When tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you, then post the rules before your list, and list eight random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to eight other people.
But first, a photo:
So, eight things about me:
1. I am a second-generation Italian-American hillbilly. All my relatives came from the same town on the top of a mountain in Southern Italy, and had been there since Roman times. I have purer blood than the crowned heads of Europe, or, to put it another way, "I'm the product of inbreeding, what's your excuse?" My face has turned up at least twice before: once during the Roman Empire (a bust from Pompeii), and again during the Golden Age of Naples, 17th century (a painting).
2. I studied in Rome for a semester at Loyola University's Rome Center. By the end of the semester, I was fluent in Italian, and was even dreaming in Italian. (Sadly, my language skills have since gotten very rusty.)
3. I am an elected official serving on the Board of a public body. Hence my need to retain some anonymity, as I don't want to get my entity in trouble when I criticize things about the community in which I live.
4. I have a talent for painting faux-finishes, including marbleizing and rag-rolling. I did the walls at a coffeehouse in Chicago's Roger's Park neighborhood, but that was 15 years ago, and it has probably been remodeled since. My current "commission" is to help my dad paint clouds on his Great Room ceiling.
5. I hate to cook, but I don't mind baking. My secret recipe chocolate chip cookies won a blue ribbon at the county fair when I was 13.
6. I grew up in a small town on the Fox River and am the youngest of five children. (It was like that Madness song "There's always something happening and it's usually quite loud.")
7. If I could live anywhere in the world (won the Lottery, kids are grown and moved away), my husband and I would live in the Italian Lake District, preferably on Lake Como. If you aren't familiar with that area, watch Star Wars Episode 2 (the wedding scene was filmed at a villa there).
8. My secret ambition is to be a supernumerary at the Lyric Opera in Chicago.
Gina at My Skinny Garden, Healing Magic Hands, Kim at Blackswamp Girl, Layanee at Ledge and Gardens, Pam at Digging - An Austin Gardener's Diary, Robin at Robin's Nesting Place, and Shady Gardener at Does Everything Grow Better in My Neighbor's Yard?, you're It!
15 comments:
How wonderful to better know you. Thanks so much for playing along with this meme.
It is funny that you don't like to cook and you are Italian. I always think of Italians as great cooks.
I like to cook but leave the baking to my Sister and DB.
I would actually go to an opera if you were part of it in any way. :)
So, Lisa got you too, eh? ;-) I'm glad to get to know you a bit better. Lake Como is something that I understand completely, the area is so beautiful, who wouldn't want to live there?
Two things I don't get -where does the "hillbilly " part come in and how come you're Italian and don't like to cook ? Somethings not right about that ! Living in the Lake Como area is something everyone gets.
Thanks for sharing things we didn't know before about you.
My daughter, who calls herself a Korean hillbilly, studied Italian for 4 years and is still pretty good at it. My sister's hubby was born in Naples and came to America at a very early age and still spoke Italian fluently when he grew up. It's a beautiful country and people.
Lisa - I never said I wasn't a good cook, just that I don't like to do it. I keep getting burned (I still have scars from my homemade Saganaki) & I have trouble coordinating everything. Thanks for tagging me!
Yolanda Elisabet - I think the Lake Como area has a special attraction for those of us from flatlands, such as the Netherlands & most of Illinois.
Carolyn Gail - the "hillbilly" is my rough English translation of "cafone," which means a peasant farmer, sort of an Italian Redneck. My ancestral home town is a little farming village with goats wandering the streets. I'm glad you appreciate Italy & it's people. It's the kind of place that people either love or hate.
Thanks for meme-ing me. :-) Looks like/sounds like mememememe! ha.
It was fun. More than that, it was an interesting exercise in deciding what and how to write, what to include and not, and (maybe because it's near Thanksgiving) having the opportunity to reflect gratefully as well.
Nice to know you better, too. My husband was born and raised in Oak Park. Now we're in SE Iowa. He enjoys his few acres that he's developing into prairie, wildlife habitat, using a bit of woodland management. I always feel as though I continue to use the "nesting instinct" in and around our house. ;-)
Oh, I was going to mention that my husband's best h.s. friend is Italian (or 1/2). He once married a lovely Italian young woman who really Was a good cook (and enjoyed it!). She served a mean "White Lasagna" with a red sauce, in which the meat had been cooked. Love to get that recipe some day!
Happy Thanksgiving!
I enjoyed getting to know you better through the meme.
Thank you for your interest in getting to know me better too. My parents have been here visiting all week and just left out this morning. Hopefully, I'll be able to come up with eight things and get mine posted today.
Shady Gardener - I'm glad you enjoyed it; I enjoyed reading yours.
Robin - I look forward to reading yours.
...and you have a terrific sense of humour, too! I'm glad you played the mememe game, because it's nice to get a look at our blogging friends' 'roots'.
Jodi- I'm glad someone appreciates my sense of humor, thanks!
I love reading these "get to know you" meme posts! And I don't blame you for wanting to live near Lake Como. I was there in 1974 and to this day I remember the dreamy way I felt, sitting in a cafe on the square eating minestrone and Italian sorbet, looking out over the lake. Ahh......
Kylee - Your remisiscence about eating in an outdoor cafe by Lake Como reminded me of the weirdest pizza ever - I'll never forget it. I had it at a little cafe (with outdoor seating) in Varenna, on Lake Como. It was a clam pizza with the clams still in the shells!
And just how did you manage to eat that pizza with the clam shells and do it gracefully?? Very unusual indeed!
I remember having to cover our soup bowls every time someone walked by, because the pigeons would take off and the feathers would fly. LOL.
Kylee - it was definitely a fork-and-spoon undertaking. At least I didn't have to deal with pigeons!
I thought I had escaped this round of meme madness!!! lol. Well, I'm not as interesting as you are, but I'll do my best to come up with 8 interesting things about me.
That has to be interesting, to have such a classical beauty that you have seen "your" face in old artwork and artifacts. Was it strange to see that bust and painting for the first time?
How could you think we'd leave you out? (You're probably more interesting than I am.) "Classical beauty" means that to achieve contemporary beauty, I'd have to have extensive rhinoplasty. Seeing my face in artwork was kind of eerie. Both those pieces were at separate exhibitions at the Art Instutite in Chicago. The odd thing is that in the Art Institute's permanent collection is a bust that, if my husband pushes down on the end of his nose, looks exactly like him! And he's a mutt.
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