28 Oct, Day 76, A “Normal Saturday”

Dear Blog, I woke as planned at 11:40 (without an alarm). I’m not exactly sure why I established 11:40 before going to bed, but I wanted to be sure to make it to the dry cleaners before they close at 12:30. So I ate some cereal and tidied a couple things around the house before picking up my shirt and pants dry-cleaned after the expectoration incident last week.

When inspecting the basil crop I found 3 caterpillars perfectly camouflaged amongst the leaves. (Well, maybe not perfectly because I found them…) But their hunger is damaging my crop and they had to be removed. I will be more vigilant for signs of other unlawful tenants because it’s coming time to harvest the crop and make a pesto from the leaves. My neighbor said hi while I was watering the plants and offered me some little pizzas -fresh from the oven, and invited me for lunch/dinner on Wednesday. Wednesday is a holiday, so I can attend if I don’t decide to do something else. I expect a great meal, so I will probably go, but I want to hold off on committing until Monday in case something else comes up. In any case, the onerous is back on me to come up with something to give them in exchange for the pizzas. I’m not sure I like this game of food-gift giving because I always feel like anything I try to make would be grossly inferior. However, I’m happy to purchase items of higher quality.

Then I decided to go for a jog to try to detox myself from last night. I went to dinner with some of the guys from work last, and I was pretty sure I’d regret eating the raw sausage spread on bread. But I’ve eaten plenty of other exotic things, and in a strange way I pride myself on the breadth of uncommon dishes I’ve tried. However, fighting a case of trichinosis is not my idea of a good time! However, I’m happy to report that there have been no signs of affliction yet.

The sun had come out after a long string of grey days, and since I’m between gym trials, I put on my running shoes and hit the road. I jogged out the park of Monza where I could hear the engines of the racecars in the autodromo. I think there’s some sort of Ferrari-racing event this week. Monza has a nice park. If I was writing a poem the park might be a patchwork quilt of grassy fields and shady woodlands speckled with lavish villas stitched together by wandering paths of crunchy gravel. I discovered the bocce courts where the old men never seem to get tired of arguing, and then started to head home though the gardens of the Villa Reale.

After showering, I decided it was time for a haircut since it’s been about 3 months, and it’s getting cold to leave the house with wet hair in the morning. I didn’t really know how to say a particular type of haircut, but only that I hadn’t cut it in 2 months, and it was getting too long. So the barber suggested a “a little shorter on the sides, and a little longer on the top” I agreed. He took his time and I think he did a pretty nice job although I’ve relinquished the long hair of my “California days.”

Next I went to fight with the guy at the tobacci shop for ripping me off on a phone card. I couldn’t get him to give me a refund or a new card, but found some satisfaction warning some other potential customers that he’d rip them off.

Next I went looking for a Halloween mask, found none, but bought a gelato, and ate it on the way back to my apartment. I called Patrick, and Australian living in Monza that I met a few weeks ago to see if he was watching the Derby tonight. The derby is the rivalry game between Milan on Inter. I guess it’s something like the Italian equivalent to the UM vs fsu showdown. Although he wasn’t interested in the game, we made dinner plans at 9. So I walked down the street to a bar called Cheers which has a couple of tv’s to watch the game on. I left at 8:50 when Inter was up 1-0. They ended up winning 4-3.

Patrick picked me up in front of the bar and we headed to his apartment in the northern part of the city. He made a few negronies to drink while I asked his girlfriend about the dinner she was working on. We started with an antipasto where I ate a breadstick wrapped in proschiuto. This configuration reminded me of a snack I used to make a long time ago. I remember wrapping salami around a green bean. I might have also used breadsticks, but the green bean was much more unique. I enjoyed talking about a number of topics in a mix of English and Italian while we enjoyed the antipasto, and then a steamy risotto made with a strong cheese. Then shrimp and pepper kabobs before dark chocolate and ginger cookies for dessert. I enjoyed the time together, and I hope we do meet up again. We made tentative plans for Sunday at Sere’s house.

A few of Monza's lesser-known charms