<p>wecandothis, ^^^^I believe that ability is one of the prerequisites for being an Italian man.</p>
<p>I take it that Italian soccer players are nowhere in any circle of hell?</p>
<p>Alu–not if they behave themselves ;)</p>
<p>Springfield–got that right, nobody likes to be on hold, and nobody likes to be stuck in a circular system with faulty voice recognition and no way to call for a live person OR leave a message. (Grrrrr…that’ll drive ya to drink!)</p>
<p>My favorite insurance company story is being on hold for 10 or 15 minutes, until I finally called back and found they had been closed for 10 minutes, and just left me on hold! I was steamed.</p>
<p>So yay for real live helpful people!</p>
<p>mommusic- oh, he was very well-behaved! funny thing was that right after that, Italy moved up to d’s top spot to visit in the entire world (I’m still trying to convince her to see the USA first…)</p>
<p>what a great memory of college trips with my d, though…
on the confidence building scale, it’s right up there with being proofed…
last time that happened was at the Pepper concert at House of Blues (I was deignated adult for d and her friends) and the door guy asked to see my ID, so I said"you’re kidding right?" so he said “Are you over 21?” dead serious, so I said “Very” in a slightly withering tone…and he looked a little closer and finally said, “OK”…I mean it took him SECONDS to see that I was over 21 …haha</p>
<p>so, Alu, back to your question, no ISP’s in my personal circle of hell!</p>
<p>Dear GOD no; in fact my personal vision of HEAVEN is populated entirely by Italian soccer players and Italian chefs. Mustn’t forget the PIZZA, right P2N?! </p>
<p>Oh and we can throw in some Italian cobblers (Ferragamo) for Alu. Am I forgetting anything? Yeah, Italian vintners. We need a few of them too.</p>
<p>pasta anyone? I’m in!</p>
<p>can we get good wine to with the pasta???</p>
<p>Prego!!! 10char</p>
<p>fantasy soccer anyone?</p>
<p>Or, as the Italians my sister and I passed as we walked through a plaza in Venezia or Milano (can’t remember locations, can remember events…) when we were, respectively, 20 and 17, said,</p>
<p><em>Alu takes a breath</em></p>
<p>“Ciao bella!”</p>
<p>BTW, can we include Italian sheets? To sprawl across when we have consumed said vino e pasta? When we say, drowsily, “Basta”…</p>
<p>Gotta love a country where the words for noodles and enough rhyme.</p>
<p>wecandothis - LOL!</p>
<p>hmmm, my d will definitely need her mommy to watch over her if she ever gets to make that trip to Italy…
alu- were we saying “Basta” to the vino e pasta…
or to the ISP?
because my brain immediately went to the later!</p>
<p><strong>giggles knowingly</strong></p>
<p>Why do I feel that we have begun to write a joint romance novel?</p>
<p>Someone named Antonella will enter soon.</p>
<p>I feel bad for the guys…</p>
<p>Italian lovers might be nowere near the circles of hell but Italian husbands?</p>
<p>That’s a spicy inferno!</p>
<p>oh yes, time for that naughty Antonella…</p>
<p>Italian husbands? hmm, as in Tony Soprano? yes, circle of hell with that one</p>
<p><strong>sigh</strong></p>
<p>I really must get back to work, but this is much spicier!</p>
<p>Can one get to “basta” with an ISP? One can only try…</p>
<p>cheers, LOL</p>
<p>I have to chime in, since the subject is Italians, apparently. Just saw the movie “Moonstruck” this weekend (library rental) and have to recommend it! Somehow we missed it when it came out in '87 (or the thought of Cher in a movie didn’t appeal). Also stars the queen of aging well, Olympia Dukakis, and the surprisingly buff Nicholas Cage (or was that a body double in the early scene?) Lots of Italian family love/hate relationships, and great Italian music–from tarentella style to opera.</p>
<p>LOL Cage was very buff in that movie. I remember enjoying it very much - I’d never thought much of Cher, but she impressed me there and also in The Witches of Eastwick.</p>
<p>Favorite “Moonstruck” dailogue, after “Snap out of it!!”, of course:</p>
<pre><code> “You are a big liar, okay, because I have a ring right here!”
“Oh, I must ask for that back.”
“Alright, the engagement is off.”
“In time you will see that this was the best thing!”
“In time, you’ll drop dead and I’ll come to your funeral in a red dress!”
</code></pre>
<p>Nick may have been buff but he was not the best at acting.</p>
<p>Cher and Olympia stole the show…</p>
<p>D was home for spring break, and back to school already. She spoils the dog, leaves and we spend the next month deprogramming the bratty dog.</p>
<p>We get the dog back to normal, and she shows up again. We may spend the summer reprogramming D, not bratty d.</p>
<p>I adored Moonstruck. Loved everything about it. </p>
<p>Another great piece of dialog was Olympia Dukakis to John Mahoney on why she wouldn’t fool around with him: “I know who I am.”</p>
<p>Hey, hi everybody! Fill me in on what’s going on in the real world. I see Mootie on my friends list every day, but we’re both too busy in Second Life to catch up on the reality-du-jour. </p>
<p>Sluggson is out of college, fini, kaput, nada student anymore! At least, for the time being. So, we’re not-so-gently shoving him out of the nest. He has a pretty new girlfriend and says that he is the happiest he’s been all year. Thank gawd, he’s got friends whose parents are one step ahead of us and are paying for their sons’ shared apartment, because for our sake and for his, he sleeps over there a lot. I’m doing my part by giving them a scroungy denim couch (not the one from the front porch) and a 1980’s Barcalounger.</p>
<p>He’s submitting job apps all over town and getting a jump on the rush of job apps that will happen over Spring Break. I guess I’ll drag myself to one of his shows next week. His band has several gigs coming up, and strangely, I feel like he’s safer with them than he was around the meth dealers who preyed on the college students near campus and the heavy drinkers from his graduating class who went to college last September and came back to party at their parents’ houses over the holiday break. Two of the band members smoke cigarettes, but I nag them all the time to quit because now I’m their band mom. I give them Bandaids for their fingers, I keep the garage fridge stocked with Odwallas, and I share my economy-size bottle of Advil with the backup guitarist who gets migraines.</p>
<p>Oy, 19-year old males remind me of adolescent bull elephants with their musk glands oozing all over the place and their uncontrollable urge to charge things. I am officially hanging up TCFFH (The College Freshman From Hell) crown for someone else to use. It’s all yours, fellow barflies!</p>
<p>I have decided to act dignified, so I’ll be at the end of the bar sipping a pomegranate martini from Bridges in Danville, the place where they filmed the restaurant scene in the movie, Mrs. Doubtfire. Here’s to adolescent bull elephants and the freshman year rollercoaster! :)</p>