Questo titolo è in italiano

Merry Day After, everyone!

How was your Christmas? Full of love, hugs, and laughter, I hope.

Mine? Was short. I wasn’t expecting to see anyone because the family was going different directions this year but Mom and her husband called yesterday and asked to stop by on their way somewhere else. They dropped in about 1:10 and were gone by 1:30.

And you know what? Twenty minutes is about perfect. No time for drama…just the unwrapping of gifts, a quick hug, and back out the door. I heartily recommend it.

In case you are curious, I was totally right. I did get the Kindle. We haven’t quite bonded yet but I’m making an effort. I’m struggling with the concept of wanting to read something badly enough to pay for the download and yet not wanting it badly enough to have a paper copy of it on the shelf. I compromised with downloading four books that were free ($0 – who knew?) from Amazon. Of course, they are probably garbage but I will give it a go and see how I like it. Baby steps…

Now that the merriment has ended (whew! that twenty minutes was killer!), I’m focusing on my goals for 2009. I am thinking of categories of goals right now…like, I know I want to make additional ‘green’ changes and I want to do something different in the way of charities next year. I just need to come up with the specifics now.

As I was thinking about this last night, I saw another commercial for those Rosetta Stone language programs on TV. That put the thought in my head that I would like to learn another language. So of course, then the question was: Which language?

If I wanted to do this for work, I would probably choose Chinese but seriously? I have no desire to work in China so why make myself more attractive to the possibility? I nixed that idea pretty quickly.

So then I decided this should be something just for me, just for fun. (Fun! What a concept!) I narrowed it down to Spanish, French, and Italian because…well, just because. I eliminated Spanish from the list almost immediately because I took it in high school and college. I would like to try something new.

So French or Italian? Italian or French? This was a tougher decision.

• I dream of visiting both France and Italy.
• Learning French could benefit me when I ultimately move to Canada (like when the Republicans take office again).
• Tuscany would be a lovely place to retire.
• It would be really cool to visit Italy and be able to order food in Italian. The only French food I like? croissant, baguette, fromage and mousse au chocolat. I can already say those words.
• Learning French would come in handy if I wanted to work in Belgium or Switzerland (also possible in my job) but then I’m back to learning for work instead of fun

And so it went, back and forth. I could think of good reasons to learn both. Then it hit me.

• Vincent D’Onofrio is Italian.
• George Clooney lives in Italy.

Duh.

Italian it is! And who says I can’t learn French later? Nobody, that’s who. Besides, once you learn one of the Romance languages, the rest are easier. (Let’s hope that Spanish background helps here.) Mo tipped me off to the fact that iTunes has language applications available so instead of spending the $550 for the Rosetta Stone program (which really? Isn’t a bad deal if 1) you consider the time and expense incurred with college courses and 2) it works), I went iTunes shopping this morning and downloaded some free Italian applications and subscribed to some educational podcasts to get started. We’ll see how this goes… (However, those Rosetta Stone programs still look enticing.)

So what languages do you speak? Would you like to learn another? Would you do it for business or pleasure?

On the bookshelf, #2008-59

Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life, by Steve Martin

I can’t quite explain the relationship I have with Steve Martin. He fascinates me in a way I can’t express. I have never been a big fan of his movies and his stand-up routines seemed to get old quickly…but still, I think he is a person worth knowing.

Several years ago, I saw a BBC special featuring him and I started to think of him differently than the ‘wild and crazy guy’ persona. He opened up about his childhood, his early career, and his personal life. We learned about his passion for writing and for art and philosophy. In short, he became interesting.

From the bn.com site:

It’s hard to imagine any well-known comedian alive today achieving Steve Martin status. He is an actor, comic, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, director, essayist, magician, musician, and composer; he is master of the catchphrase and the balloon animal; he is sufficiently beloved and respected that no one really holds Bringing Down the House against him. Seriously, who else is there? Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell, say, have the Saturday Night Live credits and the screen time, but we’re not about to see their essays in The New Yorker. Denis Leary has the writing and serious-actor chops, but show me one parent who will let their kids memorize his albums word-for-word like we did with the mega-selling A Wild and Crazy Guy. (Twenty-nine years later, I can still recite “Cat Handcuffs.”) Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are without peer, but their personas don’t fill arenas. (Also, no banjo. Or rope tricks.) Robin Williams: similar antic quality, but too many demons (including, but not limited to, Patch Adams). Jim Carrey: what happened? Seinfeld? Feh.

This book takes the BBC interview one level deeper in terms of his early career. He explains how his stand-up came to be and the theories he was trying to test. Along the way, he shares a few jokes but overall, this is more of a how-to document for comedians. And throughout, his intelligence and wit shine through.

I still think he is interesting.

On the bookshelf, #2008-58

The Eggnog Chronicles, by Carly Alexander

I have owned this book for months but I decided to save it and read it during Christmas week. I mean, with eggnog in the title when else could you read it?

From the bn.com site:

A celebrity obituary journalist for a New York paper with a fear of commitment, a North Carolina Christmas store owner involved in a dead-end relationship, and a bank supervisor who fears she is pregnant with the wrong man’s baby find themselves, as well as unexpected happiness, in this trilogy of linked holiday stories. Broken relationships, trust, fulfillment, and illness are all issues here, but this upbeat contemporary tempers angst and introspection with humor and sass. This lively, heartwarming read will appeal beyond the chick-lit crowd.

Well, no, I don’t agree with that. This is most definitely for the chick-lit crowd and even then, it isn’t a stellar example of the genre. I like reading fluff like this because it requires no effort on my part but I end up getting so frustrated with the plot (or lack thereof) that I’m not sure it’s really giving me the break I need.

I’m going back to the biographies for the rest of the year…

All the happiest…

I’m looking at the calendar but it isn’t registering. It just doesn’t feel like the day before the day before, you know? Sure, the television has been running holiday specials for weeks, the radio has been sprinkling Christmas tunes in with its regular format, and I see the decorations around town…but the spirit doesn’t seem to have shown up yet. Is that just me?

I hope that it is just me.

I’m going to a holiday party tonight so maybe that will help. It is a virtual party, being held on Twitter, so it very well could be my favorite party of the year. All the glam and glitz without having to get out in the cold. Who could ask for more? And since the snowplow just went by for the third time this morning, it is probably the only get-together I’ll attend this week!

I hope that all my friends and readers are looking forward to the next few days and are ready to enjoy! I’ll be thinking of you all and wish you all the best! See you back here soon!

On the bookshelf, #2008-57

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry, by Kathleen Flinn

From the bn.com site:

When the author, an American journalist and software executive working in London, is sacked from her high-powered job, she enrolls as a student at the Cordon Bleu school in Paris. With limited cooking skills and grasp of the French language, she gamely attempts to master the school’s challenging curriculum of traditional French cuisine. As if she didn’t have enough on her plate eviscerating fish and knocking out pâtéà choux, she determines to write a book about her experience and gets married along the way. The result is a readable if sentimental chronicle of that year in Paris in which her love life is explored in great detail, dirty weekends and all, and cooking features as a metaphor for self-discovery. Some readers may feel disappointed that the narrator’s encounters with French cookery remain largely confined to her lessons at the Cordon Bleu. On those rare occasions when she ventures into the food-obsessed city, the descriptions of meals are glancing at best. Although her struggles with the language and lack of knowledge about the culture lend comic elements to the story (once, trying to order a pizza over the phone, she said, “Je suis une pizza”-I am a pizza), they, too, constrain the author’s culinary explorations.

I seem to gravitate towards books written by wanna-be chefs and food writers, don’t I? It definitely has less to do with food and more to do with the manner in which these people follow their dreams. I read these books trying to find the key that these people obviously found to unlock what it is they are passionate about. I haven’t found that key yet but each story reveals a little bit more about how to live life.

In this book, Ms. Flinn and her fiance’ talk about living the corporate life and how so much of who they were was defined by the jobs they held. Her fiance’ was more bold and decisive about going after his dreams but Ms. Flinn made the comment that she was caught up in the race to climb the corporate ladder and make a name for herself in business. Even though she wasn’t particularly happy, that was who she was. She was glad that she was finally let go by her company because she knew she would have never had the courage to leave on her own.

This is why I spent the year reading memoirs. I am just trying to learn from the lives of others. While I am a slow learner, I am definitely gathering a lot to think about.