THOUGHTS for today and tomorrow

thoughts for today and tomorrow in English.

I love having a blog, imaging I am speaking to someone. It's mentally stimulating and cleansing. I really have very few friends now to speak to, many have moved back to USA, others have died already and I don't have time to belong to new social groups. I like going to church when I can, but I often am very tired on a sunday morning and just sleep in, do laundry and finally get to washing the kitchen plates.

I meet new people when I have Max to look after, then we go to the park together. We can now go and play ball and have a picnic in Villa Favard. I'll pay for parking, no problem. I feel bad though when she leaves, I really miss her because as Golden Retrievers go, she really is one of the best, she listens, she understands and I really think she feels how you feel. She gets jealous when I stay too long at the computer or on the phone. Elena will be bringing me Max next week, I can't wait. She'll be with me for 6 weeks, then I'll be off on vacation to ALASKA in august so I'll be thinking of other things and will get over her absence shortly I hope.

When do I get to see my 80 yr old aunts again? I hope at least a couple of more times before death parts us. They have always been so nice to me - - Margaret, Carmen, Rose, Camille (she's really a cousin)
When do I see some of my cousins again . . I have found many on facebook, that's nice. This summer I'll see the Bellanti's and the Martinez family in LA. Also my Armenian friends, Ani - Janine - Sebouh. I wish we all lived nearer because once I don't have school to teach (which doesn't happen very often) it's really quite lonely with no friends or relatives.

Obama at the WH, everyone loves the guy but I have a feeling that changing everything in USA the way he wants to is not really a great idea. Many things just need a good fixing, people need to comply to rules and not be so greedy. And his Czars? Why such a bad term? Is this his term? He has put in over 100 of them? Call them monitors maybe. Maybe he considers himself a Czar.

Closing Gitmo .. great, it shouldn't exist, but neither should cancer exist! no one wants the guys though, small problem. Four are in Bermuda now . .those people didn't really want them. Can't send them back to Yemen, maybe they could be sent to Saudi Arabia, their homeland ? I'm sure they'll be treated better by their own people than they have been in Gitmo, they'll feel right at home once more. Is there a problem sending them back home? What ? - -no Bar Mitzvahs there?

Drug tunnels from Mexico to southern USA . . . what's stopping Alkaeda from coming through. Who cares, what a stupid thought, can't they just land on any beach anyhow - - weren't the guys on the planes in 2001 all foreign students in the country legally for many years with 6 drivers' licenses each. Hmmmm registered in six states - - good federal coordination here !

I think USA should be divided into 4 smaller countries, or even 6 countries, then maybe the place would be possible to govern. Or else we leave things as the are, divided into 50 states but the Washington people will never be able to effeciently govern over the whole lot. Coordinating data over such a large territory is mind boggling. People do terrible things then go live in another state and start all over, no one knows anything. There has been a great struggle to get a national list of sex offenders . . I think now there is a MAP on the internet of where they live all over USA. Some people though on this map are young kids who mistakenly sent a nude pic over the cell phone and got caught and labeled a sex offender. Too much here I feel . .

Tempus Floridum girls are lovely but today they got me pissed off, some never come to rehearsal on a regular basis, others don't study either voice or the scores, some talk constantly and are distracted and distract others, a couple are always telling me and others what to do. They do all tell me of their miserable schedules. I find most of the girls always tired and anxious and often ill, too bad, they all have great talent. We are finishing a cd this month, we need a lot of prayers.
UPDATE on this state of affairs _ _ yesterday's rehearsal (june 15th) was perfect, some extra kids came and everyone paid attention and sang well. So here too, I need to get pissed off more often.

Catholicism - don't start me on this topic! All my students under age 13 are stuck in Catechism every wednesday all afternoon for years and years, skipping all their other classes. They don't like to go; parents, wake up, they won't go to hell if they do fewer years of catechism. They're lovely kids. One mother said to me "can't do catechism on a sunday morning because the families go away to country homes on the weekends". This is a spoiled society or maybe they just can't stand living in Florence all the time !

O by the way. . . I live in Florence Italy, been here for 40 years and I am still considered a foreigner. And my blood is half Italian - - but southern Italian, maybe that doesn't count up here. In Italy kids have THREE months of summer vacation . . I teach thru july usually, and pick up end of september.

Florence Italy: a beautiful place to be sure . . inside the historical buildings and museums, things are really beautiful beyond belief - - BBB - - and performing music in certain places, often closed to the public otherwise, can be an experience you'll never forget; but the traffic and the air pollution, what have we to say about this? Bus tickets are too expensive and the buses are often on strike. The Bus website is so complicated - - terrible site. So is the train site, the Italian mind is too complicated, maybe everyone hopes that others will consider them some great genius intellectual or else maybe they just don't want to be understood by anyone !