She's got the whole world...

Tomorrow around 03.55PM GMT + 1 time Jac & I will arrive at Fiumicino airport in a Ford Fiesta to pick up my mother and sister from the airport.

Don't underestimate just how 'scoinvolgente' this is for me (or how often I now find myself substituting italian for english words that have escaped me) -- my Italian world, my Rome world was just for me, not many people from my where-I-grew-up world have stepped foot in it. It sort of makes me feel like i'm in a video game, and none of this is real. My New York reality was one thing, but my life here -- my jac life, my kitties life, my work life, my city life -- it's something that noone back in NYC knows much about or could possibly imagine. And maybe it's not just because I only call once a month or so, if that.

Maybe it's because I don't want them to.

But the world pushes on and so they are coming, and I will be truly happy to see them and show them the Italy that the Discovery Travel channel tapes. They will meet Nerone, our new kitten that was rescued from the motor of a car which Jacopo insists we cannot keep though he's been with us almost 3 weeks now -- they will see our wood, brass and marble house and old, cumbersone ivy garden that has been converted into a Kitty Alcatraz with poles and nets to keep them from entering the Big Bad World... they will see the Colosseum lit up rust and green at night while a bum plays the star spangled banner on his electric guitar below for euros, and the kids with Peroni beers sit on the old, broken and dented Ancient Roman cobblestones to listen. We will eat. By God we shall eat, pasta, lots of pasta, with fresh fish, fresh tomatoes, parsley and basil from the garden. We'll eat in the garden under the saffron tree. We will go to Ischia and ride motorboats into blue grottoes and gape at Vesuvius and think about all of the specials we've seen on TV about Pompeii.. and hope the damn mountain doesn't blow its top again -- and then it's to Florence and the Duomo and the (luscious) David and the wine country.

We'll get around.

Befana

Laying in bed with laptop perpendicular, waiting for Jac to finish working on his new website but liking the fact that since we've discovered we can hack internet from the elderly care home next door, we can be on the internet and working simultaneously, though that requires one person to use the bed as a desk (me, obviously). Alaska is sleeping on the sheep-rug at Jac's feet. Jolie is outside (the bedroom, not house) because if she comes in, she'll pee on any soft surface available. Ate polenta today at jac's mom's with Jac's family. Jac continues to insist that i'm 'aso' i.e. asocial. I don't agree.

Back to work tomorrow. Been sick for 5 days with something that involves constant fever. I'm still coughing.

I'll be happy for winter to be over.

It's been a long day.

I guess I've been waiting to post. Waiting for the permission to post really. Emotional permission, for one, to write about the death of Flip. Emotional permission that, even today, almost 3 months after his death, I begin to regret giving myself as I write these lines. To be simple, Flip was run over by a car on the main street near my home. It happened in front of Jac & I. He followed us out. We were going to return a film a few blocks away. I saw the car and as soon as I did, even though it was far down the street I knew what could happen and it did. We watched him die, and to this day it's still hard for me to walk down the same street and I bawled at a party when I unexpectedly saw the woman who gave him to us.

Some weeks after his death, in part to help fill a deepening void caused by his death, in part because it was awful to come home to Jolie who has been home alone all day and had that deperate 'i need attention' look in her eyes, I decided to get another kitten. I finally found one, through the same woman that gave us Jolie. She had been abandoned in Lampedusa, an island in the south of Italy near Sicily. By contrast to Flip, she is all white -- but she shares in a lot of the personality traits that Flip had and has been a joy in the house and has helped us heal. Her name is Alaska. She prefers to be held tummy up, and she nurses on Jolie's arm when she wants to play the baby. She is still tiny, even though my now she's about 4 months old -- and Jac and I absolutely adore her and Jolie. We get along well, the four of us.

The other permission is to write about work, which I cannot, as the changes are still 'in sviluppo' but I expect to write about it after the second week of January.

Then there's me and Jac and home -- all of which is going well. There's talk of weddings and rings floating about -- nothing concrete. It's pretty to think about, but as much as it can be fun to imagine and plan --- fantasy talk makes me nervous, especially after concrete conversations tend toward negating all the fantasy. So for now we are good. We laugh more than ever now, we joke around -- something that seems really simply but just due to language barriers until recently was rarely possible. We're still working out our boundaries, we're still learning, there's a lot left to learn... but everything we believe we know leads the way for only optimism and that's something to be grateful for.

I'll write again soon .... something more specific and less of a summary but I suppose something typed out is better than silence and maybe it will give me the incentive I need to write more...

If you haven't seen it you'll be grateful.

Slow down, Lola.

Really nice weekend. It was cold, so there was a lot of the cuddling thing going on. Slipper. Kitties. TV and blankets. Limoncello and pasta. We bought two wooden tables and chairs for the garden. Flip has turned back to his sweet self after a whole week of being angry at us for bringing the 'streghetta' into his once-peaceful abode.

We had friends for dinner on Saturday, went to a friends birthday on Friday. Got a surprise visit from Jac's mom on Sunday and she brought us a sugardish (one of many 'pensierini' she's bought for us).

Now it's Monday and i'm back at work and i'm looking forward to more slippers tonight, cuddling and the kitties, pasta and limoncello... we even have a bottle of white wine left.

ps. I got a bob-cut.

Puntina, Pallina, Musetta, Streghetta, Gattina, Carinissima: Jolie

So Jolie is the latest member of our little clan -- would you believe there is 4 of us?

Her and Flip, of course, do not get along at all. They don't seem to mind sharing a dish of food or a litter box but they can't seem to share the same cubic meter without going into a hissing frenzy. Suprisingly they manage to stay out of each others way, when they aren't pouncing on each other... so the days are quiet. Mostly.

But with us, me and Jac that is, she's an absolute sweetheart, coccolona, super cuddly and soft.

Here is an album to enjoy: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2137951&l=85ef4&id=16103479

Note that in the pictures in which Flip and Jolie seem to be peacefully laying together --- i've put them together while they slept. The second they realize where they are....


hssss.

Flip, Capriola, Micio, Sorcio, Cucciolo, Amorino...

Just some of the many names per day I call my cat, Flip. I thought an update might be merit worthy and so i'm giving one -- especially in highlight of some recent, exciting news. Which i'll get to. Just keep reading.

So Flip has adjusted quickly and well to his new home. Yeah, it HAS been only about a week and a half since he's been allowed out to 'wander' all by himself but he's proved a faithful cat and has always come home. After all the sweat and tears we went through putting netting up all along our garden only to watch Flip scale this netting in the matter of 2 seconds the first time we let him in the garden and turned our backs -- it became very obvious that our efforts were futile and that Flip had the upper hand. Cats can get out of anything. Perhaps not a steel enclosed case but I wouldn't bet on it -- and I think it'd be a bit inhumane to try it.

Comunque--ahem- it wasn't easy. I went chasing after him the first 10 times he got out and kept bringing him home until one day I said "basta" and let my little Flip run off on his own.

I would have never have made it had it not been for living on a Private Street.

So the verdict? Flip is happy with his indoor/outdoor cat life. Really happy. He comes home all cuddly and sweet and exhausted and only wanting to be coddled by us. He's calmer, he's sweeter --- he's healthy and fit.

He still spends most of his time in the house --- at first it wasn't that way but I guess after he had a taste of "Liberty" he chilled out a bit. He greets us at the door when we come home and ----- he's the cute part --- cries when we leave. And now that he can get out of the garden he follows us when we walk away, crying.

Because Jac and I often "walk" away instead of driving this has become a big problem. We don't want to walk him out of the street, onto the main road --- so we've taken to keeping our walks short and closing him up in the house while we are gone. The only other option is taking the scooter or the car (to make for a quick escape so he can't follow us) --- but often we're only walking to something a few minutes away so it's a waste of gas.

For now I find it really cute to have my little black kitty trailing us because he adores us and wants to be with us so much --- but it's going to technically become a problem if we hope to keep him away from the street. We've thought about getting him a lease so we can start taking him with us --- but I don't know --- you might say cat's aren't made for leashes but I tell you with my most serious face on that Flip is in many ways not like a cat at all --- and much more like a dog (in that he plays fetch, rolls over and other inexplicable feats that we never actually trained him to do....).

Ideas are welcome.

So here's the exciting new news. Now that we have the space, and a garden (and lots of love to give) --- we've decided to get our long awaited second cat! We're thinking that she (yes it will be a femminucia) and Flip could take care of each other during the day. Friday we'll make some calls and hopefully go pick one up. Rome has no shortage of "gattini" (little cats) --- so finding one in the local classifieds will be a cinch. A lot of the ads are for boxes of kittens that have been abandoned on sides of roads or similar --- which sadly happens a lot here.

Anyway --- it's like planning a second child! Jac and I actually sat down and had a serious talk about it the other day over a beer. We've actually been talking about it and waiting for the right moment since we got Flip --- and now feels like a good time .... so we're ready for the challenge.

And you may say --- why a challenge?

Well i'll ask you to do as our "cat manual" says and think about a 2 month old kitten like a 2 year old child. With claws. That can climb curtains.

Think about it....

Sarah Palin

So.

Is it just me, or did anyone else who watched Sarah Palin, Republican Vice Presidential candidate and governer (small town mayor?) of Alaska --- feel like they were sitting in the Comedy Cellar with a salty margherita listening to a witty, well-timed comic make their 10 minute spiel?

'Cause that what I got.

And they say now the dem's are on the defensive. And that we don't do well on the defensive. And how the heck is it that nobody seems to see through McCain's obvious playing off the Hillary nomination loss when he selected Palin as his vp candidate --- are we really that easy? Is it enough to be a woman and be funny and have been miss, oh what'sit -- Alaska? And I like Alaska. I do. I have an ex and a friend both from there and they are great people and Alaska is like the Switzerland of the US. Neutral territory ---- but uh, I was convinced it was a blue state?

What sort of games is McCain getting at? I want to refuse to believe that Obama's lead was 'cut in half' just because there are women who wanted to see another Woman in power, whomever that Woman may be --- I mean --- she just go introduced to us, we know so little about her and Obama's lead is cut in half? HALF!?

If elections were really determined by how good a candidate could really be in leading America, these things just wouldn't happen.

So really it's a popularity contest, as it has often been. And I think Miss America has a leg up. A very long pretty leg.

And don't even get me started on Italian politics.

Where I Work

I haven't gone in too much depth about what exactly it is that I do, where exactly I do it and how. And basically it goes like this.
At the end of December of 06 I stepped into my now-boyfriend's office, in which my now-boss was then-renting a desk. They're friends.

And I interview to be a tour guide. And do to things always going how they should but never as I believe -- I end up as the company secretary. The only other person beside the boss working in the office.

Then --- maybe it's because I was in the office every day until 9PM -- or maybe it was because my boss had a distinct vision of the future he wanted to create for the company and I was just there and willing to make it happen alongside him --- maybe cause I really needed the money and needed to prove myself to get it --- we grew. We grew a lot. Mostly at my prompting, we hired now people. Astra, Emma, Cagins, our first graphic designer.... Then the ideas never stopped. And nor did the hiring.

What do we do? We RUN the tour business in Rome. Not hotels. Not flights. Just tours. We conceive them, we design them and we sell them. We hand select our guides and train them in the history of all things Rome. At the moment we have about 15-20 live and active tours running in the city of Rome with 3 more about to go live (I say 15-20 because that depends what you consider a tour).

We are a completely self sufficient company. We have two in house graphic designers and one in house programmer, all who work full time and make up our adored IT team. There's the director, Simone -- my only boss. There are three 2nd level managers of which I am one. There's Julie, our On-Site manager who is mother to all of our 20-30 (the number must change daily) guides and coordinators --- who trains them and deals with them and make sure their job gets done on site. Then there is Emma, my dear friend and our company Spokeswoman --- fluent in Italian and English and French, who had a way with the clergy and manages to weedle deals and contracts out of all of the venues that collaborate with us.

Then there is me. I manage Operations and Distributors under the title "Project Manager". I invented that title a long time after I realize that for no two days in a row was my job going to be the same. So I needed something all-encompassing. I have a team of five girls who work under me and we manage everything from database system design to bookings to finances to --- well anything that could involve the use of a computer, a phone and/or a fax machine. I am also the official spokesperson to/from the IT team.

In summation --- I love my job, the work we do and the people I work with. We're a young international, multi-lingual team of entrepreneurs and idea-ists spreading the gospel of good tours in Rome -- which, frankly, didn't really exist before we showed up on the scene.

Then that's it. If any of you find yourselves in Rome, consider one of our tours. We've hand picked the best venues and themes and can assure American style quality that most Italian companies often can not :-)

www.darkrome.com
www.myvaticantour.com
www.mycolosseumtour.com

A Month

I apologize.
It's been a bit since my last post, but as you can imagine -- so much has happened.

Jac & I moved into the new apartment, and we just came back last week from Sardegna -- one week of vacation which is all we'll probably get until late fall. I was promoted, did I mention this? And life has just been caught up in that lovely whirlwind of change-all-happening-at-once. It really is true what they say about that.

So let's start from the start.

Sardegna: Put a Jac and a Kae on a motorcycle with a tent and just enough clothing to wear everything only twice and send them to one of the most beautiful isles of the meditteranean and you are asking for ... something. Most memorable moment was laying post-lovemaking in the tent while it rained listening to the rain and the agitated sea against the rocks just a toss behind the old blue fabric lighter where the sun has been burning it through for all the years of use and the dim light of the late afternoon and jac beside me and thinking "I don't think I could have written this better than it is happening".

And we saw some really pretty beaches.

Home: I am still having trouble conceptualizing why there is still a positive balance in my bank account whatwith all Jac and I have been spending, albeit less than we originally hoped to spend -- as we are using my old ikea couchbed (which is really just a mattress divided into two parts, not one of those fold-up contraptions) and Jac's old Ikea Klippan (nowhere else on earth do couches cost so little) -- both of which we hope to have the money to replace in the future -- but other than that everything surrounding us in new and fresh and just sort of adds to the experience, and that feeling flowing between us of a fresh start --- not like we needed one --- but it's nice to have one, and to share that. No more miccia corta. Lot's of disgustingly goofy and lovely dovey stuff going on. Stuff that'd probably make you gag. Oh yes and we treated ourselves to a 42" Plasma flatscreen. Did we need it? No. But sometimes you have to treat yourself to something you want...


Job: I now manage all my companies operations and get paid at a price that's right to do it. It means more responsibility. It means being superavailable for midnight cocktails with owners of big companies. But it also means having a more decided position in the company where I can glow, and for that i'm glad.

Various: The news has been too sad to watch lately (sampling: woman throws herself in front of the a train in rome -- 5th time this happens since i've moved here, accident that kills two entire families on the a4, accident today that kills two young children on the a14, both involving huge tractor/trailors, two plane crashes -- the one in madrid and the one in that country that begins with a K that i'm too lazy to look up right now and could never spell on my own). Jac and I watch the news frequently and often look at each other with a sense of fear that comes from living in a happy little bubble when you feel that disconnectedness from all the bad that is going on around you and a helplessness and a wondering of how long we can stay detached.

Not to end on a bad note, or anything.

So there it is. I've been having trouble finding time to write and i've been sleeping away afternoons but I'm happy.