Nostalgico per Alba

The SMCM Music Tour left for Alba, Italia. Its hard to believe that its already been a year since I was there with them. In fact I'm really quite bummed that I'm not there now. That was, without a doubt, one of the best trips I've ever taken. Italia is truly one of the best places on earth.

What trumps a culture centered on aestheticism, good food/wine, mid-afternoon naptimes, and living pleasurably? I can still remember waking up every morning to the smell of baking foccacia, roasting coffee beans, and chocolate from the shops below the flat.

And Barolo Chinato.

And the beautiful historic buildings flanked by cobblestone streets.

Performing in ancient chiesas.

The freedom of discovering I can bumble my way through Italian-speaking train and bus stations to successfully tour other cities.

And best of all, new friends.

I'm reasonably certain my ideal career path is that of a Northern Italian. Now to learn how to speak Italiano :-) Surely that region is in need of more multi-faceted jacks-of-all-trades! My two life mottos evolved from that trip:

Per Che Posso (Because I can)

Piacere a Piacere (living pleasure to pleasure)

Bachelorette Shenanigans part deux

Well last weekend wasn't AS eventful as my weekends are generally inclined. Friday Diane and I rode Max then went for a run. I met my parents at Vincenzo's (YUMMY!!!) for dinner then had martinis with Diane and Josh at Chef's. Saturday I took Max to a jumper show, but he was SUPER slow so we had to scratch our last class.

Saturday night was Sara's Bachelorette Party, which was ABSOLUTELY nuts. First we headed to dinner at Oyamel (AWESOME restaurant) then out to Lucky Bar in DuPont Circle. We were going to bar hop around, but the crowd at Lucky Bar was rather amenable to our Bachelorette shenanigans. Essentially we had a deck of Bachelorette dare cards- you know, the kind that say things like "Kiss a bald man's head", "take a body shot", "find someone with a condom", etc. Made for a very entertaining time.

I think the most bizarre moment of the evening was when Sara went off looking for someone to give up their boxers. I turned around from my conversation to see Sara standing next to a gentleman who had dropped trow in the middle of the bar and proceeding with the hasty removal of his boxer shorts. Thankfully his shirttails covered most of the nakedness (see photo).

As if that wasn't surreal enough for one evening, no less than 5 minutes later, I beheld a SECOND guy doing the exact same thing!! Only THIS time, there were no shirttails. SERIOUSLY??? I have withheld this picture in an effort to keep adult photographic content out of my blog.

<-- Sara requesting more drinks

Sunday was really low key. I met Joan for lunch in Silver Spring then home. I made a really great garbonzo bean and onion curry with cous cous for dinner.

A well-deserved sleep-deprivation hangover

OK Let's try this again. With feeling.

This week has been a ROUGH week in terms of actually waking up in the morning. I haven't made it to work on time ONCE (although made it by 6:15 or 6:20 everyday.) This is because I absolutely BRUTALIZED myself last weekend, for the sake of Jenn's Bachelorette Party (a.k.a. Marbourg Mania.)

Eight of us hopped on the Chinatown-to-Chinatown bus at 3:30AM Saturday morning. Of course, Friday night I was tempted to the County by offers of the Caps v. Pens playoff game (I don't have cable) and a keg. I didn't get back to DC until 11pm and hadn't packed yet. At that point there was OBVIOUSLY no point to slumber, so with the aid of a can of Amp, I opted for the all-nighter route. Unfortunately I discovered that cab companies don't answer their phones at 2:30AM, so I had to sprint to the metro toting a 20 pound backpack and catch the last train to Chinatown. We got to NYC at 7Am and checked into The Michaelangelo hotel (AWESOME place) and wandered around 5th Ave and Times Square a bit.

During Breakfast at "Maxi's" we instituted the tradition of leaving one card from our deck of naked male playing cards at every location we visited. hehehehe! I heart NYC, too bad you can't effectively ride horses in the city, otherwise it would be perfect.

After our wanderings, we caught a matinee showing of "Wicked". What an amazing show!! I think its in my top 3 favorite musicals (Wicked, Phantom, Cabaret.) I think I like the book a little better for its more dramatic moments, but the musical was well-adapted. After the show a few of our party decided to take a nap, but the rest of us decided the best course of action was margaritas at TGIF's. After that onto an AWESOME dinner at an Italian restaurant called "Remi". The hotel concierge whom Reese befriended sent complimentary pink champagne and cookies.

After dinner, we headed to the Meat Packing District (giggle giggle) for some dancing and debauchery. The first bar, SOB's was a bit of a bust, minus the evil evil Mind Erasers Jenn insisted upon ;-) Most of our party dissipated except for Jenn, Tai, and I so we headed to Webster Hall, which was having a Circus-themed party. $30 cover (GAG!) but a FANTASTIC time. 3 floors of dancing (including Turkish dancing??), Navy boys, trannies, and drinks until 3:30 AM. FANTASTIC!

Then we cabbed back to the hotel and decided that we couldn't possibly in good conscience tote the 8 mini-bottles of wine back to Maryland so we'd better drink a few out of the penis straws we had as party favors. Since Reese was already asleep the only logical place to do this was in the walk-in closet, where I eventually fell asleep.

The bus ride home was annoying. Although we had a marvelous dance party in the station while waiting. The bus company had NO CLUE which bus was non-stop to DC and, in fact, changed destination on us while we were WAITING TO LEAVE. It ended up stopping in Philly and Bmore before ending up in DC.

This week has been reasonably cut and dry. I am attempting to ramp up my training for the Columbia Irongirl Triathlon in August. I rode Max M, T, W; ran 5 miles (7:12 pace!) M; swam 1050 yds T; and biked 12 miles on my sweet new roadbike on Wednesday. Yesterday I met up with Flounder after work to have a late lunch/early happy hour at Matchbox then a trip to the Naitonal Portrait Gallery. This weekend SHOULD be comparably tame- ride Max with Diane today then to the county; horse show and Bachelorette Party for Sara Saturday; work out and hang with Joan on Sunday.

My roommates and I did find out this week we have to move out of our house. Big bummer that adds complications to my already complicated year (as I am not sure where I'm going to be after September!).

Anyways. Whatev.

Peace out!