I Won the Oil Shop Giveaway at Italyville!

I've been meaning to post this for some time now (sorry Joe!). Back in February Joe over at Italyville.com had this giveaway contest for some really good olive oil from oliveoilshop.com and I won! It's very rare that I win things, so I was pretty thrilled (I'm easily pleased).
Joe's got a great blog. He's is a first-generation Italian-American, born and raised in Massachusetts and posts lots of great recipes, pictures and talks about life growing up Italian. Joe travels back to his parents native Calabria often and posts really beautiful pictures of his ancestral lands. Hop over and check his blog out, I promise you won't be disappointed!

I've Been a Bad Blogger.....

There are a few things going on in my life right now (all good) but they are causing a major malfunction in my time management. I have so many things to post about but not enough time. It should all get sorted out in the next few days and I'll post all about it as soon as I get the chance. Plus there's a great blogger contest going on right now that I am going to be posting about too. Sorry about being so vague, but it's all I have time for right now. Be back soon!!

Hope you are all having a nice holiday season!!

Shameless Plug: il Presidenzialista

I'm back from a nice 4 day Thanksgiving weekend up in Gig Harbor, WA with some very good friends who I consider family. I'm going to post about that later though. This post is to plug the Italian's blog. I had been meaning to do it a while back, but never got around to it. So it's my great pleasure to send you over in his direction. His blog is both in Italian and English. His thing is politics but his posts will run the gambit. I am so happy he decided to put up his own blog because he's brilliant! Yes, I am biased, but seriously, he is! Ok, so go have a look and say hello or ciao ;)

il Presidenzialista

And here is his opinion of Starbuck's Espresso.....haha!

iTunes Tuesdays

I love the All American Rejects. This song is a little on the sad side, but it's about new beginnings and taking a stand. I'd like to dedicate this song to my blogger buddy MissB in light of recent events in her life. Stay strong girl!



Your subtleties
They strangle me
I can't explain myself at all.
And all the wants
And all the needs
All I don't want to need at all.

The walls start breathing
My mind's unweaving
Maybe it's best you leave me alone.
A weight is lifted
On this evening
I give the final blow.

When darkness turns to light,
It ends tonight
It ends tonight.

A falling star
Least I fall alone.
I can't explain what you can't explain.
Your finding things that you didn't know
I look at you with such disdain

The walls start breathing
My mind's unweaving
Maybe it's best you leave me alone.
A weight is lifted
On this evening
I give the final blow.

[Chorus]
When darkness turns to light
It ends tonight,
It ends tonight.
Just a little insight
Won't make this right
It's too late to fight
It ends tonight,
It ends tonight.

Now I'm on my own side
It's better than being on your side
It's my fault when your blind
It's better than I see it through your eyes
All these thoughts locked inside
Now you're the first to know

When darkness turns to light,
It ends tonight,
It ends tonight.
Just a little insight won't make this right,
It's too late to fight,
It ends tonight,
It ends when darkness turns to light
It ends tonight
It ends tonight, just a little insight
Won't make this right, it's too late to fight
It ends tonight,
It ends tonight,
Tonight,
Insight,
When darkness turns to light it ends tonight

I've Been Tagged!

By MissB in California She devirginized my blog! Ok so here's how it's gonna go down:

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Share 6 non-important/habits/quirks about yourself
4. Tag 6 random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
5 Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up

1) I am a foreign film geek. I have a whole collection of movies from around the world. You know, I'm into the whole neorealism movement. Now I'm downloading Italian films without subtitles in an effort to immerse myself in la bella lingua.
2) I once got 2nd place in a tennis tournament for both singles and doubles.
3) I love to travel and have had the good fortune to visit 14 countries so far. I had my 15 minutes of fame in the Philippines. (Don't ask!)
4) I have somewhere near a hundred pairs of shoes, which brings me to my next item...
5) I love my feet. I really do! Haven't posted a pic of them yet, but after my next pedicure, I just might!
6) I am a card-carrying member of the Ultimate Girls Fight Club. Mess with me and I'll kick your ass, hahaha! ;)

OK, who will I tag...

Lulu in Toronto
Leanne in Rome
The Shock of the Old
Ceci Reporting From....

I cheated..only 4 blogs :)

Saturday Evening

Today was my good friend Rachel's wedding in New York. I really wanted to go but I took somedays off from school while the Italian was here and really couldn't afford to take anymore time off. I'm kinda bummed though. I would have liked to see her get hitched. I also missed the birth of her son. Rachel, if you are reading this, CONGRATS!! And I wish you all the happiness in the world. You deserve it.

I was invited to a small "end of the summer" get together at a friends house. She lives about a mile away from me, so since it was a beautiful day, I decided to take a nice walk there. She is a relatively new friend, but seems really cool. I met her in my circuit boxing class. I really love this class. The instructor is really cool and we have formed the "Ultimate Girls' Fight Club", seriously! We get together once a month on a Saturday at a cafe', restaurant or weather permitting, a park and just hang out. I'm so happy I get to be a part of this because I have met some really nice girls here in PDX.

After the party, Mia, my instructor, her daughter and I walked to her car and she pointed out a deli to me and said I should try it. It's called Elephant's Delicatessen and it's kosher, not that that matters to me, but it's nice to know. So we parted ways and I walked up to Elephant's. Wow, what a spread. It was a really nice gourmet deli. They even have pizza from a wood burning oven. Most things didn't have prices, which is a bit off-putting for me. Call me a miser but I like to know what I am paying for something. Their pizza had prices and they aren't bad. $9 for a pizza but I will wait for the Italian to come back because he is a pizza connoisseur. They even rent their garden for events. Hmm, this is giving me ideas for certain future events (wink, wink). I'll have to try their food first. I really wasn't hungry when I went there, so I didn't buy anything this visit.

When I got home I intended to watch a movie, but I started reading a new blog (new to me) that I just came across on Friday called "Pensieri dal Mondo" or in English, "Thoughts from the World". It seems she and I have quite a bit in common. However on this night, the more I read, the more I really felt I could relate to her. It's amazing how someone so far away can really be so near. I admire her because some of the things she writes about on her blog are things that I deal with but I keep them inside. She writes that sometimes she feels alone, like no one understands her, but I do. We both have absent Fathers, a love for Sex and the City, a love for our own feet and a bit of a foot fetish, relationships, cooking (or lack thereof), I know what it's like to be the new kid on the block too, etc etc.... What I really found enduring was little things she would say or write that are exactly the way my Ale says them in English. That's probably because she is Italian too. I don't know her name but I feel like I know her heart and I just want her to know that she is not alone.