bus ride, I fell asleep, and slept the duration of the bus ride.  I was awoken by the driver who (from what I understood) told me that it was time to exit the bus, as we had arrived in this mountainous city.

 Exhausted, I carried my overweight suitcase with all my belongings off of the bus and looked around for my American companion.  He was nowhere to be found..... so I waited.....

This was a busy part of town, and many people passed me.  For anyone who has visited Italy, the people are very friendly.  Everybody wanted to help me, but I couldn't understand them, and couldn't talk to them.  All I could do is smile and say, "non parlo Italiano-"  I don't speak Italian.

An hour passed, and I was beginning to wonder if I should walk, or do something to try to find my colleague.  No, better wait it out.

Across the street I noticed a pay phone, and remembered that I had been equipped with a phone card and the phone number to my new apartment.  I wandered to the other side of the street and tried to figure out how to work the pay phone.  Of course, the nice people passing wanted to help me, but from what I gathered the phone was broken, and so I was stuck.

Right around this time, the sky darkened and rain started to fall.  I went back to the original spot where I was left and waited some more.  And waited, and waited, as the rain started to pour.

The incredibly nice Italians passing me offered me scarves, umbrellas, their coats as I stood in the cold wet on this October day, now 14 years ago.  I politely declined, "no, grazie" feeling so helpless that I could never repay anybody's kindness.

After two hours, a car pulled up and I recognized the young man with a name badge who was to be my new companion in Potenza.  He wondered why I had not stopped where I was supposed to meet him.  Of course, it was all just a misunderstanding, a miscommunication between him and the mission office. 

It's all very funny to me now, that this was my first experience alone in a foreign country.  At the time though, like the singer of this song I probably wondered, just as he says in the song:  "Why does it always rain on me?  Is it because I lied when I was seventeen?"  I confess, at 17 years old, I stole a tube of chap stick for a girl I liked from Mervyn's.  Perhaps this is why I was punished that day?