Going to Barcelona!

Last rush of the day here at the office before the week end and before my departure for Barcelone! Normally this is the last scheduled trip of the year and I hope that nothing new will come up because believe it or not I am definitely tired!! I still have to recover from Venise can you imagine?? I have, again, to think what to put into my luggage and I have to consider that in Barcelone the temperature is around 19 degrees...which is not bad but which complicates little things. I have, though, an exciting dinner, on Monday night, with colleague and friend from Rome, Barbara. She has an incredible love story to tell me that involves Paris, Rome and NY! So I can't wait to seat in a nice restaurant to hear all her adventures! I have a full schedule till Thursady when finally I will be back!! For this week end little surprise for Meggie : Princess on Ice at the Zenith! But I will try to find little time to write more!! For now a big kiss to all my readers!!

Now I'm the one with time on her hands........

Ciao Olga, come va?
I’m just about done my reports and I thought I’d say hello. Stephen tells me you sent him pics from France………very nice! We’re well…..busy, very busy. Joe and Steph are with their dad tonight and Steve and Angie were doing their thing. Jerry has been a HUGE help with my reports……we’re using a new system and as you know, I’m not that savvy on the computer so he helps keep me sane! He has been my angel. My kids are well…….they’re enjoying school, having friends over…. the usual. Steph’s taking piano now as well as figure skating. She’s really enjoying herself. Joe usually has 2 practices and a game per week. He just loves hockey. His dad wanted to put him in a Rep league which would have meant more games (out of town) We both decided not to go that route. I don’t know why he wanted to change things this year…….just being Steve I guess. We’ve gone through our first mediation session. It went well. Now we need to attend the last one. I hope he remains open minded. Other than that things are good. We’re preparing the house for Christmas. We’re having about 30 people over on Natale. What are you doing for the holidays? I hope all is well with Meggie, Wouter and your parents. Mine are fine. They’ll be celebrating their 40th on Dec. 31. I’m not sure what we’re going to do for them. We haven’t decided yet. Anyway, I’m getting tired so I’ll say Buona notte…..Write when you have the chance.
Take care of yourself,
A presto.
Sandra
xoxo

amici

FRIENDS: Never ask for food
ITALIANFRIENDS: Are the reason you have food.
FRIENDS: Call your parents Mr. and Mrs.
ITALIANFRIENDS: Call your parents mom and dad.
FRIENDS: Bail you out of jail and tell you what you did was wrong.
ITALIANFRIENDS: Would be sitting next to you.
FRIENDS: Have never seen you cry.
ITALIANFRIENDS: Cry with you.
FRIENDS: Know a few things about you.
ITALIANFRIENDS: Could write a book with direct quotes from you.
FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that's what the crowd is doing.
ITALIANFRIENDS: Will kick the heck of whole crowd that left you.
FRIENDS: Would knock on your door.
ITALIANFRIENDS: Walk right in and say, "I'm home!"
FRIENDS: Will take your drink away when you've had enough.
ITALIAN FRIENDS: Will look at you stumbling all over the place and say, "you better drink the rest of that, you know we don't waste!!" then they'll drive your butt home.
FRIENDS: Will talk crap to the person who talks crap about you.
ITALIAN FRIENDS: Will knock the hell out of them!!
FRIENDS: Are for a while.
ITALIANFRIENDS: Are for life.
FRIENDS: Will ignore this.
ITALIAN FRIENDS: Will forward this because they know it's true!

You know this is true…..I’m sorry I haven’t been a very good friend lately. I promise to keep in touch more often.
Love you,
tua sorella,

Sandra

Crazy!!

Night story!

Last night, around nine o'clock, Meggie was not sleeping yet. She was turning and turning in her bed and talking on her own! "Basta!!"I say from the living room but she kept complaining so I entered her room and asked her to be quiet " it's late, you have to sleep, tomorrow there's school!". Five minutes later same story. So I entered the room again but I sat, this time, on her bed and I asked her why she was not sleeping. Her answer touched my heart : " i miei occhi non possono dormire, mamma" "my eyes cannot sleep"! I hug her, kept her in my arms and told her "now it's time for your eyes to sleep, simply close them"! I kissed her good night and few seconds later she was breathing deeply. I am so lucky to have a little angel sleeping next to me!

Ricordi di Venezia...

Molto molto prosciutti!!

This is the funniest shot of our mini break in Venise! 4 women and the Italian butcher! Handsome by the way! Brigitte was totally thrilled and she was willing to buy an entire prosciutto to have a date with the guy! We entered the shop to buy huge olives from Cerignola and we had an hilarious moment. Same story on the piazza were we had lunch and we were trying to find out the name of the waiter! Was it Antonio? Or Angelo? We had 2 full heart lighted days. We made jokes, fun of men and laughed about some of our stories! Laughter is the best cure for all type of hearts : broken (Miky), angry (Florence), solitary (Brigitte), in love (Muriel) and content (mine)!

Venise!

Just around the corner..

Venise is just around the corner and, still, I have so many things to do before I leave Friday morning around 5am for the airport. I have a big fair in Barcelone in less than 2 weeks and all logistic has to be finilized by tomorrow. I have then some more dead lines on various files due also by the end of this week. Further maybe I should go to the hairdress for a nice brushing, maybe not! I have to buy a present for Meggie's friend who is having a party this Saturday. Yes another party for her! I have to do the laundry, not to forget to buy the milk and tomorrow night I have a presentation and cocktaik at the Fouquets from 5 till 9pm. I 'll rush home and prepare my luggage. I have already some ideas in mind...yes because even if I have been travelling since I was 12 I, still, don't know how to travel light. I just cannot travel with the exact number of panties matching the days that I will be away. What if...? Yes I am a "what if type". What if it's cold? What if I get stained? What if I have a sudden invitation at the Doge's Bal? So, inevitably, my lugguge weights a ton. Most of the time I cannot wear all the stuff I brought and I hate myself because I have to struggle with these heavy loads through the endless passages of the airports. But nevertheless I do it again. Tomorrow will be the same: too much stuff! So I'd better rush again because I have to get some lunch and do some other million things!

Guess who is here??

My "blog friend" Dongurigal is back to Paris for couple of weeks. Some "papers" unforseen difficulties were the reason of this trip and I am grateful to the complicated French administation of this because otherwise I would have seen "Gal" only at the end of January. We had lunch together, today, at Charly Birdy and a brief, but not unexpensive stop at Sephora! Then, just next door, a stop at Promod where Gal bought a very nice bag! We talked a lot about her new life in Vietnam and I could ask her things that are not in her blog but I know are in her heart! She looks really great, tanned and she lost also some weight! Gosh I have to move to the East to be able to fit again in those skinny jeans!! She is a very friendly person, funny, with a peculiar sense of humor (check her blog!!), sometimes she can appear "controlled" but she is a pot of emotions! But she is "red headed gal" and sooner or later her inner passion will break through! Well that's how I see her, anyway! Rendez-vous again tomorrow night for a pizza at my place! But I hope to see more of her before she is off again to Nam! Ops I was almost forgetting : she brought me two lovely chinese sticks's holders with a dragonfly on it! I love them!

Macarons!

Last week our colleague from Denver, Kathy, visited us. It was her first time in Paris and she was travelling alone so we tried our best to make her feel at home. We had two nice nights out and several lunch breaks. She just loved Paris. She visited all the "must see" from the Louvre, to Musée d'Orsey, to the Eifell Tower. She even bought some Eiffel Tower's key chains and some macarons from the very expensive patisserie La Durée! Unfortunately these delicious French delicatesses never made it to Denver. They were stopped at Charles de Gaulle's airport where some "too" efficient costums agents confiscated them from Kathy because there filled with cream! What a bunch of fuckers!! I agree that cream can kill you especially if you are diabetic but I don't see any "terroristic danger" in a macaron!The only reason behind this "legal robber" it's that they wanted to fill their stomach!! And as wishfull thinking I hope that these " so stick to the rules" agents will have the worst attack of nausea ever and regret to have improperly taken a Parisian souvenir from a poor turist!!

Buon Compleanno Nancy!!

On Your Birthday may you be gifted with all the joys of this world... May each moment, that you spend keep reminding you, of how much you are loved always. With Love, Olga

36!!

Growing...!

Meggie is invitated to a Birthday's party this Saturday. She received a formal invitation card from her school friend Huber. This is her first official outing and I am totally shocked about it. I have the feeling that she always been with me, that she is always been part of my life and at the same time wasn't just yesterday that she was born? That yesterday was quite some time ago because Meggie will be 5 in March 2007! She decides what to wear in the morning and if I try to convince her of a nice combination she will change it with the one she had in mind a minute after I let her out of my sight. She wears lipstick to go to school and wishes to have "boobies" and to be "grande" enough to wear hills. These days she is in love with Kasey, a little Chinese boy who teaches her doubtly serious things (probably I should take an appointment with her teacher!!), but before him she was "amoureuse" of Noe and before him, Jules. I hope that this will not lead to a certain sentimental instability like her mother! hahahhaah!! When I asked to her how Kasey looked she told me "he has brown hair and he is pink". Yes, love is blind also for kids!

Perfect Timing!

Dear Olga,
I had a day off from work today. No, I didn't get to sleep in, I still had to wake up early and get Madeline and Gabriel off to school. After deciding not to drag the kids out of bed earlier this morning John went ahead and took the van to work. So, off we went walking to school. The kids were very happy today, I don't usually get a chance to take them to school, that's usually Nonna's chore of the day. After saying goodbye to the kids there I was standing alone thinking I'm not going home to clean the house. I didn't feel like doing any chores, I didn't feel like doing any laundry, I didn't feel like doing anything. So I decided to go and renew my Driver's License and Health Card downtown. Since I didn't have the van I decided to take the bus downtown, but then I didn't feel like waiting around for the buses. After talking to myself for 10 minutes I found myself at a bus stop. So I decided to take the first bus to Upper Ottawa Street and get the van from John. I ended up at John's workplace, took the van, went downtown and renewed documents. I just wanted to tell you that I felt soooo alone today, I don't know why?? I should have been happy to be alone and free to do whatever I wanted to do on my day off but I wasn't. Everyone was busy, John, Norma and Sandra were at work, the kids were at school, my mother even had plans to meet with Zia Clelia for lunch today. After running around town I didn't feel like going shopping so I went home. There I was talking to myself again, deciding wheather or not to get some house work done, then looking out the front window the mail carrier passed by. I had mail!!! It was an envelope from Paris with my name on it. It was of course a letter from you. I WASN'T ALONE ANYMORE. I was soooo excited to see what you wrote me. I opened up the envelope to find yet another envelope to open. It was a gorgeous braclet attached to a beautifully written birthday card. YOUR TIMING WAS PERFECT. I couldn't believe you remember my birthday and went to the trouble of sending me a gift. It was such a nice surprise. Thank you. I really needed to know someone was thinking of me and that someone was you.I just wanted to let you know you are an amazing person, with perfect timing.
Thank you again,
Love ya,
Nancy XOXOXOX

Nancy's Birthday...November 12!!!

Well what can I say, Nancy's birthday is coming up and she'll be 36 years old...WOW!!! See how time flies!!! A whole bunch of us are going out on Saturday(Nov 11th) to celebrate not 1 but 3 birthdays including Nancy's... But she's too chicken to come out with us for the after party to Toronto. I think because she feels she won't have fun with the young group...HAHA. Me, young, that's funny!!! My birthday is just around the corner too but we won't talk about that now. This is all about NANCY!!! She's a great sister and supporter and adviser. I can't make any decisions without her. It could be from an outfit to let's say something financial . She's always there and always ready when you need her. But then again, she's there for my parents a lot as well. They can't make decisions without her neither!! It's crazy but very true!!!
Nancy, I hope you have a fantastic and memorable birthday with your family and friends!!!
Love ya "Nanny"... Your younger sis Norma!!!

Italian Dreaming

You know when people talk badly about your husband or your parents and you get irritated and start defending them immeadiately?? You are the only one who is intitled to do that, you are the only one who can say that your parents are "assholes" or your husband is a "jerk" no one else! Same thing with Italy. My country. I can talk about her defects (for me Italy is a lady!), her limits and everything that is wrong in that country but I get outraged if people describe my land such as a mafia-spaghetti eater-mandolino-pizza country! Yes there's mafia, yes we eat spaghetti, yes in Naples they play the mandolino and yes we eat pizza! But Italy it's not only that and why these people don't look at their own countries? I could write pages about the beauties of Italy, about our treasures, our originality. But I guess it would be boring. So I prefer to write about our outstanding taste for shoes and cloaths. Maybe it's shallow to care so obsessively about shoes but you can recognize an Italian a mile away. And by the sun glasses and by the matching purse/shoes. Italian men are the most well dressed in the world. They ask their "mamma" if the shirt match with the tie but you cannot deny this evidence. It's a fact. Our television's programms are the worst in Europe: half naked girls present stupid quiz shows and realities programms are on the air every night. This half naked "things" are called "veline" or "letterine" and their only "goal" in life is to date, and eventually later on marry with a football players! Goal! Clevages are welcomed but cursing God is blaspheme if you make such a mistake you are ostracised for life time from our TV chains. And you know why? Because we are a bunch of hyprocrit and because we have the Pope. I am not sure about the order though. Probably we have the Pope so we have to be hypocrit! This is why in my country it takes 3 years (yes, before it was 5) to have a divorce and if you are not married is quite complicated if not impossible to be assisted in a fertilization programme! We are one of the European countries where we pay the highstet percentage of taxes and where we had the gutts to keep a showman like Berlusconi at the Governement. Well the States had Reagan as a President and "I'll be back - Schwarzeneger" is Governor of California. But this doesn't justify us!! But even if Italy is "this" I love my country. This is the place where I was born and raised, where my parents still live and where my heart goes where I hear the national hymn and every time I see the sign "ITALIA" I have a little shiver, because Italy in her good and bad is part of me and I am part of her! Ciao Italia!

Emotions on the phone...

What an incredible day! How many emotions in little more than 12 hours! And most of these emotions came via the telephone! I could have been a living commercial for Vodafone or AT&T! After many years I talked with Yessika that I know from my days in Mexico. She used to work for Acuaski but she was more to me than a simple employee. She is now 27 and she has two kids : Regina has 10 months and Carlos the same age that Meggie. I have many memories of Yessika, her tante Paulina and her kids Juan, Cheli and Blanca. Even if I am really far away I always tried to keep contact with her and she knows that she always count on me. My letters take forever to get to her but they do arrive in the little village on the Carretera Mexico-Acapulco. Yesterday before hanging up I told her "Sabes que eres siempre in mi corazon?" (Do you know that you are always in my heart?) And Yessika answered " Si senora, lo se, y Uds tambien" (Yes I know it and you too!). In all these years I could not have her call me simply Olga but it's not the name that counts!! Then after a call with Micaela I took the courage to call Francis. Not esay call. I have to find a way to tell him that he needs to make an extra effort if he doesn't want to loose her. I have been thinking about this phone call several days. And nights. When Francis answered the phone words came out fluently and he told me with a broken voice that he loves her. He always did. Even if what he did can prove the contrary. He doesn't know what to do. I sense that he's sorry for having cheated on her but he doesn't know how to tell this. It's not so easy for everybody to open up even with the beloved ones. He thanks me for having called, he says that's "adorable!". I feel hopeful for them, for an istant, but I don't have the presmption to think that my words can help them through this rough time. They are just words but who knows...! Then I talked to my mom, shared with her my stories, kissed her good night and then went to the Queenies for an apéritif with my collegues-friends Clém, Patricia and Kathy. Then took a metro back home, tenderly touched my daughter's hair who was already deeply sleeping!

Short!

Little changement in my look. When I was in Italy, last week, I decided to cut my hair! Not out of the blue I have been thinking about it since the summer but kept on postponing the moment!!Then I said to myself "come on if you don't like it they will grow back!!" trying to convince myself but when I heard the noise of the scissors behind my neck I had a shiver and I started sweating! I know that sounds crazy but cutting my hair is like being naked among a huge crowd! Some people would love it, for me it would be a nightmare!! Don't ask me why!! Maybe because without my hair I feel like Sanson! When I saw the result I did not like it at first!! But after couple of days I decided that this new version of myself was not too bad! I think it has more caracter! And then it's not really that short but surely different from my previous haircut!! People around me seem to like it.

Paris from the boat

Bateaux-Mouches this week end with our Dutch friends! I took this pictures with my mobile, so not top quality but they are nevertheless nice views of beautiful Paris! Meggie was so happy to be with her best friend Sela!

40

Micaela turned 40!! She is the first one to reach the dreaded age! The turning point in life. But it isn't the "number" or how old we look that matters but our attitute, our inner soul and our willingness to still believe, and still dream. Miky knows that. She had forgotten it, for a moment. Now she knows that her life is in her hands. And her hands only. And nothing can be as it was. And this is good. Not easy but good. She deserves to be happy and now she knows that she deserves it. She is in Italy. She could have been in Rio, but thought that it was much better to celebrate her B-Day with her family in Rivoli. I saw her for a brief but intense moment. The tenderness of her hug meant the world to me. In two weeks we are off to Venise to celebrate ...

Nei Cieli

Some gifts are held in your Heart,

Long after your arms can no longer feel them.

In loving memory of my nonna Rita.