Can I Come Home Now?

     I do this thing where when I get behind on something, instead of catching up, I just say "Well I'm already behind. What's another day?" Which is why I didn't post yesterday even though I said I would. I went to bed at 10:30 and told myself that I would wake up in an hour and blog...ha. 

     Anyway, enough with the excuses. I guess I have some catching up to do. 

     Right now I'm in San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy. 

     PAUSE: Right now my aunt and uncle are whispering in the other room about how the other couple's kids are "flat", "low-energy", and "slow" and I want to walk in there and scream at them "NO YOU IDIOTS!!! THEY'RE WELL FREAKING BEHAVED. THEY'RE QUIET AND CALM AND NOT DISRUPTIVE!!! STOP TRYING TO MAKE YOUR CHILD LOOK GOOD!!!" What's even funnier is that I'm sure that the other couple is talking about JP and how awfully behaved and immature he is. I mean, my aunt and uncle are parents who, when their child is running screaming through crowded streets, make excuses like "He's hungry." Well, I don't know about other kids, but when I was hungry I just told my parents that I was hungry. And they got me some food. And I was fine. Jeez. 

     I'm sorry but I'm so over this.  

     Fbsidkmfnelsldlmfmdjs. 

     Okay back to being my happy self. :) :)

     We're staying in this little inn/hotel called Sette Querce. It's nice because it has two adjoining rooms so half of the space is my aunt and uncle's and the other half is mine and JP's, which basically means it's mine because JP is always in the other half annoying his parents. Ever since my uncle arrived, I've given up my nanny duties. My energy level has plummeted since getting sick (not that it was high to begin with) and hasn't really returned. Plus I figured, this kid has two parents. I ain't about to be a third. ANYWAY. On Saturday we met my aunt's friends and their family at their village estate about three miles away on this hill that overlooks the whole area (very fancy). I shall now give you a cast of characters. 

     Jonathan: my aunt's lawyer friend whom she met in Paris. He is originally from England but now lives in Sydney, Australia with his wife and two kids. He is short and bald and has an English accent. 

     Bridget: Bridget is Jonathan's wife whom he met at his law firm in Paris (she was his boss. He asked her out by email. Lol.) She's a judge. She's very straight forward but nice (at least to me) but I don't think she likes JP (I don't think any of them do). 

     Edmund: Edmund is Bridget and Jonathan's 13-year-old son. He's pretty quiet and all I really know about him is that he loves football (soccer) and is in "year 7" which is the start of "high school" in Australia. 

     Tomisina: Tomisina is Bridget and Jonathan's 9-year-old daughter. She is even quieter than Edmund and all I know about her is that she is a very picky eater, loves High School Musical, and wants to be a fashion designer. 

     Renee: Renee is Bridget's mother. She was born in Czechoslovakia (hence the accent) but now lives in Australia.  She is Jewish and both her parents were killed in concentration camps during World War II. She first met the man who would become her husband when she was 8 years old when he come to stay at her house with his brother to escape persecution in the years after World War II. Years later, she met him again in Canada and after two dates (lunch and dinner on the same day) he told her that he was leaving for business in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Hawaii and that she should come along and if they still liked each other by the end of the trip, they'd get married. She told him that she did not do those kinds of things...but that they could get married now and then go on the trip. So they did. They met on May 4th and married on May 21st. They had three weddings: a civil wedding, a Hawaiian wedding, and a Jewish wedding. They traveled all over the world but wound up settling in Australia once they had kids. It took her husband until he was 70 to admit that Australia was "not that bad". 

     Francis: Francis/Fran/Franny/Fanny is Jonathan's sister. She lives in Australia but still has a very heavy British accent. She's a high school English teacher and world traveler. When we went into a gift store with JP (sans his parents) she looked at him before he'd been in there for even three seconds and said "Right. You touch anything and I'll string you up by your toenails. Got it?" JP looked at her like she had four heads. Later she said to me, "It's my universe, my rules. Is that so unreasonable?" And I said "No not at all."

     Gisella: Gisella is Bridget's cousin who lives in Rome. She has one son who's a professional jazz musician in Brussels. She cooks good Italian food and smokes a lot. 

     The first two nights all of these people were very interesting. And then last night they spent three hours talking about politics and health care and work and I was like "gag me with a spoon". Adults can be ridiculously boring. 

     On the way home last night JP said, out of the blue, "Sometimes it just takes a little imagination to turn things around."

     So here's what I'm imagining:

     I'm at home, with my friends, eating junk food (oh, Italian food is not even that good, by the way. At least the food I've had. Except for the pizza. The pizza was good. And the gelato) and watching movies and playing games and laughing about stupid things and staying up too late. I feel like I haven't laughed in decades. I'm ready to come home. I'm sorry for complaining. I know I have no right. I just...I can't fake it. I tried to. But that just means I don't post at all. 

Day 953 Song Recommendation: "Keep You Warm" by Jason Gladwin. 

Day 954 Song Recommendation: "Summer Thunder" by Roo Panes

-SE Wagner