Book jacket favorites

Here are my two favorite shots from yesterday's photo shoot for my book jacket? Comments? I think they're nice. I'm happy! Which is all that matters right? If anyone strongly disagrees, speak now or forever hold your piece.

Am I a sexpert yet?

That's me, in full hair and makeup, after my photo shoot in Central Park this afternoon. I think it was really a success! She tweaked my outfit and found the best light and it was all over in under an hour.

Mi piacere!

Ciao--
Paola

P.S.
18 pounds down!

This is my 200th post!....

in what amounts to a bit more than a year of blogging. Not a bad output, considering it was not only painless but creative as well as cathartic, eh? Unlike Emily Gould, I use certain guidelines to guage if I'm revealing too much: namely, how would I feel if my parents read it? My boss? If you can answer, "perfectly fine, no matter who reads it (excluding minors), then you are doing okay. I merely drop hints about my personal life, leaving it that much more mysterious and enticing. But I do have a date tonight I'm (very) excited about. But it's a first date. Seeing is believing.

On a more unreservedly optimistic note, I was playing around with date outfits tonight and put together what I want to wear for my book jacket cover shoot tomorrow (luckily, the photo editor is coming over to my place before the shoot so she can veto it if need be. Anyway, it's my heinously, ridiculously expensive Lofli black jeans with my Italian pointy black boots; a kind of silky, tastefully clingy turquoise top with my favorite tangerine sweater draped around my shoulders. I'll be wearing three favorite articles of clothing at once (the boots, the pants, the sweater!). If that's not good energy, I don't know what is!

Ciao--
Paola

I'll post the results (and rejects) of the photo shoot here!

A weekend in the country...

and I mean THE COUNTRY! I spent a few days up in the Catskills in the new house of my wonderful friends MP, Mathew and their adorable, genius-baby Connor. At 20 months, he knows and says the names of a roomfull of strangers in only a few minutes or so (and I think I'm exaggerating only a bit, if at all). Anyway, we hiked to a burbling creek that was literally burbling, did some amazingly productive brainstorming about our next projects (MP and I are midwives to the other person's ideas), barbecued, drank martinis, played with the baby and did some mighty fine porch sitting gazing at hills and cows and silos in the distance. I felt as if I'd stepped back in time--we visited an old cemetary full of families who had been there for generations and still lived in the town. Where ordinary people still own 500 acres of land. Coming back to the city (specifically Port Authority) was a shock, so I retreated to my apartment and am doing some summer sprucing!!! New print from Italy over my bed, new, poppy shower curtain.
Okay amici. Il tiempo mangiare e subito.
Ciao-
Paola

Mo-ment-um

So, the book is spinning along. I've finished the revision, am waiting for the copy edit, and am now concerned with things like sending out manuscripts to editors to consider for excerption (SELF and MORE have bought essays so far) and what photo to use for my jacket cover! I thought I had the one I wanted--a photo taken by a SELF photographer for the magazine--but when our photo editor called him and asked him if I could have the rights, he said he didn't think I should use that picture--that it was too old (two years) and that he should take a new photo of me. But if I were to hire him, it would cost at least $400 bucks (of my own money) so I'm not inclined to do that. Plus, I like the photo (the one of me in Central Park, above). If I had my preference, I'd pick the second photo, in which I look kind of sexy because I'm semi-reclining, and totally open and relaxed, but it has nothing to do with sex--I'm holding my friend Pam's baby, and there's nothing like the feeling of holding an infant. It feels goooooood! All the hormones and instincts kick in or something. (Kind of like sex!)

So, SELF's photo editor relayed this to me at our director's dinner this evening--when you reach the position of "director" at SELF, you get to go to periodic very nice dinners where they give you nice little gifts and we play games to see how well we know our colleagues (tonight's was If I could be any TV character, it would be....I said Lori Partridge!)--wherein I discovered that the photo editor was in fact also a photographer and she offered to shoot me for free--all I'd have to do is get my hair and makeup done. So, I may take her up on that. Meanwhile, do any of the photos above seem appropriate for an author's photo? Do I really have to go through this mishigas?! (That's Yiddish for trouble, for my Italian friends who read this blog).

Ciao--
Buona notte amici!
Paola

Good morning, Baltimore....

I returned from my trip to Baltimore with my nephew Jordan and immediately slipped in the Hairspray sound track. John Waters, big Baltimore-ite. And Babe Ruth was born there. Truth be told, I was completely impressed with the city and plan to go back for a grown up trip to do some shopping, poking around neighborhoods, and blue crab sampling. It's a very compact city, very walkable--Jordan and I walked the the inner harbor area every day, we walked to an Orioles game, a highlight, did a lot of wandering around on foot and by sea...
It was so nice to hang with my nephew. He is so enthusiastic, singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame in his sweet little voice. People around him just notice and respond to him because he is so sincere and open and adorable. We had a great time and I loved pampering him--I got lots of cuddles and giggles in return--this morning we were wandering around laughing together and he started laughing so hard he got the hiccups. Very enjoyable.

Buona notte!
Ciao--
Paola

48 hours with Wesley Clark

No, not THAT Wesley Clark. Wes burst onto the scene on April 29th, with a car and a lust for criss-crossing the country in a borrowed car. After 5 solid days of solitude it was great--we had an amazing first day, driving down the northwest coast of the island, stopping at Bosa, a sweet river town (photos above), then stopping at a small but beautiful beach for a swim and a picnic (a highlight of the day for me), then making our way south to Phoenician ruins at Tharros, on the sea. Some striking columns but otherwise, it was hard to get a sense of what I was seeing. Then took a train to Cagliari (pronounced kai-yar-ee, with the accent on the first syllable). Saw a very solemn saints festival, with costumed marching, rosary-praying, festooned horses and rose petals in the street. Then back to the village Cuglieri, which had a very picturesque cathedral on a hill surrounded by more hills, (see above) where we had dinner at a local restaurant with no menu; they simply brought out plates and plates of food, starting with boar salami, proscuitto, local cheese, lots of game, local pasta, etc., etc., etc. It was a real meal from the "interior" of the island--no seafood--so was interesting to experience. Then, the next morning, Wes kindly took me all the way back to Alghero so I could make my way to Rome. Wes was great company--he kind of knows everything about everything--and is a great traveler, so I just sat back and let myself be taken care of a bit, which was nice after taking care of myself for most of the last week.
Enjoy the snaps!
Baci--
Paola

A touch of Spain in Sardinia

The second phase of my Sardinian trip was spent in Alghero, a town with a Spanish, Catalan influence (thought it seemed pretty Italian to me, I have to say). But it was quite pretty--on the water, near a natural site called Neptune's grotto, an 8 km series of caves filled with stalagtites and stalagmites, and with all the requisite windy streets and churches. It would have been more fun if the dollar had been stronger--the town is known for its beautiful gold filigreed jewelry, but even I, profligate spender that I can be, did not see the sense in buying jewelry in Euros. So I window shopped, ate nice seafood, and enjoyed the atmosphere. Though, truth to tell, I was a little lonely in Alghero--I'd been alone for about 5 days by the time I got there and I was feeling a little sorry for myself and wishing I had some company. Thank god for boooks, that's all I have to say. They can be really good dinner companions--I get very absorbed, which is nice when you are eating alone.

Part of the problem is that I was staying at this annoying resorty hotel with a gorgeous pool (and view out my terrace of a beach and palm trees (above), but with snotty people at the desk, who seemed to go out of their way to be unpleasant and slightly disdainful. Gradually, though, I saw its good points--it was in a pine forest but near the beach, it was only a few kilometers from a nuraghi, an ancient dwelling in a pre-Christian, pre Roman settlement. They only exist in Sardinia, and they were occupied by a population that was wiped out suddenly in a single fell swoop (or close to it). So it was interesting to learn some history I'd had no notion of. (Photos above--they basically look like huts made of stones.) I walked to one from my hotel along this pine-tree-shaded bike path. Extremely civilized.

And now, I'm ready to enjoy the atmosphere of my bedroom. I am TIRED after a full week of work, post vacation.
Buona notte!
Paola