My commitment to Sacred Sundays is something I try to impress on everyone I know, and with all due respect, this has nothing to do with attending church services. Having said that, I promise that this is something I am religious about - this is the only day of the week I allow myself to stay in jammies (sometimes way) past the morning hours, and as much as possible, do absolutely nothing. This used to include watching as much baseball and cartoons as possible, but, that was before my intense love affair with Italian football started...
Back to the "3 things" ... and these I say, are what I will leave the house for on Sundays, and more importantly, these are those for which I will leave before noon or 1pm. Not necessarily in this order, here they are:
men
money
family
The World Cup Final party in July 2006, when it was brought to my attention for the first time that I was somewhere other than home at 10am on that Sunday, I decided that MEN in that case was my inspiration for not only leaving the house but insisting that my friend Tina drive up from Temecula to join me for the party. I had no problem giving up my laziness or time at the beach on a day which temperatures I'm sure ranged in the 90s, to experience, with about 500 others of my people, Italy's spectacular triumph...I was never so excited to have Italian blood running through my veins. (By the way, that night was when I made the list of 3 things. I thought it was important to think about these things.)
I gave a dinner party for 6 last night, of four courses, Italian persuasion...3 antipasti, shellfish risotto, swordfish with blood orange salsa with roasted fennel and vegetables, handmade focaccia, poached pears and 2 homemade biscotti for dessert. It was my friend Keith's birthday, and new friends Eric and Debbie (Eric was the amazing marathoner on my radio show 28 Feb), and the two French guys + me, made the 6 of us. It was tremendous fun, I got to sleep last night at 1:30pm (DST) and my point is, today should have been a sleeping Sacred Sunday.
My sister Suz called last night just before my guests arrived to ask if my 8-yr-old nephew, whom I call Cherub, could come over in the a.m. at 9 for a few hours. What could I say. I adore my nephew, I don't get enough time with him and it's my job to be his world-class Auntie. Of course I said yes. Family is one of those three things. (This was exactly my train of thought when my knee-jerk response sounded like NO.)
So Cherub arrives, in his Buffon (Italy's yummy goalkeeper) jersey, which was a gift from me from Italy. Did I say I adore him? He is fairly content to watch the Dodgers-Red Sox from Vero Beach, play his Nintendo games, watch Spongebob (I had been behind on my cartoons so it was good to catch up), and the main event, the Juventus-Genoa match. We had pasta and fresh raspberry-tangerine-lemonade for lunch at halftime, and later went out to get him a Jamba Juice and sit outside for a while. His parents met us at the cafe and I was free to come home and take a nap; by now I could hardly stay awake.
I spent an hour at the beach tonight, just being, watching the sunset.
Now, after a peasant supper of leftovers and wine, I very happily watch RAI Int'l - Domenica Sportiva which has all the Italian football highlights of the day. This week on my radio show I had discussed the World's Most Beautiful Game (soccer) and my take on that moniker. (Whole separate post.) Let's just refer back to that "The Universe is so kind" thing for now. Sono molto felice (I am very happy.)
Little sidebar on the French guys. Bruno left to go to Hawaii early this a.m., Antoine worked very early today so he is very tired, slept all afternoon, and is sad missing Bruno; last night they were wonderful dinner guests and shared French wine from Bordeaux; they told me they saved money on cocktails in Las Vegas while gambling but apparently didn't win much; Bruno and I got to have 3 meals together yesterday while Antoine worked and I loved that; I look forward to our little home returning to 'normal' now...normal being a relative term...
OK I have kept you long enough. Thank you for reading all of that. Buona notte!
2 comments:
I spent all of Sunday in my jammies in front of the TV dozing on and off; isn't that one of life's luxeries? I'm glad to hear the French Foreign Legion didn't lose anyone to a strangling. (hee hee)
Your swordfish with blood orange salsa sounds incredible; can I have the recipe? I think that would be quite delish for Chris' birthday dinner since we are not having a party at his request. I think 40 is really hitting him harder then he thought.
Hugs, T
oooh no, no party for our Chris? (40 is GREAT!!!!) SO disappointed...blood oranges are at TJ's now and I made a reduction sauce with the juice of about 6 of them, which the fish steak was placed on...then the salsa was the rest of the blood orange segments, chopped with Kalamata olives, red onion and regular orange segment bits...a little olive oil and the juices from the oranges. Really fresh, rave reviews.
As always, fabulous to hear from you! Yeah, no stranglings. Like I'd expect, that would have made such a mess...Write again soon!
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