Ciao

Returned from Parma. My first trip to the Motherland (I am Italian tangentially through my Brazilian born father) went well. It was everything I had hoped - cobble stone streets, great food, musical language. I wouldn’t advise visiting Europe in December when you’re not used to cold - we froze our asses off - but hey, free trip. 

One thing strikes me every time I go to Europe (aka The Old Country). As much as I love the history and beauty of the place...I can see how for some people the weight, the responsibility of all that history and culture can be a bit stifling. It must be hard to break away and pave your own way in places like that. I even felt that way in New York - coming out West was a revelation; “nobody knows me here and I can do anything I want!” It’s immensely freeing. 

I returned to a real steam roller of a week. It will all be over by Sunday, but oy. Christmas shows, tons of candy making, tons of work, dropping off the new car for a moon roof installation and driving a quirky loaner, dealing with the aftermath of the house rewiring in which tons of things have to be fixed/tweaked/cleaned up after, all while juggling kids (and today my period), has been not fun. I haven’t even caught my breath. But luckily Bobby is off school after tomorrow, which means a couple of great things - we can all sleep 1-2 more hours each morning, we don’t need to rush around, and no homework. Once the multitudinous gifts have been made and distributed (Bobby’s class and teachers, Theo’s class and teachers, the band members, my friends, movie and book club people, the afterschool program, Theo’s morning school, my babysitter and cleaning lady and violin teacher, etc etc), which they mostly will by the weekend, I can finally breathe. 

It’s funny how things switch. I used to live in dread of time off school - now it’s the opposite, since it means being able to sleep in (kinda). And a five year old being off school is no big deal - Bobby is an absolute delight on his own; I actually look forward to spending time with him. Theo at three is still tough - and we have a LONG three weeks with no morning preschool. But I’m confident if we get up a little later it won’t be so bad. Bobby is at winter camp two, possibly three of the weeks. I look forward to focusing on some house projects and just relaxing after this. Could it be “vacation” actually means vacation once your kids are school aged???

In other news, I flipped the solar switch yesterday. Goodbye, cruel grid!