catching up

I'm home from vacation!

I went to Italy for just about two weeks with my three younger brothers and my dad. It was pretty instense. We saw amazing art, buildings and mountains. We played cards and shopped at fancy stores. I bought some watercolors in Venice, where my dad lost all of our passports. That was the biggest non-fun part of the trip (there were a few). We had to go to the police station for awhile, I took a lovely nap there, for my dad to fill out a report. The two older boys, Fro and Ryan, and I were pretty pissed so dad bought us a bottle of wine with diner that night. We ended up having to go to the embassy in Milan and got five new passports for the price of $600 with a bonus 4 AM call to my mother since Mikey is under 18.

Anway, we had a good time. We got lost every day but the last day, and that day we were running so late we thought we would miss the plane home. Driving in Italy is crazy. Street signs are very hard to see from the road and from what I can tell the drivers think that those lines on the pavement mean nothing.

The best part of the trip for me, (other than all that mushy getting to know my brothers as people kind of stuff) was that I had some big moments of inspiration and got some writing done. The trip also gave me a few more stories ideas so we'll hope that I follow through with them.

Now I'm home and trying to get back into the swing of work and home. I took this morning off of work because my throat feels so gross and nasty. Yesterday I sat myself at the computer and made myself type all of the notes and additions I wrote on the trip to the piece that I'm working on. Well almost all of them, just about done.

I got an email from a grad school in MN that I applied to about extending my application for their second semester acceptance. I hadn't really planned on moving from where I am, but more and more I think that it might be good for me. I'm sending in the paperwork they need so I guess we'll just have to see.

rant

Ok so yesterday I drove home and was getting all my crap together (for whatever reason I feel the need to take at least two books with me to work along with a notebook and usually like two water bottles) and prepared to exit my car. I looked for cars (my street is crowded cause you can park on both sides) and opened my door. When out of nowhere this dude on a bike flies past me, missing me by inches. He yelled "Watch for bikers!" as he scooted on off. Now I, in my flustered state, pretty much screeched "I'm sorry."

But here's the thing. He had the whole freaking road to bike - there were no cars coming in either direction for blocks, and yet he felt compelled to drive right by the car that had passed him a block before and just parked and obviously would have someone exiting the car in moments. Had he not said anything I would have probably just felt bad and then been careful from then on (or at least for the next week or so). BUT, because he had to tell me to watch for bikers in a condescending I'm-so-much-better-than-you-and-your-shitty-centra-with-a-broken-headlight kind of way, I'm just pissed. Fuck you biker man.

Now I live in probably the most biker friendly city in the Midwest. But seriously most of these bikers do not have common sense! And yeah, ok you're a better person than I am because you bike to work and I drive and you clearly are more in tune with the world and issues and whatever, but seriously I do not care.

AND, now that I'm on a roll here, when I was younger I was hit by a car while I was on my bike. Through no fault of my own, the guy took a corner too fast and clipped my back tire sending my flying through the air. I was like 10 at the time so you can imagine how fast the guy slammed on his breaks to see if I was ok. Which I was. But you know what? I didn't tell the guy - oh you should watch for bikers. I FREAKING WATCHED OUT FOR MORON DRIVERS FROM THAT POINT ON. And you should too biker man. Cause if I see you again I might be tempted to throw my door out on purpose. Jeesh.