Sweat, Corn and Babies

My last choir rehearsal took place here, in the beautiful countryside outside Bologna.

Though this farmhouse is surrounded by greenery and plants, which naturally make you think of health, the food we ate after our final rehearsal was anything but. Pasta with sausage, various meats and cheeses, and fried bread. But of course only Americans eat fatty foods!

Until the second half of August I'll be in Bologna and I have to brace myself for the heat and the emptiness of the city. People keep encouraging me to take a trip alone, but I don't know if I want to; any suggestions?


On a brighter note, I recently went to visit an ex-coworker, Massimo, to meet his new baby girl. Luckily he was at his vacation house on the seaside, so we were able to combine baby viewing with beach time, watermelon, sunshine . . .

. . . fried and grilled seafood, naptime . . . Basically, a day of relaxation.

I did learn from a removed perspective, however, that having a baby is hard work. New parents cannot relax the way other people (i.e., layabouts such as myself) can. Instead, they have to adhere to an extremely busy schedule of feeding, burping, pooping, bathing, crying, laughing, sleeping, and other such behaviors. Matilde even had her own ideas when it came to posing for photos.

This being said, there's a lot of evidence that it's all worth it - as Massimo explained it, in a single moment a real person with needs and a personality appears in your life. It's pretty amazing to see a friend transformed by parenthood.