Anne's posterous

Move

If you haven't seen this, you should:   3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage... all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ....into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films.....

Life is Like a Four-Door Peugeot

We are not light packers.  Rick Steves makes a lot of sense with his one light backpack and sturdy pair of shoes, but the reality is that we needed those three pairs of sandals and multiple outfits per day.  (Thank God we weren't traveling in winter!)  So, when we arrived in Milan I waited with the luggage (2 large bags and 2 smaller ones for the three of us) while our daughter went to meet her friend who was flying in from Warsaw.  Fortunately the friend is a seasoned traveler, and her bag was a reasonable size.  Nevertheless, when we arrived at the car rental counter to pick up our vehicle we laughed.  The car was a very comfortable, perfectly suited four-door Peugeot which seemed impossibly small for the four of us and all that luggage.  

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We (mostly my husband and daughter) made several attempts at cramming more than two bags into the trunk, but it wasn't going to happen.  At this point I was ready to go back to the car rental office and "trade up" to a larger vehicle.  I was ready to give up, in other words.  But, with advanced Tetris skills all that luggage was manipulated up/down/sideways/in the backseat/in the trunk/stacked/unstacked until it was determined that not only the luggage but also all of us could fit comfortably for the 2-1/2 hour drive from Milan to the Cinque Terre.  We were exhilarated at overcoming the challenge.

So the moral of the story is Don't Give Up!  Perseverance pays.  Try again and keep on trying.  It will save you money, it will reward you in your relationships, it will exhilarate you.  That four-door Peugeot was a pleasure to drive on those curvy roads in Liguria, the perfect size to park in Vernazza, and kept up with the Audi's on the Autostrada.  We might have enjoyed our trip in another vehicle, but we worked for that Peugeot and we loved it all the more because of that experience.  When all else fails - Try Again.

Facebook Faux Pas

I had a discussion with my husband last night about what he considered inappropriate posts on my Facebook page from a "friend". When I took a look I realized the posts were from a former colleague I was never really close to, but who I friended at his request because it seemed rude not to.  What was I thinking?  This guy is older, which should (but sometimes doesn't) equate to "knowing better".  He's married with children the age of my children, but is obviously not too tech saavy.  The posts in question used language like "Has Anne ever lied to you?", and the tag line said:  "via who would u kiss."  What was he thinking?  Isn't this something 13 year olds do?  

My solution was to unfriend him and remove the posts.  Why would I take the chance that he might do something else dumb?  Over reaction?  I don't really think so.  If this kind of thing continues to happen, then I'll have to decide if its really worth it to keep my Facebook account up.  What do you think?  

Living this summer like we did in Italy

Our first trip to Italy just a few weeks ago is still on my mind.  We "lived" in a villa on the side of a mountain (at least it was a mountain to this flatlander from Texas) in Liguria, 9 km from the town of Varese Ligure, which we never learned how to pronounce.  No one in the town spoke much English, and we certainly didn't speak much Italian, so we did the best we could and everyone was so nice to us.  

We gloried in our gorgeous surroundings at "Le Moggie" (http://oaxaca.zobyhost.com/liguria/index.htm), we ate breakfast on the terrace, went for walks, talked, drove around the countryside, drank wine and prosecco and ate some more.  We visited some of the towns of the Cinque Terre and visited Lucca, but mostly we relaxed.  There was no TV and no internet access, no phone calls or work to be done.  It was glorious.

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Now that we're back home I want to bring Italy back with me, and I think its actually doable.  I can't bring Le Moggie, nor can I bring those gorgeous hillsides, but there is prosecco to be had, and bread and cheese.  I'm going to try my hand at pesto and the basil in the garden is thriving.  There are local melons, and the tomatoes are starting to turn pink, and the pool is warm enough for a quick swim before dinner.  The evenings are long and there's nothing interesting on TV now that the Dallas Mavericks have won the NBA Championship, so its time to leave my computer alone and water the plants, sit on the patio, have a nice glass of wine with dinner and relax, just like Italy.