4 February, 2007 | 12 Comments

Beangreen left a comment on my previous post that sort of sums up my life at the moment. I love it when my friends leave comments on my blog. Unlike my blog readers, they just cut right to the chase — and use obscenities when necessary.

I think I need a bit of a hiatus from the blog. I need some time to sort out my life. If I do this while writing my blog, my life becomes entertainment. That’s not healthy for me at this time.

I’ll be back in a bit, I hope. Be well.

xx

4 February, 2007 | 2 Comments

Me: “I’ll just keep my bags packed in case the cops come looking for me.”

My friend: “They would understand the situation.”

Don’t even ask!

3 February, 2007 | 2 Comments

I had plans to go out today, but I woke up this morning feeling terribly nauseous. And this feeling lasted most of the day. So I canceled my plans and stayed home and I wasn’t happy about it. I did not want to be at home today.

I wasn’t surprised at how I was feeling, though. I’ve been through several very stressful weeks and today I felt the physical manifestation of everything I’ve put my body through — the non-stop worry, anxiety, lack of sleep, poor eating habits (as in, not eating very much and when I did eat, replacing the vegetable food group with the croissant food group). I’d gotten myself into such a state that sometimes I’d wake up in the middle of the night and feel that I couldn’t breathe. It’s easy to forget just how detrimental stress and anxiety and depression are to one’s physical well-being.

This is really inexcusable because I know better than this. By this age, I know that I cannot just coast through my life. I have to pay attention to how I’m feeling, to my moods and stress levels. Otherwise, I head down a dangerous path. So now I must pull myself up and start living consciously again, to eat better, to meditate, to force myself to walk several miles each day, which is something I dearly love but it’s tough in the wintertime. I’m not sure where I’ll find the strength to do this, but I’ll have to.

My nausea is gone by now, thank goodness. It was like a fever burning through my body. Peppermint tea helped. And tonight I visited La Maison du Sushi for California rolls. Salmon = brain food. That’s a good first step.

3 February, 2007 | 6 Comments

I wrote a post about Italian men right after I got home but forgot to post it! Oh dear. Well, here it is….

French men are flirtatious, but Italian men leave them in the dust. They just flirt so unashamedly. Once I was standing on a street corner in Florence, waiting for the light to change. This guy walked up next to me, stopped, lit his cigarette and then said, “Hello, dahling.” Then he just walked off. Very impressive. Another time, a teenage boy walked up to me and said, “Hello Miss, what is up?” Very hard not to laugh at that. It was bizarre how many times men on the street would say things to me in English. How on earth did they know that I speak English? I never said anything to them.

I already wrote about my encounters with the lusty receptionist at my hotel in Rome. One night I was sitting in the lobby doing a few e-mails. I was wearing my glasses and had my hair in a ponytail. What’s wrong with that? He begged me to take my hair down and remove my glasses. Actually, he began to remove the elastic from my hair before I’d even answered him. He then proceeded to tell me I was attempting to hide my beauty and that I didn’t want anyone to notice me. He then told me that I was not to come back to the lobby like that again! I normally would have told this guy to mind his own business, but I was sorta stunned at his forwardness. And then I began to wonder if he was right about why I sometimes dress the way I do.

The most colorful encounter I had was with a guy named Antonio. I transcribed my conversation with him because, you know, it was deliciously corny.

…chitchat…

Antonio: “Do you have a boyfriend waiting for you back in England?”

Anglofille: “I’m not English.”

Antonio: “American?”

Anglofille: “Si.”

Antonio: “Oh, I love Americans! They are so much more expensive.”

Anglofille: “Expensive?”

Antonio: “No, uh….expressive.”

(more…)

1 February, 2007 | 5 Comments

From “Black.” This song always gets to me.

“I know some day you’ll have a beautiful life
I know you’ll be a sun
In somebody else’s sky
but why … why… why…
can’t it be… can’t it be mine…

We…
We belong…
We belong together
together…
We…
We belong…
We belong together… oh yeah…”

*sigh*

1 February, 2007 | Comments are off

President Jacques Chirac thinks it’s no big deal if Iran gets a nuke:

“Where would Iran drop this bomb? On Israel?” he asked. “It would not have gone off 200 meters into the atmosphere before Tehran would be razed to the ground,” Chirac was quoted as saying by the three publications.

He later attempted to retract this statement.

In other news, today a tough new smoking ban went into effect in France — no more smoking in workplaces, schools, shops and hospitals. Next year, it’s cafés and bars. In this nation of puffers, I don’t think today was a happy one.