Freezing in Florence

This is the entrance to my school. Then you walk up the stairs in the back there to the classrooms on the second floor. There are vending machines to the left that dispense various beverages including the ever popular cappuccino machine. At break you have to wait in a long line for that one. I have had a "cap-ciok" out of that machine which is roughly a cross between a cappuccino and a hot chocolate. Last night Renata and I made dinner together consisting of penne pasta and pesto with fresh tomatoes. It was delicious. I bought the pre-made pesto at the supermarket and it is much more flavorful (and salty) than the kinds we have at home. Here is what it looked like: Yum. I also grated some provolone cheese on top. I bought the provolone awhile ago just to have some nice mild cheese on hand but it turns out that their provolone is way more intense than our version. So I can really only eat it in small chunks or grated with pasta. Our roommate Vanesa didn't want to join in the dinner, being from Argentina she says it is way to early to eat at 7:30pm. Later, Renata and I went to Rex Cafe for drinks and live music. Only the live music still hadn't begun when we left at 12am. So that was kind of a bummer because a group called "Soul'D Out" was supposed to be performing "Rhythm&Blues" and I wanted to know what that meant to Italians. Plus the name is just too funny and cheesy! But after a drink and a couple hours I was too tired to stay. Our friend from school Vitor from Brazil joined us. He speaks Portuguese and English. English is almost always the common denominator. Except for the one guy Matthias in my class. He is from France and only speaks French. I forget if I talked about him already. Sometimes I can translate the Italian to French for him but my knowledge of French is wearing thin and I can only say "C'est le meme chose" (It's the same thing) so many times. Also in my class there is another guy named Matthias but he is from Switzerland and is Swiss-German. So I thought, Oh he must know the only other Swiss-German I know and that would be none other than the great director Marc Forster (Stranger than Fiction, Finding Neverland) who I worked with on Stay. Sure enough, he did and now I have a new Swiss-German friend. My roommates constantly make fun of me because of all the men I have met (I am sparing you the details on a few of them for brevity's sake), every time I go out they ask me which boy I am meeting. I have a hard time convincing them that I am just going to study or to school to use the internet. So when we drink coffee/tea in the afternoon this special cup has become mine. I have cropped out the special details that appear on the cup for the sake of our younger readers...yes, it is one of those cups where the guy's shorts disappear when you add hot water. Renata got the biggest kick out of it when I was sitting there drinking my coffee a few days ago. She had never seen anything like it. It truly is rather obscene but a nice coffee mug nonetheless. Florence still celebrates the new year according to a very old and religious custom. They celebrate on March 25th in a traditional manner by having processions in the street. The reason it is on that date is because the city is historical linked with the Virgin Mary and that is the day of the annunciation (when the angel came to Mary and told her that she was with child...come on Catholics, help me out). Basically the idea is that after the church fixed the date of Christ's birth as December 25th, nine months earlier would have been March 25th...get it?! So they celebrate this monumental day as their historical new year. These soldiers (?!) were in the Piazza della Repubblica with a full drum corp and flag throwers! It was exciting to see the procession. These crazy Florentiners just love an excuse to dress up! They do some bizarre things for Easter (such as pushing a cart engulfed in flames off the bell tower) so I am looking forward to that madness!

Viewing Pictures

Hey there--I just want to make sure that everyone knows that you can see a larger version of the pictures on the blog by clicking on them. Then to return to the blog just go back with your browser. Just a head's up since I have been uploading them with the small version option.

Birthday Celebrations

This is what you do in the produce department of your local market. You choose your item and then you put it in a bag and you put it on the little weighing machine. Then you press the picture corresponding to your item. The machine weighs it and assigns it a price and then spits out a little ticket which you stick on the bag. Don't go up to the cashier without doing this. Fortunately I was smart enough to observe others doing this activity so I didn't have to be an idiot and I even helped another girl figure it out today. This is what the cheese section looks like a my grocery store--and there is much more all around the other side. And today there was an entire pig head sitting on the butcher's chopping block complete with its ears and mouth (the mouth was sewn shut). Ew. I don't have a picture of that to share. I walk by this piazza everyday on my way to school. It has a bunch of little shops that sell antiques. The apartment that I am hoping to move to is on this square. I should know the deal with that tonight. It is looking good for the move. Here is proof that I am actually spending some time studying. I made the coffee myself with the little pot thingy. I forget what that is called. I haven't done a bunch of grocery shopping yet because I am waiting to get settled into whichever apartment I am going to be in. I did buy some coffee though. I like getting it in the cafe but since that guy was bugging me last time I decided to enjoy some study time at home. For lunch today I went to Standa and bought some foccacia and mozzarella and a tomato and made myself a very wonderful sandwich. I have been to Standa almost everyday that I have been here and I think that has been good practice for dealing with the cashiers. I know to say no to the bag (you have to pay more) and always try to give them exact change (they get really annoyed if you don't have it!). Last night I met up with Marc and Amy in front of the the campanile and snapped this picture. They took me to dinner at Sasso di Dante which is right by the Dome and then had some gelato at Festival of Gelato which has about 40 flavors! Marc is a little under the weather but still rallied to come out for dinner--thanks you guys! And they gave me an authentic Firenze keychain (I have been wanting one for my house keys!), a cellphone charm thing (you simply cannot have a cellphone without one here), and some nice bath gel! It was such a welcome relief to speak quickly and in "American" with them! At my apartment I have to speak some weird English with proper words, no idioms and using inflection (when you think about it, we don't speak that way!). Later that night, my roommates gave me a bottle of wine! So sweet. Except we discovered there is no bottle opener in our apt!! How can you have a furnished apt in Italy and have no bottle opener! We finally were able to push the cork in after about 30 min of chipping away at it, and it exploded in Renata's and my face! We drank and I blew out the little candles we found! Buon compleanno a moi!

My Italian Boyfriend

So this is Emanuel. He is not actually my Italian boyfriend. For the record, I do not have an Italian boyfriend nor do I want one. I met Emanuel on the first day that I was in Firenze when I was walking back from the city center to my friend Marc's house. I was navigating a map while crossing the street and he asked me if I was American. They seem to be rather taken with Americans here. I can't quite figure it out. He is a doctor of radiology at the hospital. I really don't understand what he does, I asked him if he was the technician who did the MRIs and that kind of stuff and he was very offended and from what I gathered he is the doctor who analyzes those tests and makes diagnoses. He wants to work in "nucleur medecine" in the US eventually. So he called me on Monday (we had texted over the weekend but he was in Torino working at the hospital there) and we met up in front of the Ponte Vecchio. This picture was taken that night as I was walking past the Uffizi Museum down to the bridge.

So beautiful with the dark storm clouds. So we met up and then he asked if he could make me dinner. Now, normally I wouldn't go home with a guy on the first date (!) but I really thought it would be fun to see his apartment and have a real Italian cook for me! So we walked to his apartment (which is about the size of a matchbook--my car might be bigger) and he cooked me dinner. The picture above is him in his "kitchen" which consists of a small counter that has two little burners and a sink and a college sized fridge. He made pasta for the first course with stewed tomato sauce that his mother had made. Then he made a salad with tomatoes and used olive oil and vinegar for dressing. This is not so unique except that his father had pressed the olives for the olive oil or however you say it--his dad made the olive oil! So that was the second course and then he made these little fish stick thingies. He cooked them in the olive oil and I figured he would just put a little bit of oil in to make it not stick to the pan but then he just keep pouring it in...ack! So I looked away because I didn't want to see how much oil was going into my dinner and when I turned back about 30 seconds later he was still pouring!!! Those poor fishies were swimming in olive oil! They ended up very soggy in my opinion. The funniest thing was that when he served it to me he said something about how he knows how to make it perfectly because he once worked in a restaurant! We watched the movie "Autumn in New York" while he was cooking and I taught him the meaning of "cheesy"! I am also teaching him what "You must behave" means. This is when he is trying to kiss me and I don't want him to. He is a very nice guy but I just don't like him in a romantic way...Next I will teach him the phrase "just friends". After dinner he walked me all the way home (all the way across town)--very sweet. That is one thing I can say for the men here--I appreciate the chivalry and they always pay. They are very offended if you try to pay.

This is my bedroom right now but I am 99% sure that I am going to change apartments. The only nice thing about my room is the large window. I have the balcony and the largest room in the apartment.

My desk and the second bed. It is supposed to be a 2 person room.

The view from my balcony. The apartment I am in right now is not bad but I just can't stand the smoke. It is really too bad because I like the girls a lot. But I found a new apartment slightly closer to school. It is much more Italian looking (mine now makes me think of a German dorm) and there is only one other woman living there and she does not smoke. That is the main issue. My English is seriously suffering here. I am spelling things wrong and using weird words. I had to keep correcting myself on my spelling of apartment...yikes. Yesterday I went to my local cafe to study and the server guy came up to me and asked if I was American or something blah blah blah and the whole rest of the time he was coming over every 30 minutes to tell me how beautiful I was. I just wanted to study, seriously. I like that cafe for studying because they have large tables (most cafes are pretty much standing room only) but now I don't really want to go back because "Sandro" will think I came back to visit him. He is older too. Oh and Emanuel is 35. Where are the young Italian Stallions? True to form, I like the two beautiful gay men in my first class. Story of my life.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Happy Birthday to me! I was born on March 28, 1978 in Grand Junction Colorado at 10:16 am. I weighed 6 pounds 6 ounces. Here I am 29 years and 130 pounds later in Firenze, IT. This is a side street on my walk to school. I am posing with many motorini behind me. The Italians must think I am crazy taking pictures of myself but since I am not with you on my birthday I figured you would at least like to see what I look like on this day. Notice that I am still freezing. And no, that is not gray hair coming in...it is my blond and it does look grayish in the shade when it is next to the old color. But geez, I am not THAT old!

Finally some new photos!

This is my and my roommates yesterday, on our first day of class. Renata is on the left, she is from the Czech Republic. In addition to Czech she also speaks German and very good English. Vanesa is in the middle--she is from Argentina and speaks Spanish and English. I am barely getting by on my English. They really won't speak English to you unless you are really dumb (which I am). So you just stumble along. They gave us a test to see where we would place and I thought I failed it handily. When I returned they gave me a book and told me to go off to a certain classroom. I walked into a classroom where all the students were gone but their books were spread out on the table (they were on a break). I poked around looking at what they were working on and it didn't look like anything I knew about. So I turned over the book that I was holding and realized that I had been placed in Level 2. I was like (cover your ears mother) F*&^! I can't be in this class. So the class came back and I understood some of what was going on but I was pretty sure I should drop into a lower level class. Today, we had grammar class for the first time and they were studying the past tense. I had barely learned the PRESENT tense in my class at Santa Monica College and now this Italian women was calling on my to cojugate verbs in the past tense. Strangely I was able to get by with using my knowledge of French conjugation but after class I took her aside and told her I had never learned it before. She was surprised that I had been placed in the class and told me to talk to the director. So I effectively got myself demoted and felt much more comfortable in my late morning conversation class.

This is the Ponte Vecchio at night. I was walking over there to meet my friend Emanuel. More about him later. You can see the motorini whizzing past. They will run you down with no qualms. I was standing on this spot earlier in the day and a polizia on a motorini almost ran me down under the Uffizi. The Arno river runs right under the Ponte Vecchio adjacent to this road.

These are my new slippers. They cost one euro and I think it is the best one euro I have spent here. The floor of my apartment is covered with this yucky tile and all it does is gather dust. So I found these little slippers at a local mestecheria (I don't know what that means either!)

Here is a pasta vending machine. I am not obsessed with vending machines--just ones that I have never seen or conceived of before. This one dispenses hot pasta in 4 minutes.

This is me just about 45 minutes ago enjoying my foccacia in front of the Palazzo Pitti. Still freezing, still gray here. I am going to be looking at another apartment this evening. I like my roommates but Vanesa smokes...and with my angioedema situation I can't really be around that full time. (Smoking has been a trigger for my angioedema attacks in the past and I don't really want to take that risk for 3 months). So I am checking out another apt tonight. The school doesn't know this and my roommates don't know this so we are keeping it on the DL until I can suss out whether this other one will be workable. Ah, it wouldn't be me if I didn't try to change and control everything. Even when I studied abroad in London I didn't like the internship my program set me up with so I went out and found my own. Nothing has changed. I have so many more stories to share so bear with me as I get really fast at this. I have to tell you about my friend who cooked me dinner last night...he is doctor at one of the hospitals here in Firenze and in Torino (of Olympic fame). Ciao for now!

Happy Birthday Jennifer!

Happy Birthday Jennifer! I hope that your 29th year is the best yet. (I'm allowed to say the number because she is only 24 hours older than me....)

First Day of School

This is my school and today is the first day. I had to take a test to prove I don't know any Italian and then they told me to come back in a couple of hours and class would start. I am sure I am in the very beginner class. My two roommates are in my class as well. We all met yesterday when we moved in. I have the huge room but I will explain that later. Renata is from the Czech Republic and Vanesa is from Argentina. They speak decent English but we are going to try to speak only Italian in the house. I think that means it will be very silent. This is the entrance to the school. Rather ominous looking but the school is nice if not a bit outdated (what isn't outdated in Firenze). A couple of days ago, Amy took me to her favorite gelateria where they have unusual flavors. I didn't try anything adventurous because the chocolate looked so dark and rich, yum. Amy also took me to a great sandwich (pannino) shop where I had an amazing pesto, mozzarella and tomato sandwich. We walked up to the Pitti Palace and ate our little picnic on the sloped entrance to the palace. We are even more bundled up than we look because it is still freezing here. I have been wearing long sleeves with a button up wooly sweater plus my jacket and a scarf I had to borrow from Amy. And my nose won't stop running from the freezing-ness of the air outside. It better warm up soon because I only brought a few long sleeve things. I can't wait for the warm weather to start up any minute now! This is a cute little car that lives on my street. I should have jumped in the picture so that you could really see how small it is. It is smaller than the SmartCar and the Nissan Micra (for the two of you who know what that is after having been driven around Spain and Portugal in one, by me). I will get some pictures up of my apartment. This is my first time using the internet at my school so I have to figure out how to get pictures uploaded and everything. Each step is a bit of a challenge but I am going to get it figured out asap! This is the typical and perfect (according to the Italians, anyway) breakfast. A caffe latte and a pastry. Although I was informed by my italian friend that the latte is for the bambini (kids) and that I need to drink espresso. No thank you. But I did find this nice little cafe on my way to school. I still have to put lots of sugar (zucchero) in my latte but I don't feel bad about that because even the Italians add lots of sugar. And it is standard fare to get a super sweet pastry with ciocolatta in the middle. I could get used to this. I think this particular pastry had nutella in it and it gushed out the sides when I took a bite. YUM!

Firenze Centrale

Here is the Duomo in the center of Firenze. My school is just behind it on a side street. It is so gray now...it will look more beautiful and shiney when the weather gets a little nicer! This is the restaurant that Marc and Amy and I went on Saturday evening. We had a wonderful dinner with some wine from San Gimignano that must have had something special in it because it made all of us flush in the cheeks. It was very good. I enjoyed my penne and then profiteroles for dessert. Just in case you missed it, they want you to know that this is an authentic antique restaurant. This place is right in the center of Firenze. We spent the afternoon Saturday wandering around the center, after touring the museum at St. Marco's and walking up to the Michelangelo plaza where you have a beautiful view of the city. More of those pics to come!

Adventures in Fiesole

This is the view of Marc and Amy's apartment into the kitchen. This picture really doesn't do the place any justice--it is so warm and homey. When I arrived late Tuesday night it was glowing in candlelight and they had hot soup on the table for me! It was amazing. Such a warm welcome, a very soft landing in Firenze. On Thursday I took the bus up to Fiesole which is a small town in the hills above Florence. I bought my ticket for the bus from the somewhat mean lady in the Tabacchi store who always wears a tie. She is not exactly rude but not accommodating either. I was nervous about buying it because I wanted to ask for the ticket that has 4 punches on it versus the ticket valid for just one ride (you get a tiny price break on the 4 ride one and I'm always looking out for a bargain). So I asked her for the un billeto per l'autobus con quattro and she got what I was saying! Extremely proud of my accomplishment, I walked off in search of bus #7. On the ride up the hill, the bus driver got into a huge argument with two old ladies. The entire disagreement took place in heated Italian but the gist of it was that the ladies wanted to get off at a place that wasn't really a bus stop and when the driver didn't stop they started yelling "Fermata, fermata" and he started yelling at them (presumbably about how he wasn't going to stop when it wasn't a designated bus stop) and the yelling continued even after they got off on the next stop. He even did the hand gesture where he put his four fingers up to his thumb and shook it up and down for emphasis. I was sitting in the first seat on the bus so I had a front row seat for all the action--I know he was really mad but it was so typically Italian (or at least what we think is stereotypical from movies we see) that I had to fight to keep myself from laughing out loud at the scene. I walked around Fiesole and saw the snow up on the hills. I walked through residential streets that looked like this. Until I came to a view that looked like this. This is the city of Florence in the Arno Valley. Then I walked through the square and sat in a little park overlooking Firenze. I sat reading and waiting for the convent to open so I could tour the little rooms and the church. While I was waiting Marc called to tell me that there was a driver lost in Florence who was delivering my luggage! Yeah! Unfortunately, Marc and Amy were leaving to go to class so I needed to come down the hill to be at the apartment to get my bags. So I headed to the bus and started riding it down the hill. After we had gone a couple stops Amy called me back to tell me that the guy had made it before they left so I didn't have to worry about rushing back. So I pushed the button to request a stop (I wanted to turn around and get back up to Fiesole before I was too far down the hill since I hadn't seen what I had come to see yet) but when the bus driver stopped for me I didn't realize I could only exit out the doors in the middle of the bus. So by the time I realized that and tried to push my way through to those doors, he had shut them and we were driving further down the hill. I pressed the button again and planted myself firmly in front of the middle doors. When he stopped (much further down the hill) I got off in a huff, knowing I was now going to have to walk all the way back up. About halfway up there was some construction on the two lane road so cars had to slow down. As I was walking by there an older man called out to ask if I wanted a ride up to Fiesole (this all was in Italian but I knew what he was asking) and he seemed like a nice man so I gratefully took the ride. I had already walked through the town and knew that he couldn't drive off to fast in any direction and kidnap me--there is just no way in those narrow streets, so I could have escaped if necessary! But he was a very friendly man and though he spoke no English (or French for that matter--that is usually my second question because I do still remember some of my high school French and it is still better than my Italian!) we bonded over our dislike of the war ("la guerra" he said as he made a machine gun sound and motioned with his arms as if shooting out the window). He applauded me ("brava") for studying Italian and then dropped me off in the square with a kiss on the cheek. Here is my friend Giacomo from Fiesole who gave me a ride up the hill: I walked up through the church and into the convent. This is a view into one of the cells. I don't know why it is sideways--maybe it will right itself on your continent. Afterwards I walked back down to Firenze which is about a 4 mile walk. There are gorgeous views the whole way down--things you would miss if you didn't walk and have the time to stop and stare. This is a view of a small grove of olive trees, I believe. Later that afternoon Marc and I had coffee and pastries before he had to go teach. I joined him in his class so they could ask me questions ("Ooh, a real live American girl") and practice their English. Then later we met for pizza at the restaurant across the street from their apartment. I have tons more pictures to share but have had bit of trouble uploading. I start school on Monday so I am hoping to get into a routine there where they have computers I can use to upload. We'll see how that goes! And my luggage arrived perfectly intact--I think it just hung out at LAX a couple extra days. All is well now on that front!

Book Vending Machine!

This is a book vending machine that I found in the London Heathrow airport--can you believe that?! I had never seen such a thing so I took a picture (even though I felt like a dork doing it...). Marc and Amy (who are avid readers) had never seen anything like it either so now I don't feel so bad about my apparent ignorance to such wonders of the modern world and I want to share it with you!

Il Mio Blog

Apparently I am not able to view my own blog in English. Well, I am writing in English but all my options are in Italian. Fortunately, I spent enough time on this sight back home so that I can kind of feel my way through writing a post. But there are less options here so if my posts seem even more amateurish I am going to blame it on my lack of choices. I do know that "pubblica"="publish". That much is clear. This morning I had some All Bran that I bought at "In Coop" which is a small local grocery store around the corner from my friends' apartment. I bought some milk but had too many options and accidentally bought "panna fresca". You would think that after 5 years of working at Starbucks and serving "espresso con panna" which is espresso with whip cream on top, I would know not to buy whip cream and put it on my cereal. But I didn't, and I did. It was really gross and my attempts to water it down with my friend's regular milk didn't do much to save my breakfast and I am still wiping the creamy film from my lips. You can see in the picture that the little brown brans are drowning in the milky thickness. Yesterday, Marc took me to get my Italian cell phone. I would give you the number but I am not sure how much it costs me to have you call me. By the way, don't send me anything but letters because apparently you have to pay a huge tax when you get packages delivered and Marc got slammed by that when his mom sent him a care package. He had to pay about 150 euros when the contents of the package weren't even worth that much. I really like my cell phone. It already has 4 numbers in it! Marc and Amy's two cell phone numbers and the numbers of my two new Italian friends. When you walk around looking like an American with a map in your hand, men tend to talk to you. At least that was my experience yesterday. I first befriended an older man is a construction worker who was paving the sidewalk outside my school. He talked to me after he saw me taking pictures of the school (those pics are stuck on my other camera and will be uploaded just as soon as my luggage arrives--I am now using my friend's camera). He spoke virtually no English but with my limited Italian we were able to communicate. He was trying to tell me that I didn't need to go to school--that he would teach me Italian. But I told him that I needed to learn "grammatico" and that he couldn't help me with that. He agreed with that and finally backed down. But he still wanted to take me to get cafe "adesso" (now) but I said, No we could meet another time for cafe. Yes, they are very forward but don't worry, I will kick 'em in the nuts if I have to. Then later, after walking to my apartment building and down the Arno and over the Ponte Vecchio, I met another man while I was walking back to my friends' place. This guy is a "doctor of radiology" who works at a hospital here and in his home town of Torino. He spoke fluent English and we decided we would hang out and practice together. He said it is hard to meet Americans, even the ones who live permanently in Italy because they all hang out together. I guess I am an easy target walking alone! Everyone has been very friendly and little bits of my Italian are coming back. It was the most challenging to talk to the construction worker because he spoke almost no English and I had to really rack my brain to come up with words. Here is the view this morning out my friends' apartment. They have these beautiful green shutters that open directly out onto the street. We are on the second floor. There is a pasticerria where Marc and I got coffee and pastries yesterday. I had a pastry that looked like an angular croissant with chocolate pudding in the middle and a latte. The latte was made with the panna fresca (that is actually why I bought that kind of milk because I had seen her use it in my latte and thought that meant it was regular milk) and that explains why the latte was so rich and yummy. It is freezing cold here. 43 degrees yesterday so I am thankful that I was carrying my coat and that it wasn't checked through with my luggage. I am also thankful that I was sitting next to a friendly mother-type woman on my first flight from LAX to London because as we were walking off the plane she said, "Where is your coat? Weren't you carrying one?" And with that, I ran back up through the cabin (not an easy feat when everyone is crammed in the aisles trying to disembark) and grabbed my coat where I had left it on my seat. Always befriend, or at least be kind, to those you sit next to on the plane! They just might save you from freezing at your destination of choice. I think I am going to take the bus up to Fiesole today. Fiesole is a little town above Florence and supposedly there is some snow there now. Since I am already freezing, I might as well go take a look at the snow. The luggage update: I called British Airways and left a message.

Sarah is safe, Luggage is lost

So I arrived late Tuesday night in Firenze. But my luggage did not. I sat there watching all the luggage go by on the carousel and you know when you start to get that sinking feeling that your luggage is just NOT going to come around? Yeah, that's the feeling. So I waited and waited until a little man came over and said that I had to go talk to the person at the missing baggage counter. Very sad. It took a long time to register myself with them but then when I finally walked away I realized that this could potentially be a huge blessing because one of my suitcases was nearly 70 pounds. In fact, when I got to LAX, it weighed in at 79 pounds and the limit is 70. So I had to repack it right there at the counter and redistribute the extra weight into my little favorite suitcase and check that one as well. So I only walked away with a little bookbag as my carryon. Since I only had the one bag it made it much easier to catch the two trains and one cab necessary to get to my friends' apartment. Fortunately, my friend Amy and I are virtually the same size so she has been letting me borrow clothes. I am really hoping those suitcases arrive tomorrow. Then I will be able to put some pics up! I did a lot of walking today and found both my school and the apartment building I will be living in. And I made two Italian friends--both promise to help me learn Italian. And very soon I will be able to post pics! Oh, and blogspot is showing up only in Italian here and I don't know how to switch it to English (it says it is a .com not a .it so I don't get it) so I have to get on top of my Italian really quick!

I heart my coworkers

I will really miss my crazy coworkers...so I brought in my camera for my last few days on the job so I could snap some pics of the animals in their habitat. My favorite coworker Tim took a self-portrait so I could add him to my blog. I caught Jay drinking out of his Medieval Times goblet. (He was tired of trying to figure out which cup of water was his and we don't dare drink from the goblet so he is safe from cooties). I found Danny scrutinizing one of Rory's stringouts and Jeremiah and Becca manning the phones (aka the front line).

This is pretty much what goes on at the office. Brian checking to make sure we are actually doing what we say we are doing...the boys playing foosball, Jeremiah sneaking brownies and Molly and I looking cute while working on one of Tim's stringouts for Patrick.

And here is Matt, my assistant editor, pretending to work on a scene in Danny's bay. He is the fourth assistant editor I had on this show! Contrary to popular belief, I did not run them all off. Matt finally stuck and I felt confident in handing over my baby (aka the show) to him. It is kind of a hard thing to do since I have been on the show since the beginning of October when we were just a TLC pilot with big dreams. Tim and I took a prom picture (what a handsome rock star!) and Matt looks like he just got caught. What goofs--I love 'em!