When it doesn't make sense...you go with the flow

My friend, Nicole, came by this morning for a coffee. She laughed at my "Italian" back water toast making method, ie. put the bread in a pan, and put the pan on the stove, after toasting one side, flip bread over. Who ever thought toasters were a necessary invention? The pan method works just fine and you can "toast" many pieces at the same time.

When I had tried calling Nicole earlier this morning, it came to my attention that my telefonino credit had expired. Therefore, I needed to pay a visit to the WIND store today after my Italian class. As I explained to the man at the store, "c'e una problema." Just yesterday, when I checked my balance, the message on the telefonino indicated that I still had 50 minutes to use prior to Nov. 11th. Today was Nov. 10th, so where did my remaining minutes go? After a little back and forth in Italian/English, we came to the heart of the problem: the text message I received from WIND indicating how many minutes remain and through what date, actually does not correspond with the plan I have; so I am to "disregard the message" and pay attention to the calendar. According to the calendar, my 30 days are up (Oct. had 31 days so in November I finish a day earlier). Both the clerk and I had a real chuckle over this one. He, the Italian, says: "very Italian, eh?" with a shrug of his shoulders indicating that "it makes no sense but what can you do?" At least it makes for a "blog-worthy" story.

But wait. There are two in one day. Later, after dinner, Josh drives Charlotte to swim practice. But he is not just going to drop her off, he has a mission: to get details on each of two upcoming swim meets. Our understanding is that the first is to be held at Aniene on the 29th of November and then, the next one will be in Liguria on December 4, 5 and 6th. He spoke to three individuals -- each of the two coaches as well as the director -- and received three different responses! What is that about? One said it's unlikely the meet on the 29th is happening, and he doubts the club will send a team to Liguria. Another said, yes it looks like Aniene will be hosting the meet on the 29th and they will send a team to Liguria for that meet as well. Now this begged for a third conversation with the director. He said Aniene will host the meet in November but it's doubtful the club in Liguria will host the meet in December. Upon further inquiry (because it always take a lot of inquiry in Italy), he explained that the issue is surrounding the new regulations regarding the types of swimsuits that can be worn. Now that the "Jaked" style polyurethane body suits have been banned, there is a new rule in Italy that any race time achieved prior to January 1st can not be used to qualify that swimmer for the National Championships. Therefore, clubs do not have much incentive to hold meets this year prior to January. But, one might ask, "since the suits are already banned (since September 1st), why wouldn't times made at meets now without the polyurethane suits count?" The response was something to do with a lack of officials able to verify that swimmers were competing in the regulation swimwear. The bottom line: it's a screwy swim year because of all the issues surrounding the banned swimsuits. Oy!

Josh relayed this story to me on our way to Trastevere. Morris had come over tonight so we could get out. So we decided to go for a stroll and see where the evening takes us. It took us to a pizza place for a bit of supli (the fried rice balls), and to a tiny, edgy, draught beer hall. Josh has really been missing quality beer in Italy. Great wines, crappy beers. I am always happy to find the wheat beers from Germany which are generally available, but Josh has an appreciation for the hopsy, microbrews. Well, he found heaven now.