This photo was taken in 2006 by Justin when we traveled to Italy, Greece, Monacco, and points in between for his graduation trip. This is a field of sunflowers outside of Florence (Livorno) on our way to buy my beautiful chandelier! I am a woman truly outstanding in my field.....
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The title line I used was from the movie I saw with Twila and Judy J. yesterday called "Letters to Juliette". Oh, my goodness, the scenery!!! It begins in New York City and I said out loud, "I love New York!" and then the action moved to Rome and again, I said out loud, "I love Rome...". And then Tuscany, with its incredible scenery and cityscapes, and all I could do then was mourn. I am glad Twila was there with me because we saw this same scenery together when we were there in 2005. All the photos you may have seen of this region, the paintings, or the movies are not exaggerations at all, it IS just that beautiful. Like the movie, "Under the Tuscan Sun" which also takes place in obviously, Tuscany, with the ancient structures and bell towers and vineyards and olive groves and sun flowers.....
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In the movie, an elderly widow, if 65 is considered elderly, let me change that to older woman, is in search of her long-lost love from 50 years ago. She had written a letter to Juliette, of Romeo fame, and it was found by an American writer on vacation in Verona, who replied to the letter. "Clare" talked her grandson into bringing her from England back to Italy to find her Lorenzo and the three of them join forces to make her heart happy. The grandson is a rather unwilling participant in all this and behaves badly at first but eventually softens with all the talk about true love and lost ones. That is where the title line comes from, the sage Clare, in setting her grandson straight regarding life and love, it is all about the 'messy bits'!
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After the movie, which had a happy ending, we all three had to use the bathroom. Twila looked in the mirror and said, "It is good to come out of a movie and not look like heck..." since we often leave in tears after such a movie. She brought up The Bucket List and yes, that was such a rough ride, we should have had bags for our heads! It did not stop us from going to dinner at TGIF after The Bucket List, though! This time, although occasionally a tear eliciter, we looked fine and went over to Mellow Mushroom to dine el fresco. With all that delicious looking food in the movie, we wanted something Italian so we shared an order of bruschetta. My meal was the half-portion BLT on French bread (we can pretend it was Italian...). I was home again just before 8:00 so joined the gang on the sundeck for a bit. Jessica, Travis, and the new baby were out there as well as others.
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Around 8:30 pm the people started going in to eat dinner so I came in to watch "Selling New York". Wouldn't you know it but the Realtors were showing New York brownstones in this segment. Justin and I had just discussed brownstones at lunch that day so I sent him a text message to tell him about the program. He asked what the sale prices were and the one brownstone, which was multi-family, was going for just over $2 million dollars. They were all about the same width of 20 feet but sure looked wider on TV, even the agent made that remark. My bedroom is 16 feet wide so four feet more....I don't know, it sure seems as though those houses were wider than that. Guess I will have to go see for myself, or ourselves!
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One of Justin's favorite topics is winning the lottery, and all the things he wants to use his winnings for. He has even calculated the taxes he would have to pay and then begins the divvying thereof. Justin said if he won he could buy me colonoscopies, and I cannot thank him enough! He knows I am upset about all that mess and wants to make it nice for me. He said he would also pay my taxes, income and real estate, which makes me smile broadly. Perhaps I should buy such a ticket, the 'tax on the poor', as Neal Boortz refers to the lottery. Justin used to want to buy Good Shepherd a pipe organ but Pete told him he would also have to find someone to play it! Not easy to do any more, could possibly be extinct ability. Justin wants to make sure his cousin, Lisa, has central air conditioning and a security system in her home so the boys and she are safe and cool/warm. Soon it will be her and the children, since we do not yet know if the next baby is a girl or boy. Yesterday he said he wants to help his alma mater, St. Johns CDS, with their building project which is a million dollars behind, even suggesting that he could buy the entire school! I suggested he establish funds at the two churches to help people with their utility bills and he said, "Well, that's a given...." I do hope he wins!
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Bible study was grand yesterday, too, discussing how our baptism clothes us in the white robe of righteousness. One recurring passage was about Christ becoming righteousness for us. What a wonderful comfort that is, our sins are cast away, washed away, and we are His! At the end of the class I told the story of when Justin's great-aunt, Dora, died many years ago. His father and I were crying and went into his bedroom to tell him the news. Justin asked us why we were crying---Dora was wearing a beautiful white robe in heaven! From the mouths of babes! At Victory this Sunday two more kids are being baptized, coming as a result of their preschool program, one a 5 year-old and her 13 year-old stepsister. Let the heavens rejoice! Get those white robes ready!
