Leavin' NashVegas

Salve Familia!

I'm sure most of you are familiar with the Elvis tune, "Viva Las Vegas." Well, this is no different, especially since I was in TN, home of Elvis and all. So here are my final thoughts as I am Leavin' NashVegas (Milwaukee), and I promise there are no shots of me in a white jump suite, although I could make it work if I had too, and the thanks for that goes to my girl Omeka!

The last two weeks have been filled with sad good-byes, cheerful times, and dance breaks (that soundtrack thing again). I have had the opportunity to spend time with the ladies of BTC (my dinner club) hiking around Radnor Park, an Italian afternoon luncheon with friends from church and other arenas, lessons from the divas, breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a few other folks, packing and driving a U-Haul for the first time, lol, Harley Fest, which is a post of its own (Although I do need to add this caveat. I come all the way to Milwaukee to meet a guy from Sicily; hilarious, but I did get to practice my Italian! Oh, and yes HE too gave me the same warning about Italian men. FUNNY...), and of course our annual family fish fry at mom's house. All of the pictures of this have been added to the upper right; I'll warn you there are more then a 100 shots; so pause and enjoy.

The last two weeks have also been filled with running errands, getting Essence settled in at nonna's (grandmother's) house , double checking to make sure I have everything, but my grandmother let me know I will still forget something. Believe it or not I have even been confirming appointments and other opportunities with my friends in Florence. ANNOUNCEMENT: This will be my last post on American Soil. The next time you hear from me folks, I'll be an Italian Girl!

But before then, here is the answer (s0 far) to the million dollar question:

What are you going to do when you come back?

Well, right now, I am not sure. I am NOT trying to plan to far ahead, you know I want to enjoy the gift I have (the present). However, I have been keeping a running list of what I DON'T want to do. I figure, this is a good place to start, oh and no offense if your beloved profession is on here... it's just not for me.

1. I don't want to be a truck driver, the U-Haul was more then enough for me. (Patrick, I'm not telling, so keep it to yourself!) And coming through Chicago was filled with a ton of traffic, apparently there was a triathlon, why didn't anyone tell me?!
2. Nothing with blood or bio-medical stuff. I mean you can trust me, after all I am a Doctor, but not that kind. And I would HATE to ruin your shoes with my weak stomach.
3. I don't have the patience (or stomach) to be a beautician, aestician, manicurist, massage therapist, etc. I can't imagine looking at someones' nastiness and them expecting me to make "it" look beautiful!
4. Nothing in retail or food service. I hate when people are rude and disrespectful.
5. I've done the teacher/principal thing, so I'm good on that!
6. Anything with math, evaluating data does tend to come readily, but, why, if you don't have too. And I don't even balance my checkbook (shhhh!) so really, let's keep it real.

I guess this is it for now, but I am pretty sure it will extend and maybe along the way, I'll reveal what I plan to be "when I grow up." But I can tell you, it will not be the 9-5 gig, these past two months have ruined me for the traditional job. RUINED!

Please pray for safe travel... until then.
Thanks and God Bless You and God Bless America! (Too much CNN!)

Haulin Across America...

Since this is a family oriented blog, and I am a good Christian girl, I can't title this what first came to mind, especially considering the experience. But you know..

Nevertheless I got the U-Haul on Friday afternoon. Wendy was the assistantt who encouraged me that I could in fact prove everyone wrong and show women's libbers across the country I CAN DO IT! Gloria would be so proud, but do I really care about her perception, probably not. Back on track...

My friend Coby, who bought me to the place, after a wonderful lunch, his treat, which made it even more wonderful, used my phone to take shots as he laughed at me in my high heels trying to figure this whole thing out and climb into this monster! What a great friend... suspect for sure. I feel like this, Sarah Jessica isn't the only one who can rock it, so go on and do it.

I digress- As I am heading home, I am doing my best to figure out the power of this thing! A bit crazy as the furniture pads and the dolly are sloshing in the open cabin. Not to any particular rhythm mind you.

My life is a soundtrack. I use this reference because I feel as though you can have a song to describe anything that is going on in your life. Once, our dinner club had the topic, "If your life were a movie what genre would it be and who would play you?" Well, of course I said a musical! (And Cree Summer would play me.) And so how could this moment be any different?

My ipod is on shuffle and as I am coming pass Belmont on my way home towards the mall, Jill Scott is serenading me with her song, "Golden." The lyrics are too powerful, but the chorus is "Living my life like its golden." I just beam and chair dance, because that is in effect what I am moving towards. As I debate whether to stop by the bank, I decide not to press my luck and head to the house. And then it begins, the trumpets... Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, ba bum, bum. Ba, bum, Ba, ba, bum, bum, ba, bum, bum, bum, bum. Doom, Doom. La, la, la, la, la, la, la. The theme song to Rocky!! (So now go back and reread the stanza, you know you see it!) Any good athlete has this song with their Mp3 collection. It's pure blasphemy if you do not!

And all of sudden as I set 2 lights and 1 stop sign from home; it happened. The inner Italian Stallion called out! "Girl, you got this." I beamed with pride and total jubilation. I'm thinking, I got this, I can do this! I ponder for a minute. Is this how Rocky felt running the steps in Philly? If not, I am sure is pretty close.

Getting Stronger.....Aaaaaahhhhh

EuroKnow

The time is quickly ticking bye (get it, bye...) and I will be leaving Nashville in just 10 short days.
But today... I picked up my Euros!! They actually came in a day early. Can I just say... I am so glad that I waited to cash in my dollars! The dollar, as we all know, has been weak, and not traded well; so I decided to wait. It is good to know people who watch the market and I appreciate those folks around me! I got a call Tuesday morning from my buddy Coby, "Heh if you haven't done so, the dollar has been up so today is a good day as any to get your money!"

There really is no rhythm to it, but the best advice I would give; if hoping to get a few bucks (assuming the Europeans call them bucks) before you head over is to go through your bank and NOT the airport!! The airport charged $1.65/euro and my bank only a $1.53! On top of that the airport also had some additional fees of $3.00 up to the first $250.00 and then 15% of the total over $250.00. Now I don't know about you, but this made little sense to me. So I just went through my bank and was able to get more euros for my dollars!

I was excited to open the envelope at the bank, since I haven't seen the euro up close and personal. Here are some observations about my new currency that I thought are pretty cool. It looks like play money, but I am sure they say the same thing about the dollar.
It is primarily imprinted on one side and they use pictures of buildings, as opposed to dead presidents. Like the dollar, there is an invisible imprint that you can see if you hold it up to the light. It is of the building! Each bill has its own color making it very festive (in my opinion). One final observation, as the bill amount gets larger, the bill size also gets larger! Now I really like this idea, makes it easy when shopping; at least this is my hypothesis. Oh, but I just thought, the 5 is about the same size a Monopoly money, so this could be lost too! I am going to have to come up with some sort of system... At this point, I don't have any of the coins, but I will add a shot when I pick up a few.

This weekend plans to be a busy one of saying good-byes. My dinner club and I are hiking on Saturday morning, followed by brunch. This was Laresha's idea! She knows how I like to be out and active and so does she; love this!! Sunday is the luncheon Marcia has planned at Amerigo's. I am excited to see everyone. I promise to have my camera and add some additional shots soon after.

Oh, and yes, I am still packing! I pick up my U-Haul next week Friday.

Every Where I'm Going to Be!!

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!?!?

MY VISA is here. It came today in the Express Envelope I left behind. I mean, I know they said 1-3 weeks, but you know... "Fly like an eagle!"

So here is a brief description of the content, it is like a little sticker, that is sealed in place! (I wouldn't dare scan it!): It says Visto (Visa) at the top. It lists several things, including: the country it is valid for, Italia, my time of arrival and departure, down to the day, which Consulate issued it, and on what day it was issued, my passport number; and of course my name and picture. So let's do some math... I met with them on the 23rd, it was issued on the 31st and I got it today!! Now this is bureaucracy at its finest...

Here are pictures of some of the places I plan to visit while studying in Florence (London (we will visit here as a field trip), Paris (my 1/2 sister and I are spending New Years here), and Greece (I plan to go for fall break, it is too close and too beautiful not to see). These obviously are not through my lens, but you get the idea...



So here are the next steps with my new friend, Visto...

I have to send several items to the school (ITALY LOCATION) before I arrive. They want to be able to have these copies to start the Permesso di Soggiorno (Permit to Stay) and make the process easier for everyone involved, especially the student. **Most IMPORTANT** is the official stamp from the Italian Consulate on the Italian Enrollment Letter!

I'll be sending this off next week, along with my absentee voting forms (Thanks Lori for your help with this.) I would be remiss if I did not Rock the Vote. Ooohh, stay tuned for posts on how Europe is viewing the election!!

Ciao...