It has been a crazy holiday season.  My holidays started early with a good old American Thanksgiving Celebration, in Italy of course.  We celebrated on November 9th at my house in Montefalcone.  It was an intimate celebration of 40.  Yeah…40 Italians and 2 turkeys weighing approximately 27 pounds each…the turkeys, not the Italians!  We had almost all of the fixins’ except the cranberry sauce that never arrived…still.

Anyway, that was the beginning of my Holiday Season 2008.  It was a great beginning and the rest was even better.  The day before Thanksgiving I left Italia and flew into Florida to celebrate the rest of the season with my sister and her children.  Of course my timing was perfect because not 12 hours after landing did I find this waiting.

Now this meal was really intimate and I actually got to enjoy the food and the company.  We ate well, laughed much, and gave thanks, of course.  It was a great day!  After all of the eating I had between my two turkey days I was ready to participate in my very own holiday tradition…Black Friday!!!  God I love going out to the malls on Black Friday, it’s pure insanity, and I am simply insane.  Well I think I hit every store in northern Palm Beach County, and probably bought a few gifts, however, I could be wrong because I was still in my turkey coma.  I do remember that we did some decorating over the week following Thanksgiving.

Not too shabby if I do say so myself.  The tree looked great, and when the presents were all wrapped up and put underneath it just completed the look.

What do you think?

I’M ITALIAN!!! It’s official.
After all of my fingerprinting issues I did finally pick up my PDiS (the big letter sized one). It was ready, as promised by the Questura, September 6, 2007, and I was no longer “an illegal”. Can I get an AMEN!?! I was like a kid with a new toy. As soon as I got home with my Permesso I made a copy of it and ran it over to the comune. Well, I didn’t actually run…I don’t think I’ve ever actually ran…but that’s not really the issue. Anyhow, on my way to the comune, Permesso in hand, I proudly displayed it to everyone I knew. This really was a happy moment for me…I mean, I came here on a one way ticket with no Visa. I really was illegal, but not anymore. I made it to the comune and presented this beautiful paper to Enrico (yes, we are on a first name basis) who had already gotten everything I needed together for my citizenship. He asked for four new photos, a signature here, a signature there, and then he gave me a date to come back in three weeks to pick up my Carte d’Identita. Needless to say, I showed up on October 18, 2007 and am now a citizen of Italy,. Now I can get my Italian Passport…how exciting!!!

“Dusseldorf…where exactly is Dusseldorf???” That is what I asked myself at least 20 times over the 6 hour period I was there. It was only supposed to be a 4 hour period, but those airport Gods were getting me back for the great flight from America. Fighting sleep the entire time I was there, I wandered aimlessly around the circular airport. I window shopped, I ate, I sat, I read, I window shopped, I ate, I sat, I read…oh, then I had to take a bus to a plane, on the middle of the tarmac, with heavy shoulder bag and carry-on in tow. Finally seated on the final leg of this trip, I must have fallen asleep instantly. It was a two hour flight, after a 6 hour layover, after an 8 ½ hour flight, after an 1 ¼ hour drive, and no sleep. I was exhausted, and I wanted my Daddy!!!

Better late than never, I arrived in Rome. Ready to get on with life, and ready to tackle baggage claim. First, a bus to the terminal. Then, a 45 minute wait for my first piece of baggage to come into sight. Finally, I tackle my first piece and successfully left no casualties. “There’s the second piece”, I pushed some innocent people aside but managed to leave no evidence as I pulled that suitcase off to the side. “Now, where is that 70 pound duffle bag?”, “Oh, that’s mine, that’s mine!”, this is where it got a little ugly because I managed to hit 3 different people with this one bag. The grunts, the groans, the pissed off faces…I was lucky I made it out alive, but I did.

I walked out of baggage claim to see my parents standing there with big smiles on their faces, welcoming me home. That’s right, I said home. Now the only thing standing in the way of me and sleep was the 2 ½ hour drive to Montefalcone nel Sannio, the unpacking of the car, the dinner out with some of my family, and the Festa that was taking place in the Piazza just up the road from my bedroom. But, it’s all good because I am finally here, in Italia.

The past few days have left me feeling really unmotivated to do anything related to my move. Don’t get me wrong, I am no stranger to lack of motivation, but it’s usually related to the routine aspects of my life, IE. grocery shopping, cooking, laundry, working…you get the idea. This, however, was different, and almost frightening. So I opted to stray from my morning drive routine, you know, the one that involves my nonsensical rant du jour. This morning I was on “Mission Motivation”.

Being on this “Mission” I knew I had to avoid certain people (you know who you are) because their profound advice would be “quit bitching!” Knowing this, I chose a different route to take.
I went to the one person who never tells me what I don’t want to hear. I went to my Daddy.

Now I know those of you I avoided during this “Mission” are most likely thinking, “oh no she didn’t”, but I am here to say, “oh yes I did”! The reason being, I needed to ground myself in the reality that I am leaving for Italy in 30 days, so calling Montefalcone nel Sannio to talk to my dad was necessary.

I needed to feel that surge of energy I get when I hear the anticipation and happiness in his voice as he talks about the things he’s done or planned with respect to my arrival. It also gets me to take mental notes on what I need to get done. So today’s call to dad was good…no, make that great.

Today’s call was so great that I actually got off my ass and did something productive, maybe not the most important thing that needed to be done, but productive none the less.

Here’s a little snippet from the birth of my motivation.

Me: I have to e-mail Emilio to find out what kind of Internet service to have set up at your place.

Dad: I’ll let him know to look for it…I got you cell phone already.

Me (thinking “score”): Great, thanks, that’s one less piece of red tape I have to tackle. Oh, do you think you can get me an appointment with that doctor in Campobasso. I should probably see him my first week there just in case.

(Note to readers: No, it’s not a psychiatrist.)

Dad: Yeah, I’ll go next week to do that. Did you get your birth certificate translated?

Me: No, next week I’ll send it overnight to Jersey to get Apostilled then I’ll have it translated. What should I pack for the flight, and what do you think I should ship.

Dad: Don’t be like your mother, just pack your clothes and the important papers. I got you a car.

Me (thinking “WHAT”): WHAT??? You got me a CAR??? No way! Are you kidding?

Dad: It’s a Ford, automatic with A/C and a CD player.

Me (thinking “WHAT”): WHAT??? How did that happen?

Dad: Your Uncle Vince called me Monday and told me they just got a trade in from Switzerland and it was an automatic with A/C. I went to look at it yesterday and it was perfect so I bought it. It looks great and Uncle Vince checked it out and found no problems with it.

Me (thinking “WHAT”): Oh my God!!! Thank you!?!

So can you guess what I did today???
I got my International Driver’s Permit!!!

This must be what EXCITEMENT feels like!