Tante Cose: Figaro, Magic, Music and, Love

Tante cose means "all good things" in Italian. 

Could I guess, out of the blue, that a little Italian fairy tale would impact my heart so much? I could not.

I promised in my last post that my dream about Figaro, the little kitten in Pinocchio, would make a good story, so here it is.

Actually it wasn't a dream really, just a whisper from wherever whispers come from in your sleep (and these weren't the Italian whispers from...oh never mind...whole separate story). 

The week before my birthday, on the Sunday morning, I woke up about 3 or 4 am, wondering what the name of the kitten was, in Pinocchio. I do not know why I was wondering this but, I was. I said to my angels I guess, "please, tell me the name of the kitten in Pinocchio". When I woke up again a couple hours later, I knew that his name was Figaro.

So, being the intuitive, "oh this must mean something!" kind of girl I am...I rack my brain and my Italian dictionary to learn what "Figaro" means, and nothing jumps out at me (from my brain, or the dictionary). Fine.

I write to some friends of mine who post fabulous notes on one of our favorite online forums that is about the Law of Attraction, intuition, how to let more love in...and I ask them if anything intuitive pops out at them about my little story.

Is it the black-and-white - am I living my life too 'either-or' right now? Does the cat - I don't know - totem animal - mean something? I looked that up. Cat represents magic and mystery, and? The cat is associated with mythology and a host of goddesses  - that certainly resonates. Hello, help?

What the ladies wrote back, on two counts, was that my story just reminded them of the song, "When You Wish Upon a Star".  And, they said, they just felt like they should tell me that.

OK!!! Something I can use! One sent me two links for the song on YouTube, and then I found one of my own favorite versions, in French! This one, and the others out there, with their beautiful montages of the Blue Fairy Angel in Pinocchio and, all the other Disney princesses, actually made me cry. And for the record, I have no problem -  feminist or other - with fairy tales, love at first sight, handsome princes, etc., so I loved this. 

And now I wish on stars every night. Why not? One beautiful cousin of mine once told me, if you think it means something, then it does.

Somewhere in there, that same Sunday night when I was finding the star wishing videos, I got another intuitive nudge - curious - to find the song from the movie Music&Lyrics, that I saw last year. It was easy to find, and as soon as little Haley started singing, I started sobbing. When Hugh chimed in, more sobs.

Hmm, this is interesting. Let's look at this, my intuitive me says.

Finding a way back into love. It sounds kind of corny, maybe. But, I am here to tell you, it struck a deep chord with me and I took the message to heart. I love the idea of knowing that if I risk opening my heart wider,  something, someone will have my back. I love the idea that this song could be just what I needed to hear the week of my birthday. I love the idea that its message was just for me at that hour and I especially love that a little Italian-named kitten gently took me there; to a place where I feel more loving than I have in a long time, towards so many people and situations in my life. 

What a gift.

Figurare in Italian means symbolize, represent, imagine. Yes, that works.

In the meantime, sometime during my birthday week, Italian itunes was playing the "Somewhere over the Rainbow" arrangement that sounds kind of reggae.... They call it "Cielo nel Cielo" which literally means, 'sky in the sky'. Beautiful. Just a little bonus birthday thing, I figured. 

The weekend of my birthday, Antoine's parents came to visit from France. 

More to love.

That story is next. 

My New Year

Buon giorno!

Yes it's true...I am back. 

Did I know I was so missed for the last duration? I did not. But, my beautiful friend Tina (can I begin to tell you how much I adore her?) was chiding me in no uncertain terms last night over my birthday dinner at Il Toscano where our host Vittorio (another whom I adore) not only made the birthday girl un piatto speciale - pasta alla sea urchin - yum - but back to Tina...she has very much missed my blog.

So here I am, with a pending 4-course meal to prepare for Antoine's parents who are visiting from France ... and Roma and Inter are playing one of THE matches of the season. Ibra just scored. He is so sexy, in that Euro-big-nose kind of way and I especially love him because he's married to an older woman, and yum I just read that he is favored for the Ballon d'Or (Euro footballer of the year; that video shows a recent goal at the very end) but I digress, again. I do have a big dinner party coming up this evening and do I appear concerned about having all those 4 courses prepared well and on time, setting the table, etc? I do not. Did I mention Roma and Inter are playing live at the moment?

So it's my new year, yesterday was New Year's Day. This is usually when I set my resolutions but considering that this calendar year (as of January 2008) I hosted SportsBites radio for 28 consecutive weeks, started Melting Pot Tours with my sister Lisa (have I ever mentioned that I adore her?), have hosted house guests from both Italy and France more than once, started this blog and will soon be starting a new one for our Tours website, have cheffed on a yacht, and I'm sure I've done a host of other things that do not come to mind right this instant...I am sure that it's OK with the gods that I don't make a new to-do list at this hour, I think I'm good for resolutions.

I think I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and ramp up ways to have fun. And laugh. And how to do more of that with the people I love most in the world. Even take it to Italy and France again. Maybe Spain too.

And while we're talking of a perfect world, here are the plans for my special birthday next year. Party for lots of my favorite people and me at the Casa Del Mar Hotel in Santa Monica. Saturday night, 17 October 2009. Rooms and parking for everyone who wants to stay overnight and have brunch the next morning. Amazing tapas, paella, Sangria, birthday dessert, live music and dancing for the party. Spectacular party favors for everyone who comes. Individual (non-coupled) guests of all ages invited to bring a guest. Too much fun.

Before I break here - squash+apple+shallots+sweet potato for soup...then tomatoes, then garlic for antipasti, are waiting to be roasted - here's a quick update in case you were as concerned as Tina that the world was gypped for several months while I didn't blog:

The Soreal Cafe is no longer. It appears to have been replaced by a Botox Center. No further comment.

Sundays are still sacred and I now am even more annoyed when I'm asked to be somewhere since Doll and I usually work on Saturdays now; men, money, family (remember, not necessarily in that order) still being the only things I allow to interrupt my sacred time and space. Antoine's parents are considered family and, yesterday was a company holiday.

My sacred box of Cream of Wheat had to be thrown out because my pantry had a bad case of bugs this summer. I hate that. Rest assured, when we finally have some serious fall weather around her, Red Chef Cream of Wheat Man and I intend to get seriously re-acquainted.

Some friends who are on the same spiritual page as me at the moment have taken to wishing on stars after I shared a dream that I had last Sunday morning about Figaro, the kitten in Pinocchio. Come to think of it, that would make a great story to blog. Like me, if you have no problem with fairy tales, princesses, magic, and discovering a beautiful new voice, I hope you will enjoy one of my favorite new videos here.

Finally, just to assure you that not everything has changed since we last met, I leave you with this ... SportsBites radio may be on hiatus and I don't get to say this out loud as often as I used to, but I still think Alessandro Nesta gives whole new meaning to soccer being the World's Most Beautiful Game.

Inter has scored 3 more times (Ibra - 2 of the 4 goals) in this match which yet again gives credence that some things are destined to stay the same, for at least a while longer. 

Life for them, and me, is very very good and keeps getting better and better.