Assorted Thoughts

So I figured I'd better post before Dan kills me with his mind for lollybloggery. Today and tomorrow are my weekend days and it feels good to not have to go inhale dirt for a few days. Really the greenhouse is ok, mostly, but it's not something you'd want to do forever. Customers can get bitchy and the pay sucks, but my coworkers are pretty cool. They're fun to joke around with when it's slow. Still, I'm glad I've got the new job to look forward to. I start with the Good Samaritans on June 19th, filing and doing computer work. It'll be great experience for me and I'm psyched to start. I never expected to get a summer job working for the type of company I might work for after I graduate. Sociology hasn't failed me after all!

Pics of Colleen are still forthcoming. They're on the comp now, I think I'm just gonna wait a bit so my blog isn't overloaded with pics. Soon I shall scrapbook them and rejoice in the reduced stress of late!

Go out and hug a puppy today.

I finally did it! I posted ALL of my Italy pics! This weekend Colleen came to visit and so we finished taking pics with my last roll of film. BTW, it makes waaaay more sense if you look at them starting at the bottom, because the earlier shots are posted first. Later I'll post my Colleen-y pics but for now I'm kinda tired of posting stuff. That took a friggin long time. I'll also regail you all with my joyous Colleen weekend but for now I'll leave you in anticipation. Suffice to say Colleen has pics too, and she'd BETTER POST THEM OR I'MA COME OVER THERE AND MAKE HER. Other news: I got the job! More later. Now rest.

My Trevy Fountain picture almost turned out! This was well after dark and well into exhaustion, but we had to see this and the Spanish Steps before leaving. So this is the very last night we were there, in the cold rain, holding a soggy pizza box (that's a fun story). But I for sure wouldn't take any of it back if I could.

By far the most hilarious vehicle I saw in Italy. This, friends, is a three-wheeled truck. There's only enough room for one person and it's even funnier when you see some giant Italian man driving around in one of these things. Ian, this one's for you.

This view of Constantine's Arch from inside the Colosseum is much better than that earlier one. Aren't the trees in the background foreign-looking? Well that's cuz they are.

I'm cold and tired and my knee hurts but I want pictures of this!

This used to be a staincase, but now it just looks a bit forlorn since they tore out the marble to build St. Peter's.

It was all mossy and green inside.There used to be a stage in the middle, but now you can see the rooms where they kept all the feral animals and men before they fought to their doom.

Back in Rome for one last day, we took a rainy tour of the inside of the Colosseum. This is the outside of it, tho. Apparently sometimes the Pope talks here, and they hold Christian ceremonies here or something. Hence the cross. My how things have changed!

At the train station in Florence, the cops were riding Segways. Segways, I tell you! The cutting edge of technology strikes again!

This is another shot of the Ponte Vecchio. You can see all the little shops attached to it, overhanging the river. Why don't we have that here?

Mom and I are on the Ponte Vecchio. It means "old bridge", which is relatively accurate, seeing as it was built in the 1300s.

Mom rubs a boar's nose for good luck. Don't ask me, I don't understand the Italians either. We're huge tourists and we just have to do he touristy thing. You know, when in Rome...er, Florence...

They liked things ornate in those days, ok? And they just had way more marble than they knew what to do with. they just don't build 'em like they used to.

Here's the Duomo. It's pretty massive. And old.

Ok, fine, so it's not the REAL David. He lives indoors. But Florence is so proud of him they keep a bunch of replicas laying around, just to show off. That's our tour bus, in the background.

We took a bus tour of Florence, too, and this is what we saw. That giant dome thing is the Duomo. We went inside it and it's giant.

Guess what! It rained in Florence too! But nothing could lessen the coolness of the rooftops of Florence. They're all red and tile-y.

Aaaand suddenly we're in Florence. Trust me, you wouldn't have wanted to see pictures of us from our travelling day. Things got bitchy. Anyway, this is the view from our 16th century hotel room. Tiny streets! Why does it say "stop" in English?

Ok so apparently Mom got the hang of the camera better than I did. So cool.

I don't take no guff from nobody. Even centurions. Centuria? Whatever. Don't mess with me.

At night they turn on all these electric lights in the Colosseum (just like in ancient times!) and it looks really cool. Or, it would have if I'd use the right setting on my camera. But you get the idea.

Constantine the Great built himself an arch using other people's monuments. Today we call that stealing, but in those days they called it art. Ahh, politicians.

This is the monument to Vittorio Emmanuele II. He probably ruled or something. Anyway, you can fit 22 people and a banquet table inside that horse statue. Now that's what I call monumental.

Neptune isn't actually stabbing me in the head in Piazza Navona. Look I'm not wearing a jacket!!!!

Piazza Navona is famous. It has an obelisk and fountains! Alas, we didn't get to spend much time here either.

Ok, one more. It's just that cool, and we only got to spend about half an hour here.

The Pantheon was originally supposed the be dedicated to all the Roman gods, but now it's a Christian church. So there are statues of Roman gods all over the place. Don't ask me to explain the logic in that.

When it rains (which it did), it just falls right through the ceiling of the Pantheon because they stuck a big ol' hole in the middle of the dome. It's a pretty cool architectural feat, but not the most practical one.

Here we have the obelisk in front of the Pantheon. It was so weird, you walk through a bunch of narrow, twisty streets and all of a sudden there are giant monuments in front of you. And look, a day with sunshine!

THE PANTHEON IS HUGE! How the hell did they have the technology to build this in 27 BC? Lori is baffled.

Uggggh. This week has been a bit nightmarish. I only have my work schedule up to Wednesday, which is a major inconvenience because Colleen is coming this weekend to stay with me (from Thursday to Tuesday, if anyone wants a visit) and I can't plan anything with her because I don't have my fucking hours yet. Also, out of nowhere the Good Samaritans society has been calling me about job applications I submitted like 2 months ago and had given up on. Trying to schedule interviews is insane; I'm at work all day and they can't reach me, and when I call them all I get is voicemail. Not helpful. I can't even get ahold of them long enough to ask when the job starts, which obviously is a problem because I already have a job for now and I'd have to give the greenhouse notice and it's monstrously busy because all the elderly need to shop for plants RIGHT NOW. Then another business has been emailing me all over the place because they saw my resume online and apparently they liked it. Who knew? But I also can't reach them and they can't reach me and I don't even know where they're located. The website for the Edmonton transit system is a joke, btw. All the maps are too small to read and unless you know specific stop numbers you're boned.

Ok. Deep breaths. I need my sanity for work tonight. If you're not as stressed as me wish me luck in my endeavours. If you are, wow, it sucks to be you.

Castel Sant'Angelo! We didn't actually go in here but we saw the outside. I can't exactly remember what it was, but it kind of looks like a prison to me. In the foreground is the Tevere (Tiber) River and a bridge (duh).

Rome is really, really old. This wall here used to go around it, but now it mostly goes through it. This was one of the first things I saw in Rome, tho this shot was from our bus tour on the third day.

I think this is the Piazza Barberini, one of the sights from our bus tour of Rome It was raining, can you tell? Nice fountain, tho.

This was our view from the Poorly Translated Cafe's window. It's good to know where you can get condoms in Rome, don't you think? The store next to it was a bit on the S & M side. Oh, how we laughed. "Intimo," indeed.

Another sign from the Poorly Translated Cafe, from the washroom. It reads: "Please the Sirs guest redeam cleaned does the stop at the tub in the self-respect. Thank you." Apparently that's English. Who knew?

One day we stopped for lunch at a small, incomprehensible restaurant. Here is there menu. It says, "To the inside variety show of sandwinch and pizza to the cut." I love Italians.

Our hotel was in a semi-sketchy part of town. Note the sketchy types, sketching about. This is the window I was looking out of when some random guy called out to me in Italian. Sketchy? Very. But it was still a nice room anyway.

The Swiss Guard have HILARIOUS costumes. I mean uniforms. I think they plan to protect the pope by inducing fits of laughter in any would-be assassins. Hi, Mom!

Welcome to the largest Christian church in the world, although you really can't tell from this shot. We also did St. Peter's square in art history. They're trying to fool you; it's a circle. The Sistine Chapel is one of the buildings in the background, with the triangular roof. (Note: apparently they don't actually "chapel it up" in there.)

This is inside the Vatican Museums. The ceilings are all painted; that's not sculpture. Insane, hey? Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures inside the Sistine Chapel, boo. And most of the rest from the Vatican Museums didn't turn out because we weren't allowed to use flash photography.

Mom is ecstatic to be in line in the rain for the Musei Vaticani! Haha actually this was a test shot. But I love it anyway.

This was about the only day we really had any sunshine, which makes this picture even cooler because I took it just before the clouds moved. I went a little overboard with Colosseum pics so I'll just post the best ones here.

This shot is really cool because you can see the Colosseum in the distance, and I think that's Constantine's basilica on the right there. Yay for things I've studied in art history!

Augustus probably wasn't really this tall in real life.

Trajan's Column near the ancient forums (fora?). I studied this in Classics! Some emperor named Trajan thot it would be a good idea to make a giant column depicting all his achievements. Too bad you can't see anything above the first few levels. Silly Trajan!

Day 1: Mom and I enjoy cappucino in an English pub in Rome. A very nice couple took our picture for us. We felt like the biggest tourists ever.

Well it's official. I have no marketable skillz in the real world. Yesterday I received two calls telling me I didn't get either job, which really sucks because I thought I nailed the second interview. I'm kinda really freaking out because I don't know what I could have done differently that would have changed the outcome. I guess I'm just not cut out for these kinds of jobs. I've heard it's hard to get jobs with the county, tho, which helps a bit. So I'm going to call the greenhouse today or tomorrow. Something about this feels so incredibly wrong, like I'm going to be miserable all summer, but I really don't know what else to do anymore. I'm sure tired of rejection phone calls tho. At least they seem to like me at the greenhouse .