Train of thoughts

My sister came here for a week's neurosis...I mean visit...I mean MY neurosis...I mean,
I don't know what I mean, so I haven't written for awhile.

Two nights before she left, Italy had an earthquake in L'Aguila. We've been there several
times. Beautiful part of Italy, Abruzzo. It's all very sad, very tragic. I'm familiar with
earthquakes. They hit you hard, with no warning, sometimes catastrophically as in L'Aguila,
then they're gone and you're left with the shock and grief and disbelief.

The quake woke us up here in Rome, fifty miles away from the epicenter. We were lucky
our 500 year old apartment held up. The petrified wood in the ceiling and walls was really
creaking, though. It went on for about 40 seconds...that's about nine years in earthquake time.

In case you're wondering if we had any premonitions that this quake was coming...well, I did
have a strange headache that morning, and I usually never get headaches. Also, I think I may
have had a lascivious thought or two about The Man that afternoon. Other than that, I don't
think we experienced any other paranormal activity.

A friend of ours sent this video to us and I wanted to pass it along. Maybe everyone has
already seen it. But, I happen to be an old Sound of Music fan and if there's one thing I know,
it's EVERY song in that musical. I also ALWAYS wanted to be Julie Andrews, especially when
she was Mary Poppins, but that was before she was a nun and cut her hair.

I like this because it makes me happy feeling inside. It makes me glad that my species can
do something like this just for the fun of it. It's like sometimes if you watch a big bird flying,
a seagull or whatever, you can sometimes see that bird fly some loop-de-loop just for the fun
of it. I swear.

Anyway, I guess what this blog is about is that there's tragedy and joy, and it's all intertwined.

It's all part of the big package and there's nothing you can do about it.