Annalisa

I know I have promised time and again to write about Annalisa, my Neapolitan friend that I have affectionately dubbed "Italian little sister." I have started the story over and over but I find it to be an impossibility for me to capture her essence in words. She is so complex and multi-tiered I cannot find words to describe her! Today I received an e-mail from her and normally I would not share but this e-mail says in a small paragraph everything that I couldn't say in a volume! Read on and enjoy her humor, her playful side, her lack of discipline, if you will.

“Reading throgh the lines, it seems to me that working-out is not a pleasure to you but rather a work ( OF course, it's called WORKING_OUT! What else could it be?) So, my conclusion is: if it's a work for you that adds up to the daily ordeal....why do you do it? Or better say, You know I am not a disciplined person, that' s why I don't like rules and even though I am locked in them I always try to elbow out in order to push the fences a little bit further. That is due to the volume I occupy that makes me need more and more space and my mental desire for "openess". At the same time I need these rules as point of reference in order not to lose my precarious balance. Still if doing gymnastic is a huge effort , well I am indulgent to myself and I don't do it.
The only thing I try to do well is working, but only because it gives me an income and possibly provides dignity to my self. But if I don't want to work out I don't work out. Or, due to the above mentioned volume, I do it every now and then, just to give myself a little mental leg-pull and pretend I have lost five pounds in five minutes, while It really takes 7 hours to lose 5 grams!”

I read this note and couldn’t help but chuckle, a lot. Because I know her personally I can see her hand movements and the way she moves her head. It is such a pleasure to be in her company!