??

How come in all movies and tv shows, whenever someone is missing a child and reports it to the police, the police are always total jackasses about it??? Like, they don't care at all and act like it's no big deal and tell the parents to chill out. Liiiiiiike. I'm no mother, but, if my kid was missing, I can only imagine that one has the ultimate right to be very very feared and concerned. DUH. Pretty much can't control or avoid that. But like, in Home Alone, they were total jackasses about checking on Kevin alone at the house and thought the mother was cray cray, in Double Double Toil in Trouble, when MK&A switch costumes with some other kids and are MIA, the police are like "Oh, go call their friends and come back to us". Um. Not okay. Maybe it's to create more drama/comedy in the show/movie, but I really hope thats not the case in real life. I am not exactly a fan of cops in ANY way, in fact, my experience with them has been that I kind of hate them, but, I know there are lots of decent ones out there and its kind of stupid/annoying that these films portray them as total a-holes. Even if sometimes I think they are A-holes. But still.

Flaming

I simply LOVE matches!!! And candles. But LIGHTING candles WITH the matches, I just love. I remember always being scared of lighting a match, it seemed very tricky, and sometimes it is. Often times, a simple strike on the match box won't give you that glorious flame. And then the match burns and burns til it gets really close to your fingers, and that was also always scary. BUT I LOVE THEM NOW. The scent of a burning match it ABSOLUTE bliss. And combined with whatever scented candle you choose, is THE BEST! And those cute little boxes they come in are wondddderful. Totally not a fan of those long "lighter" things, they seem so unnatural, and also, I'm kind of now scared of them. But matches, sweet, simple, old fashioned, glorious fire-burning-scented matches, I really will always love you.

Dolly

I really really REALLY love Dolly Parton. Everything about her, from her huge blonde poof like hair, her extraordinary voice and song writing talents and her unbelievable philanthropist ways and kind heart. She is truly an idol and THE ULTIMATE in everything I could ever want to be. Truly a good person. In fact, my last semester of college, I did this project on her in my music repertoire class and had to sing "I Will Always Love you." We had a lot of process with the songs and people we were studying, part of it, obviously establishing some kind of personal connection with the song. For some reason, I associated this song with my Dad.

Right now, my dad, is blasting random songs in our house. I just heard him holler "THIS ONE'ES FOR ANNIE!". And literally magically, on came Dolly's "I Will Always Love You." He never ever knew about this project I did on her or how he was anyway involved.


Now THAT'S MAGICAL!


Love you Dolly!!!!!

Dicipline.

Best part of my day:

Major meltdown of two small children b/c of hitting and fear of getting in trouble.

Father comes home as melt-down is occurring "Hey, what's going on down there?"

Me: "Oh, we had a bit of a hitting incident."

Father: "ok... I'll let you handle that."

Riiiiightoooooo....

Must be the Moon.

Some really, super strange coincidences have occurred in my life over these past 3 days.

Allow me to explain.

My mother showed me an article in the newspaper about a girl, who is the daughter of two people my dad used to work with. A family I have heard about a lot in my life. The girl was also very keen of my older brother when he was her camp counselor many years ago. I knew of this girl and her family, but hadn't thought of them in probably like 10 years.

THEN, the next day, my babysitting mother told me she went out to dinner with a friend of hers, and her husband, who was there, knows my dad- TURNS OUT, it's the dad of the girl in the article, who used to work with my dad for many years. He has a new wife now. But, whoa, talk about RANDOM. Two random incidences of hearing of this family again in 24 hours.

THEN, that same day she told me about going to dinner with them, I took my babysitting children to this little kids sports activity place for a class. The woman who worked there asked me if I was related to my sister, Maria, b/c, turns out, they both worked together at that same camp that my brother worked at with the girl in the article as a camper. I mean, WHOA. What a series of bizarre connections of people I haven't heard of in YEARS! All weirdly connected to so many degrees.

Also, my babysitting families this fall have been referring to me as "Annie The Nanny". Weirdly enough, although its an obvious rhyme, I have never heard nor thought of this title before. And NOW, as I sit and watch "True Blood", one of the characters, Andy Bellefleur in stuck in a walk-in-refrigerator with Sam, and tries to cheer him up by telling him a story and says "When I was a kid, I had a nanny. Her name was Annie. Annie the nanny." WHAAAAT!!!!!???

What impeccable and strange timing for this episode to come into my life.

Anyways, this is just some random thoughts, as my world gets smaller and smaller, and even though I KNOW it's a small world and everyone someone knows each other in some way, it never ceases to blow my mind when stuff like this happens.

I probably know my husband already but don't even know we are going to get married. I'll just allow for some strange small world bizarre life connection to take place to spiral it all into action.

TV accomplishment/obsession

I LOVE cool and rainy fall evenings, when you have a REALLY awesome show to watch that you are REALLY excited about watching. And you can get in your sweatpants and be all comfortable and warm and WATCH IT! On tonight's schedule: What else than TRUE BLOOD, SEASON 2 DISC 4. One more disc and I'll be done with season 2!!!! It TRULY feels like an accomplishment when I am this involved in a show, b/c I really do believe my attention span is severely and unusually short for that of a 24 year old. AH!!!!! My GOD I love it and I can't get enough of it. Hoyt, I'm in love with him. Actually, unconditionally in love. Maryanne, you haunt my dreams with your Hunter Souffles made of human hearts.

Ready, set, "I wannna dooo bad things with youuuuuuuuuu!"

The remains

Here are some final pics from my Roman Holiday, that were on my brothers computer. He finally sent them to me.

The non-filling Italian breakfast. YET, delightful. Chocolate "cornetto"and macchiato DOPPIO. DOUBLE.


Beauty


Halloween Adventure street "performer" man outside of castle who got mad at me for taking his picture. Gimme a break.


PIZZAAAAA All'americiana. Although the "bacon" that was on it, was purely fat. So, I had to pick it all off. Cheese was good though.



Climbed the castle Sant'Angelo. Views from the top!


All I wanted before I left, was to see an entire GUARDA man performance. Julia told me it was very rare for them to be on the side of the river that they live on, and they usually frequent the restaurants in Trestevere. HOWEVER, lo and BEHOLD, as we dined my final Roman dinner, HE APPEARED!!!! And the restaurant did not shoo him away. And to my DELIGHT, I saw and THOROUGHLY enjoyed the entire magic act, specifically when he took his wig off at the end and acted like it was magic. BRAVO!!!!! I gave him a hefty tip.


The next morn, we walked to a bus station, took a bus to where Jimmy parks his car, and he drove me to the airport, where I said goodbye to me dear sweet Roma. Without a doubt, returning in the near future!

Arrrriiiiiivvvveeederccciiiii!!!! :-)

Old Italian Men

I went to the POST OFFICE yesterday! It was really, really intimidating, with tons of italians in line speaking really fast. APPARENTLY, you have to take a NUMBER when you arrive at the post office, to be the next one served. Of course. Why wouldn't you have to do that? Italy, the land of confusion and inconvenience for the sake of difficulty. Well, I didn't take a number, so some woman started talking to me, and of course I stared at her not knowing what was going on, but then the woman working there beckoned me to her station. I mailed 14 postcards. The stamps were really old school stamps, that required ripping apart on the dotted line, and using a glue-stick to apply. Non of that new age adhesive sticker stuff we use. So, hopefully everyone will be receiving them in the next 90 days. I hear the Italian post office isn't too rapido.

I spent the rest of my day across the Tiber River in a super great area called Trastevere. On my way crossing one of the bridges, this old man, probably like 67 years old, said to me "When I look at you, I think of a bambolina!" I of course, had to know what that meant, so I asked him and he said it means "little doll." Haha, ok. He proceeded to chat my ear off and ask me where I was from and told me his son is a pilot out of the raleigh durham airport in NC! SO. RANDOM. I then told him I just went to school very very close to there. He told me he should set me up with his son, but alas, I had no pen to record information. He then told me a restaurant to go to in Trastevere, and called up the chef, and told him I was coming. However, something very common amongst the italians is there lack of good direction giving. He told me the street name and acted like it was right across the bridge to the left. However, when I crossed the street, there were about 900 little alley streets with millions of names and directions to go, so after 40 minutes of NOT finding the street he spoke of, I gave up. I was kind of sad bc it would have been cool to go somewhere a guy who lives there claims to be the ultimate. But oh well. I found another place, and specifically went there bc it said PIZZERIA on the outside. When I was seated and looked at the menu, it said ONLY PIZZA AT NIGHT. Damn. But I had some gnocchi. and It was good. And none of the waiters spoke english. So that was cool.

This area is especially very authentic and Roman, with little tourist interaction. Lots of cool vintagey shops and tonnnns of super good and cool restaurants and cafes. I actually purchased a vintage bag from a little place, and then went to a cookie store, as listed in my guide book. I wanted to go to this one dessert/cookie/gelato place, but when I arrived the the address, it was CLOSED! Completely, shut down. Sad. But these cookies were good. I told her I wanted chocolate, so she filled me a little bad of assorted chocolate treats. WHAT MORE COULD I WANT?!

I saw Claudio, the waiter who kissed me on the mouth my first day I was here last night. However, he was DEFINITELY working at a different restaurant... hmmm.... I avoided him successfully.

Today, I took a super super cool exclusive tour of The American Embassy. WHOA. This place is MAJOR. It's a huge mansion/compound/used-to be Palace. I guess that's what you get when you win the war! You can only go in if you are guided by someone who works there and can only go on the tour if you know someone works there. Pretty intense. All the entrances have tons if Italian Guards, and you have to go through this big security check before you can go in. It was awesome though. The Ambassador's office is unreal, and a lot of the hallways and staircases are unbelievably exquisite. I think I'd like to marry an Ambassador. I had lunch afterwards with Jimmy, Julia and their friend Nate who works with them (who went to Haverford college while Jimmy was at Haverford school, CRAZY!) at some great modern italian restaurant. It was way trendy and good. I got a "Regina Margherita Pizza" which was just mozzarella and basil and lots of cheese and really thin crust. SO GOOD. I was, clearly, very famished after the tour. And we all know about the unsatisfying Italian breakfasts and how they don't hold you over very well...

For the rest of the day, I walked a lot and, naturally, got lost a lot. This city is very easy to get lost in. So many streets! I did a lot of window shopping but was feeling too lazy to actually try anything on. I'd really like a black leather jacket. Maybe tomorrow.

I walked into a lot of churches yesterday and today. It's almost like every church in this country is famous for something. All the intense artwork and gold everywhere. They are SO elaborate. But also mostly very, very peaceful and dark and nice. I enjoy that dark peacefulness. I went into a few that were empty of any visitors and it was really nice. I always get really stressed upon entering, however, bc they are VERY strict about covering your arms and legs. There are signs everywhere that say a dress code. I brought a sweater with me today, but its simply too hot to wear pants or leggings with all this intense walking. I keep imagining some mean priest kicking me out for being indecent! I went into one right down the street that Jimmy and Julia frequent, and this really old priest came over to me as I was putting my sweater on, and grabbed my hands. He said something in Italian, some mumbling Italian that began with the letter "d". I told him in a really frantic, nervous way that I didn't speak italian, and he continued to talk. Then I said "English" and he said "english", and nodded and walked away. He looked like he was about 90. Hahahaha. Jimmy says hes funny and a little crazy. I wish I knew what he was saying. These old italian dudes, they are somethin' else!

I found leffe blonde at the grocery store! I needed to go there, because I had eaten the last Ringo ice-cream snack in the freezer, and I needed to replenish their stock. (I also love how they call them ice cream, or gelato "snacks"). I think the only places that have Leffe Blonde in stock are NYC and Europe. So gooooooooodddddd. I'm drinking it now at my own personal happy hour.

I also forgot my camera yesterday AND today. I bought a DISPOSABLE camera today. Can't wait to develop those.

We may watch Angels and Demons tonight. It was filmed HERE IN ROME! That's always cool to be there where the movie is, ya know?!

Back to my leffe. :-)

Gladiators

Yesterday, I took a long stroll over to the Colosseum. It is SO big and so cool. I didn't attempt to wait in the never ending line, since I have been in it before, but rather walked the circumference of it. One of my FAV things about this area, are the GLADIATOR dudes. They are hilarious. I decided, what the hell, I'm totally taking a pic with them. I was careful to choose some whose costumes looked pretty good, and who weren't old and ugly. I succeeded. These two guys beckoned to me, and instead of ignoring and walking away I said "YEAH. I DO WANT A PICTURE!" It was kind of just like Old Time Photos, where he created the scene and kind of gave me a pose.

This was our first one. He told me to put my arm up, and be "sensual" bc I am his wife. I was laughing so hard. The sensualness didn't exactly work out.


This next one, was him killing me. I look like a ditz, smiling in the grave face of death.


And this next one, is just us happily together.


The Galdiator's name was "Joseph"... was he "Americanizing" his name for me? Who knows. He called me blondey, and was rather Gladiator photogenic. It was a very hilarious experience. Total rip-off, but what the hell.




I really enjoyed this group of Japanese people. The woman always walk around with umbrellas so their fair skin is not ruined by the sunrays. The gladiators were grabbing and posing with their umbrellas, it was funny.



Just some images of the Colosseum.

After a lot of walking through ruins, I decided I wanted to go to a lunch spot, as listed in my "Let's Go Rome!" book. I'm telling you, this book NEVER lets me down as far as food is concerned. Led me to The Queen of Tarts in Dublin. I trust it always.

I went to a place called Pizza Art. It had gourmet, thick focaccia pizzas. SO GOOD. Mine had large amounts of mozerella, olive oil, tomatoes and mushrooms.


It's weird how you will be walking down the street, and just walk by things like this:

Just some ancient ruins, no big.

The leaves are also changing!


We met Jimmy by The Spanish Steps before we went out with the Diplomats, so here is a picture of my fav spot... The Spanish Steps! Crowded.


Sunset pic from last night, from above the Spanish Steps

"I can't eat this. I just can't eat this huge salami sandwich at ten at night." (After sitting down with a salami sandwich he just spent time making for himself)

(He disappears to the kitchen...) "I'll just have 3 yogurts for dinner." (returns with a STACK of yogurt)

What the hell?

My brother, I'm learning, really cracks me up.

I wanna be a diplomat.

I just returned from a really cool aperitivo/wine/drinks time with many diplomats and cool young married couples who live in Roma. Wow. Their lives kind of blow my mind. Literally, a huge long table, of well-dressed, attractive, cool, SMART, married people in their late 20's-early 30's, in celebration of one woman's 30th birthday with her drunken mother. It was really fun.

As we walked home, a waiter approached me, talked to me, offered his hand to me, asked me where I was from, and when I said in an angry tone "AMERICA", he responded "oooooo wasssssuupppp girl." Because, that's clearly how American girls talk, and obviously what someone, specially like myself, would respond to positively. IT'S GETTING OLD MEN, IT'S GETTING OLD. Maybe tomorrow I'll dye my hair black.

A Honda Civic and the Medieval Streets of Tivoli

Yesterday we took a day trip out of Rome! How exciting. Jimmy was "on duty" for work, whatever that means, and was not allowed to go anywhere further than an hour away, so we went to a small nearby hilltop Medieval town called Tivoli. We DROVE there in my brother's very own vehicle. Chiara, the not-so-trusty GPS system, guided the way. Jimmy claimed she was leading us on the "rape route", where, we'd surely be raped as she led us down not-well-traveled cobblestone roads in the medieval darkness. What a new and interesting experience, driving in this country. Tivoli is about an hour away, and when we arrived...it was pourrrrriiinnnggg rain. So we waited in the Honda Civic vehicle, right here in this very spot, and waited for the rain to lessen.

This picture was taken afterwards... but I enjoyed this scenery very much, those houses/apartments are so old and beautiful looking.


We proceeded to run up and through the cobblestone streets, thank GOD we had some umbrellas, until we found a nice open Trattoria to consume in. I ordered some kind of meat stuffed pasta, which I thought was going to be ravioli, but it turned out to be these log-type things, in a large lasagna-like platter. It was extremely good.



There is a famous Villa there with gardens, called Villa d'Este. The gardens were pretty. Thank goodness the rain subsided so we were able to tour them. TONS of fountains. Wow these ancient people really loved fountains...However! The cool thing about THESE fountains, is that they are all completely run by gravity, with no water pumps or anything mechanical.


This one was really cool. It had like hundreds of mouths and heads just spurting out water.






This was the "Water organ" that plays music on the half hour, every 2 hours. Water makes it play. It was actually kind of boring. They should have had geysers like blasting up or something cool while it was playing.



How weird is this one? We were perplexed by it.



After the gardens, I was in dire need of some snack/cafe nourishment, so we entered back into the medieval streets to find something. What we ended up with, was, in all seriousness, THE BEST TREAT, I may have ever experienced in a long, long time. Julia and I randomly split a BANANA SPLIT. But. it was made with DELICIOUS gelato, (crema, chocolate and nocciola (choc. hazelnut)), which homemade whipped cream on top, chocolate shaving, some drizzled chocolate syrup, and an exceptionally good banana. It was so FREAKING FLIPPING good, I'm still thinking about it. DAMN. Gelato makes ALL the difference. Here is the aftermath, couldn't control myself to get my camera out before it was devoured.

God. Italy, you are not known for your banana splits, but you ARE GOOD, OH ARE YOU GOOOOOODDDDDD.



Oh, this is a statue of Romulus and Remus. The myth says they were raised by a She-Wolf. (woman wolf?). See them suckling the wolf??? THEN, the two of them each head opposing villages. They fought, and Romulus won... which is WHYYY it is called ROME... not REME. I mean, Rome is a wayyy better name.


Such a MEDIEVAL TOWN.







This town is SO old. Kind of felt like going back in time.

And then it started to rain again as we left. This is when Jimmy said "Look at me driving this Honda Civic, that I bought in SPRINGFIELD PENNSYLVANIA, down this Medieval road. What the hell."


We then hit some serious, SERIOUS Italian Roma traffic on the highway. All the Italians were hanging out of their windows smoking their brains out. We were behind a Priest, and figured, if God were to separate the traffic and create a clear way home, it would surely be in the Priest's lane.

That's just some dude who got out of his car, bc we were not moving at all. And that's the Priest in front of us, in the Volkswagon Golf.

What a day, what a day! We made it back in time for Jimmy to watch the Eagles game....lame.

Espana

You know, we had a really delicious dinner of some Spanish tapas tonight at a Spanish restaurant. The Spanish menu made me realize how much spanish I really do know. And also, I think I like Spain a lot more than I ever remembering. I went to Spain when I was 14, and I think I'd like to go again. Really love the tapas and sangria combo. Great!


There was some opera singing group that was singing outside tonight that we could hear, and the waiters at the restaurant across from us kept mouthing out the songs and putting their whole bodies into acting like they were the ones singing. It was really funny, and they were laughing at themselves doing it. This is why I love this country.


My brother is sitting beside me, reading recaps of Jersey Shore episodes. I guess, even while living in Rome, you gotta get that good old USA fill of trash tv.

Pics!

Here are some pictures from the Vatican Gardens Tour yesterday:



The Dome of St. Peter's Basilica from the Gardens


That brown pointed building is the Sistine Chapel from the outside! Who knew that's what it looked like!



Palm Trees! And a polish girl.


Famous major fountain.


More dome and palm trees.











Gardens.