Stop thinking Brain!

My mind is going a million miles a minute.. Sometimes I feel like my brain is on overload.. So many thoughts and feelings scattered together it can be hard at times to focus.. Partly because I have more time here in Italy to really think.. About the world.. About politics and why people are they way they are.. And also is a welcome distraction from the hum-dum of ordinary life . Sometimes I wish I could turn it off but even with a riotous episode of Jersey shore… still can’t seem to focus.. Also since I have returned from America I have been hit with some severe insomnia.. Partly because of jet-lag and a bad habit of going to bed at 2-230am.. Grr.. I am seriously considering going to a pharmacy and picking up some natural sleep remedy.. Or as Italians would call it “chamomile!” ..




Things have been going good at home. Me and T are doing well.. I am a HARD_HEADED stubborn person.. I know this and I know compromising its difficult for me and I expect the world of my bf.. Poor t didn’t know what he was getting into with me but there are times I think about how lucky I am… after paying my Italian taxes and him helping me with that extraordinary amount , I realized even after the disappointment of last year via visa problems.. Maybe it was a “blessing in disguise” as my friend Gianna told me..it seems like a lot of work but I am here.. Legally and just waiting for someone to do their job at the comune.. Hopefully soon! I’ll bring the espresso! T’s mom has been cooking up some scrumptious food.. She’s amazing.. No joke.. Fresh pasta with vegetables.. Thinly sliced meat, rosticciana and potatoes… I can’t get enough which sadly means I need to work out! I decided not to renew my Virgin active account.. I love it and hope to be back but 85 euros a month…! In a country where people get paid EU1000 a month on average… 10% of your income? NAH… so I am trying to walk more and getting a habit of less-internet! Today I met up with Gianna and headed to “the diner” a pho-American diner in Florence where I get refilled American coffee at my request.. Don’t crucify me people.. I eat Italy’s wonderful food everyday.. I want a bagel and a cup of Joe… and conversation ..



One thing I love about living here is the fact that I can READ… beautiful books! LoL.. I read a lot and naturally I order from the internet.. Abebooks.com and Amazon more than anything! And guess what , the books actually ARRIVE! In Italy! There is a god! ( or Buddha) .. So right now I am reading “Sacred Games”, “The Pilots Wife” and am saving “Love and Longing in Bombay” and the “wind up bird chronicles” for later.. Am I the only one who reads multiple books at a time? Different mood, different book!



So thoughts for today… Haiti… of course.. I cannot believe they were hit with ANOTHER 6.1 magnitude aftershock as if they haven’t suffered enough! Those poor people! Sometimes I look around and think.. I am enjoying a wonderful new day and they are sleeping in the street.. All I can do is donate though hopefully that goes into worthy hands.. My dad worked there and I have a special place in my heart for the Haitians who according to my dad are loving people just desperate.. And I would be too in their situation..



Today the 60th senate seat ( formally Ted- Kennedy’s) was filled with a republican.. Am I sad? I don’t think of myself as republican or democratic but at the moment I am more left-leaning.. Cause A. I am a woman. B. I do care about people in need C. I don’t want to ignore domestic issues.. I get angry… yes angry and the more I think about it.. I would LOVE to get into politics.. Because I do care.. I want to KNOW about what is really going on and this curiosity has stemmed from when I was a wee little one growing up in Louisiana and Texas.. I would “read” books before I could “read” just turning pages over and over.. Lol at least according to my dad!



I have been paying close attention to what’s been going on in the health care debacle and I am so sick of hearing this “Americans want this” or “the real America that”… what the fuck is the “real America” … how can ANYONE presume they know what a country with a huge population and an affinity to throwing tea in harbors is thinking? We need to realize that us as Americans often think VERY DIFFERENTLY. I myself, think completely differently than Georgette of 5 years ago.. 5 years ago, I listened but not really, I cared but not enough.. Now I pay attention.. Instead of believing what others tell me to believe I do research.. For example.. I have been listening and reading up on credit card companies and the economical bubble burst and its fascinating.. Its so easy to say “people did it to themselves” well.. Ok .. Imp not saying we’re not notorious spenders but hell.. You can’t throw around free-market ideologies and when it fails ignore the fact that people are gullible and taken advantage of.. That is a fact.. Who reads the “fine- print”… I am so sick of lobbyists for Financial institutions saying “more regulation = big government” but then accepting a bailout? So what is its guys? Your way of doing business DIDN:T work because you were loaning out money to people who could never pay it BACK! And your justification was that “everyone “ should be able to get a loan… at 30 % interest though? Maybe DESPERATE people… I don’t know.. I am not the one who invented the computer program that banks have that process your highest checks first that way it empties your account faster… and why because the lobbyist says “that’s what people want”… um where was I when that survey was conducted?

As for the health care debacle… to me “simply saying NO isn’t good enough”… We are the only highly industrialized nation that doesn’t offer health care to just anyone.. I don’t care if you hate Obama or you don’t like his bill.. Than YOU come up with something better instead of saying “ the American people believe in …. insert vague useless statement here”.. your not my America ok sir! I believe you can not criticize anything without offering up a solution and I would benefit as a consumer to pay less for those who rush our emergency rooms due to no insurance.. Only time will tell.. Until then you better believe I will be watching..