Bright lights!

Ah yes, as if stealing a Rob Thomas song title for the name of my blog wasn't enough, I've now found a reason to use a matchbox twenty song for a post title! (Which, btw, their new album will be released on October 2nd!!!)

It's no secret that I often look at the Positano web cam. As summer fades and the days get shorter, I usually only get the chance to see the sunset, nighttime, and sunrise, due to the nine hour time difference. No complaints though, the sunsets and sunrises are spectacular.

The nighttime view is uneventful, but still pretty. In recent weeks, however, somebody has been leaving a light on at the church. The positioning of the light and the web cam creates a horrible glare!!

I can't even see "my" villa!

Would somebody please turn off the lights after say...midnight perhaps? Thanks!

Office Space

I love this movie. Okay, so it’s not the greatest bit of film out there, but it never ceases to make me both laugh and nod in complete recognition at the same time. Now that I have decided to make a career change and leave the business world, it's taken on a whole new meaning for me.

While watching this movie a few weeks ago, it dawned on me that I have become Peter Gibbons.

I don’t care anymore. I pass the workday doing as little as possible, because frankly, I have lost all interest in my job. I'm trying very hard not to have a bad attitude, but some days it's quite the struggle. I would love to just stop going to work, like Peter. Luckily I have enough sense to realize that I have bills to pay, and no rich relatives ready to leave me a great inheritance.

But now that I finally realized I never wanted to work in an office, I'm almost desperate to get out. (I can't believe it took me so long to realize something so simple!)

One of my favorite lines from the movie: "Michael, we don't have a lot of time on this earth! We weren't meant to spend it this way. Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about about mission statements."

I'm still deciding between learning permament makeup and laser hair removal, but I've been busy researching my options regarding training and employment. Unfortunately, I can't just quit my current job until I have something else lined up, so I'm contacting various doctors/spas/salons/etc. With enough persistence and luck, I'll be able to secure an employment contract, contingent upon successfully completing training. I know it's a long shot for someone to take a chance on me, considering I will have no experience, but all it takes is one person to believe in me!

Dreaming

While Tina is busy dreaming of Siena, I'm dreaming of Positano. I've gone back there four out of the past six nights. Three of the dreams have been pretty much the same, and they leave me feeling completely unsettled when I wake up.



It's my last night in Positano, when suddenly I realize I haven't done most of the things I wanted to do. I panic. I cry.


In one dream, I was talking to one of my friends who lives there, and I said, "I didn't get to..." (I can't remember what it was, but that doesn't matter). He said, "It's okay, we'll do that on Sunday." I cried, "No! We can't! I'm leaving tomorrow!!!!!" He looked at me, completely bewildered that I was so upset.


In another dream, it dawned on me that I hadn't spent any time with the friends who had traveled with me. We had all spent our time doing our own thing, and now it was too late to spend more than one day/night with each other. We wouldn't see each other again for a long year.


The details of the third dream are fuzzy, but it was the same concept - having to leave when I wasn't ready.


I can't quite picture being able to leave Positano and feel "ready" to leave. But I don't like the idea that there are so many things I want to experience there that they have invaded my subconscious mind.


Carole described it best a while back: "I feel as if I left things unfinished, in process, in suspense... "


I need to be there. I long for it.






People tell me, "Oh, you were just on vacation, that's why you're so happy there." NO. That's not it. There's so much more to it.


I'm progressing slowly on my new career. I need to step that up, so I can have more free time. Time to travel. To be where my soul needs to be...

Italy on fire

This subject was brought up a couple weeks ago by Sognatrice, and now it's hit the news in America again today.

I'm not sure what to make of this...what do those living in Italy think? Whatever the cause, it's such a shame that beautiful land is being destroyed.


Organised crime suspected in Italy's fires

A new rash of fires broke out in southern Italy on Tuesday, with officials increasingly accusing organised crime of being behind many of the blazes that have claimed six lives this summer.

The sixth death was recorded Tuesday with the discovery of the body of an 80-year-old man near Foggia in the southeastern Apulia region, the national forestry service said.

Meanwhile authorities in the southern Campania region have opened an investigation after a fire services helicopter was shot at while it was hovering over the Volturno River north of Naples to fill its water reservoir.

In the incident Monday, the pilot was unaware that the helicopter was peppered with 18 rounds, but his colleagues noticed the bullet holes when the aircraft returned to the site of the blaze they were battling, a public safety spokesman told AFP.

A regional representative, Corrado Gabriele, described the incident as "an offensive of organised crime."

In another incident on Monday, vandals cut cables linking the Campania region's operational centre with rescue workers.

An agricultural official told the ANSA news agency that "criminal intentions" were suspected, calling for police to take urgent action against "pyromaniacs and criminal organisations prepared to do anything to generate a profit."

Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, speaking on Italy's Sky TG24 all-news channel on Tuesday, alleged "a veritable criminal assault against natural parks and many parts of Italy."

"The fire starters are not mentally ill or pyromaniacs," said Pecoraro Scanio, the leader of Italy's Greens party. He accused "gangs linked in many cases to criminal associations and in other cases to property speculators" of responsibility.

The deputy chairman of the parliamentary anti-mafia committee, Mario Tassone, for his part said organised crime was "giving logistical support to arsonists."

Several of the new blazes were in the far south Calabria region, while others were in Campania including a Naples suburb.

The environmental group WWF late last month estimated that some 9,000 hectares (22,500 acres) of protected area had burned, blaming arsonists for "most of the fires."

It said: "It is well known that fire almost always serves to get rid of trees and other natural obstacles to make way for new hotels, villas or pastures."

One of the loves of my life!

This is Kasey Mae, an English Springer Spaniel. She's already 9 years old, and so far is our only "child". When we brought her home, she only weighed 24 pounds...now she's about 65!

I took this picture last summer (before we redid our yard/fence/etc...ignore the background please). I was trying to get her to look into the camera, but she kept getting distracted by birds!