Giving Thanks

Happy belated thanksgiving to all American readers. I had a very stuffing celebration at the house seen above. It was a beautiful sunny day and a good time was had by all.

I only had a small sample of one of my pumpkin pies but it tasted alright. All three had something wrong with them.... speaking of which.... I just pulled an apple pie out of the oven, an apple pie that is missing a few ingredients and whose top is a bit burned. Blasted european oven! I can never get the timing right. It seems hotter than what I'm used to. I was planning on giving this pie to our Italian neighbors in a gesture of goodwill and please invite me over and teach me Italian, but I'm not sure its slightly burned condition will satisfy the "good" portion of "goodwill."

J had a four day weekend so we were able to get out quite a bit and do some relaxing. On Friday night we went out to a local pizzeria where both the pizza and breaded veal were excellent. Mmmm, baby cow. Hey! C'mon now, you can take the girl out of the prairies, but you can't take the prairie out of the girl. The most amazing thing about the restaurant was the service. They really went beyond the call of duty. They were quick to spot that the heel of my right market-purchased patent leather shoe was coming off. They jumped into action and got their best server on the case. This shoe has been nothing but trouble. J took it to a cobbler here and he said he couldn't fix it. So apparently if you want your shoe fixed, take it to a pizzeria. Does this mean that if you want a good pizza, you should go to a cobbler?

I also got a few more lessons from J's school-of-how-to-drive-stick. Alas, you may as well all know..... I don't know how to drive stick. Now not only do I have to learn how to drive in Europe, I have to learn how to drive stick and drive a Jeep ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Wish me luck. My progress is very slow.

Our gardener came for the second time this past weekend. Just when I thought I was getting better at understanding Italian, trying to communicate with him showed me just how much I can't understand. I think it may be because he speaks real Sicilian. The really heavy dialect doesn't sound like Italian to me.

We will have to speak with our liason so he can tell him we eventually want the whole lawn tilled and seeded with grass. In the meantime, at the least the weeds are trimmed and our roses keep blooming. Can't complain about that.

Hmmm..... The Fires of Hell or Snow Drifts?.... I'll Take the Fires

I don't know if you can really tell from the red dot in the middle of the picture, but trust on me.... Etna is real active-like these days. The night this picture was taken, there were eruptions and lava flows glowing on both sides. It's a bit scary, but I'm slowly getting over it.

I am still unbelievably tired and can't seem to sleep past 5:30 in the morning. Granted 5:30 is better than 3:30 but it means that I still have naps in the afternoon that end in a confused and annoyed awakening. I don't know if it's because I'm so relieved to have all of my Canadian affairs in order, or if it's because it's dark by 1700h. In the great white north, I'm used to early winter darkness. But in my mind, early dark matches snow and cold. Green lawns and warm sun does not match shorter days. I am completely discombobulated. I'm so tired I'm not even going to google the correct spelling of that word..... or maybe I'm just that crazy! Oooooh... watch out!

We went out dancing on Saturday. Because we weren't driving, we were at the mercy of much younger and spryer sailors. We didn't get home until 6 AM. Yeesh. That nearly killed me.
The club was okay. There were some interesting characters and by interesting I mean rhythmless crazy people. I saw some very funny dancing. I used to laugh at people in N. American clubs but they are J.Lo backup dancers compared to Europeans. Wow. I will never laugh at a Canadian again. There was also an 80 year old woman with her grandson. She was dressed in knee-high boots, Daisy Duke shorts, and a bra. That's it. I didn't know whether I should give her my respect or my coat.

I got harassed by a couple of wanks. One guy, dressed in an ugly orange argyle sweater, actually picked me up and carried me away. After my second of shock, I managed to wriggle away and go back to my friends. Talk about aggressive.

This weekend I'm celebrating my first American thanksgiving with Americans, not in America. We're going to a dinner organized by thanksgiving nazis. No really. Everyone has strict instructions on what they are required to bring and what is definitely not allowed. Nothing non-traditional.... that includes dishes that may or may not be considered traditional in foreign countries such as Canada.

I'm in charge of pumpkin pie. I wanted to bring my grandmother's special potatoes so the fact that I've never made a pie is my passive aggressive way of saying, "ha!" Actually not really. I'm just scared I'll screw up the whole event by bringing a non-traditional inedible version of what is most definitely uber-traditional.

E-town in the fall..... Too bad it doesn't last very long.....

Two of my homeboyz.....

Overseas and Loving It

I made it back to Sicily in one piece. The trip was quite long but somehow I soldiered through. I've been up since 4 this morning because my internal clock is all jacked. Just thought I'd start catching y'all up on the pictures I took while I was in Canada. Here is one of our Hungarian band, taken at the festival in October. If only this had been taken before we printed our CD. It's far better than what we had.

I fell in love with Norfolk all over again this past weekend. The weather was so beautiful when I arrived that I nearly burst into tears. The smells, the sights, ah... I love it. The next day, however, was a virtual s**tticane. If it weren't for the fact that I was flying out that day however, I wouldn't have complained about the torrential winds. It's far better than living in a polar ice cap.

Travelling Space-A with the military turned out to be quite painless and enjoyable. The price was right too.

I am beyond ecstatic to be back.

Leaving The Frozen Tundra

I'm happy to announce that I have recovered from that intense workout I did last weekend. So much so that I was able to return to that dreaded class yesterday.

I've got my affairs in order (I think! Eep! Hope I didn't forget anything.), am not packed, and am off this weekend to Virginia. Hopefully my next post will be coming live to you from sunny Sicily next week. Though if I get stuck in VA or Spain I suppose t'ain't so bad. At least I won't be freezing.

I am feeling incredibly sad. Not to leave the tundra, but to leave my friends and especially my family. I really hope my mom drums up the courage in the next couple of years to travel overseas. I am fortunate to have the best mother in the world so you can understand the anguish I'm facing at the idea of not seeing her for a long time. Well, at least we have free N. American long distance. That's something.

What Have I Done?

Madeleine and I used to go to a fitness class once or twice a week called, F.I.S.T. (Functional Integrated Strength Training.) The specifics vary from instructor to instructor, but generally it involves heavy and light weights, a step, resistance bands, a mat and sometimes a ball. We like it because it makes you hurt oh- so -good the next day. It's the perfect addition to a regular running schedule.

Well, we decided to revisit this class this past weekend. It seems that only E-town offers it to our liking. We have both searched the world over for something as good, but to no avail. Anyway, the next day we were both feeling the burn in our abs, legs and arms. Good, I thought, this means I got a good workout. Well.... four days later, I can hardly straighten my arms. The rest of my body has recovered, but the twisted muscles in my arms are still keeping me up at night. I think I worked them out past the point of "good," nearing the point of, "injury." It's especially worrying because my arms are usually the first to recover. In my line of work, and with my instrument-carrying lifestyle, they are rarely at rest.

This is what I get for being so vain. But will it stop me? Oh no. Though I skipped FIST yesterday, today I went to yoga and tomorrow I plan to go back to FIST. I'll just have to take it easy on the bicep curls. Yes, I am stupid. And yes I know I will regret all of this when I'm schlepping 17 tons of luggage all over the western world this weekend. But a girl has got to look good. And I refuse to accept the "license" that my friends Andy and Sam say girls have once they are married. The "license to get fat," they say. Well I'll show them. When I'm lying on a stretcher with a seized neck and contorted, hardened bones, they won't dare speak of any "license."

News and Lessons

Lessons I've learned recently:

1. Never call any customer service line the day after halloween. Sugar crash=grouchy.

2. Living north of the 49th parallel between October and May is silly and unbearable.

3. (Lesson learned by J.) When living in Italy make sure you have candy for the halloweeners. If you're not home, leave a bucket by the door. If you don't, be prepared for an attack of water balloons. Luckily they do not do this in Canada, because the balloons would cause serious damage in their frozen state.

4. While slow, it is best to send heavy stuff by mail overseas rather than through a shipping company or courier. Way cheap.

Okay, now for the news.....

I had a dream that I was in Norfolk last night and there was a spontaneous Hungarian jam session on a random street in Ghent. I am flying there in just over a week and am spending anywhere from 1 night to two weeks before my flight overseas. Hopefully only one night.... though I love Virginia and the people I will be seeing, I really want to get back to J. It has been too long.

My wonderful and zany friend Madeleine is coming to town tomorrow. I haven't seen her in over a year. She would have been my maid of honor had we had a more accessible wedding. I'm sure we will have an antic filled weekend. We are very different but when we lived together, a nice balance was created..... even though sometimes that balance was upset by screaming matches in taxis or on downtown Vancouver streets. Good times.