You've survived another week at work - what are you gonna do now?

I'm going to Disneyworld!!

(How young are you if you don't remember those commercials? Shoot, how old am I if I remember the one with Nancy Kerrigan??)

But for realz, we're going to Orlando and we're going to go to DISNEYWORLD!! Lifelong dream and the only reason I ever had to resent my parents come true! (Seriously though? They went on their own and left me at home. AT HOME!)

I feel like an oversized 8-year-old, but the following things are on my list:

1. Meet Belle from Beauty and the Beast
2. If Gaston is there, punch him in the face. (Though, he disappears into the mist when he falls off that roof, so he might not make it there...) (Does Disneyworld let the villans in, too?)
3. Touristy photo in front of the castle
4. Spin on the teacups
5. Basically, live the commercial dream!

Just pretend that's me second from the left, and Novio second from the right.

We're also going to Sea World with my sister for quite literally ALL of Friday. But we'll get to hang out with penguins!!

Update: #8 - Not going so well.

Let me explain.

I made a dress to wear to my birthday dinner a few weeks back. (I'll post a pic soon!) I like it well enough but if I am completely honest with myself, I won't wear it that often. That means I can't in good conscience check this one off.

Why, you ask? Two main reasons:
1. It's shoddy craftsmanship. I got anxious to finish and it shows, from the zipper being uneven to not hemming it and quite a few places in between. When you start looking closer, you wouldn't wear it, either.
2. It's dressy enough that I would want to wear it somewhere nice. Dinner or a banquet or something. Trouble is I don't get to many of those in my old age. And if I were attending one, I probably need to look professional at the same time... which means your bra strap can't sneak out (they're conniving little buggers!).

So I begin fresh! New pattern, amazingly wonderful fabric from Bon Bon Atelier, and a refreshed excitement to check off an item! The picture in this post is the main fabric that I'm using. I hope to post more progress pictures soon!

Everything's going so well!

Parlo italiano.

Mangiamo pizza.

Canti bella.

Uno, due, tre, quattro, cinque, sei.

i bambini = los niños

Learning Italian is proving to be about what I expected, really. It's at times ridiculously similar and at other times unrecognizable when compared to Spanish. Though Spanish is coming in handy because the meanings translate so much better, for example i bambini vs. los niños is a much closer translation than to English, where it could mean "babies" or "kids" or "children."

(The tough part is not using Spanish! I caught myself thinking I was really catching on well to Italian, when really I had just slipped back into Spanish. ¡Maldito sea! Er, I mean... maledizione!)

Unfortunately, I've also come to realize that Italian is really not going to be useful unless/until I go to Italy. Browsing around on a job posting today (just for funsies!) there was a posting for a multilingual something-or-other in Europe of all places (again, just for funsies! (... for now)), and Italian was not listed as a language for which they were hiring. And that's on their home continent!

So, I'm pondering other languages to maybe tack on... something that is maybe useful outside of its country of origin.

However, so long as I have a meaningful conversation with my cousin-from-Italy this summer, I think I'll be able to cross this one off! It really is a very pretty language.

Ciao!

Inspiration, Motivation - GO!

Today I am going to buy a book - a text book - to learn Italian.

I just finished reading Eat, Pray, Love (late to the party, I know!) and the first third of the book is devoted to her being in Italy. I'm a person who is interested in whatever language is around me that I don't know, so as she's talking about una buona forchetta and parla come magni and attraversiamo I can't help but get so excited that I read the passages written in Italian two or three times before going to the English translation. I want to figure it out and know all of its inner workings.

Also, in my feeble attempts to find websites that will conjugate Italian verbs for me, I realize that even if I learn verbs, I don't have any nouns to use with them. I won't get so far just saying "I like" or "We eat" or "You think" without saying what we like, eat or think.

So I'm going on the hunt for a real text book that will  teach me some of the basics.

After all, I'm not trying to have a deep, philosophical conversation about the meaning of life. I'm trying to communicate! And if philosophy comes in to play I'll just switch back to Spanish. And then probably back to English, because Philosophy is hard. (One of three classes in my life where I earned a 'C'. The others were Political Science in college because I hate politics and English in third grade because I didn't fill out my day planner. I still don't fill out my day planner or talk much about politics. Or philosophy.)

Ready? Let's go! ¡Vamonos! Andiamo!

May 30th, 2011

(Wow, blogosphere, I don't know how to convince you that you aren't forgotten. I wouldn't believe me either, it's ok.)

SO! Today marks 5 years left to complete my list! (Happy Birthday to me!) And even though I haven't been posting here (shame, shame!) I have been thinking about many of my list items. And I might even let myself check one off. I'm still pondering. You'll see why in a minute.

To make this a little easier to keep track, I'm just going to go down the original list and voice what my thoughts are to get some of them done. (Or perhaps I should pick only 5 and focus my efforts? But why start being organized now?)

Ok. So. (here's da earth...)
1. Learn a third language conversationally (and have a conversation!) FUN FACT! My mom's family is from Italy, and two years ago my aunt & uncle took a trip there to meet some of our distant cousins. And now, one of those semi-distant cousins is coming to visit KC in July! So, I'm going to cram as much Italian into my tiny little brain as I can before then to see what I can do! (I will already be helping him out with interpretation; he speaks Spanish better than English. Yay!)
6. Scuba Dive This one might get scratched off. My sister & I road-tripped to Florida, swam with some manatees, and I could barely handle the snorkel mask. Oy.
8. Sew my own dress (that I will actually wear) This is the one I might be able to check off. I made a dress for my birthday dinner, but I can't decide if it's up to my high personal standards.
15. Improve relationship with sister Again, road trip to FL brought some things to light. Might need to change tactics...
19. Disneyland/world The novio and I have a trip to Florida planned to visit friends and my sister, and we are totally going!!!
24. Go back to school I've started to ponder what I should do. Spanish? Business? Studying in another country/continent?
27. Eat vegetarian one day each week I do this because I'm poor and haven't been grocery shopping in weeks. Doesn't quite count.

SO. Blog posts on those things coming soon!