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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

Pick up on the theme?

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By 30

I found a paper that was with the papers of old stuff I found.

On the top it says By 30 - 2015

It is part of my Bucket List.

I have way more stuff on my actual bucket list, but for now I will write down just the stuff that should be done by 30 apparently.

Visit more than 4 countries

Learn sign language

Take salsa lessons

Be fluent in at least 5 languages

Be in a play of some sort

Try yoga

Stay in New York for at least 1 week

Live somewhere other than California

Go skiing

Sky dive

Buy a guy a drink

If it's in red that means I have done it :)

A typical Monday night

Computer with Italian and English grammar websites open. Check.

Some travel website just to indulge a little bit. Check.

Some itunes in order to keep me entertained. Check.

Notebook with some lesson planning going on in it. Check.

My cell phone. Check.

My Planner. Check.

A plate of pasta I just cooked for dinner. Check.*

A glass of red wine. Check.

Yeah, that looks like my typical Monday night!

*(It was spaghetti alla carbonara, for you curious folk. No cream, because, really, at 8:30pm no one really needs cream.)

Oh, Happy Day!

(I don't remember where I found this pic, if you know, fill me in)

Often, when I am in a good mood, 

I have a hard time holding back the urge to sing a long to my music on my mp3 player. 

I don't do it because I know I would get stares from random people on the street.

Well, on Friday I was in an incredibly good mood...

..I woke up to some VERY good news, it was an incredibly beautiful clear day, I was hit on by a rather handsome redhead and the list could go on...

I was walking to meet up with my roommate for some drinks and I couldn't help but have thisbig goofy smile on my face,

 I was trying so hard to resist my urge to sing with the music,

 then I figured people were staring at me (because the people of Trento aren't used to seeing someone smiling as they walk, but more on that later) so I figured, 

What the hell...

...and I SANG...

...and it was wonderful!

Here are the two songs I was unable to resist:

Blackbird singing in the dead of night...

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Here where I live they have a legend about the "giorni della merla" {The days of the blackbird}, which are the last 3 days of January, the 29th, 30th, and 31st. 

It's actually a really cute legend.

Once upon a time {all good legends start this way, right?}, the first blackbird alive was all white (it probably wasn't called a blackbird back then, but that's neither here nor there). One day it got really cold and freezing...

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so, the blackbird had to look for someplace to hide in order to shield itself from the cold. The only place it could find to hide was inside a chimney stack

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So, our little {white} blackbird hid out inside the chimney stack for the next 3 days {the coldest days of the year}, and when it started getting warmer he emerged, but due to the soot and ash in the chimney he was no longer white, but black, and it remained that way forever....

{cannot for the life of me remember where I found this one...sorry!}

 ...and that my friends is why blackbirds are black!

Esther

This is my roommate, Esther.

(Let's all say it together...Hi, Esther!)

She is awesome!!!

Sometimes, we have the weirdest/funniest/randomest (yes, I make up my own words, sue me!) conversations.

Example 1: I was eating a banana and was walking past her room and the following took place

Cyn: Ba-na-na...You know when I say it like that I feel like Tarzan.

Esther: Did you say Tarzan?

Cyn (coming back to her doorway): Yeah, you know like when he has to learn to speak...Ba-Nah-Nah

Esther: Dear God, she has gone crazy. You're nuts!

Example 2: I forget what we were talking about

Esther: Yeah, like RoboCop

Me: What?

Esther: Yeah, like the movie- RoboCop

Me: Never seen it

Esther: (Backtracks into the room) What?!?! You have never seen RoboCop? What kind ofAmerican are you? Everyone has seen RoboCop!

(I guess in Europe, RoboCop is one of those classic movies that, apparently, EVERYONE has seen..or maybe it's just like that in Spain.)

Example 3: Esther had just gotten to get blood drawn this morning and she shows me this:

Esther: I look like a junkie

Me: I don't think junkies wear band-aids

I adore her.

What am I going to do without her when she moves out next month?!?!?!

Dear Forehead

Dear Forehead, 

We need to have a talk...

I know we've had a tumultuous relationship in the past 

(I know there were several burns from curling irons and I KNOW you still haven't forgiven me for running on wet cement in order to jump into the pool back when I was 7, and I know you will always have that bump to remind you of my carelessness, but dude, I was 7, can you please get over it?

I'm sorry, ok.)

I understand that you may feel slighted by the recent change (my getting bangs and all), but you had many, many years of exposure. 

I understand change can be hard and it definitely takes time to get used to it,

but PLEASE don't start breaking out in order to get back at me!

Just because you are currently in hiding,  DOES NOT mean you have the permission to ruin my face!

The bangs won't last forever, one day it will be all about you again...

IF you play your cards right!

Let's not have to have this talk again.

~Cyn

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark (update)

Today, I figured it out. 

When I got back from California TWO WEEKS AGO my roommate made stuffed eggplants. 

We all ate some and I guess at the time no one realized there was one leftover...

Well, I guess no one EVER did.

Today my friend, Anita, came over for lunch and we decided to throw some french fries into the oven.

I go to open the oven and the stench just hits me...

I look inside and what do I see...

the NASTIEST, MOLDIEST, most DISGUSTING looking stuffed eggplant in the history of man.

I promptly wrapped it up in the foil it was in and threw it out.

...And with that the mystery of the stench was solved.

P.S. if you ever have a stench in your kitchen and you've checked all the usual places, 

make sure you check the oven!

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark

Ok, maybe not in Denmark, but definitely in my kitchen.

Can I just say that it highly disturbs me that it's the STATE of Denmark. Umm, Shakespeare, I know you are one of the greats and all, but Denmark is a COUNTRY. 

Unless, it wasn't in your time and only a state, in which case...sorry!

I think I remember from high school that it was a reference to the how crappy the politics in Denmark were at the time, I dunno. 

Anyway, I digress...

I walked into my kitchen this evening and there is definitely a funky smell in there. 

Basically, it stinks!

We have been on a hunt for the culprit, but just can't figure it out.

We just cleaned the fridge and freezer and threw out any fruits that were gross 2 days ago, so it can't be any of those.

We don't have a garbage disposal and the sink is nice and clean.

We took out the trash last night.

What could it be?

Culprit, we WILL find you...

You have been warned!

Bang, Bang!

I got bangs!

I know I kinda had bangs before, but not the kind that went across my whole face.

The ones before were a prelude to the real bangs I now have.

Not the best pictures of my bangs, but I am too lazy to take anymore or to have my roommate take another one of me.

So, whadya think?

Cupcakes with a message

For New Years Eve my bff, Kate, made a fabulous dinner.

Tri-tip, roasted carrots and potatoes and sauteed green beans

It turned out delicious!

 

While she was cooking I made some cupcakes. 

She had gorilla, lion, elephant, and dolphin sprinkles (along with all the normal ones).

Needless to say, I got a little creative with the decorations.

"Jerry got separated from the pack"

 "No one was brave enough to tell Timmy he was adopted"

"Jane Goodall"

"Breaking social norms"

"You complete me"

"Anne, a hopeless romantic in a world of non-believers"

"On the lookout for their perfect match"

"Soulmates"

"Checkpoint Charlie"