Band of Gypsies

I am a member of a very large tribe of gypsies.  We have some bonafide gypsies in town here.  They generally look like this:

…a stark contrast to the uber style conscious Italian population.

My friends and I are not necessarily shanty town gypsies.  We aren’t even the moving-on-up variety of 16-people-living-in-an-efficiency gypsies.  I don’t have a tin cup, a sign about my poor kids that I’m made to wear in public nor do I have a pimp.  Though, I am hoping to borrow a pimp for the next “dress badly” party.  We are more this type of gypsy:

 Professor Sexy, Me, Debutante, and Girl Crush

We wonder from café to café and shoe store to shoe store.  It’s a tough life.  The true nature of our gypsy lifestyle isn’t our shopping habits, but those related to moving.  Our community has wives numbering in the single digits intensifying just about everything.  While I was in the States this summer getting my Vegas and Redneck on, two of my besties, Professor Sexy and Debutante, moved away.  I could totally go into some sappy girly whine party about how much I care about these awesome girls and what each brought to my life, but instead I would like to focus on what they brought to my house. 

off-cast bathroom products

left over groceries

booze

(no picture available because I drank it all)

the most useless books ever

Come on!  501 Italian verbs?  That is just being greedy.  I have come to find that you can get through two years in Italy knowing seven verbs if you also possess decent charades skills and have no sense of embarrassment. 

The electrical power here is different than in the US so either one needs to buy coordinating appliances or buy and run transformers to use the American versions.  Had I known we would be spending three years in Italy after the nearly three in England, I may have bought some things that weren’t complete pieces of dookie.  As it was, I had a coffee pot I bought off of a lady who was leaving.  It was a really nice looking turd.  Roughly 20% of the water would leak out of the bottom of the machine while the pot was brewing.  Ah, I guess that’s one way to reduce coffee intake, and it only needs to work for another year and a half then I can take it out in a field and go all Office Space on its ass.  It isn’t like they don’t have electronic stores here.  They do and they are fun to go to (I see a future post), but it seems like such a bad value to buy a coffee pot (or vacuum) this close to the end.  So, when Debutante was leaving I pounced on her most amazing, fully functional, RED coffee pot!  I was shameless.  Please come have a cuppa and help me welcome this lovely to my kitchen.

I sort of have a thing for red.  See, I have this super cool red clock hung above the super cool red coffee pot.

I have canisters.

Red teapot, utensil bin, potholders, and menu board…

Oh, and all my cabinets.

I will miss my friends madly, but I will have coffee every morning with Debutante, and not study verbs ever with Professor Sexy.  Right before I ran off to the US, a dear friend, Rah-Rah, returned for a year.  Also, while I was away a new wife arrived.  I’ll meet her tonight as we usher in the buskers festival.  Buskers are street performers and the annual weeklong festival is a celebration of this unique venue and a highlight of Ferrara’s culture.  I imagine the buskers themselves as a band of gypsies.

As fortune would have it, Professor Sexy, Token, and their kiddos are coming through for the weekend.  I am giddy.  I really hope I am able to stash the verb books in PS's luggage ;)

I am a member of a very large tribe of gypsies… and not the band out of LA either.  If you like the latin guitar styles of Carlos Santana, you will fall in easily with Tribe of Gypsies, TOG.  Here is a sample:

 Tribe of Gypsies

Roy Z is pretty amazing, and I doubt he knows more than seven Italian verbs.