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.

The Miccia gets more Lunga

I am about to leave work for the day but I felt inclined to report that in 10 days Jac & I move into the house of dreams and these past few days have been really lovely with him, no needless angry outbursts :-)

We even tripped out to lake Martignano yesterday... it was a nice relaxing day just to two of us. Much needed.



Love is good.

La Miccia Corta

Living together is HARD.

I've told Jac that lately he's got a short fuse with me -- you know, a quick - to - anger attitude -- and basically that translates into "hai la miccia corta" which would be understood by an unknowing italian as "you have small genitalia".

They always take things so personally here.

I don't know. Jac is moody and I can't seem to do 100% of the things right in his eyes all the time --- but my saving hope is that at the moment we are not in an ideal situation... there are another 13 days left before we are allowed to move house so we've just got to find someway to survive the next two weeks without too much damage. It is looking to be difficult.

I just need him to humor me with a miccia a bit more LUNGA -- ya know?

Life goes on though. We neutered Flip this past weekend which has turned out to be a traumatic experience for Jac & I (sure we complain about how he claws at us and bites our feet... but we actually just really love him for the crazy cat he is) --- but we've been noting down to minute details any and all behavioral changes we believe have been brought about by the --- uh --- change. We want our Flip to be just as he was or would be...

But in the end we really did the right thing. We weighed the reasons for months before deciding. The new house has a garden that is really easy to escape from -- and we can't have him populating the neighborhood with little Flips, as cute as they would be -- Rome already has a HUGE stray cat problem -- and not enough homes to place them in--- best not to take part in producing more. Also because we want to get a little friend for Flip, a kitten --- which we hope to introduce a month or two after we move in to the new place. Cats don't like too much change all at once. And since it's going to be a female kitty we don't want any procreating going on there either.

And he'll be less likely to want to escape from us -- that's important.

So there it is.

Other things... i'm just tired and want things to stop HAPPENING for awhile so I can enjoy the summer. But with changes as work, which i'll elaborate on in a more appropriate moment -- seem to indicate that things are about to get crazier.

There's a whole summer ahead ....

Soldi

So. Upon the -shocking- recognition of just how much mtha-fr*cking soldi (money) we're going to have to pull out of our you know wheres to pay our rent for the next four years of our lives (not to mention to furnish the damn place!) -- i've been working in the evenings as a tour guide for my company to make some extra cash so I can still go out to eat 3-4 nights a week.

Yeah, you heard me right. Go out to eat. 3-4 nights a week. Which, when I think of it, is pretty incredible considering that is something i'd never do in the states. Once a week max. Perhaps some take out.

But i'm taking about restaurant dining experience, wine -- the whole sha-bang. And I guess we permit it to ourselves because we both have limited culinary abilities -- and the food is amazing here in the restaurants -- no canned stuff -- mostly fresh ingredients -- and since we don't club often or frequent bars it's just what we allow ourselves for our 'going out' times.

But we're probably going to have to cut back a bit. At least until we have a real couch.

In the meantime I am going nuts cleaning jack's place constantly. You'd be amazed at how much of a mess two people can make! But I am enjoying it -- I like the idea of 'taking care' of him.

The switch off is that he has to sweep and mop the floors and clean the cat's litter box. Garbage we take out together. Laundry sometimes him sometimes me. I do the rest.

I think that's fair. I hate sweeping.

A Separate Peace

Moved in to Jac's. All my few things tucked into nooks and crannies in his house. A candle on a shelf, a bra in the laundry, the medicine cabinet a bit fuller, new sheets. I'm trying to be discreet. I never wanted to move into his 'space' -- that can be dangerous. So i've limited my 're-decorating' to making sure the bathroom is clean and changing the sheets on his bed. I've moved a few things over. I clean a lot. I clean the kitchen every night, because i'm a disastrous cook so he takes care of dinner. We switch off on laundry. I try to not complain too much when he turns on the TV before, during and after dinner. It's nice but it's not our home. Home is 19 days away on a high-rent private street near Piazza Vescovio.

Apart from the lack of autonomy -- that being, Jac lives so far away that I depend on him to get home at night, besides I don't have keys -- we were enjoying this first month of semi-co-habitation. He tells me he doesn't miss his privacy as much as he thought he would. I think that's good news.

And so we beat on. Still no word on whether we can really afford a vacation this summer -- even if its in a tent -- or whether we can even afford the furniture we need to make the house liveable. But something always comes up. I'm doing some tours this month to make up for the new, higher budget. I'm thinking of other ways to bring in some money.

Mostly I just need a raise.

But thats another story.

Life is nice right now.

In other news, Flip lost his first tooth this week and Jacopo got slightly frustrated with me because he couldn't find the lid to a pot when he was making pasta because I put them away separately after doing the dishes one night. I picked up his dirty socks from the bedroom floor and threw them in the laundry hamper and he put the laundry out to dry. All experiences that make us feel a bit like newlyweds... and it's a warm feeling.

I wonder how it will feel when we actually are?

Sleep-in.

Wish there was something to say about the weekend but there is not. Jacopo was sick and so we stayed in, in bed, all weekend. I'm hoping next weekend we'll get out and into the sun --- though it's just a tad too hot out for comfort these days.

Still no apartment. Jac being sick hasn't helped -- as we haven't been able to make any appointments. Tomorrow out comes Portaportese, fingers crossed fingers crossed.

But as for a "what's been up lately" have I mentioned i've been living at Jac's place since July 15? I kinda just stopped sleeping at home entirely. And it is very lovely. But now we actually have to move my stuff, i.e. clothes and other items of living importance and try to make a 'place' for it at jac's place. That's going to be interesting.

One week of cohabitation and so far so good. We're not at each others throats.

Yet...

More interesting stuff to come.

October

October 2005 -- The Spaniard and I "break up". My December plan of moving to switzerland and teaching english while getting a masters degree? Out the window. New life plan -- finish school, save $, get the flying F**k out of America.

October 2006 -- I leave America, for good. Oddly, by boarding a plane heading towards Madrid, where the Spaniard is waiting for me at the airport. That, as we all know, doesn't work -- and i've been living in Rome since.

October 2007 -- I decide Rome is IT. I'm here, i'm staying. This leads to me beginning the search for a semi-permanent room, further from the center, big changes at work (restructuring, promotion, new office etc.) and the decision to go back to New York -- my once home -- as a foreigner, for a visit.

October 2008 -- (about) Moving in with Jacopo.


Notice a trend? If something big and life-changing is going to happen -- it usually chooses to poke its head out in October -- so when Jac told me yesterday that his apartment contract says he needs to give 6 months notice to move out ... and I counted that from April 1 -- that means the move in date is October 1. I wasn't surprised, and oddly amused.

I wonder what else October will bring?