He's Almost Here!!

OMG....I am sitting here in class counting the minutes....the seconds....for his plane to land. It is now 11:38am and his flight is scheduled to land any minute now. I'm gonna drive to the airport like a bat outta hell!! I've got butterflies in my belly!!
Gotta run!

Stolen Again!

When I got home from school today I checked my email and saw that I had a message from my Ale. In the subject line it said, "News from Murphy". Hmm....A strange but intriguing title. After reading it, I understood that he was referring to Murphy's Law. He said that as he got off the tube, he walked to the parking lot only to find that his "Cinquecento" had been stolen, AGAIN! His cinquecento was stolen last year too. He had to spend a few hours at the Carabinieri's making a report. Luckily there wasn't much gas in it the first time, and the perps ran out of gas in Monza, so they were able to recover the car. Now, another hour lost at the Carabinieri's office making a report. I hope they find it soon. Before he comes here next week would be nice. My poor Ale has had so much bad luck with his little car in the last 6 months. It also got hit while it was parked and of course, no note left. Then his sister got into an accident while driving it (she was OK, thank goodness). Those of you in Italy know that insurance and taxes in Italy for cars is so expensive, even for a little Fiat. He's so frustrated. He even mentioned the word "voodoo" in his message. I felt so bad after reading it. I wanted to call him, but I figured he probably didn't want to talk about it, so I figured I'd just message him back.

A few weeks ago my car got broken into. It's really rare that it happens in my neighborhood, but I left my backpack in my car and I guess it was just too tempting for someone not to pass up. It was completely useless to them because all it had in it was my schoolwork and some school supplies. Nothing of real value to a thief. It was of value to me though because I had to do all that school work all over again.....ARGH!! Thankfully, they didn't take any of my school books which were on the back seat because those are expensive to replace. I did have my TomTom GPS locked in the glove box, but they didn't bother to try to open that up, thank goodness! I keep it in the apartment now. I did have to swallow the cost of replacing the window they broke because my insurance deductible is $500 and the window wasn't quite that much but it did set me back $267. It may not sound like much but I'm a student now, living on a student's budget so it did sting a little bit. Street parking sucks! The police report was all done over the phone. The officer told me that there wasn't much they could do, which didn't surprise me. He told me to go looking in the dumpsters in my neighborhood because the thieves usually dump the stuff after taking what they want. Well, as terrible as I felt that my backpack was stolen, I wasn't about to stick my head in any dumpsters looking for it. Like I said, there really wasn't anything valuable in it, so I cut my losses.

It's terrible that we have such callous people in this world, but unfortunately, that's life. It's hard not to feel worried about something like that happening again. I try to think positively and hope for the best. But to have your car stolen not once but twice has got to be discouraging.

Jessica in Rome: if you are reading this, there seems to be something wrong with your site. Unless it's just me (but I've tried on two different computers), whenever I try to log on to your site, it gives me an error prompt. It says Internet explorer can not open the site. Operation aborted. It's just happened in the last week. Please let me know if it's just on my end. Thanks!

Giving Thanks

Those of you that have been reading my blog since last year know that I was hospitalized last year. You can read abou it here, and here. I really didn't get into too much detail about what happened to me. It was the scariest time of my life and the Dr's feared I would never recover. Fast-forward to 8 months later and have a made an almost complete recovery. I say "almost complete" because I am still having follow-up visits and have been told by my Dr's that you really need to give it a full year to be considered completely out-of-the-woods. To this day there has never been a formal diagnosis made and no one knows how I caught whatever it was. I seem to be a medical mystery of sorts. I had spinal taps, CT scans, MRI's and although they found that I had encephalitis, and my spinal cord fluid had an extremely high white blood cell count, they still couldn't pin point anything in terms of giving it a name. The "last resort" treatment was steroids, and thank God, it worked. Of course, I gained weight as a result of the steroid treament. A lot of weight. 50lbs. to be exact. This has been the most difficult part for me, in terms of my recovery. I've been working really hard to get the weight off and so far I have lost 10lbs. I'm very motivated and determined, so I'm sure I will lose it all in due time.

To be honest, I don't remember much of it. It's like I lost 2 months of my life. I got really depressed about it because it's like losing control of your life. Now I see things a little differently. I am so much more appreciative of things and I feel like I have been given a second chance at life. Even just going for walks, I take my time and really take in my surroundings. Sometimes I cry when I think about what I've been through and how far I've come, because I am so happy to be alive.

Today I was cleaning out my room and I came across an email that Ale wrote me while I was in the hospital. I won't get into the details of what it said, but it made me so emotional that I burst into tears. I can only imagine how he must have felt being so far away and unable to be with me. I am so lucky to be loved by this wonderful man. He stood by me (albeit from thousands of miles away) and never gave up on me. I feel so blessed and I thank God for him everyday.

I had the support of family, friends and strangers alike. I am so thankful for everyone's thoughts and prayers. They really moved mountains for me. I really feel in my heart that the worst is over and I have a bright future ahead of me. I wake up every morning with a renewed energy. I am anxious to see what the future has in store for me!!

Ale will be here in a week and a half and I am so excited!! I must admit that I am a little self-conscious about my weight, but he knows how hard I am working to change that. I have lots of activities in store for us throughtout his visit and you can believe I'll be blogging about it!!

Again I want to thank everybody for your prayers and support. They won't soon be forgotten.

Is There No End In Sight???

I was walking down West Burnside on Friday and saw this. I couldn't believe the prices at this gas station! There were gas stations not too far from here that were considerably cheaper, but people were still buying gas here. Here's a cool website where you can find the cheapest gas in your area gasbuddy.com It includes the U.S. and Canada. I've been using it, but luckily I only have to fill up once every two weeks since my school is only 2.5 miles away. I'm thinking of taking public transportation this summer. The problem is that there is no direct bus or Streetcar to get there. I would have to transfer and that gets time consuming.
I know that gas is more expensive in the UK and Europe, but still, this is getting ridiculous. We Americans are used to paying a lot less. I hope this gets better soon.

Please note: This is not a Friday the 13th joke! Unfortunately, this is very real. Happy Pranking!!

Saturday Farmers Market at Portland State University

My morning started at about 9:50am. I meant to leave earlier since the Farmers Market starts at 8:30am but I had to wait for the bank to open since I couldn't make my transaction through the ATM. After I finished my business at the bank, I walked down Lovejoy from 23rd to 12th and down 12th to Everett. I had heard about Caffe Umbria via word of mouth, then had a look at their website and decided I had to try it. It was a good mile and a half to two mile walk from the bank so I built up a good little appetite on the way.

I walked in and had no idea what I wanted. I decided to observe a little first then make my choice. It was nice to see that it was run more like a cafe' in Italy than that of a Starbucks. I chose to have a cappuccino and a biscotti to go. I have to say that it was quite good.

I took my cappuccino and biscotti and headed down Everrett so I could catch the Streetcar to the South Park blocks at PSU. The Streetcar was standing room only. Lots of people heading to the Farmers Market or to the Rose Festival, which started this weekend, but I will save that for another post. Since this was my first time to the Farmers Market, I wasn't sure what to expect. I had been to other Farmers Markets before, but I had heard that this one was one of the best.

When the Streetcar dropped me and the crowd off, I couldn't help but stop to look at the beautiful greenery around me. The South Park blocks and the PSU campus are some of the prettiest places in Portland proper. It's so many blocks of tree-lined streets. These streets are also lined with Churches and museums. It's called the Cultural District.

After taking a few pics, off I went to explore the Farmers Market. It was pretty crowded. I guess I wasn't expecting such a big crowd, but it was a beautiful morning and the good weather brings Oregonians out.

One of the first booths I saw was the Pearl Bakery. I love this bakery! Last year I popped into the bakery and had a fig panini and it was absolutely delicious. I've been a fan ever since. I bought a few pieces of bread and decided I'd find something there at the market to spread on my yummy fresh baked breads. I know fresh-baked bread is not such a big deal to some people, but I used to live in North Dakota where fresh-baked bread is nonexistant, so I always consider it a treat.

I was overwhelmed by the wonderful aromas that filled the air. This is defintely a place to bring a healthy appetite. I wasn't planning on buying much since I planned to spend a good part of the day walking around downtown and the Rose Festival. But there was so much temptation! From gourmet popcorn....

to more bread, all kinds of bread!!

Grilled sausages...oh, these smelled so good!

Fresh veggies...

Colorful flowers.....

This one brought a smile to my face. I love Calla Lillies!!

Just look at these beautiful strawberries!! They were delicious!

Yummy pastries. This pic is a little blurry but this was as close as I could get. This pastry booth was jam packed with people.

Fresh herbs....

OK, enough of all that, it was time to find some spread for my bread! I came across some mango pepper jelly and champagne mustard. Both of which were quite tasty, but I decided to keep looking.

Then I stumbled onto this.....Lavender Jam...whah?? It peaked my interest, so I tasted some and it was just perfect! I bought the Lavendar Raspberry Pear jam, and let me tell you, it is as good as it sounds, even better!! It's made by Sundance Lavender Farm in Salem, Oregon. They had so many different flavors, all infused with lavender.


To go with the beautiful fresh-baked bread I bought.

It looked like everyone had a good time. When there's good fresh food involved, who doesn't??!!

After I finished making the rounds at the market, I headed for the Rose Festival, but I'll save that for another post. I got hungry after so much walking around so I figured I'd have lunch at the Pearl Bakery in the Pearl District on the way home. It's a pretty inconspicuous place.

Unfortunately they no longer had the fig panini, so I picked the tuna sandwich. It didn't look like much, but it sure was tasty. It's described as White Spanish tuna, dill aioli, romaine and dijon on pistolet. The bread looked like somebody's backside, but I didn't mind, it was good!

Then I hopped on the Streetcar and my last stop before going home was Alotto Gelato. My favorite gelateria in all of Portland.

I had pistacchio, gianduia, and fresh banana. The perfect way to end my afternoon!

It was a perfect day. The only thing missing was my Ale, but I always carry him with me in my heart :) Next post, Rose Festival.

Caffe Umbria
303 NW 12th Ave
Portland, OR 97209
(503)241-5300

Pearl Bakery
102 NW 9th Ave
Portland, OR 97209
(503)827-0910

Alotto Gelato
931 NW 23rd Ave
Portland, OR 97210
(503)228-1709

Taking a Stroll in my 'Hood Northwest Portland

We had such nice weather this weekend that I decided to take my camera with me when I walked to church this Sunday. Here are just a few sights of my beautiful neighborhood. This is just outside the church.



This next picture was taking from Couch Park looking down 20th St.



Random shot of some beautiful flowers on 20th St.



I love this condo building on the corner of Irving and 20th. Very Spanish style with lots of character.



So many beautiful flowers are in bloom all over Portland.



Just one of many big beautiful homes that Northwest Portland is famous for. The founding fathers of Portland built their homes in this neighborhood.



Did you know that Matt Groening, creator of the Simpsons, is from Portland and he named lots of the characters after streets in Northwest Portland. Quimby, Lovejoy, etc. Yep, interesting fact.



Stay tuned for more sights around Portland. I plan on going out (as long as the weather is good!) and taking more pics of the different sights and Portland haunts.

Pazza Inter

Amala! Pazza Inter! This is for you baby. I love you!