Just whining OR do I have a point?

Know what really bugs me, gets my goat, messes with my sense and sensibilities? When a person has a beautiful blog that is frequented by a lot of traffic but doesn't take the time to proofread what he/she is putting out there so it is filled with the wrong word in key phrases (using all where old should have been -I blew a whistle at five months all), misspellings, poor grammar, sentences that make no sense. Now, I know I have made mistakes on my blog, using site for sight and other such things, but I don't have thirty errors in one blog. I try to be as correct as I know how to be. Heck, spell check corrects a lot of my errors! And the really sad thing is I have noticed that this sloppy blogging is the norm, not the exception. What's going on?

Strang, yet very cool, sensation

It was a very frigid 1ºC (33ºF) when I drove in this morning. There was ice on the edges of a puddles I passed. Even bundled in my dusty rose bouclé sweater, my Northface winter parka, complete with fleece liner, and with the heat on I was shivering in my car. Brrr. As I approached the second overpass before my exit I noticed the air was a shimmery black from a fire burning on the side of the road. The smoke covered the road, both directions, but there was still ample visibility. I entered the cloud and suddenly I felt warm, like someone had wrapped a big thick down blanket around me. It was comforting. I was warm. The feeling only stuck with me for about one quarter of a mile. Then I was chilled again.

Busy

"We’re all pros now at hailing a cab/pushing a grocery cart/operating a forklift with a to-go cup in hand. We’re skittering about like hyperactive gerbils, high not just on caffeine but on caffeine’s luscious by-product, productivity. Ah, the joy of doing, accomplishing, crossing off." ~Encyclopedia of an Ordinary life (Amy Krouse Rosenthal)

I just really like how she describes our culture. Having lived in Italy, I can see clearly how different we are from Italians. The things that drive us definitely do not drive them.

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!

Why the Written Letter Is Better

To be honest, I am the e-mailinist fool you will ever meet. Do you like that word, emailinist? I made it up just now. I love to e-mail short notes, hellos, a juicy morsel of gossip, recipes, pictures, anything really, and I love to do it every day. If there were a job out there for such a person I would be the perfect fit, and if you know of such a job, please refer me to the employer. HA HA! No really.

As the e-mailinist person around, I can attest that there is truth in the idea that written correspondence is much better. An e-mail seems so ordinary, so flat on the page and, well, cold. A handwritten letter received in the mail really brightens my day. And to write a note, or a letter, well, anyone who receives a written letter from me should know how really special they are because it took a lot of effort to put pen to paper, to keep my hand from cramping, to put my ideas together coherently on the page. It is an effort and a great act of love on my part.

FACTS:
*175% more text messages are sent each month compared to phone calls.
* 73% of cell phone users say that the cell phone is the most important device in their social life.
* 66% of U.S. Internet users said email was their preferred channel for written communications between friends.
*Every week, the average person receives 1.5 personal letters. (I am severly below this average by the way.)
*Feeling appreciated is one of the strongest human desires. (Alas, tis true!)
*There is warmth in a handwritten note—it instantly makes the message more personal, creates a more intimate feeling, and makes the recipient feel more valued.
*With e-mail, text messaging and instant messaging, a handwritten note is getting rarer and therefore more special.
*A handwritten note costs less than a dollar to write and mail, and the relational value is priceless.
*The recipient can keep and reread it forever.
(Oprah.com, Write a Note of Gratitude)

So, what are you waiting for? Grab your pen and any ol’ paper and make someone’s day by writing them a note!

Carmex

I just glanced over at my Carmex Lip Moisturizer. The only words I saw were Click Stick and then below that in tiny black letters it says "Movement Control Technology." Why? And who cares?

Finally

Two wonderful, beautiful days back to back and I have been able to take a walk during both. It helps clear my head of all the torment churning around up there. Today my backdrop was Vesuvius, green up her sides and capped with snow. In my mind I journeyed up there and it was very, very cold. I got lost there for a bit, allowing myself to be free from all that burdens me down here. Free to be cold, free to smell the air, free to feel the wind. I am back now and am feeling much better.