In Italiano...perche' devo provare la lingua...

Fra alcune settimane trasloco a Madison, WI per il mio nuovo lavoro con Epic Systems Corporation.

Pazzesco.

Una vita nuova (un frase preso da Dante--e dal iscrizione sui cancelli nella Piazza Repubblica a Firenze: "A vita nuova restituita...")...penso che sia una buon'idea di leggere La Vita Nuova durante la mia transizione...devo trovare una copia in italiano qui a Tucson...sara' un compito difficile. Ma quest'e' una digressione...

Allora...

Alcune cose che mi mancheranno di Tucson (non necessariamente in quest'ordine):

1. Beyond Bread and Chopped...due ristoranti locali che sono i miei preferiti...
2. I tramonti di Tucson
3. La mia famiglia
4. Il calore
5. Le montagne
6. Il cimitero dei aeri su Davis-Monthan AFB
7. La familiarita'


Ma tutti dei miei amici stanno traslocando alle citta' diverse...amici in Inghelterra...amici in Turchia...amici a Pittsburgh...amici in California, amici a Chicago, amici a New York.....mamma mia.

E' il tempo per il cambiamento...il cambiamento d'indirizzo...il cambiamento delle nostre venti-qualcosa vite...

E' il tempo per imbarcarmi su una vita nuova. :)

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

Can the world have more episodes of The Office that are just the right amount of awkward? Can people automatically know what I mean when I ask if they're a Fanilow? Can plastic coverings on couches be abolished? Can Diane Lane star in a movie in which she does not go through a break-up? Can boyfriends actually want to watch a Nicolas Sparks film every once and a while? Can burritos have the same amount of calories as broccoli? Can workout videos become cool again (minus the leg warmers, please)? Can Home Fries air on Stars more than once a decade? Can I automatically have a secret handshake with everyone I meet? Can I wait to pay at the grocery store without feeling guilty for being to lazy to bag my own groceries? Can strange women distributing swords from lakes again be a binding basis for government? Can Dutch be the universal language? Can Tina Fey start scripting my day? Can Jimmy Falon co-star in my day? Can those Head-On commercials implode on themselves? Can Pluto be a planet again? Can my lipstick finally be the right shade? Can there be more sweater vests in the world? Can Phoenix do a gay-best-friend-style makeover on Tucson?

Please and thank you.

Say, "Hi," to Will Ferrell for me.

Ashley


I don't know if anyone reads the letters in the Macy's Santa drop box thing, but this is what I'm considering for a submission.

New favorite words...and old ones I never really thought about...

antediluvian: literally, before the flood. as in ancient.
caprice: impulse. it's funny because capers were considered to be aphrodisiacs.
craven: cowardly. And quoth the craven nevermore.
diffident: modest. I'm not cool, I'm just diffident.
disparaging: belittling. I knew this word, but never thought about it much. It's cool because "dis-" means "not" or "making not", and the root comes from the same as the Italian "paragone", meaning "comparison". Therefore, to disparage something or someone is to act as if or to declare it as not equal or comparable to its peer. It's a pretty intense word, actually.
dissemble: to conceal one's real motive. It has the same root as the Italian "sembrare", meaning "to seem". Thus, the word means "to make seem as not".
equivocal: ambiguous. From the same root as "quiver".
extant: still existing. "ex-" meaning "out" and "-ant" makes it a noun. Thus, it means "the thing that is out".
peccadillo: small sin or fault. from "peccato", or "sin", which comes from "cadere", or "to fall".
tirade: an angry speech. from the same as "tirare", meaning "to tear".
volatile: explosive, fickle. from the same as "volare", meaning "to fly".


Esoteric words are not that intimidating when you see how people made them up. Then it's kind of funny.


I'm studying for the GRE.

Quindici libri...Fifteen books...

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. List 15 books you've read that WILL ALWAYS STICK WITH YOU. They should be the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

1. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. Just amazing.
2. A Room with a View by EM Forester. I read it here in Florence. :)
3. Persuasion by Jane Austen. I'm reading it here in Florence. :)
4. Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
6. Metamorphoses by Ovid
7. When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy by John Piper
8. Becoming a Woman of Freedom by Cynthia Heald
9. The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer
10. Sprezzatura: 50 Ways Italian Genius Shaped the World by Peter D'Epiro and Mary Desmond
11. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
12. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
13. The Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery
14. Number the Stars by Louis Lowry
15. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

Boldness

Looking, I cannot find
The threat that so easily filled my mind
Where is your sting, O Death?

Recalling, I cannot seem
To fully remember that frightening dream
Where is your sting, O Death?

Finding that you have been conquered
You shall never reign here
Finding that you have been conquered
And my Lord wipes away every tear

Singing, I can lift my voice
As Courage and Strength control my choice
Here in His presence is Life

Dancing, I always shall be
Behind the all-powerful walls of victory
Here, in praise, O Life!

Strength

More than You I loved my strength
Please show me how to live
As if it were forever true
That all my weakness You forgive

More than this You delight
In every "impossible" thing
And long to display Your power
As to You I cling

I choose my weakness over strength
So that I can love You more
And I will ever even boast
As on Your wings I soar

Weakness

Beautiful weakness, leave me not
Help me to understand
Life is more than "ought"
More than expectations
And all that I've been taught

Do not turn, my struggling soul
To hardness in your defense
Rather, trust in God, my soul
And not self-recompense

Softness stay
Leave bitterness behind
Meekness stand
And in your beautiful weakness find
His strength, and to it bind
My heart and soul and mind