ginori road.

capturing tid bits and nips from bologna

sunday is a good day to do nothing when you have nothing.

We were going to go to Pisa and Lucca today and/or Cinque Terra with Paul, Chris, Chatty, Kathy and crew but again we woke up with no heat, no hot water and thus no energy to really move at all.  Instead, I made oatmeal and got right back into bed and organized my life. We all know that any organization in my life does not really exist, so what I really did was write emails, make a few designs for the Duds and some Addison Station fun. The Gorilla (I can't take any credit for this) found us a flight to Malaga, Spain for our Spring Break.  Anyone who wants to come, we have two bedrooms, just let me know! I finally got out of my warm bed, the only semi warm part of my apartment, at 1:00.  I was too cold to go to the store for grocery so I stirred  together a concoction for lunch and by concoction I truly mean a concoction (like a witches brew you make when you are five) Some canned tuna, a few garbanzo beans from a can, a scoop of white beans also from a can, topped off with tomato paste and caramelized peanuts on the side for dessert. Now don't you wish you were all here to join me for this fine Italian meal. A little nauseated after lunch, I climbed right back into bed to warm up.  It wasn't until 4:30 when the Gorilla and I thought it might be a good idea to start our photography project that should be half way done by Tuesday. I am no longer on the Allison-gets grey hair-stress ball schedule...so if I want to get out of bed at 4:30, so be it. Sundays are both the best and the worst days to wander the streets of Florence.  It is good because if you are like me and have an extreme staring problem and find yourself admiring the simple pleasures of life like people french kissing on the Ponte Vecchio or little kids in fur coats, then Sundays are a perfect opportunity to stare away with no shame at all because there are thousands of people out and about and they don't know that you are watching them. If you hate having to wait in line to walk down the street, then maybe Sundays should be indoor painting days for you.  But you can avoid the Disneyland line by being a little risky. Forget about the sidewalks and play a game of 007, hands up against the side of cars, its a simple game of dodge and pause.  We happen to stumble upon a gelatoria on our Sunday stroll and by stumble I mean we saw one at every corner and convinced ourselves that we had been walking long enough that we needed gelato.  1st stop: a Gelatoria filled with Italians; we knew this one was the real deal because across the street all of the Americans lined up for "ice cream". Anyhoo we finally got in line and realized that they cheapest gelato was 4 euro and that was far too expensive compared to the mouth watering gelato we had had in Siena the other day for only 2 euro.  With so many other options, we knew we could find a better place for a better price.  We skip out of line and head back by hour apartment because our freaky roommates were raving about a gelatoria that is only open on the weekends. We hauled our gelato craving butts across town. Keep in mind that this walk was solely guided by the burning desire to eat gelato, even though we had convinced ourselves that we were going back towards home so we could cut across the city and go to the park to exercise.  We finally made it there and ordered a half mint (mento) and half coffee (cafe) gelato on a sugar cone but only to find out after we ordered and after we tasted the gooey deliciousness, that it was 5 euro. 5 EURO! We weren't even planning on eating gelato today and when we decided to get some there was no way we were going to spend 4 euro and we wound up spending 5.  It only took me 1 minute to realize that those were the best 5 euro I have spent thus far and as I have learned in Italy, you get what you pay for and that gelato was worth every last euro cent. Our plans only continued to go through the roof from there on out. We walked to the park like we had planned after we scarfed our gelato down but by the time we got there it was pretty dark and I read somewhere that you are not supposed to walk in parks at night (actually I just used my brain and figured it wasn't a good idea). Instead we walked along the Arno and actually discovered a hidden coffee shop treasure. It is a two story coffee shop that is also a book store and on certain nights it entertains its visitors with a wide array of live bands. We are going to go there tomorrow night after class to read, write and do art, so I will let you know how it goes.  We finally got home around 7:30 and desperately needed a shower but Apollo (the god of sun, who is supposed to bring heat to the earth) had not shown up at our apartment yet so I buzzed Paul to see if we could shower at his place. You don't realize what a five minute shower can do...it changed my life, my looks and my smells in just five minutes (five minutes because that is how long Paul's shower stays warm) The Gorilla and I lucked out tonight because the twins invited us over for dinner.  All day I was a little worried as to what the Gorilla and I were going to do for dinner after our lunch concoction. Thankfully we did not have to cook. We had risotto, chicken, and broccoli with a side of wine and bread settled so beautifully in my tummy tum. I thought the night was going to end peacefully. Gelato had played so pleasantly with my walk and the warm shower followed by risotto made me so happy.  On the way home from dinner I envisioned that my landlord would be back from his weekend excursion with his family and he would have already fixed the heater an hour ago so I would be able to feel a little heat, and I would even be able to take a bubble bath if I wanted to and then I would be able to get my laundry. (Oh I forgot to mention that the washers are different from those back home and they don't allow you to open the door at all what so ever after you press the start button...so if you forget to add that one sock in the load...tough luck.  Well in my case it wasn't a missed sock, rather it was yet again another heat related issue.  Because the washer needs heat to finish its final cycle, the laundry can never finish until it gets its dose of hot h20 and since there is none of that stuff around here, I can't open the door until it does.  I didn't think about this when I put all of my underwear in one load, hoping for it to dry by Tuesday because supply is running low and demand is high...(hot water is a necessity) Where was I...oh yeah, so back to my envision...(yeah no matter how hard you think about something...it might not always come true) So I come home to find no hot water, no heat, no finished laundry and to top it off no internet.  God must be mad at me but I am not really mad about all of this "outage" nonsense because I was able to shower today, someone else cooked and cleaned my dinner for me and not to mention I am in the best city in the world.  I am the happiest 20 year old in the entire world. Early bed time tonight because tomorrow begins another week of school. Bed time story tonight: the beginning part of Rear Window because that is as far as I got yesterday before my eyes started to rest. Buonanotte!