an update for blair, about my trip to italia, and musings at the end of a long, hot summer
and who among us remembers last summer, when there were four adults living in my house, and six hof girls, all unemployed (is that right?) and i gave myself little assignments, like writers to study (salinger first, then fitzgerald-also there was an intensive survey of short fiction, remember that?) and concluded a self-propelled philosophy course (i had always regretted not taking philosophy in college) with a mildly intensive kirkegaard review (though i never learned to spell his name). and i wrote letters, did housework and yardwork, remodeled and redecorated the living room. there was architecture, too, i studied architecture last summer. that was the fifth summer in a row that was supposed to be, julia's last fun summer, yet-stay in school, kids, because each one has surpassed the previous in overall greatness, and WORKING this summer has levitated it into another catagory entirely. so im happy.
which is not terribly suprising, when my 'workday' consists of being taken out to lunch and coffee and shmoozing with judges and attorneys all day, discussing big cases that are followed by all the newspapers, and, of course, doing thought-provoking legal research. and these are the public defenders.
new orleans is definitely the place to do capital defense, and i have learned so much that i couldnt learn at the school, that i am feeling a little reluctant to get back to, but once im there i will be
happy.
ive started reading again, really reading, like the kind that hadnt happened since before law school and east of edenime. but the books are stacking up now on the nightstand-im almost finished the nature notebooks, by jon mitchell? i got it from the new hardbacks section of the public library, which im planning to frequent these next three weeks. it goes along with my daily newspaper reading over toast and coffee, and my incessant npr listening during my commute to 'the office.' or tulane and broad.
its about ecoterrorism. and sex. also, its about writing, which is good, and im hoping it will be a good transition from criminal defense to environmental activism, which is apparently what im involved in at iu. or environmental law anyway.
im on global journal, ps.
ITALIA
of course i had a stack of books, titled florence, italy, rome, venice, michelangelo, in my room, and i tried to learn about the history and the art beforehand-i even made flashcards to say, wine, beer, can you reccommend a good vegetarian restaurant? i rented roman holiday.
what i pictured was sun, vineyards, terra cotta, olive trees-i was right, it was GORGEOUS.
laura and i left-well, first i flew to birmingham to meet laura, where we obsessed over rick steve (alright, who's got rick?) and our minimalist packing accomplishments. the next day we went to church and had lunch with
LINDSAY
who is back from taiwan with cute clothes and cute haircut, and she is just so cool, and i missed her, and i wish she was here with me right now, at this second. fall break. so lindsay gave us this grab bag present that we had to carry all the way to rome, that had taiwanese presents for julia, laura, and blair, the whole time we were learning to count on the way to atlanta, painting our nails at amy's, sitting on the tiny plane waiting to go to stormy philedelphia, taxiing in philly, running through the airport at breakneck speed-and then we were on our big empty airplane, eating dinner, watching 50 first dates, and falling asleep spread out across the middle row with our feet together.
we passed over corsica as we flew in, around sunrise.
we sat with the cutest british/american couple on the way from roma to firenze-no, that was to roma termini-, and blair was there-blair! in the train station to meet us. in firenze. she had lunch waiting for us at elizabetta's beautiful apartment in porto romano in south firenze. we opened our gifts and ate torta, foccacia, black olives, stuffed green olives, wine, meat (salami, what was it called?), and peccarino cheese. im guesssing blair's summary didnt get this detailed.
and pasta with pesto, and cafe.
we saw the duomo, the baptistry, the piti palace, the ponte veccio, and had gelato by the river arno. that night we ate what was left of the food in the apartment, and drank lots of wine. probably giggled.
the next morning my, um, wallet was stolen, but non importa! we had pizza for lunch, but youve really got to have pizza in roma, and gelato, and bread. if you HAVE to eat while youre in venezia, if you absolutely refuse to hunger strike-and what is the point of a hunger strike anyway.
we took the sita bus to panzano, in chianti, were adorable francesco-i have such a crush on francesco, sorry, blair-was making supper for us, delicious pasta with tomatoes and mussels and basil and olive oil, eating at his talbe with friends and lots of wine-which we drank too much of, and kept up the whole town of about 1,000 people.
the next day we hiked to greve, the HEART of chianti, and HITCHHIKED back with an artist/art professor, who showed us his gallery, and we ate lunch with francesco, who brought laura a torta, with 2-3, and almost caught himself on fire-ohmygosh, hes so cute-
and we tasted wine and cheeses out in the piazza, and went to this crazy festivalwith performers, dancers, people on stilts,
venezia-pigeons and peggy. late-night train ride back to firenze, and we were back in panzano the next night to see francesco's band play a concert with bill smith, of dave brubeck fame.
we saw everything, and did everything, and it was the best time of my life. being with blair, who lives there and speaks the language-and, as my mom says, being 23-and laura and blair! with laura, julia, blair humor!
i was really glad we could be there with blair, when she was homeless and illegal. and to meet francesco, and just see what her life was like.
i think, pretty great.
and even though i thought i was a confirmed pastoral enthusiast, i think roma was my favorite place, or maybe just that last night we spent there, in the swanky hotel, and seeing all the roman forums before sunset.
to wind down, i spent all of last week on the beach with my family, sunbathing and reading the biography of zelda fitzgerald. i love to read about the fitzgeralds when im on holiday. and we drank a lot, of course. and swam with sharks, or i did, anyway.
which is not terribly suprising, when my 'workday' consists of being taken out to lunch and coffee and shmoozing with judges and attorneys all day, discussing big cases that are followed by all the newspapers, and, of course, doing thought-provoking legal research. and these are the public defenders.
new orleans is definitely the place to do capital defense, and i have learned so much that i couldnt learn at the school, that i am feeling a little reluctant to get back to, but once im there i will be
happy.
ive started reading again, really reading, like the kind that hadnt happened since before law school and east of edenime. but the books are stacking up now on the nightstand-im almost finished the nature notebooks, by jon mitchell? i got it from the new hardbacks section of the public library, which im planning to frequent these next three weeks. it goes along with my daily newspaper reading over toast and coffee, and my incessant npr listening during my commute to 'the office.' or tulane and broad.
its about ecoterrorism. and sex. also, its about writing, which is good, and im hoping it will be a good transition from criminal defense to environmental activism, which is apparently what im involved in at iu. or environmental law anyway.
im on global journal, ps.
ITALIA
of course i had a stack of books, titled florence, italy, rome, venice, michelangelo, in my room, and i tried to learn about the history and the art beforehand-i even made flashcards to say, wine, beer, can you reccommend a good vegetarian restaurant? i rented roman holiday.
what i pictured was sun, vineyards, terra cotta, olive trees-i was right, it was GORGEOUS.
laura and i left-well, first i flew to birmingham to meet laura, where we obsessed over rick steve (alright, who's got rick?) and our minimalist packing accomplishments. the next day we went to church and had lunch with
LINDSAY
who is back from taiwan with cute clothes and cute haircut, and she is just so cool, and i missed her, and i wish she was here with me right now, at this second. fall break. so lindsay gave us this grab bag present that we had to carry all the way to rome, that had taiwanese presents for julia, laura, and blair, the whole time we were learning to count on the way to atlanta, painting our nails at amy's, sitting on the tiny plane waiting to go to stormy philedelphia, taxiing in philly, running through the airport at breakneck speed-and then we were on our big empty airplane, eating dinner, watching 50 first dates, and falling asleep spread out across the middle row with our feet together.
we passed over corsica as we flew in, around sunrise.
we sat with the cutest british/american couple on the way from roma to firenze-no, that was to roma termini-, and blair was there-blair! in the train station to meet us. in firenze. she had lunch waiting for us at elizabetta's beautiful apartment in porto romano in south firenze. we opened our gifts and ate torta, foccacia, black olives, stuffed green olives, wine, meat (salami, what was it called?), and peccarino cheese. im guesssing blair's summary didnt get this detailed.
and pasta with pesto, and cafe.
we saw the duomo, the baptistry, the piti palace, the ponte veccio, and had gelato by the river arno. that night we ate what was left of the food in the apartment, and drank lots of wine. probably giggled.
the next morning my, um, wallet was stolen, but non importa! we had pizza for lunch, but youve really got to have pizza in roma, and gelato, and bread. if you HAVE to eat while youre in venezia, if you absolutely refuse to hunger strike-and what is the point of a hunger strike anyway.
we took the sita bus to panzano, in chianti, were adorable francesco-i have such a crush on francesco, sorry, blair-was making supper for us, delicious pasta with tomatoes and mussels and basil and olive oil, eating at his talbe with friends and lots of wine-which we drank too much of, and kept up the whole town of about 1,000 people.
the next day we hiked to greve, the HEART of chianti, and HITCHHIKED back with an artist/art professor, who showed us his gallery, and we ate lunch with francesco, who brought laura a torta, with 2-3, and almost caught himself on fire-ohmygosh, hes so cute-
and we tasted wine and cheeses out in the piazza, and went to this crazy festivalwith performers, dancers, people on stilts,
venezia-pigeons and peggy. late-night train ride back to firenze, and we were back in panzano the next night to see francesco's band play a concert with bill smith, of dave brubeck fame.
we saw everything, and did everything, and it was the best time of my life. being with blair, who lives there and speaks the language-and, as my mom says, being 23-and laura and blair! with laura, julia, blair humor!
i was really glad we could be there with blair, when she was homeless and illegal. and to meet francesco, and just see what her life was like.
i think, pretty great.
and even though i thought i was a confirmed pastoral enthusiast, i think roma was my favorite place, or maybe just that last night we spent there, in the swanky hotel, and seeing all the roman forums before sunset.
to wind down, i spent all of last week on the beach with my family, sunbathing and reading the biography of zelda fitzgerald. i love to read about the fitzgeralds when im on holiday. and we drank a lot, of course. and swam with sharks, or i did, anyway.