Archive for the ‘me me me’ Category
What’s That Saying About Wild Horses?
Right, um, I know I said I wouldn’t be around, but I have some things to share:
1. Want to know more about life as an expat? Check out my post, Top 5 Hidden Advantages of Being an Expat, over at ExpatInterviews.com.
2. Looking for a quick end-of-the-summer getaway in which there will be flying fruit? Put on your best Gallagher plastic and read my post, The World’s Biggest Tomato Fight: Bunol’s La Tomatina at TomatoCasual.com.
3. Hankering for a bag o’ books and bath goodies? Head on over to Welcome to My World of Dreams where you could win such a bag (if you’re a US or Canada resident) or a $30 Amazon gift certificate if you’re international like me–I didn’t read too closely the first time around, but Judy Thomas was lovely enough to come over here and point out that we’re *all* invited to the party celebrating the launch of Long and Short Reviews no matter where we live! Woohoo!
4. Missing What’s Cooking Wednesday? Here are two food-related sites that I found recently and have fallen in love with: Chowhound.com and The Traveler’s Lunch Box. Seriously. LOVE.
5. And finally, have you reached the end of the Internet? Don’t know what else to read? Here are five posts/blogs I recommend:
- 5 Powerful Reasons to Eat Slower at Zen Habits. This kind of builds on our discussion about obesity and weight loss from a little while ago but comes from a different angle. If you haven’t seen this site and are remotely interested in becoming a more peaceful, productive, happier, oh just better person, this is a great place to start.
- Introversion at Crazy Dust in My Coffee. Being quite an introvert myself, I love how Ally Bean broke this down so that even the most extroverted of extroverts can understand–or at least I hope they can because I don’t think it can be explained much better.
- The Seven Virtues: Charity at The Verge. I could link to any one of former-Italy-expat Jennifer’s posts and sing its praises, but since I love this particular one so much, here you go. I’ve never seen another blogger who incorporates fine art so seamlessly into her posts. It’s too beautiful for words, really.
- Mysteries of Life at Burnett’s Urban Etiquette. This post is from a while ago, but I adore it as I do all of this Miami Herald contributor’s stuff. James Burnett has a knack for pinpointing exactly what I want to say about a given topic *or* giving me a new perspective that I hadn’t considered. I think that’s cool, so you should read him.
- Also, my naval is pretty at The Moon Topples. These are Maht’s (grudgingly given) answers to a meme about what he likes about himself. I just heart the way Maht expresses himself through his various creative mediums, and I think a lot of you will too. If his answers to a meme made my recommended list, you know he’s good.
OK, now I’m really vacationing from the blog. If I ever have children, you think separation anxiety might be a wee bit of a problem?
Still wishing you were here!
i’m back with an interview with…me!
Just a quick note to direct you to an interview I did with My Melange: Infusing European Culture into Your Lifestyle.
Check me out, would you? Be forewarned that I’m about to get in your face! Hah!
You’ll understand in a moment.
Wish you were here!
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[tags]ionian sea, sea, calabria, montepaone, southern italy[/tags]
i’m a tomato blogger!
Go over to TomatoCasual.com and check out my post, The Tomato: A Relatively New Addition to the Dinner Table, and then click on the home page to see all the posts.
The site was just launched today, so be sure to bookmark it and/or subscribe so you can learn more about the tomato than you ever thought possible–its history, how to grow them, how to cook them, and much, much more.
On a personal note, I’ve spent all day today with some American friends in town (yeah for English!), and we’re having a blast. Just got back from the beach, so it’s time to shower off the sand and head to dinner.
Hope your Monday is/was just as lovely as mine!
weighty issues
I normally don’t discuss such things here, but I’m truly curious to hear your take on this.
I read an article on Msnbc.com called “With Friends Like These” about a study that found that obesity is contagious and that it spreads through social networks of friends even if those friends live thousands of miles apart.
Seriously.
Let me give you my take:
Until we start accepting responsibility for our actions, owning all of our experiences and choices (good and bad), and really, truly respecting and honoring our bodies through our choices of what we put in them and do to them, the obesity problem will continue–and I’m not just talking about the United States here as it’s becoming a problem in many countries around the world, including Italy.
Let’s leave aside drug and alcohol issues for the moment while we also recognize that there are absolutely similarities in all types of addictions that harm the body.
I share the following as background, so you can understand where I’m coming from on this one:
You can’t tell much from my little head shot up there, but I’m not skinny. I don’t think I ever was (doctors put me on a diet when I was less than a year old–how’s that for setting someone up for life?), and I don’t imagine I ever will be. And that’s fine with me because I feel good and healthy and know that I’m doing my best to be good to my body.
Over the last few years, I’ve been working on developing a better relationship with food, understanding nutrition, listening to what my body tells me it needs, and doing more physical exercise than I’ve ever done in my life. I’ve lost a good bit of weight, but the best thing about all this is that I feel like I’m taking better care of the only thing that’s really mine in the world.
And it feels wonderful.
And no, I’m not perfect–last night for dinner I had a big ole steak and french fries. And it was delicious. I’ll probably have a gelato later. And I’ll probably never lose the last 5-10 pounds I should, according to the Body Mass Index because of it. So be it. A lot of people are at so-called healthy weights but they aren’t healthy in the least (so many skinnies that I know smoke more than the Marlboro Man), so who’s really to say what’s best for me but me?
But enough about me. I’m interested in what you think about the study.
Was it worth studying? Do friends make somebody fat? Family? How much influence do your family and friends have over what you do?
Obviously certain medical disorders cause weight gain, but aside from such causes, what are the real reasons for obesity? Who or what really is to blame? How can we stop this epidemic?
Do you care? Should the government care? If so, how should it go about caring, so to speak?
I’d love to hear some of your experiences and opinions on this issue.
This is a touchy subject, so I do ask that you be as kind as possible if you decide to share your thoughts. I look forward to reading them.
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[tags]weight, losing weight, gaining weight[/tags]
Breaking Up Isn’t Hard to Do: My Decision to Leave the Law
OK, continuing in my answers to the questions you asked to help me fill out JennieBoo‘s eight things meme, (see parts one and two of my answers if you need to catch up), today I’m taking on NYC/Caribbean ragazza’s million-dollar domanda regarding my move to Italy:
“How did you decide to leave the law? Were you afraid about making money?”
This question required much more than a few sentence answer, so I’m devoting a whole blog post to it—but I’ll start with the quick answers:
Quite easily, and of course.
Now to expand a bit. Beware for a roundabout, but we’ll get there.
I never actually wanted to be a lawyer. Well, maybe when I was in high school, but what do you really know about anything then anyway? Have you seen photos of yourself from those years?
*shudder*
And yet it was always set in my head to go to law school once I finished college. I think, quite honestly, that it was just so ingrained in me (by myself) by the time my senior year came around, that I just did it without much thinking. That’s what smart, overachieving (working class) people do, right? They do things like become doctors and lawyers. Writers? Too risky!
Sure, I considered grad school for English or history, but never really seriously—and only as an additional part to law school.
Truth be told, I always knew I’d end up writing for a living. I could’ve done an Master of Fine Arts or gone to work for a publishing company right out of college (and perhaps I should have), but I figured the law would give me something solid, respectable if you will, as a back-up. Not a back-up career, mind you, but a back-up skill set.
I promise to post another time on the wisdom of this thinking, but I’ll get too off-track if I do that right now.
So, suffice it to say, that my decision to leave the law wasn’t very difficult; when the itch to move to Italy struck, I was in the middle of a 2-year appellate clerkship, which for those who don’t know, is fancy schmancy way of saying you work for a judge, researching and writing memorandums on the cases s/he hears.
I was going to have to do something different when the clerkship was up in August of 2003, and after I got stuck on Italy, I thought, well, here’s your chance.
Was I worried about making money? Sure, but I had some savings to tide me over for a while. I had done a bit of freelancing/contract work throughout law school, so I carried those contacts with me; since then I’ve gained many more of course.
Now to be clear, I’m still actually a lawyer (paying dues and whatnot) and I still do legal work–I just don’t do it the traditional way in a firm or, you know, the United States. The Internet is a lovely thing (now with broadband!).
Changing careers is always difficult—doing it while changing countries/continents/languages/cultures too, well, perhaps that’s kind of insane.
And if I had the chance, I’d do it all over again–exactly as I did the first time.
Sometimes you just need to be brave enough to take that first step,
and the rest seems to happen on its own.
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
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