Corner View - Artist?

Of COURSE I'm an artist!  Look at my "piece of art"... meheheheee (Yes, I laugh at my own jokes, my doctor says it's healthy!)  Oh yeah and I should add, Vito helped with the artistic process.

Here is the full story of how I "killed" the artist in me :)

And here is a doodle.

Theme: Elsa

Hosted by Francesca
Invented by Jane

Read more...

Early Retirement. Yes please!

My BFF and I were chatting the other day.  (That's right! It's perfectly OK for a grown woman to have a BFF and refer to the BFF as "BFF"...ok???)  So we were talking about how seemingly boring our lives are now.  I told her, I WANT my life "boring".  I love it when everyone is HOME (and preferably sleeping).

my cousin and I somewhere on a rooftop in NYC... the PINK the blond, the tans... says it all. 

Yes it's true, if we're comparing our lives now to when we were 20 something and out every single night, falling in love at least three times per week, staying up till 5am and going to work two hours later....  Though believe it or not back then I remember feeling bored and now I don't.  Now days I have to choose which social interaction to have since I can't really participate in everything, and it's perfectly acceptable (since you know: "... the kid, the kid...").  Yes life is quieter and more relaxed, but boring?  No, I would not call it that - restful is more the right word.

So now when people ask me "So what's going on?  What are you up to?" I proudly say with a smile, "Thank goodness NOTHING, just this and that, walks in the park... home stuff..." and think to myself, I don't "HAVE" to be up to anything anymore, I can watch Jr. grow and pretty much anything I do on top of that is extra bonus points.  So bring on more of the BORING!!!

My BFF said: You're RETIRED at 34???  I said: I like the sound of that! :P  ((now if we could only make it official where there was no 9-5))

(Then I told her to hurry up and have a kid so she can join me in "retirement")
Hurray!

Read more...

Sempre Primavera!

Spring is on the way!!!!

This is how it all started back in 2005. By "it all" I mean the "Sempre Primavera" movement that served as the catalist for some pretty unbelievable changes in my life. I mean, one day I'm standing on a busy street corner in NYC talking angry nonsense to my friend in Chicago saying how we are in the prime of our lives but why is it so BORING and NOTHING ever happens??? Well, my wise friend told me to start a blog and document everything just to see if I was indeed right; nothing ever happened or I just didn't pay attention?

Well in March of 2005 I started a blog and by coincidence or not "things" began to happen...

Read more...

Hot

I have a bit of a surprise for you!

I've been secretly cheating on you...

NEEEEH! Just a little experiment. I was chosen as a blogger for Hotelsbycity.net I figured I'll be doing a lot of touristy things here in Amsterdam for... a WHILE, so why not have it all categorized nice and neatly somewhere.

It's a pretty fun site, all user generated with reviews of things to do, eat, see in various cities by actual people that live there. This is definitely the direction the entire marketing world is moving towards.

I'm weary about putting ads on my personal blog, just because most people that read my blog are either my friends or other bloggers. (or other blogger friends! ;) Anyway, I don't usually get too many random stumblers on my blog looking for Amsterdam Hotels, or restaurant reviews.

This is where Hotelsbycity comes in. I've made a few posts on there and already I see that the hits I get are from various people searching for the particular thing that I wrote about! Thus it makes perfect sense to have some google ads on that page because they're targeted for content. (It's almost freaky how they KNOW what you're talking about).

Anyway, whenever I go to a cool restaurant or visit some fun event all the official info and links will be on the hotelsbycity space and I'll give you a heads up.

How much money will I make??? Hmmmm... don't know, but I've made $2.09 for only 4 clicks! So that's about 50c per click, pretty good I say, it's just a matter of guessing what the people want to know about Amsterdam.

But have fun here is my profile page ;) - oh yeah, while you're there, can you just press on google links, maybe I'll make another $2 bucks horray!

OH, fun news... tonight another international visitor arrives!!! My friend from Belgium, Aurelia!! We are going to paint the town all kinds of colors! Vito dear is going to be safely OUT of town on some kind of music thingi so it'll be me and Aurelia doing city tripping.

You see, I'm soooooo scared to be allllllllll by myself in our 5th floor mansion that I had to import a friend to stay with me.... whahahahaaaa!!! I love being a girl!!! I just use it as an excuse for ANYTHING!!!!!

Hm... Vito, you sitll want to go to your music thingi? You know all the action is going to be happening around us anyway! wheeeeeee!

(That's the pic I took in December when I visited Belgium, Leffe blond! Yeah!!!)

Read more...

What's in a hometown...?

Yo! I'd like to do a shout-out to my home girl CADIZ!

Haha, well what I'm trying to say is:

I would like to send air-kisses to my lovely and beautiful friend Cadiz who sent me this t-shirt for my B-day. I can't even believe you girl!!! LISLE!??? (As in Lisle, Illinois)

I'm so glad it was a medium because a small would definitely not have accommodated my vast "sailor's chest" Ahoy!

I will be representing over there in Amsterdam!!! All the homeys from Lisle, IL will be proud! Whassup whassup!!

You see, I have many towns I can call "hometown".

I was born in one very beautiful town... looks a bit like Havana doesn't it? Well, pretty close, the two countries were always very good friends...

This is the picture of the main street. And just how I remember it with trolleys (now days the trolleys don't run anymore). This is the street on which every evening people would come dressed up and promenade up and down and gossip about each other... wonderful!!!














Then I have lived till I was 10 in this beautiful town... Ahh a place with so much history and dramatic views.
















After that I have lived in a slightly bigger town...













I've lived there for about 6 years and for my senior year of high-school my family and I moved here.


That up there being Lisle, IL. (And if you don't believe me, check out Cadiz's blog header picture... I believe she took it outside her house or something.) You know how they say if you can make it in New York City you can make it anywhere? Well, that's completely INCORRECT! If you can make it in LISLE you can make it anywhere!!

NYC is easy, there is something for every taste under the sun and there are millions and millions of people to play with. But LISLE!??? How do you survive in the middle of NOTHING!? HOW! Well thank goodness I'm here to tell you... The way to survive in any place of the world is to have a few good people around! To love and hug and frolic around with!!! See, if you have lovely people it all of the sudden doesn't matter weather you're frolicking in outdoor cafes or in the middle of a cornfield, you'll laugh just as hard!

So what's in a hometown? People, they make the place not the buildings (or lack there off). :)

MUAH!!

ps: yeah, I'll be ok in Amsterdam too, Vito likes frolicking... In fact did you know the word itself COMES from the DUTCH language!!

Dutch: vrolijk = vro, happy + -lijc, -like

Read more...

Me, russian??

Your Inner European is Russian!

Mysterious and exotic.You've got a great balance of danger and allure.

Who's" Your Inner European?

Hmmm... interesting... (I just can't stop taking these quizzes)

Well, I don't think I'm mysterious, but I'll take exotic and alluring!! ;) hehe

I tried to cheat and make myself sound Dutch... but even with extensive answer manipulation I went through all the possible nationalities, Italian, French.. etc before I finally got Dutch. Hmmm... interesting...

ps: Happy FRIDAY!!!

Read more...

Blizzard for St. Paddy's day

Yes, of course, when else should we get 5 inches of snow??

As I took this picture early in the morning, I was thinking... "Ufff, gotta go and dig out my car before my neighbors bury it under the snow from digging out their cars..." Then it hit me, I DON'T HAVE A CAR ANYMORE... Yep, left it at its new home somewhere in New Jersey just a few days ago... No more car...

My lil' brother Daniele asked me this morning "Where is your car??"

"Well, I had to sell it because I can't bring it to Netherlands..."

"WOW! You SOLD your car!??? You really ARE going!"

He's almost 8 and I'm almost 29... I know, pretty wild age difference. Personally, I believe he is the DIRECT result of me announcing to my parents my plan of studying abroad in Italy for a year. A few month after that, my parents announced that I'll be getting a little brother! Imagine!? Getting a brother after 21 years of being an only child. They were trying to replace me in case I decided to stay in Italy for ever and ever... Well, I did come back... And they were stuck with two "kids"! Hahaaaa... till now anyway. I guess they always kinda expected me to pull a desappearing stunt like that.

I'm so going to miss him, he is the funniest ever.

Yeah, kiss the car good-bye to... I probably will never own another car... Netherlands is so small you can walk across it. Once Vito and I went biking and "accidentally" biked too far ending up in BELGIUM!!!!! Can you believe it!? A little miscalculation and you end up in a whole new country! My red bad boy wouldn't even get up to its maximum RPMs and already be at some border or other...

buh-bye car, buh-bye

Read more...

Welcome!!

It's almost SPRING and New York is under a blanket of sleet, ice and snow! What is this!???

They obviously didn't get my memo about keeping it Sunny All the Time! :)

So yes, welcome! And don't worry, Spring will start doing its magic soon. It's not called for nothing a time of change, new energy, perhaps new beginnings.. ;)

Well some of you know exactly what I'm talking about... but lets just go over it once again, shall we!?

How about a nice little MOVE TO ANOTHER COUNTRY!

Yeah! That sounds like fun, lets DO IT!

Ahhhh moving to Holland... sounds so far away and exotic doesn't it? Well, lets be honest now, as fun and adventurous as moving to another country is, I'm definitely not going to Holland because it's sunny all the time there. In fact, I heard rumors (via BBC weather) that it's actually a pretty rainy country...

But Holland has many other good qualities, great cheese! cute windmills! seas of Tulips (my favorite flowers)! But the main attraction is of course the greatest and most wonderful Vito... no he is not mentioned on Wikipedia, nor is he on display on tourism websites (thank goodness!!). Also, in spite of the italianissimo name, he is Dutch, not Italian, it's just everyone mentioned here will be assigned an Italian sounding name. Why? Because I said so.

Oh, an when am I moving exactly? In a couple of weeks-ish!!!

Anyway, the bottom line is, we're all going on a pretty exciting ride and no matter what it must be noted that:

"Sunny" is NOT a weather condition but a state of BEING!

...Kinda like my princess status actually. (But don't worry Maxima, your job is safe.)

;)

Read more...