i'm feeling great tonight

the spring season has arrived!  hooray!  days are longer, the air is warmer, the trees are greener. no wonder spring is a natural high.  for my fabulous followers out there, most of you know that the winter was not the easiest, i definitely had my downfalls.  but now as i look back on the majority of my trip, i can be nothing but satisfied with all that i've done here in rome.  

i went for a run yesterday and i swear i felt like i was skipping.  the grass had just been cut, and the trees were trimmed, and i can't even begin to describe the smell of the air after the cool spring rain - i'll tell you one thing, you can't bottle that shit.  no.  it was marvelous.   i'm so excited to be home and to see you all.  it's been crazy being away for so long, but i know now that this definitely won't be the last time i'm away.  perhaps even next year, if i can't find a job in the U.S. (just giving ya'll a heads up...).  anyway, i know this is just a silly rant - but i'm feeling great tonight! 

let the wedding madness begin

i'll be heading back to the U.S. in may, mostly because i have a crapload of weddings to be awesome at.  really, it's only three.  it would be four, but one occurs on the same day as another.  not important!  anyway, obviously weddings have been on my mind.  music, dresses, parties, all fabulous stuff.  the other night i had my first wedding dream.  i'd like to know what ya'll think of it.

i don't remember seeing any familiar faces.  but i do know there were a whole lot of people.  we were in some sort of hotel/convention center.  i'm assuming it was a wedding convention because all the girls were in wedding dresses.  mine was FABULOUS (obviously).  anyway, there were lots of escalators and stairs and mezzanines and such, and we were all running away from this rabid tiger.  we were all split up in little groups, hiding behind this wall, running down these stairs...all in wedding dresses.  you can imagine the chaos.  it was quite frightening, and exhilarating at the same time.  i thought i was going to get free, and then of course, i turn the wrong corner and there was the tiger.  so now i'm fighting a tiger.  i'm pretty sure it's not humanly possible to fight a tiger, but i did.  and i survived!  barely.  he ripped my dress to shreds, and i was obviously completely covered in blood.  i think someone shot him in the end.  i really don't remember because i didn't write the dream down right away.  i can't figure out what it means.  any dream readers out there?  let me know what you think.

you know things have gone too far when...

your mom (who is not your friend on facebook) asks you who that girl is in your profile picture.  for all you non-facebookers out there (cheers to you.  DON'T join!) i'm currently sporting a picture of the lovely natalie dormer as anne boleyn in showtime's "the tudors."   

now i know we are sooo twins, right?!  an approximate 20 people commented on this photo.  i'd say about half actually thought she was me (thanks!).  it wasn't until my mother called to tell me that my family was sitting in front of the computer analyzing the picture that i figured i should put things straight.  (rich and ria, you guys are sooo caught!)  i originally started watching the tudors because some girl in my italian class told me i looked like anne boleyn.  i didn't believe her.  obviously, she was right.  

personally, if i was the tudors i would have gone after king henry's friend, charles brandon ....mmmm. 

yeah, so i have a totally hot celebrity twin.   i'm down with that.  who's your celebrity twin?

the bad guy.

ok so i KNOW i continuously go back and forth between hating this place and loving it, but i HAVE to vent because today sucked.  today i discovered that i'm the bad guy.  

rachael left this morning.  we had a FABULOUS week, jam-packed with sightseeing and running around with small children.  she met every person i come in contact with on a daily basis, including the girls' parents - giovanni and natalia.  it's kind of funny that she met everyone, actually.  anyway, the girls were OBSESSED with rachael.  why?  well, obviously because she's awesome.  but also, because she just gets to play with them and i'm the one who gets to reprimand.  in fact, camilla told me yesterday that i could go home to the states and rachael had to stay.  nice, camilla.  nice.

natalia came in for a few days that she had free to spend with the girls.  she played and cuddled with them and let them do whatever they wanted.  what did i do?  "don't do this."  "don't eat that."  --> bad guy.

today we went to the park after school to meet up with their best friend and her mom.  the mom thought it was fine for them to roll around on the dirty ground and get their coats dirty, and when i said it was time to go the girls ran away to the other mom.  cool.  now what do i do?  i'm no fun.  i'm the person who deals with all the shit while everyone else plays with the girls.  soooo....i'm ready to NOT be the bad guy.  that will be nice.  

crap

i think the cosmic forces may be trying to keep me in italy.  i've had a very calm several months months here, and now and without a hitch EERthing is taking a turn.  well, for one, i'm getting attached to those little balls of italian joy.  although, i wouldn't mind NOT waking up at 6:30 am to screaming children.  none the less.  it makes me really sad to think of leaving them.  

numero due.  NOW, i'm being pursued by a teacher...with whom i am going to meet next week.  i mean - in all due respect, it's about dang time.  i can blame myself for that one.  i could have been searching harder.  anyway, we'll see how that goes.  if the cosmos have anything to do w/ it, he'll be the best teacher i've ever met and i'll never want to leave. 

oh, did i mention it's absolutely beautiful in rome now?  yeah.  there's a reason people come here in the spring.  damn. 

simple things.

does life get any better than counting flowers?  i don't think so.  can we even begin to try and remember the simpleness of being a child?  i see so much of myself in camilla (she's the older one, who is counting of course.) most of the time she's drifting off into another land, talking to some of her imaginary friends, or singing some song that she just invented.  

i know i used to call my friend "mary" on the phone when i was little.  and i can actually remember sitting in my grandparent's kitchen, talking to the dial-tone until the operator picked up.  then i would get scared and hang up. but i can't remember the simpleness.  i can't remember that carefree joy of being a child (even though i like to pretend i still am one.   you should see the poofy dress i want to get for these weddings!)  i remember collecting little glass perfume samples, dumping out the samples, and then filling them with little fragments of flowers and pine needles with stephanie and kaitlyn.  man.  those were the DAYS.  does anyone else feel me on this one?  my friend jen is pregnant (and is going to be HUGE when i see her!!!).  jen, you are growing someone in you who will experience all of these marvelous things!  although, i think he'll be putting bugs in bottles, not flowers.  but you never know.  don't want to discriminate.

anyway, i'm reminded of the simple joys in life everyday:  like snow white and the seven dwarves.  scissors.  petting dogs.  parks.  a piece of chocolate.  sunshine.  juice.  laughing.  ESPECIALLY kids laughing.  how many steps before the queen.  twirling.  dirt.  balloons.  

and that's just to name a few.  so PLEASE, do me a favor and remind me to stop worrying about tomorrow, and what kind of job i'm going to get, and losing weight, and being tired, or OVER-SLEEPING.  and remind yourself of whatever it is you need not be stressin'.  

reason #357 why i wish i was italian:

no it's not because of their freak metabolisms that let them eat pounds of pasta and still remain a size 2 (that's reason #24).  and it's not because God decided to make them prettier than most other people on the planet.  

reason #357 i wish i were italian is - they are badass grandmas (and grandpas for those masculine out there).  listen.  i figure you reach eighty-something years old and your done.  you glue yourself to a recliner pass out watching jeopardy.  it's cool.  i had come to terms with that.  but these italians...i dunno, maybe it's the wine, maybe it's the pizza, but they keep rollin..  

i'm on the bus.  who are the other 10 people on the bus?  anziani (old people).  i started paying attention after awhile - about 80% of the people on the bus are elderly.  and they STAND.  i offer my seat (yes.  i sit.  if there's a seat, i sit).  they decline.  now i look lazy.  great.  remember the post office?  they were all standing.  

stairs.  if you have ever been to rome, you would know that most of the buildings are hella old and don't have elevators.  you get used to it after awhile.  the four flights up to the school where i teach still sucks though.  anyway,  who lives in these old buildings?  old people.  climbing stairs.  

i swear if i mentioned "retirement home" or some other similar facility - italians wouldn't know what i'm talking about....because they rock out until they die.  hence, why i wish i were italian.  the end.

generazione cellulare

she's a natural.

my grocery list

arugula

parmesano reggiano

sun-dried tomatoes

onions

tuna

fresh mozzarella

risotto

salmon

wine

chocolate

i wonder if this will change when i get home?

cheers.

thanks to all who are concerned about my friend.  since i'm abroad and all i don't have much info...but really the only thing we can do is pray.  pray hard.  thanks for your concerns.  it's good to know that people are praying "six degrees of kevin bacon" style.