update! update! update from Italy!!!

I don't want to forget anything from this trip! I'm sure I already have, but I'll try to get down everything I can. A few days ago Nic took me on a bike ride into Santa Maria de Angeli. We rode over the train tracks, past a fountain, and to a pizzeria where Nic is the owner's favorite customer. It was a slight coast all the way there, but all the way back it was slightly uphill and the wind was against us the whole way. Tough ride back, and butt hurt for two days b/c of the bicycle seat.

We've been spending a lot of time in the house, but we went to Orvieto for the Jazz Fetival of Umbria. Good times! One band played a funk parade. Lots of cute shops, street vendors, good art, etc. I bought the Orvietto Classico wine, and turns out I actually like the dry better than the sweet. Who knew?

I've been taking many pictures, and maybe I'll post some when I get back. Tonight is New Year's Eve, and we're a little tired. We walked around Assisi this evening and everyone was out strolling, eating, and setting off fireworks. We ran into Marco, the son of Vincenza and Francesco who live upstairs. They're so sweet! Vincenza brought us a dessert tonight for the new year. They don't speak English, so it's sometimes tough to communicate, but they're wonderful. Francesco looks so much like Uncle Angelo.

Geno just brought out the pizza, so more later. Ciao!

Awake in Assisi

It's 11:41pm here, meaning 5:41pm in good ole Virginia. Can't sleep. My bag is still missing, but we had a great day shopping and such. Bought a present for mom, one for myself, and some underwear since mine aren't here yet. Blast.

The food remains delectable. The olive oil is amazing and the green olives here are delicious. Yes, I'm eating olives! Every day I eat wonderful fresh fruit, bread, olive oil, cheeses, vegetables, and something with hazelnut and/or chocolate in it. Dee-lish!

Tonight I started drinking red wine again for the first time in a few years, and guess what? No headache! Hurrah!!!!! Tasty, red wine is super-cheap here, too. The orange juice is soooo good. I'm going to miss the food and drink like crazy. I think I might sneak a bottle or two of olive oil back with me. It's just not the same at home. I also need to learn how to make good fresh pasta. I've got the machine. Just need the know-how, time, and practice. A good bread wouldn't hurt me, either. Here's hoping!

Ciao until tomorrow. Or later. Oh! Almost forgot - asked my first full-sentence Italian questions today. Dove es la luce de el bagno? Misspelled and probably stricken with grammatical errors, but I don't care. It worked! I got the lights for the bathroom at the ceramics store!!!!

I'm in Italy!!!!

Buongiorno! My spelling may be off, but I've been greeting, saying please and thank you, and pleased to meet you, etc in Italian. Why? Because I'm in Italy! Visiting the family, and it's beautiful. They rent the bottom half of an absolutely lovely home. Arched entranceways between rooms, gorgeous wooden and glass doors, fantastic tile everywhere. It's amazing. We're in (or just outside of) Assisi, where you can go to a different church for morning mass every day.

I've discovered a new phenomanal candy: happy hippos. They're delish, so I hope I can find them on the web after I get back. And the food here. Ohhhh, the food. Fresh, delicious food every day. The olives, the olive oil, the cheese (mmmmm, cheese), and the fresh pasta! And pastries! Man, it's all good.

There are some tough things, too. No dishwasher, no dryer, and the heat turns off at night, but overall this place is a dream. One other problemo: the airline lost my luggage. The bag with all of the Christmas presents in it. And all my toiletries. And underwear, socks, and bras. And movies. It's a shame. Supposedly they found it in Amsterdam and it's on its way here, but our phone service isn't what you'd call reliable. Dad feels responsible for fixing this, so he's been kind of hard on himself about it, but overall he's crazy happy here.

The kids are having a hard time. They don't know people their age and nobody in the family is fluent, but they get by. The people who own the house live upstairs. Francesco and Vincenza. So cute! And short. And sweet. Our first day Vincenza invited us upstairs for juice. I tried to ask for peach juice, but instead asked for fish juice. Ewwwww. (Pesca = peach. Pescha = fish.)

More soon. Nic''s itching to get back on the computer to play his video game. There's a flaming sword flashing at me right now. Ciao!

stream of consciousness

Good evening, loyal readers. I'm cleaning my room tonight. Strangely motiviated while listening to the Beach Boys, which is a tactic my mother brainwashed me with at a very young age.

As I clear off my very cluttered desk, I'm finding notes from R&G are Dead (play), and apparently while frustrated one evening, I wrote down the following words:

Rehearsal
Mantra
Cigarettes
Alcohol
Exercise
Confidence
Composure
Contribution
Valve
Fuckadoodledoo

I can follow most of them, but I'm not sure about valve. Anyway, I felt the need to record this for postponed introspection.

Moving on, I had a date last weekend. LAME. However, I did get to see Clerks 2 again, have a beer, and now I can at least say I've had a date recently.

Coincidentally, I JUST checked my phone b/c I left it on vibrate tonight (no joke - just checked it mid-blog) and the guy called. I'm sincerely shocked. We have competely different senses of humor. Plus he didn't clean his car for me, pay, or wear a clean shirt. Mixed messages, or clueless male? Either way, I don't think I'm interested.

Newest news: I like a dude I'm not allowed to like. Staci called dibs. And he's kind of been flirting. BUT, I learned my lesson the hard way, so I won't be dipping into that pool again. Too bad. He's funny, smart, and knows lots of movie quotations. *sigh*

So I fell

On K street, spewing all my personal belongings from my purse onto the street. Scraped up my knees, messed up my pants, stung my hands, flustered myself. However, I suddenly found myself surrounded by three gentlemen picking up my things and helping me stand. I've never before felt like a total klutz and a pretty girl at the same time.

Other topics: play is over. Sad, but awesome. It was challenging and frustrating and fun and tiring and uplifting and lots of other things all at the same time. I miss some of the people, but am generally glad to have the time back. I've since applied for some part time work at the loft. I can't say that I'll actually make money, using the discount and all, but I'll either gain cash or clothes. I like both.

Oh! I bought the tickets for Italy today. Score! Dom and I are going on December 19 for over two weeks. I am so pumped. It's gonna kick ass. In other news, a fun friend with benefits from NYC is coming to visit next month (on my birthday, no less), I got an email from a nice man I haven't heard from in ten years or so (flattering that he looked me up), and I have a date on Saturday with my first redhead. He was a little awkward on the phone, but seems nice., which is so way more important. We'll see if he calms down in person.

Treadmill Dance

How adorable are These guys? Perhaps I'd spend more time on the treadmill if I had spunky routines and music vidoes to make.

I keep telling myself I'll go for more walks, go to that dance studio for exercise, head back to the pool, bust out the workout videos, even try a jog or two, but it doesn't happen. I need an exercise companion for motivation. Any cute dudes want an out-of-shape exercise buddy?

Clerks II

Is hilARious!! Just got home from the Dupont theater, and I laughed so hard. As I've told many, I'm partial to Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes after reading about the rehab struggles, which are kind of noted in the flick. Dude. It's so fantastically inappropriate. Some parts were a little cheesy (it's clear that KS has a huge soft spot for Jersey and Clerks as well), but it was still pretty great.

I'm super-impressed by a new face he brought to the screen, Trevor Fehrman. The kid's comic timing is Genius. If you weren't ridiculously offended by the first one (or most of KS's other movies), see this one. And laugh out loud, 'cause you'll explode otherwise.

I love Dear Abby, but . . .

This chick ROCKS.

Sample:
Practice patience. If you find yourself imagining walks down the aisle with a lady you've just met, excuse yourself to the men's room and bang your head on the urinal until you chill the fuck out. However, if you find yourself picturing her naked, covered in eggnog, and doing filthy things to you, that's fine.

Summer's already over?

Welcome back! To me, too! Life has been busy with the current play – R&G are Dead. It’s been a huge challenge that made me question myself and my capabilities a few dozen times or so, but definitely worth it. Still building up the self-confidence from the damage the last b/f caused. Lessons learned.

Performances have started, so I have a little time to breathe now, which is nice. And catch up at work. Mom came to see the show a couple of weeks ago, then Dad, J, & the kids came last weekend. It was hard to see them go b/c they leave for Italy next week and I won’t be able to talk to them regularly. Guess we’d better get used to emailing. It was weird saying goodbye. It felt very closure-ish, which I hated. They gave me birthday presents for my October b-day, Dad told me he was so proud of me (which makes me tear up even now) – oh, and get this. J’s mom, Grandma P sent this gorgeous knitted blanket as a present for me. So nice! Then I learn that she wanted to give it to me as a wedding present, but wasn’t sure she’d be around long enough to see the day. [Bawk!] I laughed my butt off. It’s like a sitcom joke. Super-thankful that I find it funny and not insulting. It really is a beautiful present. I wish I had the patience to knit like that. (I still haven’t finished E’s scarf I started in February ’05.)

Going for a drink with the theater chicks tonight (aka trolls, but not for lack of gorgeousness reasons), then to see Clerks 2. I’m psyched! I’m totally invested in Smith’s work now after reading all about Jason’s druggie drama on his blog. I heart them both and will forever be interested in his work, both because he’s hilarious and also because he’s a stellar dude.

Back to work. More soon. (Promise!)

Favorite toast from a movie

Here's to your husbands who've won you, the losers who've lost you, and all the lucky bastards who have yet to meet you!

Blatant ass-kissing? Yes. And I'm a sucker for flattery.

New leaf

Afternoon, world!

It's been a few eons since my last blog. I think I'm just not a journal kind of gal, but sometimes it's nice to write out your feelings. (Man, I AM a girl.)

So my new leaf these days is to be calm, confident, and learn from everything. I had a bit of a quarrel with friend/roommate Staci (still quarrelling, aka not speaking), and after some sound advice from Jack M, I'm feeling ok with myself, instead of stressed to the point of tears, which is how our previous fights often leave me.

In general, I'm trying not to speak as much. It seems that if you look people in the eye and don't try to fill every void with explanations for everything, you can learn and hear a lot. It also helps to build confidence. Other things I'm trying to do:

-Try NOT to make assumptions
-Try to focus on how situations affect other people, and not on myself all the time - or do I do this too much already? I'm at least trying to find a nice balance.
-Try to learn from EVERYTHING
-Try not to gossip
-Try not to let myself get caught up and upset over small conflicts - I'm more vulnerable than I thought, so I need to clarify what's important enough to really affect my quality of life. It's hard!

This is pretty touch-feely stuff, but I think it's going to help me. And since this blog is all about me . . . .

When you sleep . . .

I'd planned to write about Christmas next, but I gotta get this dream out of my system. Here's what happened the other morning in my unconscious state.

Some dude had stayed over at my place. Nothing major had happened, and it was morning and time for him to leave. But I wanted something to happen, and then he magically came back to mess around. Bad kisser, but I didn't mind so much once things got going.

Then we're interrupted by my sobbing roommate, Jude Law. He was devastated over losing his relationship with the upstairs roommate, Jennie McCarthy. She would no longer have anything to do with him, and I had to calm him down. Then bedroom dude really needed to go to work. I took him to some sort of foreign adobe village where they used camping stoves to cook the tourists' food, as they had no real ovens.

Then it was time for ME to go to work. Apparently I inspect houses for sale or something, and my inspection partner is Ed Harris. He was a little extra quiet today, but I didn't really notice. He told me he was going outside to check the landscaping or siding or something, and I fell asleep in front of the TV. When I woke up, my car was gone, and so was Ed. WTF? Then my phone rings. It's Rachel Ray. She said that Ed had "burned" me (aka tricked me, a term I heard last night on That 70's Show) because I'd ditched him last week or something and left him without a ride. I had totally forgotten about this, and Ed hadn't said anything, so I didn't see it coming at all. I was a little miffed, but not sure if I had the right to be. (Real life - this is TOTALLY Staci.)

Then Suki from the Gillmore Girls showed up and started bossing me around and stressing me out more. And then I woke up.

This begs several questions. Am I not over Staci being pissed at me? Should I start buying camping equipment, or won't I use it enough to make it worth the money? And would I really give up mediocre sex to comfort Jude Law, who isn't really my friend anyway? *Sigh* I have so much to learn.

NEXT DREAM:
There's really not much too this dream, but oh was it fun. It was me, Seth Green, and a swimming pool. Much how I would regularly imagine him, he was a bit goofy, silly, etc. But also charming. And persistent. And it turns out, good in the pool.

So, Seth Green. Looks like I'll be renting a few of your movies. Funny how opinions come about!