Catch up day

It's been a while since I posted, I was feeling like blogging is sort of a self centered thing to do, but then my friend Eric said he actually checked back for new entries, so I thought I should really make an effort to keep it updated. I suppose if I want anyone to read it I should also give out the URL to people!

Quick version of what has been happening:

9 pm the day before closing the house the sale fell through, buyer didn't qualify (the night BEFORE?)

We sit over a week waiting while they scramble to get approved.

My friend Jody who is also my realtor is going to do some fancy footwork to buy the house in her son's name, then resell it.

This doesn't work and she (my dear friend) ends up buying me out of my equity, keeping the house in my name and giving the the majority of the money in cash.

Ok, so after all this, we have money. YES. Monday June 6th I finally fax in our applications to the Univsersity in Perugia and Western Union the money to them.
I start checking online to see if they have picked up the money. In the meantime we actually get our plane reservations. We leave Minneapolis on Friday June 24th, get into Rome in the morning on the 25th. Ok, now this is starting to get a bit exciting, BUT from past experience I know that if I start to enjoy things too much, something will happen.

BINGO. Two days gone by, no pickup of the money by the University. I send an email to them in English. 2 more days go by. I get a reply in Italian that says when they get the money, they will send confirmation. GRR

2 more days go by, now it's Friday, I send another plea in Italian, knowing they won't get the email until Monday. Jess and I end up going to an all night Kinkos to wait for a reply.

Oh, I haven't mention the lack of internet problem. We are now sleeping on air mattresses in the house to save money, so we have no internet access to check up on things, play games on Pogo etc, all those important things a person does online. So we have sort of a system of hitting all the places that have wireless. First we starting the morning with Dunn Brothers coffee, morning being a pretty loose term here. We have been getting to bed about 2 in the morning, and sleeping til 1 or 2 in the afternoon, about 3 we are up and about and go to the coffee shop and check mail to see if I have confirmation etc.
After this we seem to go shop. I have to tell you, I'm not a shopper in the first place, I mean I hate it, but every day there seems to be something that is absolutely essential to our well being in Italy. Converters, special purses so we won't get pickpocketed, new shoes... :-)

I go back and forth on the question of whether or not I should get a new laptop, this one is so old it doesn't even have USB ports, although the port I can hook up to does have them. I decide it will do as I plan to be sitting in Piazzas drinking wine and checking out Italian men, not surfing all the time.

Anyway, after shopping, most of the coffe shops are closed, so we head out to the restaurant Buffalo Wild Wings, where it turns out we are the only ones who have ever used their wirelesss internet. We also find out there is only one spot in the restaurant were you can pick up a signal. We develop a ritual. I head in first, handing my computer to Jess, at the same time asking what she wants, she scopes out the table to see if it is open. If it is, she races to the table telling me over her shoulder what she wants. If she manages to get the table all is well, she plunks down the computers on the table and comes back to change her order to what she really wanted.

Only two times have we not gotten our table, the first was when we decided to go to Kinkos and pay to surf (in my opinion this should be against the law). The other time we tried a different table on the other side of the restaurant. (there are only two places where there are electrical outlets) No go, signal was so bad we went to Kinkos.

The first time at Kinkos we pull all all nighter. This is because when you sign up to pay for internet through T-Mobile, you get a 24 hour free pass. I'll be damned if I am going to pass that up. So from 11:30 pm until 9 am we surf. I'm all business, we need to get a hotel outside of Chicago, by Six Flags so that we can play and then run into Chicago for business. The hotel has to be cheap, close to the gates, accept pets and be available the dates we need.
This is no small feat. It takes probably 4 hours of my going back and forth between many sites that book hotels. It's amazing how there is such a price difference when you book online.

I get the hotel booked. Country Inns in Gurnee, nice place, king sized bed and sofa suite is all that is available. This turns out to be an awesome choice. Room is big and on the top floor, I get the king sized bed, Jess is happy with the sofa. Except for the family next door who let their kids run and scream for hours on end, it's the perfect hotel.

Booking Rome is harder. It's the high season, and you have no idea what the hotels are like. They all describe themselves as the perfect hotel. When you read some of the people's reviews of them, it's a but scary. Even the hotel I decide to boook says the shower is so small you can barely turn around in it. Prices are sky high though there are a fair amount of hotels that take animals. I start looking at sites that have reviews of the hotels. This takes me about 5 hours, but I find a great deal. The Hotel Luxor, small rooms, but clean and near the center of Rome. They accept pets, so I book it for 4 days. Yeah! We have a hotel booked in Rome! I feel like a big shot now. Diana - International Woman of Mystery. Hmm.....

I've been keeping an eye on Jess, who is sitting behind me. She has either been surfing, playing games, reading or trying to sleep with her head on the table. I have to say she's been a real trooper during all this. We've had arguments, but only when we are so totally exhausted we can't see straight anymore. Thank God she is like me and doesn't hold a grudge. The perfect travelling partner.

OK, we have reservations for Chicago and Rome. I still need to book Perugia for the days before we can get into our apartment, but that will have to wait until some other things are settled. I can only do so much at one time or it gets too overwhelming.

I'll continue this update later, Six Flags and that icky guy in the old man's suit is calling me now. :-)