The cover

This is it, the one and only, approved by the powers that be.

Ciao, belli...
Paola

Half-way to ninety

That's how I've been oh-so-optimistcally referring to my upcoming 45th birthday. The good news is that I had an amazingly relaxing, restorative weekend in one of my favorite places in the world, on one of my favorite beaches in the world, on one of my favorite porches in the world--namely, the porch of the Sunrise Guesthouse where I spent hours drinking coffee, gossiping, reading and looking at the ocean this past weekend in celebration of said upcoming day-of-birth. Mine.

Had much lobster, in many forms (on hot dog buns, nestled in hard shells and soft), lots of ice cream, got sandy, freckled and even went for a run. What could be better, especially when accompanied by such good friends?

Ciao, amici! I'm looking forward to launching into birthday week.
Paola

Purples skies and fireflies

That's what happens at 7:30 pm, the perfect time to run around the Central Park Reservoir this time of year. I did it last night and felt grateful that I get to live in the cool and beautiful place that I do.

I am the proud owner of an iPhoneG3. I am in love. I am addicted. I have downloaded more than 100 songs--I am spending an inordinate amount of time playing with my computer, but I feel as if I'm suddenly catching up to what everyone has been so jazzed about--I've become a 'pod person, only the phone is so much cooler and better than the mere 'pod. Tomorrow, I plan to go over to the Apple Store in Rock Center and take a free tutorial, buy earphones that fit me and a better case, and generally groove on the Apple vibe. I've used Macs at work for the past decade, but I've never become a junkie, but this device is like a little person--I've taken to calling it "Little buddy," in my head, a nickname my dear friend Pam sometimes bestows on me. You interact with it, it does things for you like locate you in time and space (which is extremely helpful to someone as directionally challenged as I am, it can suggest restaurants based on where you are standing within 20 blocks. I'm not allowing myself to download yet--I need to get a better grasp on the basics first. But I think I'm becoming more tech savvy--maybe not a bad thing given the imminent arrival of my book!

Speaking of my book buy book!), we are now on cover version 4, and the conversation has kicked up to the associate publisher. It's a nail biter for me, that's for sure. When it's all over, I'll post 'em for all to see and admire or deride at will.

Ciao belli--
Paola

P.S.
Yes, I've had a few iPhone mishaps, as well. There was the unfixable bubble that appeared on my pristine iPhone screen after I diligently tried to apply the screen saver (screwed that up), then crashed my computer while trying to download iTunes (I had too many applications open), and when I rebooted, everything on the screen was sideways. Turns out if you press control/alt/option/delete, or some such, which I did, trying to force quit, you can turn your screen sideways. It was quite puzzling and annoying (I was already looking up the Geek Squad number. There went another $200 toward a computer worth only $1200. At what point do you just get a new one?

PPS...The iPhone earplugs don't fit inside my ears. Do I have abnormally small ear openings? They won't stay in.

Summer in the city snaps

Beth Orton in Prospect Park, babies in Battery Park City and Lady Liberty.
Amo Juglio!
Ciao, amici--
Paola

P.S. Saw a very cool memorial in Battery Park City today--to the millions of Irish who were driven to New York City during the potato famine--it incorporates a reconstruction of an irish peasant hut, plantings and wildflowers that you'd find in Ireland, and a tunnel with snippets about the famine and state of life at the time. That's a picture of the meadow section, up top.

A mitzvah in Central Park

Today, I was run/walking my way around the Central Park Reservoir and a young woman (from Spain?) and her maybe 10 year old daughter stopped me. She asked me if I spoke Spanish, I said un poco, but she must have suspected the extent of my limitations because she conveyed to me, in her limited english, that they were lost and had gotten separated from her husband, then she cried a little bit. The daughter looked unfazed. I told her to go to the next stopping point at the reservoir (el primo lugar con mucho gente), then she said she'd wait there, then she described her husband to me (cream hat, yellow shirt), and I said I'd direct him there if I ran into him. Sure enough, I kept running for about 5 minutes and saw a guy with a yellow shirt and cream baseball hat walking quickly and looking perturbed, and I conveyed the situation to him in Spanish. Successfully I hope.
I didn't run very fast but see what I would have missed if I hadn't gotten out there?
Ciao amici--
Paola

How racist is this?!

Fox news is evil. Check out this video of the attacks on Michelle Obama. Scary. Bill Reilly even used the term "lynching" in reference to M.O.
Ciao, amici--
Get out the vote for Obama.
Paola

Behind the Bedroom Door available on Amazon now!

I know that as a blogger I have to get the linking to other web site thingie down. So, here's an experiment...curious about my forthcoming book, Behind the Bedroom Door: Getting it, giving it, loving it, missing it? If so, you can buy it now, on Amazon no less.
Ciao, amici!
Paola

I bought myself an i-phone

Happy birthday, to me!
They're sold out so it's coming next week. (They need to make you wait. That's how they turn it into a fad.)
I hope to god I can learn how to use the thing.
Ciao amici--
Paola

A bad day turned into a good day

I woke up this morning in the same foggy, grumpy mood I've been in since after 4th of July weekend, then grouched my way into the office, and almost immediately got an email from my editor asking for me to meet with the publicity team. Apparently, they have the head of publicity and 2 others on my book, so I think they're trying to do something with it. Maybe? Anyway, that made me shift from blue to neutral, then I had a nice lunch in Bryant Park and was able to enjoy the beautiful day (I have to do that more!!!), then I got an email announcing that SELF's "self expression" column, which I edit (it's the personal essays) won a Clarion journalism award. Then, finally, a nice phone conversation with my sister. Then I was able to leave work by 6:15 or so, pick up groceries at Gourmet garage, then go for a run at the time of day when the light around the reservoir is most beautiful (around 7:15 or so, these days), then come home and put together an Italian antipasto plate for dinner, followed by fresh watermelon for dessert, plus phone calls with friends. Now I'm about to get into bed with a new book: The galleys of An American Wife, the new novel by Curtis Sittenfeld that imagines what it would be like to be married to a man very much like George Bush. (Scary.)

All adds up to a very good day.
Buona notte amici--
Paola

Why are romantic relationships with men so challenging?

Is it because the sexes view the world in fundamentally different ways? Or is it that I haven't yet found the person with whom I mesh?
That's all I have to say for now.
Ciao i baci--
Paola