Escape Artist

So the other day I woke up late with the boyfriend, Giuseppe. We both had a day off of work. We got up, opened the windows, made breakfast, and basically did nothing for the following two hours. Daphne was wandering in and out of the house, as she usually does.

I never let Daphne out when I am not home. there are too many tourists and stupid kids in a country that does not treat animals very well. When I am home I let her out a bit and try to keep an eye on her-- she tends not to stray too far from our "calle". In the year and two months that I have had her, she has "escaped" a couple of times-- once into the garden of my neighbor and other times into nearby buildings. I have always found her after an hour or so.

So after Giuseppe and I decided that we wanted to spend our afternoon in Padova, we got dressed and he went out to get Daphne so that we could close the house. He looked in her usual places--mostly being my neighbors' windows, but she was not to be found. Okay, not totally unusual. We started going up and down the nearby streets, looking in corners and on window sills. Still no cat. We went to all the surrounding squares. We asked the shop owners and little old women who all know Daphne. Nothing. One old crazy lady said she saw Daphne an hour before, but who knew....

So Gius and I are both fire signs (I'll get into the whole astrological thing later) but we tend to exaggerate, worry, and generally be dramatic. We came home, knowing that Daph tends to return on her own. We prepared a pasta al pomodoro half-heartedly, thinking about all the tourists and stupid teenage boys and the possible "guai". After three hours, still no Daphne. Out we went again, doing the same rounds, this time knocking on all of the "portoni", the big entrance doors to the buildings, hoping that she had gone in one and not been able to come back out. We listened for her meow. Nothing.

We came home and started making "Lost Cat" signs on the computer, choosing which photos to use. After about 15 minutes, Gius, not able to sit still, went out again to look. Soon after he called me from his cell.
"Come to the restaurant storeroom! I can hear her meowing!"

Sure enough, she had been locked into a nearby restaurant's dark, dank storeroom. They had closed it after lunchtime, and it was now almost 6 o' clock. Luckily, 15 minutes later the owner came back to open up for dinner... and Daphne came home.

Yey! Comments!

This is very exciting! I had my first comments on my blog yesterday! Someone actually read it! Thanks to the both of you for your encouragement!

Entering the blogging world is very exciting. I have been making the rounds through many different blogs, most of them having to do with expats in Italy. It is so amazing to see what people are doing in this country. And their blogs!!! Some people have gone all out and I am impressed to say the least! Pictures, links, stores, feeds, conventions, everything! I never knew!

I have been living in Italy for 5 years now. My first year I was in Padua, and the other four I have been in Venice. I never moved here thinking that I would live here forever, and I still don't know for sure. One thing happens after another, and before you know it, your life is in Italy and the idea of leaving it to move home would be the equivalent of losing a leg in some senses. It becomes a part of you as I think any foreign home would. I know that in America I will always have my hometown, my family, my culture, and my language. I will never feel out of place. I have lived in Italy for 5 years and I still feel like the USA is home, but I reckon that if I leave Italy, I would not have those same ties of family, language, and culture that connect me.

I have lived here pretty independently. I was 22 when I moved here and I found my first job out of the yellow pages and was very lucky that it worked out marvelously. I found a room in an apartment with some students, and made some friends. A year later I moved to Venice to do a Masters Degree and have been here ever since.... I will try to fill in the history as I go along!

The photo is of my cat, Daphne. I speak to her in Italian, with the occasional word in Venetian. She likes to sit in other people's windows, behind the bars, where I cannot reach her. She is a teenager by cat standards, so I attribute this behaviour to the fact that she is in her rebellious adolescent phase.....

Thanks again for visiting!