I LOVE San Diego!

Yeah. My plans to be in Arizona for Spring Training all unravelled, one at a time mind you, by last Friday. So I came to San Diego instead. Brilliant change of plans (true story).

I left on Tuesday morning, after coffee and toast with French guy, and it took two of us to carry my stuff to the car because I had to kind of take part of my office with me. And, for just 4 days away, could I pack lightly? Not really. 

So today, I did my SportsBites radio show from World Talk Radio's San Diego studios, and met my Executive Producer in person for the first time. He promised me that my show is doing extremely well and that we will plan to move forward to make sure I am on the air for a long time to come. This felt extremely good, especially because when we sat down my first words to him were, "please tell me something good." 

I was also delighted to bring a gift to the wonderful engineers who run my show because, I could not show up grateful yet empty-handed. So they got dozens of my signature oatmeal-Euro-chocolate-chunk cookies that were actually Derek Lowe's birthday cookies at one hour...whole separate story for another post another day (but I will say that Derek probably does not realize how fortunate he was to have one of the best cookie recipes in the universe named for him but, he should).

Tuesday, as I drove down, I had a fabulous day unfold. My friend Nic Romano, for whom Temecula's new Villa Romano is a soon-to-be-dream-come-true, invited me to taste some wine for his new VR wine club, have lunch, etc., so I spent half the day with him and his people. Then after enjoying a really good iced mocha with my friend Tina who was surprised I showed up in her town instead of being in AZ for the week, I drove to my hosts' home here in San Diego.

Janet and John live in the sweetest home, with two dogs that I adore, and I always feels so welcomed here. Janet is also a chef so we always dine well together and we both really love to tell and listen to each other's stories. She has travelled all over the world, and we share a special passion for Italy and France especially.

Yesterday she had a meeting - food-oriented of course, that I was included for - at Lotsa Pasta in Pacific Beach. This is a wonderfully unique and incredibly delicious custom-made-for-you concept restaurant that I positively recommend. After we dined very well, we shopped at Great News! cooking store, and had a field day in there. Then to the Farmers Market in Ocean Beach - amazing $2 strawberries - and a tour around the cliffs and seaside homes up there, which inspired me to tell Janet stories of my time in Liguria last fall, which led to the story of  my Genovese great-grandfather. Very nice.

Dinner was at Pietro's back near Janet's home - exquisite pizza, antipasto salad, and host. Pietro is from the island of Ischia, near Naples, Italy. I am already invited to their New Year's Eve party in 9 months. I kind of already gave my RSVP.

Tomorrow we are having breakfast in La Jolla with Domenica, a fascinating 83-yr-old lady I met in Florence, Italy, a few months ago. She was born in Italy, and is a retired professor from UC San Diego. When she was little and her family moved to America, she went to school and did not speak English. Most everyone knows her as Dorothy; I feel privileged to know her by her birth name and am very excited to reconnect with her. We especially will enjoy reminiscing about our gelato with "Casanova", my last night in Florence. Another story, another day.

My point is, I love when I can expect the unexpected with an open mind, and especially an open heart. In my life it's usually really good news when plans cancel; the gods invariably had something better in mind for me and, prove it. I regret missing my friends in Arizona this week but lo and behold, my producer made noise today about how I need to make regular trips there (HQ studios for the station are in Phoenix), to make contacts, have meetings, etc., so I trust a lot of that is in my future. Yeah um, OK!

I have had an amazing, and tremendously fun week. And look, time to blog! While Ricky the dog is sacked out across the room, and the house here is so quiet and I am so serene, I am reminded of how blessed a change of scenery is. 

I'll definitely be venturing away from home - even if it's an hour or two away - a lot more often.

ShamWow and I miss Italy

OK this really goes to show how much of a life I really do not seem to have. 

Newsflash! Inter and Juve next Saturday on FoxSoccer Channel (FSC)..see what I mean?

FSC and I spend considerable time together, especially on Sacred Sundays, one of which today definitely is. 

I just spent the morning watching "Roman Holiday" and sending my friends in Roma "I am homesick" email. Now Juventus and Napoli are duking it out in Torino, last time they met I was in Italy and they about killed each other over unearned penalties, unfair refereeing, something like that. Milan lost to Roma yesterday and it was a great match -- let me just reiterate how homesick I am for Italy.

And about that ShamWow - this is an infomercial I have not yet seen and I gotta say, FSC does come up with some winners when matches goes to halftime (thankfully there are no interruptions before or after halftime). Where, I have to wonder, do they get these people to do this schpeals? This guy looked like Ryan Seacrest but since I'm not even a remote fan of his so I really only know what he looks like from billboards and the like...had I called in the last 20 minutes I could have gotten 8 ShamWows (they are like HandiWipes with a 10-year guarantee; apparently marketed to soccer fans, hm, that would be me) instead of just the 4, but today I do not feel like spending $19.95 on that. Last week I was seriously contemplating the Infinity Razor and wouldn't it be great if someone would offer two-for-one tickets to Roma for $19.95? I think it would.

Last night I finally watched "Pirates of the Caribbean - Curse of Black Pearl" with my sister Suz and her children. I could not sleep when I got home and not because Johnny Depp nor Orlando Bloom were that distracting. I just thought there were maybe 2 or 3 too many pirate fight scenes,  I got the idea the first time - too stimulating and maybe in not such a good way, but this is why I usually don't watch high-energy movies or programs before bedtime. I will say that the movie did make the ride at Disneyland make more sense. More than you need to know I'm sure.

I just found out that I will be going to AZ for Spring Training the week after Easter after all - my Exec Producer of my SportsBites radio show is setting up some appointments for me there so, OK.  More on that later, I'm sure I can arrange to blog from there.

Allora, I am going to get back to the match now...hopefully I won't have to endure another ShamWow ad again, not that I don't mute PennyTalk or Procede or AeroGarden either...

It's just that they are going to sub in Iaquinta right now, so my day has just suddenly gotten so much better. Oh yum.

Ciao ciao. 

Cartoons and Sacred Sundays

There are really only three things I give up my Sacred Sundays for.

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!

Update on the French guys

I'm really going to try to make this short.

It's nearly 8:30pm and I am nearly starving. I thought I would just check in here though, to post how the French guys thing is going. 

The truth is, I feel like I really have no life. This feeling is very much magnified when you live with two people who are on vacation and, speak a language that sounds like whatever they're talking about is so much more exciting than anything one who speaks English has going on (I have been assured that this isn't true but sometimes appearances are so deceiving).

I have GOLTV on as wallpaper right now so I could re-watch (out of my peripheral vision) Milan losing to Arsenal in Champions League. I am so pathetic. I was invited to a cocktail party tonight with some Italian friends and I can't seem to pull myself away from all the work I have to do and be inspired to comb out my ponytail and leave the house for a change. Have I had any fun in the last what-seems-like-eternity? Not so much. Have I even left the house lately except to exercise? Can't remember.

Back to the French guys. Last night, I made them mango cocktails and myself Amaretto on the rocks, and we played Blackjack for at least 2 hours so that Bruno could learn how to play because today the vacation schedule had Las Vegas planned (for an overnighter only). When I could hardly stay awake any longer, I kindly asked Bruno if he was getting the hang of it, and he didn't know what that expression meant. Then together we looked at a Sports Illustrated-esque magazine from France and, I woke up considerably.

(Please refer to my post on how kind the Universe is.)

First thing this morning I took them to rent a nicer car than Antoine's, for the long drive... I get to do this type of thing regularly, so that I can translate anything the French person does not understand. They took off for Las Vegas, I came home and worked.

Antoine called about 5 to say hello, how are you, and that they'd arrived safely. Or, to gloat. (kidding)

They return tomorrow night and I think it's safe to say we probably, really, truly, don't miss each other. But we might a little, by tomorrow night. I really do love my French guys.

Bruno stays til Sunday morning when he will go to Hawaii to join his girlfriend and other French friends...then he returns to LA before he flies back to Paris. He will stay here, which I just learned last night.

As I beat them over and again at Blackjack.

Pan-Latin football and my friend Jaime

I laugh as I start to write this.

This week, with absolute, pure intention to put a quality radio show out there, I have studied 

CONCACAF, which is the Confederation of North&Central America and Caribbean football. This month the quarterfinals of their Champions Cup begin, and this is fascinating to me. This Cup tournament is like the UEFA Champions League going on in Europe right now. All of a sudden I have a new league to be extremely excited about, and think about pairing food with, which is exactly what my show topic is for tomorrow.

In the throws of all this, I desperately message my friend Jaime, who is with Frieda's Specialty Produce and ask him to be my call-in guest. Tonight, as I am so wanting to lose myself and all my anxiety in my yoga practice, the phone rings, and it's Jaime.

Our conversation spans the map, literally, from Champions League to CONCACAF to his half-Italian intern from Costa Rica, who would have been a good guest had he more time to set it up for me!!!  OK, I'm sorry I beg, next time I'll give more notice. (It's not easy coming up with a show theme and keeping all sorts of other things in the air at the same time. I try to explain this to Jaime.)

Would I consider this, that, the other thing for show themes?? Jaime is just trying to help, for which I adore him. We promise that soon, somehow, some way, we will work together. And he also encourages me to believe that I will be moving on up to SIRIUS satellite radio one day. Perfetto!

Almost an hour later, after an extremely entertaining conversation - it always is with him - I abandon the yoga, and go prepare a steak and huge chopped salad for dinner because I'm starving.

The two French guys are home from their little field trip today which I can only guess included being out in the sun because they apparently brought no sunscreen. Other than having to give them directions on the phone this afternoon - like I had all kinds of time for that - then help them rent a car for the next two days, we have not spoken much considering most all of the conversations are in French. One friend wrote to ask how it's going with two French guys and I told her it's actually kinda boring since I am not spending any time with them and other than that, everything so far is pretty much all about them. We all watched the Champions League match yesterday with Milan and Arsenal yesterday and only one of us was for Milan, who lost and was eliminated. (I should be wearing black.) Then they left for the day. I didn't miss them.

I wrote another friend that I would consider wringing at least one neck around here (read my previous post) but considering I'd have to clean up the mess afterwards, it hardly seems worth it. 

They've just come and gone to get a burger or something and now want me to have a 'cocktail' with them. 

One guess who the bartender is.

That half-Italian Costa Rican intern is sounding kinda good to me about now.

More later, ciao.

Two French guys

Buona sera!

I have never, ever, in my entire life, taken my computer to bed.

Tonight is obviously special.

Antoine, my resident French guy, whom I have yet to explain to you so I will in this post...has his best friend IN the world, Bruno, visiting us from France, for the next 5 days. They have just arrived from the airport. Bruno brought me Euro sunglasses, 3 lbs of Euro coffee, and lots of Euro chocolate (to share with Antoine, of course). I like him! 

They are busy reconnecting, with some Tecate beer in the living room which is their quarters, speaking in French about girls and other equally significant topics for sure...so to be the gracious hostess that I am, I have relegated myself to my bedroom. I am not sleepy, so my MacBook and I thought we'd get together and, blog.

About Antoine.

For ease of explanation, let's just say we were introduced through a mutual contact (it was actually in truth, an Italian soccer player but see, already that complicates the explanation). In December 2006 he wrote to me from Paris, asking if he could stay with me in January (2007) when he had a job interview, in the city where I live. My thoughts went something like the following. January is usually pretty boring. I had good lucrative work scheduled, so yeah, I could afford to host someone from PARIS...I had just returned from Italy where new friends had regally rolled out the red carpet for me. I love the way the Europeans I know live life - coffee time and meals are sacred, soccer is a religion, and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of things they enjoy taste better, feel better, sound better, look better, and often smell better than they do here.  I liked the idea of getting to know France, esp Paris, better through him. He sounded like a sweetheart in his emails and, he was cute. OK, I can do this.

How long do you need to stay, I asked? How long can I stay, Antoine responded. Let's try 2 weeks, I suggested, and we'll see. 

He is still here. Clearly my small home is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

I like to explain our relationship by saying that we are not roommates because we don't share a room, but we are home-mates because we do in fact share a home. As someone who hates traditional roommates, re: co-habitating with a French guy - I love it. Who knew (I would)? I certainly did not. He loves soccer and now baseball, and so do I. He loves my cooking, and so do I. He loves my friends and family, and my favorite weiner dog Frankie, and so do I. He loves being European, and so do I. He makes me laugh, he tolerates me at my worst, he invites his friends to visit us from France (this topic is worthy of a whole separate post, I promise), he showed me around Paris last spring then handed over the keys to his family's apartment in the French Alpes where I spent a week, his parents have invited me to visit any time at their chateau b&b near Bordeaux (for which I will provide a link in the future), and when I am away on a trip, he usually vacuums before I come home. He even admires some of my favorite Italian football players - with the exception of Pippo Inzaghi -  and is my mentor for the French league (sidebar: our Paris team is not doing well). 

So you see, both of our lives are better now, for having had this experience. I promise everyone, including him, that except on those rare occasions when I want to wring his neck, I...adore him. He will not stay forever, we both know that. But for this time, which will probably end soon, my life has changed in profound ways. I love that I now know how generous I can be, and how much and how wide my heart can open.

Now you know what my reference 'resident French guy' means. Which brings me back to my post title "two French guys" - I look forward to some interestingly fun time with Antoine and Bruno this week, hopefully starting with some of that new Euro coffee together in the morning.

They have quieted down some in the other room. We'll see how the week fares. The weather is supposed to be sunny and beautiful.

I think I personally might just find a spot to send my next post, somewhere in the sunshine...wearing my new Euro sunglasses.

It's 11pm - buona notte!