The Last Supper

Every day this week I've woken up with a knot in my stomach. I haven't slept well because my brain is buzzing with logistics and all the things we need to do to move out from our villa. Of course, all the issues we've had with our landlady have not made it any easier.

This morning, Charlotte was able to sleep-in since there was no morning practice. But Olivia and Avery got up, reluctantly, and got ready for camp. Josh went for a bike ride to try his leg out without the hardware in it; I packed. When Josh came home, I drove him and Charlotte to the Galleria Borghese. This was another thing that I felt Charlotte couldn't leave Rome without seeing, and so I made a reservation for her and her dad to visit today. After I dropped them off, I took myself to the gym -- one last visit to AquAniene, the pristine gym, and the wonderful, relaxing sauna. Then, I sat outside and ordered a salad in the outdoor cafe'. Josh was scheduled to meet Luca, Charlotte's coach, for lunch, and I thought I might see them. But, just as I was leaving, Josh arrived by bike. Later, Josh would report about his meeting. Luca is interested in creating an exchange whereby he could learn techniques from swim coaches in the States, and coaches from the U.S. could come to Aniene -- the best team in Italy -- to get the Italian perspective. Josh had offered to help but it seems Luca is just at the beginning stages of organizing himself. At the same time, Josh found out a few things we didn't know ... such as the fact that Christian, the head coach, qualified for the Athens Olympics in the 1500 meter stile, but then broke his arm playing soccer four weeks before The Games. And, that Charlotte has much potential to be a great swimmer, but she doesn't work hard at practice. Luca said she swims very well in the meets considering the effort she puts forth in workouts. Hmmm. I kind of thought that her times hadn't dropped that much considering the amount of time she'd spent in the pool training this year. Well, that explains alot. But, in the end, it's up to her.

I went home to put together some lunch for Charlotte before she had to go to swim practice. When Josh came home from lunch to drive her over, he took the opportunity to take photos of her with all her coaches. I went to the market. We had invited friends for dinner tonight and Morris was going to cook his delicious chicken curry for us one last time. After buying all the provisions, I had a little more time to pack and organize before going to pick up the kids in the Villa Borghese. Just as I was leaving, our real estate agent came by to have Josh sign the contract extension. What an unnecessarily contentious and difficult road this has been -- but we ended up exactly where we wanted; in the house until July 4th at 1pm.

Kiki and Steve came over for dinner. Morris cooked up a storm. Not only did we have the chicken curry, and curried vegetables and rice, but he also made curried chick peas and rieta (the yogurt and cucumber sauce) that goes so well with the curry, especially in summer. It was still very hot out when our guests arrived at 8pm, but an hour or so later it was very pleasant. We had a wonderful "last supper" in our garden, with good food, good friends and good wine!