i'd like some venice, with a bit of sunburn on the side

to rehash the talent show: freakin' awesome. there's no words to describe how much fun that was and i'm proud to say that i taped the whole damn thing. it's now my job to edit it and make a cd to send out to everyone, which i am more than happy to do. i think "pompeii: the musical" was my favorite. of course josh and lauren singing "volcano" made my night and "karma police" rocked my face off. josh's music is amazing and i want to hear all his songs. whew. we all ended with "the scientist" and by that time everyone was drunk and having a grand old time. best night at the cafe by far.

anyway...venice!



went to venice this weekend with lauren and stephanie and had a GREAT time. was in a bitchy mood off and on but got over it. san marco sqaure was beautiful, especially at night. they had sting quartets playing all over and we just sat there and listened. fantastic. last night i finally found my canella gelato (cinnamon) but only after i bought a huge tub of some other flavors with lauren at another shop. suffice to say i got my canella while she ate the previously purchased gelato and went crazy off the sugar high and then crashed horribly 20 minutes later. the highlight of the trip was lido beach, an island right off venice. definitely stayed out too long and am now suffering through one of the worst sunburns ever. not tomato red, but it definitely looks like i was spray painted pink. got a ton of more freckles too, so now i need to connect the dots and see if i can make any new shapes.

the night train back was definitely an experience. we didn't have a reservation and just got on (the train was half beds and half regular seats), hoping to get our own cabin and fall asleep. about 30 min into the ride a woman busts through our door and says (in italian) that she has a reservation with 5 other girls. in my sleep-induced haze i kept closing the door on her, but then realized we had to get up and leave. lauren found a cabin with 3 swedish guys in it and we chit chatted for a while. i couldn't sleep and spent the whole night writing in my journal (8 fucking pages). mind you, this is all from midnight to 5 in the am. after getting back into town i crashed and didn't wake up until 10 hours later.

still having trouble buying people stuff. i have no idea what to get my mom. olive oil? yea...maybe. i don't know. i was hoping to find something this weekend but i didn't see anything that caught my eye. i got a pen for cheryl that i know she'll love. it's one of those ghetto ones that you can turn upside down and a little gondola will float from one end to the other. ha. love it. that's in addition to the painting i bought her. i have a feeling i'll be buying her the most stuff because i know she really wishes she could be doing something like this. i feel bad, but i told her i would bring her back here.

this week is the last week and i don't want to think about leaving. i'm glad i didn't sleep on the train last night because i was able to get a really good look at the countryside and the night sky. you wouldn't believe how well you can see the stars out here. it's breathtaking. i've decided that wherever i live in the future i have to be able to see the stars. that means no big city for me-- too much light pollution.

i don't want to go home but then again i do. i'm ready to see my family and friends (which i will be visiting when i get back!), but i'm going to miss this a lot. too much in fact. a return trip is definitely in the cards for me.

so enough talk about leaving. i'm going to enjoy this last week to it's fullest. that means lots of wine, lots of staying up late, and lots of laughing. i think i've laughed more these past few weeks then i have in my entire life. my bladder control has gone down immensely.

the internet cafe guy is reaching the creepy level (he's staring at everyone for far too long), so i'm going to head out and call dad (father's day!).