Books and Movies

We watched Into the Wild this week. I didn't think I was going to watch it (I DO NOT like Sean Penn), but my curiosity got the better of me. I read the book a while ago. It was a great book, written well, quick read, and my favorite thing about it was that Jon Krakauer didn't glorify Christopher McCandless, or his decisions. He just presented the truth (or as close as I suppose he could get to it), and it wasn't always nice. He wrote people's opinions on the tragedy, or as Christopher saw it, the adventure. The movie was close to the book. Of course some parts were left out, but overall it was accurate. The movie was quite long, but I am glad that I watched it. I think that Tony liked it a lot more than me, but that was probably because I knew what to expect.

I also read Love Eat Pray last month...ehhh. The first part about living in Italy was good, but the rest of it...I wasn't impressed. Who can take off one year from work to travel and find themselves? This isn't anyone I am ever going to relate to. I guess that it is just beyond my comprehension. People look so far outside of everything they know just to find out who they are. All that money and time hunting yourself down? After you 'find yourself', you better lock yourself away and never lose yourself again, it would be too expensive! I enjoyed the part about Italy mostly because I was going there, and I was trying to absorb everything about Italy I could find. I went into this book thinking this lady was just a housewife who had gone through a really bad time, had never been anywhere, and just wanted the opportunity to see the world. No, she traveled all the time before this! She is a journalist. The writing was ok, but I wouldn't recommend this book.

March Madness

Jen and Adam

We've been trying to make the most of what time we have left here. We have a few things on the list that we want to do/see. But most importantly we want to hang out with our friends.
We went out Friday night with Jen and Adam. We went down to Fell's Point for dinner and drinks, somewhere we haven't ever been in the evening. We go to Fell's a lot, to Whole Foods, our fav. brunch restaurant, to get our hair cut, but never to dinner or to the bars.....and it was great! We had so much fun, the restaurant, The Waterfront Hotel, had great food and a nice ambiance, and best of all, great friends. Then we went down to The Horse You Rode In On. They had live music, which is something we never see at the bars in Federal Hill. The music added a lot to the experience. It reminded me of El Patio in Las Cruces, and of High Desert. Oh, good times...the Bloody Mary's at El Patio, the nachos at High Desert.

Then Saturday we went exploring another new place, Historic Ellicot City. I wish we would have found this place sooner! My mom and sister would have loved it! Bunches of little shops and antique stores. Amy would have founds lots of treasures. We went with David and Robin and then ate dinner down there. It was only about 15 or 20 minutes from our house.

Today is kind of a sad day though...my family always had a big get together on Easter. Me and Amy would get a new Easter dress, and a hat when we were little, we'd go to church (this wasn't a once a year type thing, we went to church every Sunday morning, Sunday night....usually Wednesday nights - completely opposite of the heathen I am now), then we'd go over to my grandma's house, or my aunt's house, hunt Easter eggs with my cousins, eat dinner...such beautiful memories. And today I think back on those memories, and I'm sad that I'm not there today, to make more. Sometimes I get so homesick and I am so very grateful that we are moving closer, close enough that we can drive home for Easter.

I still haven't gotten a firm move date though. I've turned in all my paperwork, now I'm just waiting for everything to be approved. Hopefully I'll hear something in the next two weeks. Meanwhile our next few weeks are packed with friends, food, and drinks. Oh, and baseball games. Gotta get as many of those in while we can. Walking to the stadium is one of the many things I'm going to miss about living in the city. We are so blessed that we were able to live here at this time in our lives, while we were able enjoyed it so much.

Destination ROME

Enjoying my coffee
Entering the Vatican
View from Assisi

For this post about more of Italy, I'm taking from the journal I kept on the trip.

Thursday: We left early, destination Rome. On the way we stopped by Assisi. This was unexpected, I didn't remember the stop being on our itinerary. Assisi was the most moving place we have visited. The town felt (is) so ancient. It even smelled old. There were monks, priests, and nuns walking everywhere along the cobblestone streets. Santa Chiarra (St. Clare) is from Assisi, she was a friend of St. Francis (Francesco), the patron Saint of Italy and of animals. St. Clare began the order of Poor Clare's. There is a monastery in Roswell, which is the Poor Clare's monastery. So there was a connection there. The Basilica of St. Chiarra was so moving. I was moved to tears....it was just so peaceful.
We ended Assisi at the Basilica of St. Francis and actually got to see the tomb where he is buried. And also saw Mass being performed at the chapel. One of the things I noticed was that none of the monks were sitting in the pews - at the mass and in front of the tomb of St. Francis. There were either kneeling or sitting on the cold hard floor. I wonder if this is for penance. I really cannot explain the feeling of peace I had while in Assisi. I am very affected by what I saw...felt.
Rome is HUGE! We went out exploring this evening and I was a little nervous - but we found our way! We wanted to look for some shoes for Tony and go to a wine bar that Martin (our awesome tour guide) recommended. We really wanted to try it since Rome is his hometown. It was probably 2 miles away and most of the time we couldn't find the street names. But we winged it and we found the Piazza Cavour where the recommended wine bar was. First thing on the menu was Foie Gras para duo. - 60 Euros....ummm, no gratzia! So we went to the bar/restaurant next door and had pasta. It was a great place, not touristy, good food, relatively inexpensive. Coming back I was a little worried because at one point we seemed lost, but we kept following the wall of the Vatican, remembered landmarks, and found our way back. Once we were reoriented, we stopped at a really nice little coffee bar - my cappuccino was 1 Euro! What a great day!! Only 1 day left. :(
Saturday - Rome is a great city! Our last day was exhausting and overwhelming, but so great! We started off early going to The Vatican. It was beautiful and has great pieces of art. One of the ceilings even appeared to be 3-D and it was painted hundreds of years ago! And then we got to see the Sistine Chapel. Wow...the beauty, the colors, it was wonderful. Tony's favorite part was the back wall painting of Jesus casting people into hell and raising the dead. It was crowded inside the Chapel though, and it was noisy, so it really took away from the experience. People's cell phones were going off. I just don't understand how people can be so disrespectful. That was frustrating. The guards kept shhhing, but it did not good.
We went from there to another piazza for lunch, The Trevi Fountain (where we tossed a coin of our shoulders to come back to Rome), and ended the tour at the Spanish steps.
Last night's dinner was pre-planned. It was called Cafe Concerto. And these people sang opera off and on throughout our meal. It was lovely. The food was ok, the wines were great. Very fun night. After dinner Martin wanted us to see some more of Rome at night, specifically, The Colosseum. It was one of the best parts of the trip. To see a building still standing where Gladiators fought. It was truly Roman times. Then we went to see St. Peters illuminated as well.
Now we are in Paris, CDG airport, waiting to be pushed back from the gate. We are so tired and hungry, but so thankful that we were able to take this amazing trip. I had always dreamed about seeing these places that I actually GOT TO VISIT! I am so lucky! And even the scary parts, like the Rome and Paris airport, we made it out ok. It was nerve wracking and I wanted to barf, but we just tried to go with it and it worked out.
I am glad to be going home though.

So those are my last couple of journal entries. I don't think anything I could write would do the trip justice. I hope we get to go back one day. And as great as Italy was,

More Adventures in Italy

Robin, Jesse, and I at our Tuscan Dinner
Neptune
Rape of the Sabines


On Tuesday we drove on a bus to Florence. On the way we made a stop in Pisa. Yep, the tower is leaning! It's true! The Basilica there was one of the best ones I saw though...the paintings and the mosaics were great. The tomb there is transparent, so you could see the mummified body. Very interesting. Other than that Pisa was overrun with stands selling cheap trinkets.
We arrived in Florence at dusk, checked into our hotel (this time we got to stay in the same hotel as our friends Robin and Jesse!), then we went to dinner together, by the Santa Croce. That night was a lot of fun. The four of us ate a wonderful dinner, drank great wine, and had amazing chocolate cake! Then we walked back to the hotel and just visited. It was a beautiful night in Florence.
The next day was a lot of walking and a lot of seeing. First off we got to see David....that was #1 on my list of things to see in Italy, and it was beyond my expectations. It was so big and had such detail. Michelangelo's Prisoners were haunting though... in these unfinished pieces you could kind of see where Michelangelo was headed. They were beautiful too. After that we walked over to the Duomo, then to the square in which the Uffizi is. Here there were many sculptures. Tony's favorite was of Neptune, my favorite was the Rape of the Sabine Women. We didn't have time to go the Uffizi in the afternoon like we had planned though. There was just too much going on and by the time we ate lunch, looked at some shops, we were very exhausted, I was getting grumpy, and we needed to go back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
Florence was a city where there is never enough time. There was so much to see!!! I would love to visit all the museums and spend hours staring at all the sculptures. I definitely want to learn more about all the artists and the history of Florence.

Adventures in Italy

Front of our hotel, along the Grand Canal


On the bridge the afternoon we arrived in Venice


View from our hotel window

Our tour was planned through Gate 1 travel. It was a great tour and I would recommend this travel group to anyone.
We flew into Venice on Sunday morning. The plane ride wasn't too bad...but it was hard. About 8 1/2 hours. I slept 4 or 5 hours, so that was better than most. Flying over the Alps was AMAZING!!! It was the most beautiful site I have ever seen. As far as the eye could see was huge mountains with snow caps. Every once in a while you would see a small village below. Ahhhh, what a great first site to see.
Venice had so much fog that we had to circle the airport for about 30 minutes. Tony and I had both dozed off and all of the sudden it felt like we had a hit of turbulence, but no, we had landed. Weirdest landing ever. Everyone was shocked when they realized we had touched down. We had to meet our travel group, but the fog was so bad that they had to arrange for bus transportation as opposed to a boat. But at least we made it! A lot of people on our tour group coming from other places couldn't even land in Venice and had to land in Milan, or have a delayed flight.
Our hotel was great! The Principe. And it had a beday...we didn't use it though, it just looked awkward and uncomfortable. Originally we weren't going to do the tour in Venice, we were just going to wing it on our own, but we changed our minds on Sunday night and went ahead with it on Monday morning. Our first stop was Murano Island. I didn't know anything about this place before we went, but apparently Murano Glass is HUGE! We got to go into the oldest glass making factory and watch a man blow glass. It was cool, and then we got to go to the showroom and look around. It was PRICEY!! I was nervous just walking around. This piece was $20,000 Euros!


After Murano we went to the Doge's Palace. It was so huge and beautiful. Our tour guide for the Palace was Sylvia, a real Venetian. She was great and so tiny! I learned so much on this tour. It was great seeing all the artwork..even the staircases were works of art. St. Mark's Basilica wasn't as impressive as I had hoped though. St. Mark's square was cool, it's in the opening scene of The Italian Job.

CIAO!

Ok, one more post, then I swear I'm going to bed! But I just had to say-

WE'RE MOVING TO DENVER!!!!

What a blessing...our prayers have been answered.

We aren't sure of the date yet, but we are hoping around the 1st of May. I should know more details after this week. We still need to get things in order, like going out for a house hunting trip and getting the movers in here and all that jazz.

Every time I think about it my heart races. I think this is going to be our "home". We can both see ourselves settling down there...having a family...buying a house maybe? (ok, that's the scariest thing I can think about...home ownership?? That means really settling down....)
And I'll only be 8 hours FROM MY FAMILY!!!

Back West of the Mississippi...ahhh, dreams do come true...

Trip of a Lifetime

Italy was amazing. We got back yesterday, late afternoon....extremely jet lagged. 18 hours of travel. Our trip was sooo very wonderful - more than I ever could have imagined and I still can't believe that we got to go! Rome was incredible, I wish that it would have been our first stop instead of our last, because by the time we got there we were thoroughly exhausted. We saw Venice, Pisa, Florence, Assisi, and Rome, leaving last Saturday and getting back yesterday. So much to blog about, but it will have to wait. It's 8pm on Sunday night, and I'm going to have to go to bed ASAP. So I will fill in the whole trip later in the week. I'm going to try and load all the pictures onto Flicker.

We're goin' to ITALY!!!!

2 1/2 weeks ago Tony and I decided that we wanted to go to Italy...so we bought tickets and we are leaving a week from today!!! I can't believe it...I have wanted to go to Italy for a long time and it's finally happening! To get to travel...I feel adventerous even though the whole thing is planned out. We fly into Venice, stay for 2 nights, go to Florence for 2 nights, and then Rome for 2 nights.
We are going in a tour group, we were nervous to take on our first trip solo, with no guidance. The tour portions were optional, so we are only part of the actual tour group for a tour in Florence and in Rome. In Venice, we are kind of on our own to explore the city. I really don't know what to expect.....we just want to take it easy, sightsee, drink lots of wine, and lots of coffee. I don't even have any 'must buy' items in mind, well, except for the vino and cafe. In Florence we are going to get to see David - that's the big thing I want to see. Tony's #1 thing is the Sistine Chapel. I know we are going to be overwhelmed, but we'll just try to take in as much as possible. And take lots of pics! (That's another thing, my camera bit it and the warranty just expired, so now i'm in the market for an inexpensive digital, while I save up for an SLR)
So in the next week I have 4 books about Italy to read, a Fodor's guide book, and a book of Italian phrases...lofty goals.

Foodie Night

Last night we got together and went to an Indian resturant in Laurel. It was a buffet (big stretch for me being a germ phobe), and it was nice to get to try many different dishes, since most of us aren't really familiar with Indian cuisine. The service was good and I really liked the food. I think Tony and Craig were disappointed with not having lamb vendaloo, but hopefully the other things made up for it. It sucked that we all had to sit far from eachother, so I missed visiting with everyone, but I was glad the turnout was so good.
One of the best parts of last night though??? Free Refills on the SODA!!! Wish I had pics but my camera doesn't work....

Top Songs of '07

Hospital Beds by Cold War Kids
This song is awesome. I love the piano in it. It's pretty simple. Joy and Misery....

You Ain't Goin' Nowhere - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
From the movie "Once". The album is Swell Season. Awesome version of this Bob Dylan song. Watch the video...Glen steals a kiss from Marketa and it is so precious....I cry every time I watch it.

On Call - Kings of Leon
This entire album is wonderful! It's hard to pick my fav. song....but for today it's this one. Thanks for introducing them to me Sean!

The Day we Met - Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles
Nice Rockabilly music. Just fun and makes you smile.

I Will Follow You Into The Dark - Death Cab for Cutie
Breaks my heart when I hear it. Everything these guys do is beautiful. What an amazingly simple and sad song.

Almost Lover - A Fine Frenzy (http://bothsidesofthemouth.blogspot.com/2007/07/fine-frenzy.html)
I WANT to sing this song....every time I hear it I WANT to direct a video for it. It's just so discriptive. I can hear the hearache she is singing about...and it reminds me of my own. Alison's voice is just beautiful. As is she...just georgeous. One of her first shows was SXSW (Austin has be the #1 music scene today), always a good clue of who's great.


Rag and Bone - The White StripesI'm not sure if this came out in 2007, but that's when I heard this song for the first time....


This is all that I can think of right now, and these songs definetly aren't in order. But at least it gives you an idea of the music I listen to! I'll try to come up with my all time list...but that's going to take a while.

I'm going to try to start blogging more, Trisha is putting me to shame, but my valid excuse is that I've picked up a second job...so everything has been put on the back burner. I'm going to keep working the second one for a while, but hopefully not as much as the past 2 months.

Foodie Night, the First

Last night the Foodie Club went to dinner. "Club" sounds exclusive, and this group is not, so maybe Foodie Friends? Anyways, we went to the Brewer's Art. It was Tony and I, Craig, Irene, Beth, Jason and Renata, Cheri and Brian. We had a great time! The place was awesome. Very old and eclectic. There were plush couches to sit on and low tables in the waiting area. We had to wait about 30 minutes for our table (despite reservations). But that was ok, we were able to get drinks from the bar then just sit around and visit. Their beer is very good, Tony and I got a bottle of Green Peppercorn Triple. It was a nice amber beer with a dry aftertaste, but I liked Jason's Cerebus Triple better, so we traded.
We all shared the appetizers we got. The escargot ravioli was very good, and the blue cheese cheesecake was my favorite food of the night. The roasted pears and bitter greens were a very nice compliment.
I got the seared scallops for dinner. I was nervous when the waiter said the scallops would be medium rare, but they were delicious!
Beth took a couple of pics, hopefully I can get them when she comes back from vacation, as my camera is on hiatus, so no pics for now.
But I really look forward to our next Foodie Friends Night! I think it's going to be Indian Food in Laurel. Hopefully some of our other "foodie" friends will be able to join us!!!

I've been reading again!!!

Now that my grad class is over I've been getting to read more. Here is some of what I have read lately:

Girl with a Pearl Earring: Set in 17th century Holland. Very good read. Kind of a sudden ending, like maybe the author got tired of writing or was close to a deadline, but overall I really enjoyed it. Very quick read too, which was nice. I love books set around this time period. I'll have to see the movie now and compare it.

Oh My Stars: This book was set in the 30's. A girl from Kentucky is on a bus, on her way to San Fransisco to committ suicide. But the bus crashes and in a series of events Violet ends up a manager for a band. She had a rough life before things got good. Good book about preserverance and friendship.

The Glass Castle: Recommended from Jesse. I couldn't put this book down. I still can't get over how these children were able to overcome all these adversities and make something of themselves. Jeannette Walls tells the story of her childhood, growing up with an alcoholic dad and a mother who is near nuts. Throughout the book I was surprised that there wasn't more anger. I kept thinking about how pissed I would be, but Jeannette and her siblings just kept going on. Maybe it's because they didn't know any better, didn't know enough to be really mad, or maybe they had just accepted this life, knowing that someday they would have it better. I love that they helped eachother out above all. The importance of siblings really came through this story to me.

New Years Resolutions

I'm bad at resolutions. I usually don't make them, but when I do I goof up with in the month. So I usually save any resolutions and use them for Lent. And they usually get broken too. Oh well, at least I try, right? But some of my resolutions this year are as follows (I LOVE LISTS!!!!):
Run more with a goal of 12 - 15 miles/week
Sign up for at least 2 5K's
Actually take Portaging trip, not just talk about it
Pay off 2 credit cards
Go somewhere that my passport is necessary
Start writing again, possibly a book (thank you Nathan, for inspiration)
Find a new job, in a new city

Ok, so the last one is the most difficult. There is only so much we can do, after that, we are going to rely on faith. The job hunt is going to begin in ernst very soon. We've been saying for a while we would like to be closer to our families, but that's it, we've only been saying. I applied for MANY jobs this summer, and nothing came through, so we just took it as a sign that it wasn't our time. So we are going to start trying again. The reasons to stay in Baltimore are numberable, however, the reasons to leave have more weight. Like seeing family more than twice a year if we're lucky, we want to start a family and we want them to be closer to our parents. We are wanting to move to Colorado, it has what we want. Housing is cheaper, we already have friends there, within a day we can drive to our folks house, great snowboarding, great water activities, great hiking, camping, star gazing, rock collecting.....it's just a lot more closer to what we know too, what we grew up with. I think everyone starts a family with an idea in mind of how they want to raise their kids...we want our children to appreciate the outdoors and spend a lot of time with them outdoors, learning to take care of themselves and enjoy nature. We love Baltimore city, but we don't want to raise kids here. And I know there are many other places in Maryland that are great to raise kids in, but not for us. Your values can be instilled in your kids anywhere, but we feel it will be easier out west. It won't be the easiest thing to move from here, but it won't be the hardest. Tears will be shed, again, but we are ready for the adventure.

Christmas

Christmas was good to us this year. We stayed in Maryland....it was hard and we missed our family, but we made the most of it. Went to Christmas Eve service, ate a lot, opened presents and played with Kirby. We made out like bandits! We had asked for camping gear this year. We got a Kelty tent, only 4 pds. - perfect for our big trip this summer, dried food, Granite Gear sink and water carrier, a compass, a compression bag, and a GPS system. It's so much fun - we've already been trying to go out and GeoCach.


Hopefully next year we will get to be with family over the Holidays, but despite staying here, we had a wonderful Christmas.

New Word

Tchotchke
I love this word. I heard my sister use it and she got it from her mother in law. When I said it to Tony before Christmas, he thought it was another word I was making up. He thinks I make up a lot of things....I probably do. But this word is fun to use, I had no idea that it had so many meanings. I use it in reference to trinkets.

Christmas Parties

Tony and I got to go to a few Christmas parties this year. We got to see some friends we hadn't seen in a while, Steve and Rosie, Jesse and Nathan,and it made the Holidays more special. Tony's work party was at a bar in Canton and had an open bar...so that was a memorable night! Here's some pics.

New York, New York

Tony and I took a day trip up to New York recently. New York at Christmas is one of my favorite things! I'm so glad we were able to get away. We saw the tree in Rockefeller Center, got some pizza and went to Trump Tower to the Starbucks and got some coffee (just something about getting a $5 cup of coffee in such an extravagent building), went in FAO Swartz and looked at all the toys, went to Macy's, and the best part, went to St. Patrick's. We only had a few hours there, but we had a great time. We also got to see the 100 Million pennies in Rockefeller center. The weather was great, it was a wonderful, romantic day together.

Christmas Tree Time

Today we went out to the tree farm where our good friend Adam works. This was our first time to pick out our own tree and cut it down, and we were glad to get to share it with Jen and Adam! It's put up now and it smells wonderful. Hopefully I won't forget to water it since I'm used to having a fake one. Here's some pics from today.....thanks to Jen, as I'm always forgetting my camera!

6 years

Last Saturday, the 24th, was Tony and I's 6th wedding anniversary. 6 years! Time has flown by. We both got a message the Wednesday before (Baltimore School of Message, awesome and only $35 for 1 hour!!), then on Saturday we went out to eat in Little Italy at Vellagia's. It was a lot of fun and the food was really good. (You know I had to take pics of it!) The inside reminded us both of Casino or Goodfellas, mirrors, the lighting had gold rims, Sinatra playing in the background. After dinner we went to Vaccarro's for desert.....look at the size of my eclair!
We had a great anniversary.

Our Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful. We stayed here in Maryland. Just the two of us. Last Thanksgiving our friends Jenni and Rob came out and the Thanksgiving before that Tony's parents came out. So this was new, just us...but we made the most of it. We did the full spread and just sipped on wine and relaxed all day. Very low key.
Here's some pics! I threw one in of Kirby for good measure!