Happy New Year!!!!!

Picture taken at 2 or 3am last NYE

I am not a fan of New Years Eve.

Plans are always made and they always end up falling apart or just not turning out quite right.

This year, I decided to spend a nice, quiet night at home and it was wonderful!

(Plus in my mind my new year starts on my birthday, as I've mentioned before)

Last years NYE was pretty awesome, because I got to spend it with my best friend.

I think it will be a while before any NYE upstages that one.

I try really hard not to make any new years resolutions,

because, lets face it, they almost never work.

However, there are 2 that I am willing to put down on paper

(or on the internet, same thing, no?)

1) Stop biting my nails! 

I had stopped and recently have noticed myself starting up again.

I'm currently sporting 3 bitten nails on my right hand (darn you, stress)

Not.Cool.

2) Quit this ridiculous, horrendous Coke habit I seem to have formed!

It all started one day when I was at work and needed something to drink,

I went across the street and got a Coke...

it was all downhill from there!

The other day I bought a 12 pack of Vanilla Coke (my drug of choice)

and I am about to finish the entire 12 pack...

...in less than a week!

Hello, my name is Cyn and I'm a Coke fiend!

So there ya go...

that's how I am starting off 2012!

Let's see how it all goes!

How did you all spend your New Years Eve?

Hopefully you all had a wonderful time!

The Original!

Hi folks!

I've noticed that I have been getting quite a bit of blog traffic over here and I have to say I am quite flattered!

I started this blog as a 'censored' version of my original blog (i.e. the parental version).

I will probably be posting less on this blog and more on the original. 

Feel free to check it out.

http://cinziainitalia.blogspot.com/

It's basically the same, but gets updated a bit more often!

~Cyn

Kate

Kind.

Talented.

Caring.

Funny as hell.

Intelligent.

Blunt.

NLLP.

Beautiful. (and hot)

Sarcastic.

Full of advice.

A damn good psychologist in the making.

Surprisingly good cook.

This list could go one forever.

Kate is an amazing woman who inspires me. 

I am lucky enough to be able to call her my best friend.

She has been there for me through thick and thin...

she showed me the patience, kindness, selflessness that true friendship requires..

and I know I tested her on these things more than once and she was always there holding my hand or sitting on the other side of the door. 

She never once abandoned me, even though it would have been so easy for her to do so.

Weeks may pass between one phone call and the next and months may pass before we see each other again, but our bond stays the same!

She is one of the few people in this world who truly knows me and accepts all my fault and quirks.

I am ever so grateful for her bluntness and honesty (even when I don't want to hear it).

Her opinion is one of the few that really matters to me.

She has pushed me in the past to do what I know I need but may not necessarily want to do...

...and for this I will forever be indebted to her.

I don't know how I lucked out to get her as a suite-mate freshman year, 

but I am incredibly grateful I did!

I can't imagine my life without her presence in it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATE!!!

I love you, Katiekins!

Book Lover!

(via)

I love to read you guys.

Like, really love to read.

Growing up my mom would clean out all my books so she could make space for new ones and every year she would end up with bags (yes, plural) of books to give to the library.

(via)

I tend to get so engrossed in the books I am reading.

I love the power they have.

I am the girl who forgets she is in public and will laugh out loud to a really funny book,

I will sit on the couch and cry as one character professes his love to another gets brutally turned away,

I'll also cry when a character your are invested in gets her first kiss from the man she loves and the author writes it in such a way that you feel the emotion coursing through her veins.

I will bring my tools (a highlighter, bookmark and some kind of writing implement) when I am getting ready to sit down and read.

Some people don't like to write in their books, but sometimes there are passages, phrases, quotes that I need to remember, that speak to me in some way.

That remind me of the beauty that can be found in this life,

or

that put into words exactly what I am feeling at that moment with a grace that I would never be able to find

or

they put into writing the words you are unable to say and often don't even realize you had bottled up inside you until that moment when you look down at the black on white mastery in your hands and suddenly something just opens up inside you.

I will pick up a book as soon as I step into a book shop and give the pages a very quick leaf through just so I can smell the book

(one of the best smells in the world, if you ask me!)
I will re-read the same book multiple times every once in a while and still feel the same emotions I did the first time.
I will spend some time after I finish reading a book and ponder about the humanity of the characters. I wonder if I would have their strength/courage/humility/grace (or lack thereof) if I were placed in their situation.
I get angry when I am invested in a character in my book and they are slighted;  I get sad when they are hurt, etc.

I will play the "one more chapter and then I'll go to sleep" game until I look out my window see the sun rising and realize that I read the entire night...

but I won't regret it. 

not.one.bit.

It is something that comes from within and only another book lover can truly understand.

Well,

I have a confession to make I haven't been reading much these days. 

I know, I read three books while home for Christmas...

but there is so much to do that reading hasn't been at the top of the list, and that is a shame!

I have way more books than I have read and I keep buying them because I say, "I'll get to them eventually".
They are my own personal Library.

(via)

Well, I am moving (but that's for another post) and I am going to have to get rid of a ton of my books (the horror!).

There are certain books that I will definitely keep,

there are others that I read that were good, but nothing super special.

and then there are those that are sitting there, waiting for their turn.

I realize there is now way I am going to get through them all, so I have selected a few lucky ones that will get their turn.

The lucky few are:

Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin

Winkie by Clifford Chase

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena De Blasi 

(I don't know if it's any good, but it would be a shame not to read it while I am in Italy!)

Firmin by Sam Savage

The Translator by John Crowley

Book Lover by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack

and the book I just started last night

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy

We'll see how long it takes me to get through those, I might add more depending on how much time I have.
I'll let you know how the books are when I am done :)

(I also noticed I have multiple copies of: Lady Chatterley's Lover, The Catcher in the Rye, Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and The Devil Wears Prada. If anyone wants a copy of any of these books let me know!)

Detox!

That's right folks, 

Starting tomorrow I am doing a detox..

I kind of made it up myself.

I start tomorrow and am going to keep it up until Easter (April 24, 2011).*

Basically, I am cutting out meat, refined flour and sugar...

which means:

NO white bread. NO regular sugar. NO prosciutto. NO pizza. NO turkey burgers. NO pasta.

NO _insert tasty food here_.

I am also limiting myself to two alcoholic drinks per week.

I am keeping fish, cheese, veggies, fruit, yogurt, eggs, whole grain breads and pastas, brown rice, beans, etc.

I am also keeping my Crystal Light because I love that stuff.

My primary reason for doing this is not to lose weight (though that would be a very welcome side-effect).

I am doing it because I haven't been eating well since I've been back from California,

not that I necessarily displayed great eating habits in Ca, either.

Well, I am seeing the consequences now.

Aside from the weight gain, I am breaking out like crazy. 

I broke out into a rash (the culprit was food related)

and well, I could go on with other reasons, but some are a little too personal for this blog!

So, with that in mind....

Wish me luck!

*There is a clause that states that this detox is null and void while traveling! Because I want to be able to fully enjoy the cuisine of whatever country I am visiting!

Sometimes I wake up and think 'I will never be able to share my bed again' / This is what 18 euro buys you in Italy / This breakfast pastry is a drug.

I partook in 'THE GREAT DIVIDE' for years. You know what I am talking about, that natural divide that takes place the moment your bed is no longer just yours. This person is not an interloper (i love this word), chances are he/she was invited and their company is more than welcome on a nightly basis. Suddenly you find that the brim of your pillow has been transformed into a frontier of sorts. It is the tangible portion of an invisible line that separates your bed. At times you can cross into the foreign territory, and often it's fun (cuddling, yes please!) but sometimes you are aware, or rather, made aware that your leg/arm/head/__insert body part here__  has entered that territory once again and it's presence was met with a much more hostile air than before. Sometimes you are the perpetrator of the transgression, sometimes you are the political head of the foreign territory, either way... 

'THE GREAT DIVIDE' becomes a way of life.

When you are released/escape/brutally shoved (take your pick) from this way of living you eventually take full advantage of all the space your bed offers. While your space might have once been referred to as the Vatican City, your bed being a world map of course, you suddenly feel like you are in the Sahara desert and it's marvelous.

Then one day you wake up and look at your bed and see that not only do you roam about with no need for a passport in your slumber, you have now completely demolished that invisible Berlin wall that once invaded your place of slumber.

It's on days when I wake up and see the above picture that I think to myself: 

How am I ever supposed to share my bed again?

2 boxes of Barilla whole wheat pasta. 3 cans of pinto beans. 2 packs of Mozzarella. a head of lettuce. a bag of golden apples. a bag of blood oranges. 1 liter of skim milk. 2 kiwis. 6 yogurts (strawberry, cherry and plain, in case you were wondering). 8 grain bread. a dessert roll thing (sorry I can't find a better way to describe it). cane sugar (or is it raw sugar?). 2 grocery bags to carry your buys home in.

This is what you can buy for 18 euro and 46 cents in Italy.

Is that good? Not good? I have no idea.

This has to be the best breakfast pastry ever...una krapfen alla nutella. i am not a nutella fan, but I adore these suckers. they taste like heaven in your mouth. they are also quite addicting. i ate two of them yesterday. not one but TWO...oops!
Today I told myself I was going to be good and not eat any, but since I will be starting a detox tomorrow and will not be able to eat one of these for a couple of months, I woke up and said, "To hell with it". I then proceeded to get dressed and went to buy one for my breakfast. That's right, these little babies here have the power to get my butt out of bed and into the streets on a Sunday morning. I am sure these suckers are loaded with trans-fat, and therefore literally killing me one bite at a time, but you know what...
Tomorrow I am starting my detox (more on that later) so...
today, I enjoyed every.last.bite.

Confessions

1) For many, many years during my teens I never wore my hair down...EVER!

I had this frizzy, curly-ish rats nest for hair and no knowledge of mousse or of what a straightening iron was.

Therefore, my hairdo consisted of gel-ing my hair down to my head and picking it up into a bun...and I wore this for YEARS!!!

When I was 16 I went to the UK and on the plane ride this woman lectured me on the importance of wearing your hair down...I thought she was crazy!

The funny thing is, I usually wear my hair down now...if it's up, it's because it's my day between washings and it's not clean enough to be down.

Funny how in 10 years my hair style has gone from one opposite to the other.

( After months and months of straightening my hair almost daily, I decided to see what would happen if I wore it curly...the picture above is what I got. I wonder how long it would take to get it back to it's natural curliness.)

2) I haven't shaved my legs in two weeks.

(maybe it's more like 2 weeks and a few days, but 2 weeks is all I am willing to cop to!)

I tell myself it is ok, because I have been so busy that I have had to take quick showers lately 

and anyway, I am not dating anyone right now and therefore have no plan on letting anyone feel them up.

However, I must admit that even when I wasn't single it would happen on occasion.

I'm not a shave-my-legs-everyday kind of gal... 

I usually shave 2x a week.

I remember once I was cuddling in bed with my ex and he move his hand up my pant leg to touch my calf and I stopped him and told him I hadn't shaved my legs in longer than I liked to admit.

 He said he didn't care, I said I did. 

He ran his hand up my calf anyway.

 I asked him if it grossed him out, because let's be honest, it even grossed me out. 

His response was, "It doesn't gross me out at all, no matter how hairy your legs could possibly get, they would still be softer than mine."

I think I feel in love with him a little bit more that day!

3) I am not sure I want children. I am up in the air about it.

If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't.

I don't think I would feel unfulfilled if I didn't have them.

However, I do keep a list of names I LOVE for children.

4) Sometimes when I am home alone, I speak to myself in a british accent.

I will just say the most random things to myself

or

I will partake in conversations I would like to have with various people.

It's fun.

You should all try it!

5) The above photo is a picture of my dinner. 

It was born out of pure laziness.

I had no desire to cook and seeing that the only person I have to feed is myself I made the easiest thing possible

 (have I mentioned how much I LOVE being single).

 I grabbed some 8 grain bread, threw some herb cream cheese on it (yum!)

Then I cut up some apple in a big mug, added some cut up kiwi, some crushed walnuts, some plain yogurt and a dash of sugar... mixed it all together and..

VOILA!

Dinner was served!

5 confessions is all you get today!