The Things You Find When You Clean

Chris & I have just spent the last several hours cleaning out/de-cluttering part of the upstairs hallway that leads into my office nook. There's still quite a bit of work to be done, but we got so much accomplished today, I'm really pleased. We're getting rid of a bunch of stuff, and a bunch more got organized and put away (like it was supposed to have years ago). So, all in all, even though my back is now aching, I'm happy with how I spent my Sunday afternoon.

Of course, there are all kinds of odd and interesting things you tend to find when you're cleaning, especially if you're cleaning out an area that has been untouched for, oh, well, years. One thing I found today made me smile, just as it did when someone first sent it to me via email almost a decade ago, and I thought I'd share it with all y'all.

Resignation

Consider this official notice:
I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult.

I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an eight-year-old again. I want to go to McDonald's and think that it's a four-star restaurant. I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make ripples with rocks. I want to think M&Ms are better than money because you can eat them.

I want to lie under a big oak tree & run a lemonade stand with friends on a hot summer day. I want to return to a time when life was simple. When all you knew were colors, multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes, but that didn't bother you because you didn't know what you didn't know and you didn't care. All you knew was how to be happy because you were blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset.

I want to think the world is fair. That everyone is honest and good. I want to believe that anything is possible. I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things again. I want to live simply again. I don't want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in a month than there is money in the bank, doctor bills, gossip, illness, and loss of loved ones. I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, imagination, mankind, and making angels in the snow.

So... Here's my checkbook and my car keys, my credit card bills and my 401K statements. I'm resigning from adulthood. And, if you want to discuss this further, you'll have to catch me first, 'cause:

"Tag, you're it!"

The Last Photos from Italy

Okay, I've finally gotten around to uploading the rest of the photos I took during the trip to Italy - many apologies for the delay. The entire trip is now chronicled (more or less) in this set on Flickr. The only thing I've left out is the photos from the start of the Milano-Sanremo bike race; but there's a link to that separate set if you're really interested in cycling (or you can go directly to the cycling photos from race sign-in here).

Again, sorry for the delay in getting these online; I hope you enjoy them!

Thanks for the Support

I read a blog post recently about an American gal who's been living in Italy for the past eight years - she's married to an Italian man, and just had her first baby recently. She mentioned in her post how her mother used to leave classified ads for jobs she'd be qualified for around the house whenever she'd come back to the US to visit, and how she's now upped the ante (now that there's a grandchild added to the mix) by saying, "They've had you for eight years, now it's our turn!" The blogger was wondering who exactly had "had" her for eight years, since her move to Italy in the first place was her decision.

Anyway, it got me thinking how important it is to have a base of support behind you when you do anything that's even remotely unusual or difficult. Yes, great things can be (and often are) accomplished by people who work solo and who don't even have a cheering section, but I can't help but think that's really the tougher road. Even if your support network does nothing more than take you out for a drink every so often, or listen to your complaining, or remind you that you're wonderful no matter what happens - these are incredibly important elements to undertaking any difficult task.

So I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who's been supportive of Chris' and my "Project Italy," as we sometimes call it. It seems crazy to some of our friends and family that we'd want to live in Italy, but for the most part all we hear is encouragement. Some people are sad that we'll be further away, but generally speaking their first question is, "You're going to have a guest room, right?" It means the world to us that our friends and family are so supportive, because although the end result (living in Italy) will be excellent, getting there (figuring out a way to live in Italy legally) is definitely not easy.

In fact, we just found out today in a detailed email exactly what it will take to get one particular visa that would allow us to live and work in Italy without Chris having a job ahead of time. In addition to the cost of the visa, there is an incredible list of documents we'd need to pull together, get translated, and bring personally to the Italian consulate in San Francisco. And, ironically, one of the documents is proof of a residence in Italy... Which is something we thought we couldn't get without the visa first. It's such a circular process, it's no wonder people just go and stay illegally.

At any rate, this is all to say that while we know this isn't necessarily what everyone out there would want for us to be doing right now, we appreciate the support you're giving us anyway. It's quite something to have so many people cheering you on as you try to realize a lifelong dream!

Signs of Spring

Well, my fever and nasty head-cold migrated both north and south - into my sinuses and lungs - which means that remnants of it will probably be annoying me for weeks (if not months) to come. And then the head-cold kind of morphed into a mysterious stomach ailment, which lasted for several days, and nothing I ate (or didn't eat) seemed to make it any better. That was seriously irritating. That seems to have subsided now (fingers crossed), so I'm beginning to be seen among the living again! Wahoo!

I'm saying this was one of those usual Spring colds, but I know it probably had more to do with just sheer exhaustion after the trip to Italy. But in addition to the stupid cold, there are other signs of Spring - and these I actually like. The weird snowy and hail-y weather we had here a week or so ago has finally given way to beautifully sunny days, and the tulips and daffodils in my garden are in bloom. That's lovely. Chris and I might take a drive tomorrow in the Alfa down to the tulip festival south of Portland because it's supposed to be 75F - I know I won't be able to get any photos that don't have other people in them, but it'd still be fun to get out on such a gorgeous day.

There is one last sign of Spring that I don't like, however, and that's my wardrobe. As much as I love this time of year, I can never seem to find anything to wear. I love my winter clothes, and my fall clothes, and you'd think fall and Spring clothes would be the same - but they're not. So I may have to do a little targeted shopping tomorrow as well. We'll see if I feel like I can afford it.

Hope all's well with you, and it's a beautiful day where you are!

Down for the Count

That post-trip head-cold I was fearing started coming on before I left for Sea-Tac airport on Sunday to go get Chris, and developed into a low-grade fever on the trip back to Portland. The fever didn't last, thank goodness, but I've had a hacking cough since Sunday night and am now starting to get stuffed up. I was so pleased, I thought I'd actually managed to get away without any real nasty jetlag effects, and then WHAM. That's what I get, I suppose, for thinking I could escape jetlag. Jetlag has some powerful friends, I guess, and it doesn't like to be ignored.

Thankfully, I'm working at home this week anyway, as most of my office is out of town - my "office" is now the sofa, where I can put the laptop down every few hours for a nap. It's amazing how much sleep I feel like I need right now... I'm hoping to feel better by the weekend, because I'm tired of being cooped up in the house - especially now that the weather has finally turned back into Spring!