All roads lead to Rome. Or Naples. Or...

Ever since we went to Italy in 2007, it has haunted me.  I'm frequently reminiscing in my mind (or with my travel pals).  Then, I happened to catch our game show episode on tv the other night.  It's so fun to watch it.  I still get nervous before I say the dumb stuff (surprised at "pod cross" every time I hear it) and still feel breathless at the winning moment.  What a ride that whole experience was.  I had many thoughts after watching the episode this time:  1)  whatever happened to host Dylan once they stopped making original episodes and does he still live in Astoria?; 2) golly, I look young;  3) golly, I look thin;  4) golly, I look nervous;  5)  golly, my teammates must have paintings in their attics because they look just as young and beautiful today as they did that day four years ago...

When we were talking on the show about wanting to go to Italy, it reminded me of the months that we had between the game show and our actual trip.  The sense of anticipation for those months and all the planning and plotting was so fun.  We all had a common purpose and could make time for each other for our common goal.  It was just so great to have that much to look forward to.  I need something that big to look forward to again.  I mean, I am looking forward to trying to get home to watch my nephew play basketball in the fall, but that will have to be a short trip, considering I used up all my vacation for my surgical adventures.  Not that I'm bitter or anything.  :)  I mean a BIG something to look forward to.  It will probably help me stop feeling vaguely sorry for myself all the time and it will certainly help me stop looking in the mirror all the time (wait, is the right one sagging even more today??).  Maybe it's time to start an account for a big European adventure in 2014 for my 50th birthday.  But that's so far away.  I want to look forward to something big NOW.  (Imagine following sentence set to the tune of a song from Sweet Charity) There's gotta be something bigger than this...

Oh, and to keep the Italian theme going, this morning I watched an episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations.  It was in Naples.  Sigh.  There just has to be another trip to Naples in my future.  Just watching his show brought back so many wonderful memories.  The pizza alone was enough to start me trying to figure out how a trip is ever going to happen.  He ate the pizza with a fork!  Just like we did!  He also drove down to the Amalfi coast, so then I started daydreaming about pasta alla vongole in Positano.  The show even made anchovies look good!  Bourdain can be quite a food snob, but he's also funny (laughed out loud at his diatribe on Jeremy Piven) and he finds great local people to interview.  I totally want to eat at the restaurants he chose in Cetara, and clearly I need to find a family to take me in for Sunday supper.  That mamma was awesome!!  And wedding crashing never looked more fun.

Maybe I should take a class in something, like photography or Italian cooking, or learn to speak Italian.  That might help put the happy karma about a trip into the universe.  And would give me something to look forward to before the BIG something gets here...

Enjoy photos of the game show experience, along with a pizza from Napoli, for good measure...