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March 25, 2004
The Road To Rome
I have completely neglected to mention that Cheryl (my first nanny) is here for a three week visit! It has been great having her back, we really missed her. She is doing well in the States though, working hard and going to school fulltime for medical technician.
We had an unbelievably wicked 24 hour virus rip through our house last week. The baby barfed in my bed on Tuesday, Eli was down for the count on Wednesday and Jake and I moulded the couch on Thursday. I had a parent-teacher conference with Eli's teacher on Wednesday, where the teacher casually mentioned that the girl that shares a table with Eli, tossed her cookies all over the desk on Monday (ummm, that might have been something you should have shared with the parents of the other kids at that table, no?).
So anyway, a trip to Rome had been in the works for quite some time for Cheryl. It wouldn't be any fun if it went off without a hitch, huh? As sick as we all were, the trip had already been locked in place for Friday. So after spending all day (and I do really mean ALL DAY) puking, we got in the car on Friday and drove to Naples. This is the same drive I did back in October and it really isn't a bad drive. The countryside is just gorgeous. We left two hours late due to the fact that I had to PACK that morning because I couldn't do it the day before as I had planned (ah the best laid plans of mice and men). Cheryl brought the boys a portable DVD player from the States that made the trip go quickly for them. I am very lucky to have kids that travel well even without that.
I didn't stay at the military campground this time though. I decided to stay at the <a href="http://www.navy-lodge.com/overseas/italy/naples.html">Navy Lodge in Naples</a>. We carefully followed the directions and got severely lost. We called Monica at the front desk five times for directions. Poor Monica. We finally found it two hours later after being in the car for 10 hours to find that the Navy Lodge has a TGIFridays in the lobby. SCORE! We sat down and ordered a meal and before it could be served, Cheryl announced that she feels sick. Yes, this is my life. Although I do sometimes wish that it was less interesting hahahahahaha. We all promptly decide that the restaurant is too wildly overstimulating and take our food back to the room where no one is able to eat it anyway.
The next morning, we woke up to find, happily, that everyone feels okay (not great) and well enough to go to Rome as planned. We drive the 2 1/2 hours into Rome and ... get severely lost. The tour we were going to take was scheduled for 1:30 pm and I had built in 'got lost' time so we ended up calling the <a href="http://www.uso.org/rome/">USO in Rome</a> about five times to help straighten us out. By the time we found it, the tour was leaving in 15 minutes. No problem, although we are starving at this point, so Cheryl hopped out and got pizza for us while we waited in the middle of the road (totally normal and acceptable practice in Italy). We decide to call the USO one more time to let them know that we are seconds away from arriving, please hold the bus. The nice lady says "oh the tour just left - they had to leave a bit early because of <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18184">the peace demonstrations</a> that were planned along the tour route". WHAT?!! (insert all manner of bad words). In all the four other phone calls, was there no time to mention this wee bit important tidbit? We decide at this point that we are now just going to walk around and take our time.
We actually had a nice time - <a href="http://debcodding.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=Rome-20-March-2004&page=1">the pictures are in my photo gallery</a> because there were too many to put on the blog entry. We were wowed by <a href="http://www.twenj.com/rometour1-3.htm">St. Peter's Basilica</a> and the <a href="http://www.romeguide.it/MONUM/STORICI/castel/castel_eng.htm">Castel St Angelo</a>. We tried damn hard to get down to the Colliseum but every single route was blocked off by the police due to the demonstration. I felt bad for Cheryl but at least I know that WE will be going back. Next time we go, we will stay right in Rome itself and we will FLY.
On Sunday we went to Pompeii. <a href="http://debcodding.com/blog/archives/000056.html">I have already been there once</a> but only got to see a tiny fraction because Jake wasn't feeling well then. Once again, that place is AMAZING! We went into a different entrance and saw so much more this time. <a href="http://debcodding.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=Pompeii-part-two-21-March-2004&page=1">The pictures to that are also in the photo gallery</a>. Don't forget to look at the <a href="http://debcodding.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=Pompeii-Oct-2003">first Pompeii trip photos</a> in case you haven't seen them. I was very organized the first time and titled all the pictures. This time, I still don't have much energy, so the pictures are just pictures.
We ended up leaving Pompeii two hours later than I had wanted to but we made amazing time down to the tip of the boot (I am sure I broke some major laws). I somehow missed the turn to get onto the ferry that takes you back over to Sicily and ended up getting lost in Regio-Calabria. I had been freaking out the whole way down to the ferry because I suddenly couldn't remember if the ferry had different hours on Sundays. I finally found *a* ferry but it definitely wasn't the one I have used before. It was about 7pm when we found it and the guy at the bar there (bars here refer to little fastfood type places) told me in Italian that the next ferry leaves at diece ora (ten pm). Ugh. This will put us home around one am. Did I mention that we had to get up at 6am on Monday for work and school? Oh and did I also mention that Eli had a major school assessment test on Monday morning?
It wasn't pretty but we survived it although it has literally taken us all week to feel normal again. And to make the whole event complete, Eleonora, our nanny, came down with the virus yesterday and today.
When you look at the pictures in the <a href="http://debcodding.com/gallery">photo gallery</a>, click on the individual pictures to see the normal size picture. When you do this, you will also be able to leave a comment if you want to (please do!).
Posted by DebC at 02:03 PM | Comments (1)
March 11, 2004
Have I mentioned what an athlete I am not?
One of life's greatest miseries for the athletically stunted is school sports. I was the kid that the two team captains fought over who had to take me. I was the kid that opted to run the mile BACKWARDS so that the gym teacher would waive the minimum finish time. I was the kid that preferred to walk the perimeter of the sports field in lieu of participating (yes, this was a choice).
I remember in ninth grade, playing tag football with my class. The totally, like, oh my God, popular girl was team captain and she willingly picked me to be the hiker (I should have known something was wrong with this scenario but I was just so thrilled to be acknowledged that I think I would have happily picked her boogers for her). They took a ten minute time out to explain to me what exactly a hiker does (all that perimeter walking and all). Here is what she said. "All you have to do is bend over and hike the ball through your legs when I say HIKE". Oh, and, "you also have to stop the other hiker from getting to the ball". Shooooot, that sounds easy. Gimmee that ball. So, I take the ball put it down on the ground like I was shown and then look up, in perfect form. And have a heart attack. The opposing team's hiker was Melanie S. who easily outweighed me by 200 pounds (NOT an exageration). And she was grinning. When my quarterback said HIKE! The mountain began to stomp toward me, my hearing shutdown and I could only see Melanie. I handed her the ball and returned to walking the perimeter.
I was always jealous of kids that played school sports. I wonder at what point does a kid become athletically stunted? I tried out for the swim team in ninth grade and lasted all of about 1 month. The practice began in February in an outdoor, unheated pool. I whined to my mom that it was just too miserable so she let me quit. So when I had children, I decided to encourage them to play at least one sport. But then I saw how freaked out the parents were about team sports and decided that I did not want any part of that either for myself or my boys. I decided to wait until they were old enough to make an informed choice.
That would be now. I am a newly minted little league mom. The saddest thing was having to sign a form that says I agree not to curse and get violent or interfere with the players/coaches/other parents. I signed Jake up no problem. He is easily the most athletic of all of us. Eli refused but I couldn't figure out why. I decided not to push it and my neighbor worked on him. On one hand, I really need to get him to be more active. He is very into reading and computers (sedentary). I am afraid that if I don't push him (and this is what I told him), there will be some mark missed and then he will be a grown up like me, who just simply does not enjoy team sports. Does it matter? No, but it just gives him one more social outlet. On the other hand, I think it is perfectly okay to not play team sports at all. But, one day after sign up closed he had a change of heart and we were able to sign him up anyway. We have already had a skills clinic and both boys had a blast. Being the small community we are, they know every single kid on all five teams in the 7-9 age group. We don't know the final team selection yet but it should be interesting. One of those moral dilemmas that can't be answered - should brothers that fight like cats and dogs be on the same team or opposing? I will let you know.
Posted by DebC at 12:11 PM | Comments (2)