| November 15, 2003 - Fantabulous news! |
| Dear Friends, I have fantabulous news! As you know, I was expecting a visit from my friends from Germany. I can't remember what I've called them on other pages, so for this entry I'm calling them Mannfred and Gertrude. Anyway, they came and we had a great, great time. We walked all over hell's half acre and I can tell you the fronts of my legs were killing me on Sunday morning. So one day when we were out and about, Mannfred, Gertrude, my friend A., who's going with me to Germany over Thanksgiving, and I were talking about what we should do on our wild Teutonic adventure. You'll recall that I had talked about going to Stuttgart for the Christmas market. Mannfred said we could do that, but since it's only two hours away from where they live, that's easily a day trip. What, oh what, then should we do for Thanksgiving weekend? Well, my dears, Mannfred proposed a trip to Rome! Yes, Rome, The Eternal City, or as we say in Latin "Urbs Aeterna". Ryanair, a British airline, has cheap-o flights to various European destinations and one of them is Rome. The flight is only 50 Euros roundtrip, so that's about $48! Isn't that just bootilicious? I think they're cheap because they fly at unusual times and use small suburban airports rather than large ones. So we have to leave my friends' house at 4:00 a.m. in order to get to Frankfurt-Hahn in time for the flight. Now perhaps I'm being premature in letting you all know about this, because I haven't yet heard from Mannfred that he's booked the flights. But I'm just so excited, I couldn't keep it secret. In fact, I wrote to my friend SARRRAHJANE to tell her and she wrote back asking if I was planning on riding a Vespa all over Rome with a scarf trailing behind me. Well the Vespa part sounds OK, but I'm not certain about the scarf; I don't want to become another Isadora Duncan! So I wrote back to her and told her I was actually planning on re-enacting that "I Love Lucy" episode where she stomps grapes and gets into a big fight with a buxom Italian matron. Wouldn't that be a hoot in a handbasket? Maybe while I'm there I can learn some of those fantabulous Italian hand gestures that mean things like "Bite me" and "Your mama"! I could then come back to the Big City and stand around waving my hands at people and they'd be clueless! But with my luck an Italian would probably happen to be there and I'd end up starting the Great Italo-American War of Gesticulations. I must admit, Dear Friends, it's just so fun being me. I was even on TV the other day. ABC had come to Ye Olde Watering Hole regarding some matter or other and they interviewed two people. I was not one of those people, but apparently I was caught on camera enjoying a frothy libation. Someone at work mentioned that they had seen me on TV; I hadn't even realized the camera was directed at me or I would have panned for my adoring public! Anyway, one of the people being interviewed told me just last night that his brother saw the broadcast and was remarking about the people caught on camera. Guess what he said about me..... He said, "I saw your friend JOHNNYLEEN and I can tell he's got money! The way he was dressed, mmm hmm, you know he does!" I thought that was pretty funny, because I was dressed for work, no differently than anyone else I work with has to dress. But because most of the people at Ye Olde Watering Hole don't have to wear a tie for work, I think it gives them the wrong impression of my financial status. Also, when I go out in non-work clothes, I'm always clean-shaven and everything is ironed. The reason for that is you never know who you might meet who'll give you that big break in life. When Miss Golden Opportunity knocks, she won't catch me in a sweatshirt with holes in it! But let the patrons of Ye Olde Watering Hole think what they will; it only adds to the mystique of JOHNNYLEEN! Next entry Previous entry Go to diary entries Go back home |