I woke up and found myself in Italy...

When my alarm went off at 0500 I was going to scream, but when I realized I had less than an hour to be out the door to wait for the shuttle I didn't have that choice. After another rough night (thanks for all the facebook comments by the way) a quick chug of coffee propelled me out the door.

In the cool yet semi muggy morning, as the sun was just making its daily appearance I realized that I was actually awake. On the bus ride to base we passed strawberry fields which instantly transported me back to Davis Road and if that wasn't a happy enough moment for me we then passed the sign that made my entire day. On the side of a building I kid you not, it said "O.G Follow Me" with a picture of a horse next to it. {Side note time just so I can catch everyone up to speed. I'm called SB for Sea Biscuit by 2 of my friends- OG and GWB. There is more of a story behind it but basically at one point of my life when we were running together I'd go sprinting off like I was at the Kentucky Derby...some how post ACL surgery this name still stuck. Anyway, you're now caught up.} So the significance of seeing OG with a horse was probably just something that OG, GWB and I can relate to but trust me...it made my day.

Work was anything but....however I'm happy to report that my badge worked all but one time when trying to get to my office. And I was the first one there! It's always fabulous to be the first one there when you rely on everyone else to tell you what to do and you have no computer access, but you know, there are always DTS manuals to skim and coffee to consume. After a command picture & meeting with HR the sky basically opened and dumped all the possible water it could and even threw some lightning and thunder in for theatrics. I of course reported this back to my dungeon...er office since they were clueless about the weather change.

The highlight of "work" today was meeting with the big boss...who really isn't a boss but as a Navy Captain we're there to support him and he's a nice guy so it won't be that tough to do. At any rate, as we swapped stories and the inevitable "are you married?" question was asked I told him no. What was cool about this guy though was he actually told me about 2 other single girls around my age in the same group that I should link up with and one slightly older Italian speaking lady also in our group. I may be getting some friends before too long...assuming they aren't always TDY. And the best part??? I don't have to use 3948320947320 codes to go see them since we're in the same office space!

Okay, that's the boring stuff of the day, so if you made it this far- congrats! Now let me tell you about the Italy I actually saw today:

Today kicked off my housing search. I met up with Roberto, your stereotypical Italian male probably in his late 30s that works for the housing office. He's lived in the Naples area his entire life (with his parents for most of it until he was married) and he is looking to buy a house eventually in one of the communities before too long. We drove off to Pozzuoli to look at 2 places- one apartment and one single unit. First off, the views at both places were amazing from the hill, well volcano they were on. Seriously, check out that link and that view of the ocean and islands could be from my living room/front yard. The city has a Roman amphitheater used for concerts in the summer that was pretty amazing looking even now. The trash in the streets (freshly moved by all the rain rushing down the hills) didn't really sell the location...but I was assured that with the newly elected mayor of Naples change should happen soon.

It's not until you're actually here and looking at these places do you believe what you've been told about places: no closets, lots of doors, heaters in every room, more bathrooms than bedrooms. So some of these things are strange, but I'm telling you the tiles and colors are so beautiful! The first apartment I looked at was all blue and white in the living room and kitchen. The rooms (3) we a tad on the small side, even for the little furniture I have, but I was almost willing to over look that with the view! The second place, was also a 3 bedroom place on a vineyard property with 3 other houses and the landlords. Super safe...like 3 if not 4 gates to get to it, protected in the back corner on this hill and far enough away from the sulfur smell...but it had been built at an angle so the hall way almost made me sick when walking through it. Also, the master bedroom was more of a triangle than a square....just odd if you ask me!

After only feeling like I was going to die 3 times on the road....we made it back. After a fabulous workout in the gym (sporting my hot pink top in a sea of black) I was an ATP burning machine and ready for my first legit meal out with my coworkers and some of their kids at 7pm. When we got there we were the only ones there! Dinner really does start late and that's crazy since our meal seriously lasted 3 hours.

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of dinning in Italy, let me share with you just how it worked:

We showed up, were seated and bottles of wine and water were delivered to us with basket of bread. Yum-o...No carb left behind right? While we were still working through introductions the table was filled with plates and trays signaling the kick off of our epic meal with glazed carrots, sliced zuchinni with garlic, proscuitto, eggplant parmesan, something fried with tomatoes and potatoes in it, something starch and fried, beans, mushrooms...and that's just what I remember! Apparently since we were Americans they brought all these dishes out at once, but typically they only bring one out at a time. That could easily add 2 hours to the meal. My plate looked like it either came from a potluck or belonged to a judge from a tasting competition. I think I liked just about everything...but the eggplant parmesan was the clear winner of this course. What can I say, I love my veggies!

Once we did a fair amount of damage to those plates, in over an hours time span I was pretty full. It's amazing how eating slow really does fill you up & when you have to taste everything that's a lot of food- did you not just read the list? ...but we were just getting started!

Plates were cleared and I think that's when the pasta showed up. The first one was a shell filled with yummy goodness (I think it was a cheesy/meaty mixture) smothered in red sauce...squisito! The other pasta was linguine al funghi  (mushrooms and cream) but yeah, not so much a fan....next course please!

Um, I think at this point a green salad was brought out.
Yep. Salad.
Next! Er, I mean prossimo...well I think that still works in this case but maybe something is lost in translation....

Dishes cleared and more wine delivered.

My coworkers' sons got excited for this next round- it was time for steak, pork, sausage, and cubed/fried potatoes. By this time I was crying out for my bed, but my coworker's little girl (age 6) was so entertaining. She goes to an Italian school and I asked her if she'd be my language coach. In between giggles and bites of pasta she was my entertainment so I stayed awake. Also, since it was well after 9 at this time, a few other tables were filling up around us. I totally understand why everything shuts down in the afternoon for naps now!

After another clearing of the table a tray of chocolate cones and a bottle of limoncello to finish the meal...or so we thought. After our toast good bye to the interim director and the welcome to both me and the new director another plate was placed in front of us. It looked like gelato, but turned out to be a cream puff like pastry with filling and covered in a berry frosting (that was the prettiest blu ever).

Seriously at this point, around 10pm after a long day and not so much sleep the night before, I was contemplating what my reaction would be if another course appeared. Seriously. What would you do!?!? I mean we had 10339843 items prior so why not have more than one dessert? Actually that would sum up just about all the recent dinner parties I attended before leaving California :)

My prayers were answer though and the meal was over. Talk about an experience! I'm still not completely sold on Italian food, however I think I'll be able to find some dishes I like for the time being and then branch out.

Woohoo, you made it to the end of the post. Thanks for waiting the extra day... I tried to get through it yesterday but the food coma was too severe!