Woman in white

This is my friend and former SELF colleague Stephanie, who recently left the magazine to go to another magazine for a great 3-day a week gig. So now she is enjoying her twins, her husband, her life (and still has a great job). Go, Steph! I'm all for swerving off the crazy 9-7 work path; after two months in Italy, it's amazing how much better I feel. I think everyone should take a 2 month sabbatical every other year. Workplaces would be much more productive, employees would be much more relaxed.

So, I think I must have had the world's shortest stint of online dating. I tried it for a few days and found it dispiriting. That's the word--dispiriting. I felt my wonderful post-Rome glow fading the more I focused on match.com. So I made a decision: I'm not going to do it right now. I'll just have to meet someone the old fashioned way until I'm ready to dive into the internet world again. But as of now, I'm not ready. And I feel much better!
Ciao!
Paola

I've reentered the dating scene...

that is, I put up a profile on match.com. I have one thing to say about it: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Paola

Gelato bellisimo on the Upper West Side

Well, I never thought I'd admit it, but there is a new gelato place on 76th and Broadway called GROM, for the owner, apparently a roman franchise. The gelato is AS good as the best I've tasted in Italy. Truly.
Here's the link. There was a line half a block long tonight, on a Tuesday night, but it was worth it. Go. Wait. Enjoy. Get the medium sized cup. The small is ridiculous.


Good day today. Got a check up, blood pressure down (110/70), strength up, mood up--all because of two months in Italy! I wish I could do it every year. I would be a happier person.
Buona notte!
Paola

I must be back in my ordinary routine...

because I have very little to blog about today. Does this mean my post-trip happiness is wearing off? It has been a week and two days since my return. I don't feel quite as elated. Is there a way to hold on to this open, expansive, optimistic feeling I have? Is it possible to have that feeling in everyday life? I need to be able to distill the things that felt best about the trip and tap into those habits here. More easy-goingness. Less scheduling. More alone time. More exercise. More art. Better food. Healthier food. Looking at the world with fresh eyes (the way you do when you live in a new place). I can do those things! Now, if only I could sleep til 10 every day and go to bed at 2 am. On a positive note: I got to tuck my nephews in tonight! None of THAT in Italy.
Buona notte!
Paola

Babies, babies everywhere, and not a drop to...

Would you believe the man is this photograph was once a wildly carousing BACHELOR? That's what love and marriage does to you!
This is my firend Gregg, and I spent a lovely Hamptons weekend at the rented home of him and his wife Sheri, along with some extended family. I think I've been pretty good about not posting any baby pics on this blog so far, considering that upwards of 10 close friends of mine have had first babies in the past two years. Forty-three is the new twenty-three, at least when it comes to babies. I feel compelled to do a baby tally in my circle:
Lisa: twin boys
Pam: preggers
Diana: gave birth last week
Noreen: son
MP: son
Laura K.: son
David B.: son
plus 11 other people at SELF magazine (that number is growing, along with the bellies around me).
Bunoa notte
Paola

Do you BELIEVE this is Queens?

Believe it! This is the kitchen and back garden of SELF's lovely director of copy, Wendy, who was nice enough to invite a few of us for lunch and wine (her husband works at a wine magazine, so that is a very good thing!) The two of them have managed to create a bucolic, Hamptonesque retreat (without the snootiness) in Forest Hills, Queens, complete with vegetable patch and a "cabin" transformed from a former garage. Proof that Queens in underrated as a borough.

So, I got through my first week at work, post Italia. I am very tired, but still have the wide, expansive happy feeling that I got off the plane with. Now I just have to figure out how find time to do my book and exercise!!!! (And maybe go on some dates. Maybe.)
Buona notte!
Paola