1/21/92

Dear Jen,

You'll be pleased to know that I've officially given up on your favorite book of all time – I am, of course, talking about The Sun Also Rises. I tried to read more of it last night, but it seemed to be getting worse instead of better. Life is too short for us to waste it enduring bad books.

Speaking of books, was that an art history book that I saw on your desk yesterday morning? I'm not an expert by any means, but I've always had a soft spot for the Renaissance and Baroque stuff. It reminds me of home – we'd take a school trip to the Vatican every year. Between you and me, St. Peter's Basilica is much more impressive than the Sistine Chapel. You'll have to let me know if it's in that book of yours.

Italian Lesson of the Day:

l'arte = art (who would have guessed?)

Yours truly,

Robert

1/21/92

Dear Robert,

You'll be pleased to know that I officially trust your taste in restaurants now, so you better not let me down should another occasion to eat out arise in the future. On that note, thanks for inviting me to lunch yesterday. I enjoyed it. The food, I mean.

Jen wrinkled her nose and scribbled out that last sentence, going over it multiple times with her pen to guarantee that he wouldn't be able to read what she'd written there. It was totally normal to enjoy going out to lunch with your coworker. There was no reason for her to feel weird about it...right?

You're correct that it was an art history book – Wagner's Introduction to Art History, if we're being exact. Jude lent it to me because he thought I'd like it, but I imagine he just grabbed it out of the library if you ever want to read it.

I don't know why it didn't cross my mind that you'd be interested in the Renaissance. Pretty silly of me considering that you're an Italian historian, but I'd venture to guess it's one of those things you had to hear a lot about your whole life regardless of if you had any interest in it or not. I wish art was more woven into the parts of American history that we're expected to know. Hearing about the colonies and the Revolutionary War gets boring kind of quickly (No offense, Mr. History Teacher. I'm sure you don't make it boring).

I just went to check if St. Peter's is in the book and it is. It does look impressive. And big. Almost intimidatingly so, unless the picture is deceiving. I've just started the Baroque chapter and I think it's all very beautiful, too. I'll admit I'm getting to the point where it feels like I'm looking at the same subjects painted over and over again, but I suppose you could probably say that about most eras of art. My personal theory is that it probably got much broader once they let more girls get involved, but if there were any female artists hanging around during the Renaissance, history certainly doesn't want you to know about them.

Hopefully you don't find all this rambling to be boring, but if you do, it's your fault for bringing it up in the first place.

Yours truly,

Jen

1/22/92

Dear Jen,

Are you free Saturday evening? There's something I'd like to show you.