Social life overload

Well, I have had a very busy weekend. Probably not by the standards of most social butterflies, but since I've lived here I really haven't gotten out and about much, especially on my own. Social events always involve Francesco, Francesco's friends, Francesco's family, etc. And since I've been a mom, I've been even more housebound. Of course, this is no doubt nobody's fault but my own as I am generally a real homebody and most of the time could care less about going out. Or better, I could care less about going out just to go out and be out, maybe with people I don't particularly care about or doing things that don't particularly interest me. What's the point? I figure it's just as well to stay home in that case. And, I do actually enjoy being home a good deal of the time.

Anyway, getting back to the point, I have had a very busy weekend. Friday night I went out for pizza with five of the women from my book club. One of them (who is a university student) is going to be studying in Paris for two months and wanted to get together before she leaves. This book club was the brain child of my dear friend, A., whose sister belongs to a book club back in the States. I thought it sounded like a great idea, so about a year and a half ago, I decided to make it happen, invited a bunch of native English-speaking women friends and voilà, we had a book club. You may wonder why we are an all-female club and I can only tell you that we are all English or American women (except the university student) married to Italian men . . . and we need a place to vent about all kinds of inter-cultural issues, work, marriage, parenting, etc. We are a diverse group of people, but all have this common bond of having chosen to leave our own country and culture and spend probably the rest of our lives in this foreign place with all the joys and challenges inherent in that kind of experience. And maybe noone else would be able to understand (or care less) about our daily hassles and/or discoveries. But, we have each other! But what about the books?, you ask. Oh yeah, the books . . . well, we all love to read and we do talk about the books, but somehow the discussion always slinks back to the REAL purpose of our meetings! Anyway, a good time was had by all at the pizza parlour and I realised that it was the first time in 14 years!!! that I had been out for dinner with a group of girlfriends! Wow . . .

On Saturday, another permutation of book club gals met at S.'s house for a different kind of meeting that has branched off from the actual book club itself. One of our members was really keen to show us the movie "What the bleep do we know" so we could start a discussion group about the issues and ideas it raises. It talks about quantum physics and our perception of reality, etc. Interesting stuff. At least it is to those of us who came to the meeting! So that was 4 hours spent in good company and good conversation. Here's a link to find out more about the movie, if you, too, want to think new thoughts! http://www.whatthebleep.com/

Today, Francesco, the boys and I went out for lunch (with 10 friends, and friends of friends, and their children) down the Adriatic coast to a place called Savelletri, where you have your choice of many small restaurants perched right on the edge of the sea (is this legal?, I doubt it) that specialise in "ricci." If you don't know about ricci, or by chance, know about them but don't crave them, you are not living a full life, according to just about anyone I know around here! The only translation I can find for ricci is "hedgehog sea urchin" and why anyone would want to eat something with a name like that is beyond me! But, apparently, they are quite the delicacy to those who like them. I love seafood, as in any kind of fish or shellfish, except for mollusks. I think they smell bad, I think the texture is nasty, so . . . so what? I could care less, but every Italian who sees me turn them down has to make a federal offense out of it . . . oh bother. Whatever happened to "live and let live"? Or simply "de gustibus" which seems to be Latin for "to each his own." Anyway, fear not, I did not die of hunger! I had octupus salad and giant shrimp and fried baby squid (the poor little things) and fried squid rings and all kinds of good stuff. The kids had an excellent time playing in the sand on the beach and getting really dirty and inconveniently wet and generally enjoying themselves, so the day was a success.

I think I'll have to lock myself in the house for a couple of weeks to recover from all the excitement!