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December 24, 2003
All I want for Christmas is a Round Tuit
I mean it. In case you don't know what a round tuit is - it is what procrastinators are always asking for. "I will do xyz when I get around to it.". My grandmother had a wooden coin that said "round tuit" on it when I was a teenager.
While I don't think depression is a word that would ever describe me, I have been in such a funk lately. I have so much to do and unfortunately it directly corresponds to how little motivation I have to actually do anything. I have decided to really scale back on a few areas of my life that needed taming (namely the internet) and concentrate on setting new priorities in my life.
In other news (that is related actually), I GOT A NEW JOB!!! WOOOHOOOO! I will no longer be working 12 hour shifts that include nights and weekends. It will be an administrative job - I will be the Risk Manager/ Patient Safety Coordinator for my hospital which is an unfortunately huge job. We have a major civilian inspection coming up (JCAHO) in several months, not to mention implementing all the new HIPAA regulations (which the military has actually been doing for many years anyway). I expect that my job will be very busy but at least it will be normal hours with weekends and holidays OFF. As much as I LOVED my work here as a labor and delivery nurse, I really need a nice smooth finish to my Navy career. I start my new job on February 2nd but not until I have to do 9 more nightshifts (oh yes I did count them up).
More related news: Yesterday, I bit the bullet and talked to a financial counselor. Don't laugh, I am getting down to the wire (22 months) for my retirement and really need to get this mess straightened out. Last year I put together a will, living will and insurance policies but beyond that, I have been flying by the seat of my pants as far as finances go. I have finally gotten to the point in my life where I am not worried about bounced checks or zero balance in my checkbook or paying bills with credit cards (never really did that though) and it is nice. BUT, I have nothing to show for it. Nothing. So, after my mutual funds fiasco a few years back, I will be biting the bullet and stiking up a Roth IRA, permanent life insurance and a solid savings. The meeting took a little more than two hours to do the intake assessment. I have to go back in a couple of weeks to start putting the plan in place. I am proud of myself hahahahahaha. One of the questions the counselor asked me, I couldn't define though. She wanted to know what financial independence meant to me. I really don't know. I guess freedom from worry over where the money will come from to pay bills. I have never wanted to be rich. I don't even play the lottery. I have the luxury of a profession that is so secure that I have literally been hired over the phone before. I do know that I don't want to work outside my home very much when I "retire".
I am still in the planning stages of our trip to Garmisch, Germany. We are very excited. I will put the boys in snowboard class for part of the day so I can ski and then hopefully, they will be good enough to snowboard at least the bunny slope with me. We will be there four days. Eli already knows how to ski so hopefully he will convert over quickly. Jake has never really skiied so he is a blank slate. He gets frustrated very easily though so I am hoping we will be able to find a very patient kid instructor. I learned a few years ago that *I* cannot teach my children to ski. I simply don't have the patience for it. I also know nothing about snowboarding (wasted an entire ski season trying to learn it one year) but both boys are adamant that they want snowboard over skis. Once they get the basics down, we will be good to go and I will take over. After much soul-searching, I decided to leave the baby here with our nanny, which will be our first ever separation. I was going to take him with us and put him in daycare there but I think we would all be happier if he is with someone he loves and I trust. I wish he was old enough to ski!
I have received Christmas cards and gifts from several of my family and feel guilty (as usual) that my gifts to them are sitting behind me on the dining room table. That is really a step forward because I just didn't even do anything last year! As much as my communication to my loved ones is scarce, please know that I really DO think of you all the time. I just need to get a Round Tuit.
Anyway, that is all the news fit to report for today.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND BUON NATALE
Posted by DebC at 10:52 AM | Comments (1)
December 17, 2003
The Italian Driving Experience (Part Four - last one, I promise!)
This is actually an editorial written by Ronald Walters in Johns Hopkins Magazine. I cannot for the life of me find this article to better credit it.
Twice I have moved to places where I understood neither the language nor the driving habits. First, I went from California to Baltimore; more recently, I spent three months in Florence, Italy.
My most difficult adjustment in Florence was coping with traffic. I had long been aware of variations in driving styles within the United States. No one who has witnessed the search and destroy style of Boston drivers or the philiosophical nihilism of a New York cabby or followed an aged VW covered with peace signs up a winding West Coast mountain road can be oblivious to Americans' varied approaches to driving.
In Italy, however, I was impressed by how consistent drivers are. The essential characteristics are a strong preference for acceleration over braking, courageous use of lateral movement, and unwillingness to let one vehicle occupy a lane when four can. Traffic signs are "suggestions". Pedestrians are targets of opportunity, although specially marked crosswalks, akin to medieval sanctuaries, theoretically protect them. We called the crosswalks "no-kill zones", but they afforded as much protection as Becket found in the cathedral.
Within a week of arriving in Florence, I was hurtling our Renault down a narrow street, being berated by my frightened American passenger for "trying to drive like and Italian". there was a Fiat on our rear bumper, headlights flashing in irritation at my sluggishness, with an aged nun at the wheel.
How could the descendants of the artists and artisans who builty the great works of medieval and Renaissance Italy turn into homicidal maniacs when in command of a motor scooter or a car? Someone suggested that Italian driving is of a piece with opera: extravagant, excessive, dramatic.
My theory is that driving is the new Italian art form. As Dante wrung poetry out of the vernacular, Italian drivers take humble metal, powered by lawnmower engines, and give exquisite elegance to the act of running red lights. Even an American raised in a state where cars are considered a body part can only stand in awe. It's enough to make a Californian walk.
-Ronald Walters in Johns Hopkins Magazine.
And finally, a little cartoon written/animated by an Italian that sums it all up.
Oh my goodness, watching that, I realized I forgot to mention the street signs (the directional ones, as I said before, all others are a suggestion). I could define the problem by saying that if you don't already know where you are going, you are screwed. But that would be cheating. Italy favors the dreaded traffic circle. These are definitely not for the timid. They do not summarize the direction signs AT ALL. Instead, about fifty (and that is only a tiny exaggeration, really) small signs are stuck in about five feet of space. If you stop to try to decipher it (and it takes a while when you non capice), all hell breaks loose behind you. There was a really hilarious example at the center of a traffic circle when I visited Naples. I would have stopped to take a picture of the mess but I didn't want to leave my children motherless.
Posted by DebC at 11:21 PM
December 16, 2003
Hidey Ho Neighbors!
You have no idea the mountains that had to move to make this blog start working again! It was broken back on Dec 6th and I actually thought I would have to start all over {shudder}.
If anyone is even remotely looking for a webhosting deal I strenuously recommend FutureQuest. I have not seen a better example of customer service in years.
Hey, guess what? Along with my new webhosting deal, I get a bunch of free email addresses that I can give out. Anyone want a "you"@shriekofnature.com?
I was not idle while my blog was down. I did write the fourth driving essay (although, I cheated with this one - it is mostly two other guys stuff). I will put it up in a day or two.
While you are patiently waiting for that, take a look at my photo gallery. I just put a new album in from our trip to Pompeii. I am going to work on getting the Spain and Gibraltar trips up soon too.
Posted by DebC at 12:16 AM | Comments (2)
December 06, 2003
The Italian Driving Experience (Part Three)
Right of way on the road depends on how many legs you have. Sheep are big business in Sicily both for the wool and the meat. Between my housing area and the first part of the Navy base, there are four separate flocks of sheep and one herd of cows that I routinely get stuck behind. They travel the road first thing in the morning and sometime in the late afternoon. The novelty of being surrounded by a sea of animals has yet to get old. The experience is surreal. Of course, how cool it is directly proportionate to how big a hurry you are in. There is generally one shepard and he looks like he stepped out of a story book, complete with a staff and two or three trusty dogs (mainly mutts). I have always heard how stupid sheep are and sitting back and watching the flock movement, I think I know why. The staff is not used to gently nudge and encourage sheep back into the fold. It is used to sharply rap the poor creatures on the noggin.
I always hold my breath as the flock passes around me because the rams have very big horns. They lean against the car as they push and shove each other onward. There are many cars around here that look like they have been keyed because of this. As bad as that sounds, the cows are much worse. They actually rock your car as they go past! Their horns are even bigger.
Back at the end of the summer, I encountered a flock moving along a very narrow road. I knew I was stuck and was pulling my hair out because I was running late to work. I decided that I was going to try to go around. As I pulled into the oncoming lane, the sheep scattered and spread across the road in front of me. DAMN! I pushed, ever so slowly, forward nudging them out of my way like a bulldozer. It didn't work. I decided that I was making the problem worse, so I pulled back into my lane, in hopes that the sheep would pick a side of the road to get on. The shepard was pretty far behind us, trying to shoo the lambs that had fallen behind. My plan was not exactly a success. There was an Italian guy behind me in this big SUV that was so close to my bumper, I couldn't see his license plate. He was doing that back and forth movement that usually proceeds the boomerang passing manuever. The sheep had sort of settled mostly back on my side of the road (of course) and he finally made his break for it. I decided to follow behind him and also pulled into the oncoming lane. The sheep instantly spread across both sides of the road again. The shepard was now right behind my van and hopping mad. He was waving his arms around and cursing in Italian. He rapped his staff on my roof and like a good little sheep, I pulled back into my lane. He did the same to the SUV and finally to the sheep in front of us.
I have had a similar experience in driving downtown in the big city (Catania). Except the flock are bicycles and motorscooters. They do not at all obey any sort of traffic rules and will often travel between two lanes of cars. They come so close that they will actually hold onto your car as you come to a stop or pull away from a stop. It makes downtown driving an experience I actively avoid. There is a helmet law in Italy but you will not see helmets on their heads. The helmets are stored on the back of the bike (maybe the law says you have to HAVE a helmet but doesn't specify what you should do with it?). Along with kamikaze bikers, cars come to complete stops in the middle of the road to unload passengers or even to park. In the rural areas, you can be flying down the road at fifty or so miles per hour, only to have the car in front of you come to a complete stop. The driver and passenger will hop out with shopping bags and proceed to pick something on the side of the road. I have yet to figure out what it is they are picking. One of these days I will get brave and ask them what the heck they are finding.
The other interesting thing you will see cars do here is stop off at what we lovingly call an "umbrella stand". These are equiped with "umbrella girls", so called because they sit on the side of the road holding umbrellas to keep the sun off. If you haven't guessed it, they are drive though prostitute stands. Convenient huh? I call them a traffic hazard because I always have to crane my neck to see who the hell would patronize these women. They often set up shop in the abandoned ruins along the side of the road. There is a famous one (well, it seems to do a brisk business anyway) right behind the base that I pass twice a day. The ruin itself is absolutely fantastic. I keep promising myself that I will stop and take pictures (with and without the girls) one of these days.You can also see them walking along the road signaling for truckers to pick them up. I had one try to flag ME down a few months ago. When it appeared to her that I was not going to stop, she began giving me the universal sign that means I should promptly do not-nice things to myself. Eli said "that lady was trying to say hello to you mom, I think she wanted to get a ride". Uh, not today, not today.
Part four (last one!) coming soon.
Posted by DebC at 10:22 AM
December 02, 2003
Two is going to be great!
We had cake and presents with just the boys, nanny and me. Elenore (that's na-na-nore in Seth speak) gave Seth a remote control car that has the controller attached with a cord. You will never see anything funnier than a two year old trying to run and catch the car that is continuously speeding away (unless it dredges up really sucky memories of trying to pick up the basketball in sixth grade gym classes, accidently kicking it with each step while your whole class watches, but I digress).
The blowing out of the candles was a blast. You have to be damn good to light the candles with a toddler simultaneously trying to blow them out. We sang happy birthday twice through complete with blowing out the candles and then he had me light the candles two more times (we chose not to sing hahahaha). It is the little things in life that make you happy.
Seth commemorated his birthday by walking the entire way on our family walk tonite. Actually, I should say that he RAN the whole way. The run was punctuated by forays into all the yards that have put up their Christmas lights. It was about five miles in two year old distance, about a mile for everyone else.
Now he is sitting on the bean bag in the living room watching Fast Times At Ridgemont High. Except his eyes are as glazed as Jeff Spicolli's.
Posted by DebC at 07:51 PM
Well, it has happened.
My baby is no longer a baby! Wahhhhh. I always feel incredulous that another year has passed but it is the hardest when they are babies, I think. Eli turned nine (NINE!) a few weeks ago and Jake will be seven the first week of January. Amazing. I am very fortunate to have such cool kids.
Eli, Jake and I worked really hard all day at getting Seth to tell how hold he is. "I two" is what he now shouts when you ask. We tried to teach him how to hold up two fingers but that task has beaten us. He is all set for when he turns five though. We are having cake with a few friends this afternoon. I will post pictures later, but right now, here is a teaser. He falls asleep on the couch while I knit. Tonight he was determined not to. Silly rabbit, you can't evade the sandman for long.
Posted by DebC at 12:43 AM