Simple thoughts

So, it's time to plan another weekend, busy as always.

Tonight it will be the last chance to have the pc all for myself at home, considering that around midnight Marty will be back from Berlin.  

I have to organize my online food & recipes sites, to upload old pics in my albums, and delete some really old stuff I don't need anymore.

Tomorrow morning I will go with hubby to have some x-rays done coz he has one really bad tooth that needs to be removed and his dentis wants to be sure what's under it.

Then, as usual, to spend a fortune for the weekly groceries shopping

Back home I will have to think about lunch, and after the much hated dishes washing, I want to take some time to go through my recipes and find something I can cook in advance and then freeze for next week, coz I will be very busy and I surely won't survive on toast and hamburger!

Tomorrow night well be out for dinner with some friends in a private club Raf discovered a little ago, nice place, good music and low prices, what's more to ask?

Sunday morning I will be with dad, as every sunday. I thought about the old good times, and I found this pic, taken at the seaside where my parents used to go with Marty when she was little, this one is from the 1995, just before dad shown the first signs of Alzheimer (look at Raf face, what the hell was he doing??? Maybe a funny face for Marty taking the pic?)

In the afternoon, if nobody raises hands with good ideas (and considering all the forecasts has bad news about the waeather) I will go throught my closet and put order there arranging the books I have there, mixed with bags and shoes boxes! And I really whish I have something like this

Anyway, no matter what, I will be here next monday, if anything arises before. Till then.........

How many roman catholics there are in the world? I don't know the exact numbers, but they are millions.

I said "they" because even if I was raised as one of them, I don't recognize me as a catholic anymore, I have very different feelings on the subject. I mean, sometimes I feel the need to enter in a church (never during a mess celebration, to my mother-in-law disappointment) to have some quiet moments and a little conversation with someone I'm not even sure is there. I like to visit little country churches or very big cathedrals, to sit there and contemplate what men were able to build in God's name, feel the sense of faith and peace you can breath while sitting on your own, admire the paintings and the architecture works that were meant to celebrate God's greatness.

What I don't like are things such as the dogma of  the infallibility of the Pope (he's just a human being to me, with all the weaknesses of any other man), or the richness of the Vatican when Jesus was the priest of the poors and the battered, the celibacy of the priests, and most of all, the interference of the Vatican in political issues.

I'm very angry at the Vatican at the moment, it's the smallest state of the world, but it's the most powerful, and having it in Rome, just inside the italian territory, it's a real pain in the ass to me. I mean, there are catholics in Great Britain, in France, in Spain, ect. but the Vatican hadn't stopped those governements' decisions about civil and legal issues (and I'm referring to in-vitro fertilization, omosexual marriage, single-parent adoption or abortion). In Italy we're in the middle of a real battle between the state and the church about all the issues I stated before. The state has recognized the fact that the concept of family has really changed lately, more and more people are living together without the marriage lock, having children, taking care to one another, but without all the rights of the married couples. Lots of children are in orphanages in need of care, but a single parent willing to give them love, isn't allowed to. Rich people who can afford a trip abroad to conceive in-vitro, do it more often, as if having children is a money privilege. And who has the right to say that one kind of love is just fair, while another one is to blame?

Apparently, the C.E.I. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conferenza_Episcopale_Italiana) has this right. I think the Pope, the Vatican and C.E.I. must lead the way about moral issues for the catholics, be an inspiring guide along the path to Heaven. It's up to catholic people to follow the catholic rules, to marry before having sex, to have all the children God gives them, and don't have any if this is their destiny, see abortion as a crime and look with pity to omosexuals. Catholics must behave according to these rules even if the governement of the state they live in allows other rules as well. If I truly believe in marriage, I will marry with the catholic rite, what damage can be made to me if two people are living together as a family without being married? I simply don't understand it. If I don't believe in God, not being married it's not a sin to me, should I marry only to please someone else? And I'm angry because it's the lack of freedom that I fear the most, the freedom every human being has to act according to his own belief.

No, it's not me....Marty had her flight this morning at 8.35am from Orio al Serio to Berlin-Tegel and she will be there all week. She just called me to tell it's sunny there (here is raining like hell since saturday evening). The worst part? Waking up this morning at 2.40am to bring her to her school where a bus was taking all the class to the airport (they had to be there at least 2 hours before the flight). Right now I'm snoozing on my desk, and it will be a real task to arrive at 6.30pm!

So, today is the first day of spring, luckily this morning the air is fresh, the sky is brightly blue and the sun is shining!

Or, if you prefer, Happy Ostara (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostara)

Yesterday here it was 18°C, and today is snowing like hell, and a very cold wind is blowing.....guess the fact that tomorrow is the first day of spring it's just a joke, right?

Do you remember Kelli? Africankelli, to be exact. If not, take a look http://www.africankelli.com/  Anyway, last december, she sent to me a package as a Christmas gift. Sad to say, I never received it. At least, until yesterday. Back home for lunch, while eating chicken and potatoes with Marty, mom called telling me to go to her flat, coz on the kitchen table there was a package for me from USA. And there it was, from Kelli! It took 3 and a half months to arrive, but imagine, a Christmas gift at mid march. Nice, uhu? (Marty has a theory. According to her the postman get lost in the Arizona desert with Willie and maybe she's right)

Anyway, there were five books that Kelli wanted to get rid of, a block notes purposely made to keep trace of my books-to-read, and this very nice handmade bag (I think I will use it as a makeup bag, nice idea don't you think?)

Than you so much Kelli, you made my day!!

So, let's check the list (and the costs)

- groceries shopping, done (€ 133,00)

- hairdresser, done (€ 75,00 - and yes, I cut and colored my hair!)

- Vans shoes for Marty, this one   done (€ 69,00)

- sunglasses for Marty, RayBan Aviator 3221  done (€       120,00 - but Marty paied for it)

- pizza with friends, done (€ 26,00)

- some beers and Irish dances for St Patrick's Day, done (€ 15,00)

- afternoon with dad, done (priceless)

- dinner with friends, done (and I indeed brought some fruits salad with ice cream)

I can be proud of myself, don't you think?

So, it seems I survived this hell of a week! And to celebrate I'm planning a busy weekend, even thou planning is not succeding! We'll see at the end of it......

First of all, tomorrow morning, usual groceries shopping at two different supermarkets, Esselunga and Lidl, and as usual we'll make it in too much time coz usually we meet so many people we know, and education requires a little polite conversation with anyone......

In the afternoon, but only if Marty hasn't planned anything different, we're gonna make a visit to my friend Dany, our personal hairdresser, and I whish I'd have the courage to cut my hair this way even if I'm not like Meg at all

but in this shade of red

Then I will go with Marty in search of a pair of Vans (and she's looking for one of these models)

and for a pair of sunglasses to choose between these ones

After all this money feast, tomorrow night we'll go out for a pizza with a couple of friends in a often-visited restaurant just outside town

and after that I proposed to go to a little club in the old town center, just behind the Cathedral, where tomorrow night, being tomorrow St. Patrick's Day, a folk group called The Polverfolk will play irish and celtic music with a lot of beers and traditional dances, how does it sound to you? We'll see if our friends would say yes...

I hope to be able to oversleep sunday morning, coz I reallty need it!

Sunday afternoon I will go to see dad as always, while Raf will be at the stadium, maybe to see Parma football team loose again.....I guess next year we will say goodbay to the major league if something won't change really soon!

In the evening we're invited to dinner to our friends' home, something like pasta and salad, nothing too elaborate, just to spend time together and we're willing to go, I have to think about something for dessert, a fruits salad maybe?

And then, it will be monday morning again..............

  Having established this, that I hate monday mornings (it's like receiving a punch directly at my jaw) I hate this monday morning in particular, coz it's just the beginning of a very busy week in office and being this sunny outside, I really don't feel like working! Today afternoon with my boss I have an appointment outside the city with the general manager of a big company for settling some details about financial plans. I don't know when it will be over, so I guess I will skip my yoga class, damm! Tomorrow morning I will be busy with another company in my office ( I hope to have at least time for a coffee break and a visit to the bathroom!). In the afternoon we'll have a demo for a new pc program, and considering our bosses have already established that it's too expensive, so we won't buy it, where's the point in loosing our time??? Then I'll have four more appointments already fixed for the next two days, so it will be friday soon, when I will be busy all day with those english people I've told you about once! Just to end it up with a bang, you know........