Blue Moon
When I told Antonello I hadn't been blogging lately, he gave me a dirty look. I think that's a pretty bad sign, considering he doesn't even read Allora Aspetta because it's in English. So I guess it's time to start writing again. Sorry, everyone, for the long long pause!I can't explain too much of my writing pause, except to say that, for a week of it, my computer was sick and on vacation in The Netherlands, surely spending its time touring the canals and the Rembrandt museum in between appointments at the Apple Lab there. It started showing symptoms of serious illness a few days after I launched the October issue of The Long Trip Home (Spotlight: Mumbai), and after searching around for Mac specialists, I finally discovered the only way to solve the problem was to send my ibook in for repairs in Holland. Luckily, the computer was under some sort of recall, and I didn't have to pay for anything, and (knock on wood, tocca ferro) it is back to working in good condition again! Yay, Dutch Apple specialists!
Other than that, though, time has been busy here, and Antonello and I have spent the last few weekends involved with caving activities, as the exhibit "Trent' anni nel Buio" (30 years in the Dark) which celebrated the Recanati Caving Group's 30 year anniversary just ended last week, and the course for new would-be-spelunkers started two weeks ago. Between trips to the Frasassi Caves to attend the yearly Italian Caving Convention (not quite like a Star Trek Convention, but close...) and a weekend in Bologna, discovering the earthy beauty of the Spipola Cave--a horizontal cave that feels much like walking through an underground riverbed--we have made time for a trip to Vitterbo, one of the most charming little medieval cities in Italy, and we've even had trick-or-treaters knock on our door (we gave them reeses cups!). It's been a busy busy time.
But this period of not writing is more, I guess, because of my current stage between job searching and soul searching. Finding a job in Italy, starting over in every sense of the word, has been a challenge as of late. I think of what I want to do--I want to be a writer, I want to start a travel agency, I want to fly to America on a moment's notice--and what I CAN do, and I wonder what I AM doing, and if it matters at all. Every day seems like it has to be taken as only that--one new day. I am scared to think to far in advance for fear that I won't know what I'm looking at anymore. I've been going back and forth between interviews and submitting writing to this magazine or that, and I even started teaching English once a week--and it all seems so temporary. I'm scared of jumping in. This is the last big jump I have to make in Italy, really--if I can just start a job, I will be here, settled. And it's incredibly scary and wonderfully amazing, all at the same time.
Anyway, I will write more, dear readers! Corrie, I miss you too! I will do a better job at this blog stuff--really!
-Jackie
