Archive for the ‘me me me’ Category
2008 End of the Year Meme
It’s time for the end of the year meme!
I first saw this Year End meme at Sundry Mourning, who originally copied it from Gwen’s Petty, Judgmental, Evil Thoughts back in 2004. I filled it out in 2006 and 2007, and now here is this year’s version:
1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before? Read several books in Italian, knitted with a loom, wrote 50,000 words in a month, visited Palermo, Messina, Savoca and Tindari (including the Sanctuary of the Black Madonna), ate spleen, wrote a weekly column, went to an Italian dentist.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don’t really do resolutions, but I did make a list of goals, and I did pretty well with them. I’ll do it again for next year.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Quite a few expat bloggers had babies, but no one in my immediate family or circle of friends, no.
4. Did anyone close to you die? My neighbor from back home passed away recently, but no one else, thank goodness.
5. What countries did you visit? Only Italy.
6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? An all-expense paid trip to the States.
7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? November 4–Gobama!
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? The expansion of my writing career and writing 50,000 words during November.
9. What was your biggest failure? Not completing a novel (yes, I have 50,000 words written, but there were others I could have worked on before November’s NaNo).
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Another nasty stomach virus this year. Seems to be a tradition according to last year’s answer.
11. What was the best thing you bought? I would love to say these boots, but they haven’t arrived yet. Damn you Poste Italiane! These are my Christmas and birthday presents to myself! The items I got from Saponissimo are pretty darn amazing as well…who knew you could love soap this much?
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My mom! She came to visit me!
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Could it possibly be the Bush administration for the third straight year? Yes, I believe it is.
14. Where did most of your money go? Bills and groceries. Boo.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? My mom coming to visit, going to Sicily with Cherrye, and going to see the Sex and the City movie with the girls.
16. What song will always remind you of 2008? TI’s Whatever You Like, because of this stunning performance by the students of Ron Clark Academy: You Can Vote However You Like. H/t Paul.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer? I’m pretty happy, probably about the same as last year, a bit thinner (see #10), and richer for sure. Woohoo!
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Worked on my novel.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Huh. I don’t know. Let conservative people annoy me?
20. How did you spend Christmas? As I’m posting this before Christmas, I’ll just have to say with P. That’s a given.
21. Did you fall in love in 2008? Yeah with the usual suspects, P and my girls.
22. What was your favorite TV program? House, Sex and the City (yes I’m a bit behind the times).
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Takes too much energy to hate so I avoid doing it.
24. What was the best book you read? The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
25. What was your greatest musical discovery? I’m changing this to literary because I don’t think I made a musical discovery…Paulo Coelho.
26. What did you want and get? More writing work.
27. What did you want and not get? A visit from my whole family.
28. What was your favorite film of this year? Well it’s not the best film but I sure had the most fun watching it–Sex and the City.
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 32, and we had a fabulous dinner of grilled tuna and homemade french fries. Yum!
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Same answer for the past two years: if someone in my family or close circle of friends from home would have visited or if I would’ve been able to go home.
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008? Long live the track suit!
32. What kept you sane? My pooches and the magical world of books.
33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I’ll be honest here. Hugh Laurie is really growing on me.
34. What political issue stirred you the most? What political issue *didn’t* stir me this year? Hmm….
35. Who did you miss? Other than the usual suspects, this year I really missed one friend from college in particular. I’ve thought about our 8-hour car rides to and from school quite a bit, and I wish we had just *one* more Christmas break to go back to school from.
36. Who was the best new person you met? All the girls in Calabria and Sicily.
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008. Relaxing is good.
38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. The Beatles’ classic, Let it Be. Did you know that “Mother Mary” is acutally Paul’s mother, who passed away when he was young and then appeared to him a dream? And did you know my mom’s name is Mary? I love this song, but it’s especially applicable this year:
When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Let it be, let it be.
Let it be, let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.
Let me know if you do the year end meme!
why i love il farmacista in italy
Pharmacies in Italy run very differently from those in the United States.
I bring this up now because on Friday I finally broke down and went to la farmacia (farm-uh-CHEE-ah) after feeling not-so-good for a few weeks.
It started with a virus, but then every few days I’d get abdominal pains and was just generally rundown.
Why not go straight to the doctor?
I hate going to the doctor, and I know I’m not alone in that. The biggest part of the annoyance for me is having to wait around with a bunch of sickies who may be sicker than I am and/or with different problems, and possibly catching what they have on top of whatever I have.
But Italy lets me avoid that ever so slightly because here the logical first stop is il farmacista, the pharmacist, who can also diagnose your symptoms and give you medications that require prescriptions–and you only pay for the meds, not the advice.
My pharmacist is here every day but Sunday (he’s even here some Sundays as pharmacies are required by law to rotate so that one is open every Sunday in a given area), so it’s also rather convenient as he’s just a few steps down the Corso.
Once I’m there, I describe my symptoms, and he lets me know if I should go to the doctor or hospital or if he can provide something to help along the healing process.
Best of all, I live in a village of about 350 people. I’ve had to wait in a line (of one person ahead of me) precisely one time in five years.
Read: no shouting your symptoms across the desk in a room full of people. So that’s nice too.
Now, granted, something *very* annoying about the pharmacy system in Italy is that you have to *ask* the pharmacist for just about everything medical you can imagine–think vitamins, regular strength painkillers, cold medicine, yeast infection meds (ladies, I know you hear me on this). I’m spoiled as my mom sends me these things, but that’s more because many of these things are also ridiculously expensive here.
Anyway, I am happy to report that since my pharmacist gave me meds on Friday, I have felt so amazingly better that I have resolved to stop complaining about having no drugstore where I can buy everything over-the-counter, without describing of symptoms or asking anyone for help in the unlocking of cabinets that hold controversial items like tampons, lipstick, and shampoo.*
And that is why I love il farmacista in Italy.
Today anyway.
*For the record, we can buy tampons, lipstick, and shampoo in places other than pharmacies, thank goodness.
Have you dealt with il farmacista?
What say you?
My Christmas Articles Elsewhere
When freelance writers get the Christmas spirit, you get links to Christmas articles! All by me, but hey, they’re free!
I can’t believe we’re already a week into December, although maybe I can a little as I’ve been writing about Christmas for a couple weeks now.
So just in case you’re not quite feeling the holiday spirit, or if you are and just *love* to feed that addiction, here are some of my recent holiday-themed articles:
- Christmas Presepi Markets in Naples at Italy Magazine: “The presepi, or Nativity scenes, of Naples are probably the most famous in the world, and the markets along Via San Gregorio Armeno give us the opportunity to build our own from the straw up.”
- 5 Christmas Traditions Around the World at BootsnAll Travel: “If you’re tired of the same old food, weather, and, ahem, people this holiday season, now may be the time for you to experience Christmas traditions from around the world.” Virtual trips to Australia, Italy, Austria, Brazil, and New York City are included free of charge.
- Immaculate Conception: Start of the Holiday Season in Italy at Italy Magazine: “Although in other countries, you might begin to hear Christmas carols at the end of November, in Italy, holiday celebrations begin on 8 December with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary or L’Immacolata Concezione della Beata Vergine Maria.”
So…are you in the holiday spirit yet?
who’s afraid of the NaNoWriMo wolf?
Not I!
Date of death: 11/29/2008
Time of death: 4:32 pm
Official word count: 50,017
Amount of editing required: Let’s not talk about that now.
A celebratory evening with P, 1408, a warm fire, and cioccolata calda:
Priceless.
Thank you all for your support this month and always!
********
Be sure to come back tomorrow for a *fabulous* book giveaway and guest post by Diana Spechler, author of Who by Fire!
hi, weird? it’s me…random!
I was tagged recently by Salena of The Daily Rant to share seven weird and random things about me.
Here are the rules:
1. Link to Highway Hags and list the rules on your blog.
2. Share seven facts about yourselves on your blog — some random and some weird.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their name as well as links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
I’ll end the suspense here and tell you I won’t be tagging anyone, but if you’d like to play along in the comments or on your blog, I’d love to read all about your weirdness and randomness!
Now, I’ve done a few of these in the past and also generally shared a lot of strange stuff about me, so I’m going with a theme here–something I don’t think I’ve covered.
Weird or random food combinations that I enjoy:
1. Chicken (noodle or rice) soup with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I have no idea where this one originated because neither my mother nor my grandmother would ever have given me something so odd together. I’m guessing this one came up early on during my college years when beggars couldn’t be choosers.
2. Peanut butter and banana sandwich. I don’t think this one is *so* weird, but I know it’s not exactly normal either. In any event, it definitely comes from childhood because I’ve been eating these as long as I can remember. Here is my method: peanut butter spread on one slice of bread; banana cut in half and then sliced longways; the two pieces are placed on the side with peanut butter and then covered with another slice of bread.
Yes, you could slice the banana, but my way gives you more banana for your buck with each bite, IMHO. And yes, then I usually eat the other half of the banana.
3. Tuna salad sandwich made a particular way. And the way is this: tuna, mayonnaise, sliced hard-boiled egg, and chopped celery on toast with lettuce and tomato. If I don’t have one of these ingredients, I won’t even make tuna salad. Seriously.
4. Cheese sandwich with ketchup and mustard. I know this sounds disgusting. I thought so too before my childhood best friend convinced me to try one at her house somewhere around second or third grade. It’s become a strange comfort food for me-just a squirt of ketchup on one slice of bread, a squirt of mustard on the other, and a slice of cheese in between. Easy cheesy.
5. Bagel sandwich with thinly sliced provolone, honey dijon mustard, and lettuce. Perhaps this is the grown-up version of #4, and not all that random or weird, but I don’t think it’s a very common favorite sandwich, so I’m including it here.
One day when I was just off campus during college, I was starving and didn’t have much cash on me (we mostly used “food points” to eat plus see #1); I went to my favorite bagel place and realized I had enough money for *some* sandwich, but nothing with meat. So I went with this one, and wow, it’s been a favorite ever since.
6. Wendy’s french fries dipped in a chocolate Frosty. I’m not sure I need to explain this. Just. Yum.
7. Sauerkraut, German sausage/pork/hot dog, mashed potatoes, and applesauce. What’s so weird about this? Besides that it is our traditional New Year’s Day meal where I’m from (no matter your ethnicity), it’s the fact that when I eat this, every forkful must contain some of each of those items.
So there you have it.
I have a weird (or is it random?!) feeling that someone else tagged me with this or something similar. If it’s you, please leave a note in the comments, and I’ll link to you and offer my sincerest apologies for not bookmarking your tag.
What’s weird and/or random about you?
Do you like strange food combinations?
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
Calabria Guidebook
Recipes
