Tuesday, 4/8/03
One thing I didn't write about that happened Sunday night was that our inner city train was mysteriously taking a long time in Firenze and so I missed my connecting train in Arezzo by five minutes. It was the last train of the evening. The Elders were going to have to call a member with a car to take me home, or I would have to get a taxi, which would have been horrendously expensive. But, joy of joys, there happened to be a Firenze-Roma direct that was 50 minutes late, when Italian trains are rarely late. So I caught that train.
We just had a wonderful lecture by Marco about Leonardo. It makes me want to study everything he did. My patriarchal blessing says to learn all I can about the creation on which I reside, but to couple that knowledge with the principles of eternity. I'm so fascinated by, and really want to learn more about how proportions relate to each other in all areas of nature.
I forgot to mention that Anziano Cascone, in Sicily, grew up less than 100km from the most active Volcano of the world [Mount Etna].
Yesterday was a pretty good day. I woke up, didn't want to do anything, so I read "Cousin Mattie" in my fairy tales book. Somehow I misunderstood the Scottish dialect at the end and just didn't understand how she had died. I was very upset. I told Karin about it then read the ending again after she left. I got it, but it disturbed me even more then. What a tragic story in every way! It was beautiful but extremely sad.
So I didn't want to go to studio, but I went anyway. During those four hours I got so frustrated with a model I was supposed to build that I wanted to explode. But that wasn't until the end. But good things that happened in studio! I forgot to mention that it was frozen when I got back from Prato on Sunday. The only reason I wanted to believe it was that cold was because I felt droplets out of the sky that were not rain. It was either sleet or snow, but they were so tiny and far in between that I didn't take the frozen mental power to figure out which.
It was just as cold the next afternoon and continued to drop while our hands were going numb in the studio. About halfway through, someone looked out the window and we discovered a snow storm heading our way. It was so neat looking. To the north a deep valley between two mountains we just saw a thick white blur. Our studio has a great view. Finally it did start snowing in big, fluffy flakes around us, but not for long. The funniest thing was that Ken came up behind me and Kate at the window and said, "It's snowing? Now I have to go buy postcards!" We laughed our heads off at how he didn't communicate the connection very clearly. He was going to write postcards that night, but wanted to buy them before the storm got bad.
After studio Karin and Jenna Dee were sitting in the room reviewing for the test we were supposed to have this morning so I joined them. Then Cady and Edit came in too. We had fun helping Karin and Edit differentiate between the eras. Cady is by far the most knowledgeable about art history. It's beyond me how she can retain so much information.
At dinner I sat with Carmen, Karin, Morgan, Rebekah, Valerie, Kate, and Edit. Karin, Kate, and Edit are a great combination for laughter. Last week one time they were all sitting on one side of the table wearing red shirts. We didn't even realize that until later. But we were served ice cream sandwiches with our fortunes on them. I asked Dixie to tell me what mine said because it was in Italian, but she could only make out that it said something about the Beatles song "Yesterday", one of my favorites. So the three in the red shirts promptly sang the song. I joined, but no one noticed because I wasn't as loud. It was hilarious when the cafeteria got quiet.
Last night they randomly started singing again. Rebekah didn't stick around too long, and Valerie was embarrassed. I was only embarrassed when they sang the Titanic song. That is just not an A cappella song. But I joined in for "I Will Survive". In the middle of it Dr. R got up to make an announcement. The second he sat down, Edit said "One, Two, Three," and we broke out again. I never laugh so much as when I'm with that group.
After dinner we finished our study group (I distracted a lot of people by passing around my Lord of the Rings magazine) and Kate took the goddess test. Sometime during the first week back from Spring Break Cady found a test in the back of Karin's book to see which goddess you are. Valerie was in our room at the time (Karin was in the dining hall trying to write six papers) so the three of us took it. It was a lot longer than we anticipated, taking 30 minutes or more. Cady and Valerie were both definite Aphrodites, but I was Artemis, with Hera one point behind. If I wanted to choose one I would be Athena, but I'm okay. Artemis is my wild side that isn't immediately manifest in all company, and Hera, besides being the goddess of power, is for upholding family values. Karin took it later and she is Athena and Demeter, which fits her exactly. Brains and caregiver. Kate was upset when she ended up being Aphrodite, as well.
After that I went to Kate and Morgan's room. Morgan was on the phone, so Kate told me all about her fantasies of being a famous actress who dated, chronologically, Elijah Wood, Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, then Prince William. She even wrote in her journal like it really happened. I laughed so much. I felt special because she trusted me enough to know I wouldn't think she was crazy.
There's a dog up the street that Cady wants to kill because it always barks when she's trying to sleep. Just now the three of us were reading funny journal entries out loud. Cady told someone over the phone that she bought stamps at the tobbacci, and he said, "You bought stamps from an Iraqi?" We laughed good and long about that.
Today at dinner I asked Karin if she was an animagus, what animal would she want to be. She said lion. That started Edit telling everyone what she saw them as. I would want to be an eagle, but Edit told me I was a gopher. She is wrong. Marie was either a horse or a dog, a golden retriever. Edit was definitely a cat. Last night she sang several versions of "I Will Survive," first as a cat, then a chicken, cow, and dog. Crystal was a deer first, then a goat. Carmen wanted to be a dolphin but Edit thought she was a rabbit. Valerie was a panda. It was a lot of fun!
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