September 12, 2019

Late Summer Garden. Rancho Relaxo. September 12, 2019

The end of this summer is here. Today was gorgeous, sunny, 80’s, beautiful, perfecto. I will have to bottle this feeling and take it out when I am tired of the gray, rain in February.

I had some helpers in my garden tonight. Very helpful twins. They were so much fun, they kept telling me that I’d never be able to pick all of the tomatoes by myself. They were totally right.

I have so many lists of so many things that I am doing or want to do. First, I must get back to working out. My PT gave me the go ahead to do all the yoga. I need to trust my body and my back and do it. No more fear.

To do list: Research feminism. The orgasm gap. Consent. Our Bodies, Our Selves. Sex Ed. Fill out information for Planned Parenthood. Contact P:ear. Find venues for Illuminating Family. Journal. Write two pages daily. Work on gratitude journal. Curtain for studio. New pantry. The womanizer. Take my vitamins. Buy bras. Knit. Work out. Yoga. Foster kittens. Go for more walks. Book more feminist conversations. Book feminist photo shoots. Decide what color hair I want. Get new glasses. Get new mouth guard. Make appointment with Jane for Lavi. Wax eyebrows.

Goodnight.

Miss you love you.

Happy birthday, Meghan!!! See you in 3 days!!! Yayyyyyy!!!

Love, Eden

September 11, 2019

If you are old enough to remember 9/11, then you know exactly where you were when you found out about the attack. I know exactly where I was. In bed. Brooklyn apartment. Early morning phone call. I didn’t pick up because I am not a morning person, I let it go to voicemail. Thankfully, she left a message letting me know she was OK. After that, phones were useless, no calls could get through.

My sister Danielle, her boyfriend at the time, and I spent the entire day on the couch together watching the news play the footage over and over and over. It is permanently tattooed on my brain, on all of our brains. Aaron went to work. That seems weird to me now. It seems like a lot of people did not go to work that day. And life has never been the same, since. I wonder if the people responsible feel proud of that. They have left a mark on our world, a mark of terror, hatred, violence, murder. Humans are the worst thing to ever happen to this planet. Our poor planet. Our poor children. Poor everyone and everything. All of the animals, the trees, the air, the bees, the birds, the rivers and oceans. Do you feel like you’ve had enough? Sometimes I feel all I see in a day are images of the Earth dying, our destruction of the Earth. Then I think of Trump and I feel hopeless. Then I fantasize about him dying. And Pence disappearing (also dying?). And Nancy Pelosi is the POTUS! Yay!!! Is this a dream? Is it reality? We can hope. We have to hope!

September 7, 2019

Today was another full day. Full of good, which is good. I had coffee with someone I’ve never met before and it was amazing.

I feel like I’m a slow learner. Or, maybe, I used to take things for granted that I no longer take for granted. I used to think there was an infinite amount of people in the world that I could and would connect with, I am realizing this is not true, at all. I have been in situations where I am surrounded by hundreds of people, but I am desperately lonely. I try so hard to connect, how could it be there is no one there to connect with? But it happens. I need connection, it keeps me juicy and alive. (Juicy is such a gross word). So now, when I connect with someone, I see it for what it is, unique and special. And then I hope I can befriend them, for real. It is so hard to make friends, we are all so busy, it’s hard to have the time to devote to cultivating true, meaningful relationships. I will keep trying. I was a Brownie and a Girl Scout, we always sang the song, “Make new friends, keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold”. I will continue to live that as my theme song.

I bumped into a friend I had not seen in a very long time today - I won’t reveal who it was, yet. Have to tell Meghan, first. It was wonderful to see her, she gave me the biggest hug. I’m feeling the love lately, all around. Keep bringing it, I love the love!

Meghan arrives in one week. I am eager, I can’t wait! Gonna fill up the tank, bitches.

Bedtime on a Saturday night = 10:15 pm. Totally nailing it.

I miss you! I love you!

Love, Eden

September 6, 2019

Three New Things. September 6, 2019

Today was full, y’all. I am finally in bed, it is 10:52 pm. My alarm went off again at 6 am this morning while I was having another crazy dream with Marc Maron in it. This time, we had to quickly leave, or else “they” would get us. It was all very fast and frantic, and also secret. “They” could not find out we were leaving or we would be doomed. Marc was in the driver’s seat of a giant, black SUV, I was sitting next to him in the passenger seat. There were two men that I knew in the back, but now I have no idea who they were. I reached back and one of them held my hand. There was a lot more action, but I can’t remember any of it. Every time my alarm went off, I hit snooze, trying to get back to my dream. But that’s all I remember. I’ve had several dreams with Marc Maron in them. I have a crush on him. Aaron knows. He’s always OK with my crushes. He’s rad.

I had a nice, empty calendar today. I did not make granola like I had hoped. My slivered almonds were missing. I spent lots of time in my studio, which is amazing. I got to FaceTime with Meghan for a long time, that was fabulous. I went for a walk. I emailed. I bought the book The Vagina Bible, by Jen Gunter. I heard about it on Dan Savage’s podcast. I taught yoga. We had dear friends over for dinner. It was a delightful day.

Also, I filled out the first page in my gratitude workbook. Finally. Gratitude is so important, it is also something that scares me. I think it’s that old Jewish superstition that is strong in me. Put-puh-puh. I am trying. I am working on it. Even though it scares the shit out of me. This workbook is a magick workbook. I’m building my witchy life.

Goals: Buy a new copy of Our Bodies, Our Selves. Our family friend, Jean Schlaff, bought me a copy when I was in high school. Jean was an educator, my mom knew her from her teaching days. I believe Jean was the principal of a school my mom taught at in Long Island. I loved this book, it was the first time I read that it was normal for girls to masterbate. Masterbation was never, ever talked about in my house growing up. I didn’t talk about it with anyone. I thought it was something dirty, something to be ashamed of. Our Bodies, Our Selves was the first place that I learned it was normal. Thank you, Jean! Feminism rules!

On that note, if you live in Portland and you have not yet been to She Bop, you must go! It is a women owned sex toy shop, they have two locations, Division and the Mississippi neighborhood. They also have classes. Check them out! They are beautiful stores with lots of fabulous toys, lube, books, so many good things! Also, buy yourself a bottle of lube, you will so so so happy you did. If you don’t know about lube, DM me, I will tell you everything.

I miss you and love you!

Love, Eden

September 5, 2019

Today is the seventh day of school and I am fucking exhausted. Totally wiped out. Getting up at 6 am is bullshit. I’ve tried to become a natural morning person, I do not think this is possible. You either are, or you are not. I am not. Never, ever have been. It is such a struggle for me. 6 am is when I am in a deep sleep, dreaming. This morning I was having a stress dream about a man I had a crush on, but I thought he liked someone else, and I kept trying to find him and I couldn’t find him and there were pizza boxes everywhere. At one point I discovered that he liked me, too. But I couldn’t find him anywhere. Just pizza boxes. And the man wasn’t Aaron, it was someone I’ve never met before. What does this mean? What the hell do the pizza boxes mean? Anyway, my alarm went off for the first time at 6:00, I kept hitting snooze so I could keep looking for this man. Stress dream. Too bad I didn’t find him and have a nice, sexy dream.

I had coffee with a dear friend today. It was lovely and nourishing. I met a new friend yesterday, I interviewed her for my project about feminism. That was amazing, too. Tomorrow I have nothing on the calendar until my beautiful, kick ass yoga student comes over in the afternoon. I plan on doing some yoga in the morning. Having my coffee in the studio. And just chilling in my studio. That is the plan, I will report back. Sometimes, I get distracted by nothing. Laundry. Dishes. Counters. Granola. Stephen Colbert. So dumb, I can piss away time like a champ. Annoying.

Discipline is the key word. Find it. Make it happen. Do it.

It is my bedtime. I hope you sleep well.

I miss you and I love you!

Love, Eden

September 2, 2019

The Dudes. Ruby, Mom, Honey Bird and Turner. September 2, 2109

So much has happened since the last time I wrote. Friday we had the sexy tomatoes for dinner. Homemade pasta sauce from the tomatoes in our garden. Plus garlic bread. GF garlic bread is fucking good. Saturday was our wedding anniversary. We floated down the Sandy with the boys. The initial feeling was elation! Fabulous! Fun! Gorgeous! 4 hours later, still floating, Aaron had a tantrum. Mayim flamed out. Lavi was nearing hypothermia. I lost it and was laughing hysterically at Aaron. It was only our second time ever floating and we are still new to this floating thing. There is no such thing in Florida. If you float, you are food for alligators. So, I’ve been wanting to do this PNW floating thing for years, but have felt hesitant because I just did not know the ins and outs. It seemed as if there were all these things to know and do, that I did not know about because I did not grow up doing it. Our anniversary was the motivation to just do it, we got our tubes and did it. We learned many things on this journey. We learned that you really have to slow your internal speed way, way down. To about 1 mile per hour. That one tiny paddle is not enough. That it’s incredibly hot in the sun. And very cold in the shade. To make sure your swim shirt is in the proper vehicle, not in the car that you leave at the end of the float. To add 2 hours to how long you think the float will last. To make sure the tubes are very well inflated. Many good life lessons were learned. Happy Anniversary to us. We returned home from our float, took some nice, hot showers, then Aaron and I went out for anniversary sushi and ice cream. A lovely time was had. Aaron is the best. Sake is yummy. 50 Licks is delicious. And if know Dan Savage, then you know his advice: fuck first, something we all need to learn and adopt is. This is great advice, because having sex on a full stomach is just not that sexy. (I’ll never tell when and if we listened to Dan’s advice, you will have to live with this mystery).

Then Sunday was a lay around the house pool day. We are soaking up the last days of summer here at Rancho Relaxo.

And today we swam with dogs and friends. (I didn’t swim).

I love and miss you!

Love, Eden

August 29, 2019

It is true. It does not happen all the time, just once in a blue moon. I can’t figure out why she does it. We have two litter boxes. They are clean. Maybe it just feels good to shit in the shower. It’s gross. And rude. Not cool.

WARNING: I AM GOING TO RANT ABOUT MENSTRUATION:

This morning, as you know, I was suffering from a migraine hangover. This is a new piece to my migraine world, the hangover part. I feel totally wiped out the next day. This is also so rude. What a pain. I know my migraines are related to perimenopause. Perimenopause is ridiculous. It is the cherry on top of the insult of being a woman and having to deal with periods. Periods are no fun. I get that it’s beautiful that some women are fortunate because some of us get to have babies in our bellies. But being a woman is hard, people. Menstruation is such a pain. Cramps. Bleeding. Ugh, the bleeding. Tampons are the worst. Pads are THE WORST. Even ovulation is painful for me now. I am so grateful that I am blessed with two amazing kids, but pregnancy is no joke. Zero percent joke. I was so nauseous that for the first and only times in my life, I felt suicidal. With both of my pregnancies. And now, perimenopause is like being teenager again. I have no idea what my cycle will do from month to month. This month I got my period a week early, making it a 20 day cycle. Recently, I had a 12 day cycle. More rudeness. The interesting part is that I am not going to have more pregnancies, but my body doesn’t know that and it keeps on shooting out eggs. Many eggs, I think, considering the amount of stretchy fluid. I think I could have quadruplets some months. And Aaron is A-OK. No bleeding. No monthly migraines, (well, to be fair, he does get migraines once in a blue moon). No ovulation. He’s not even fertile anymore. He got snipped and he is happy as a clam. (Vasectomies are the best. If you have not gotten yours yet, treat your woman like the queen that she is and get your vasectomy ASAP. It is literally the gift that keeps on giving. And if your woman is done with getting pregnant, do her this kindness, this beautiful favor. Worrying about pregnancy for all of our fertile, adult lives is such a pain in the ass. It’s a real turn-off, if you know what I mean).

Everything is OK. It is all OK. Is it Ok to complain?

August 28, 2019

This Is What We Look Like On The First Day Of 8th and 5th Grade. August 28, 2019

Yesterday was blissfully quiet. We swam, just Aaron and I. It was quiet and peaceful and so much pleasure was had by all. First day of school, done! Nailed it. And then I had a shitty, horrible, ridiculous, full of shit migraine. Even my own whispery voice was too loud. The dimmest lights were too bright. Fuck that shit so much. This morning, I had a migraine hangover. They wipe me out and all I can do is zombie around. It was so nice that the boys were in school and I got to sleep and watch Glee, simultaneously.

Happy first day of school, everyone!! Did you enjoy it?

Love you and miss you!!

Love, Eden

August 24, 2019

Twinning. August 24, 2019

Today I felt shitty. I felt bored and antsy. Not motivated, but also so sick of being at home. I didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything, but I was so fucking bored. Bored bored bored. I know there are worse things than feeling bored and antsy at the same time. There are much worse things. And. Today I was not having it. None of it. I feel lonely. My back is still sore and tight and weird. Moko (baby photo) and I are twins, and I didn’t even mean to make the same face. I should have gone to Watermelon Island.

School is starting soon, it’s like the slowest damn band-aid removal ever. The lead-up is so annoying. It’s a good thing that my kids are driving me bananas, so I don’t miss them so much. Today I screamed at them, then stormed off to my bedroom and slammed the door as hard as I could. Fuckers. Fighting and bickering all the damn time. They know exactly how to make me lose my mind and they fuck with me, constantly. (You know I love them, but dammit!).

I am OK. I hope you are OK, too. I am breathing. And doing yoga. I’m reading a dirty novel. Watching Glee.

Sending you love and light in the crazy ass times.

Love and miss you!

Love, Eden

August 20, 2019

The Great Purge. Aka, The Great Moth Infestation. August 20, 2019

I decided to organize and purge the pantry today. We’ve been finding moths since we’ve been back, and today, I discovered their disgusting breeding zone. There was a bag of cornmeal full of moths! And the many stages of the moth cycle. So so so gross. Moko is a great hunter, she’s been helping me for the past week. She loves to hunt for the moths and then she eats them. She was a great helper today, as well, catching the last of them. Did I mention how disgusting this infestation was? I got rid of a lot of bags of many kinds of bulk items. Nasty. Mayim got super grossed out and couldn’t eat his lunch.

All clean now! Fingers crossed.

August 19, 2019

Lavi’s Crazy Teeth. August 19, 2019

About a year ago, we learned that Lavi has some majorly crazy teeth. His bottom canines were growing in towards one another, under the gums, diagonally, wreaking havoc on his 4 bottom teeth. You can see these crazy ass canines in the top x-ray. Going. The. Wrong. Way. After two different orthodontists’ opinions, we learned that our only good option was surgery. In this surgery, Lavi’s bottom gum would be opened, pulled down, and metal brackets would be cemented to the two insane canines, under the gums. Then, the bottom gum would be pulled back up, and it would heal, leaving the brackets underneath the gums. Then, attached to these brackets, you can see they attached chains to each one (second x-ray). The chains are attached to some contraptions, attached to bottom teeth, and once a month we take Lavi to be tortured by the sweetest and kindest orthodontist, (I’m not being sarcastic, he is truly a compassionate person), where he attaches elastic to these contraptions, “activating” the teeth, pulling them slowly up out of the gums. So, today was the day, I got to take Lavi to get his teeth pulled up, millimeter by millimeter.

In the past, Lavi would take ibuprofen and that’s it. When the doctor worked on Lavi, he cried, a lot, and when the doctor “activated” those canines, Lavi would scream. It was the absolute worst. I can’t even. The worst. The next time, we gave Lavi a pill for anxiety to help calm him down, he has so much anxiety about all of this now. Totally understandable. We gave him the pill, but he still cried and screamed. We did this a few times, then we asked for Lavi to be numbed up.

Today, we numbed Lavi up for the first time and once he got through the novocaine shot (that was scary, I told him not to look, but he looked!), he was numb and the appointment was a breeze! Hallelujah!!!

These x-rays were taken 7 months apart. You can see the progress, thank goodness there is progress! The doctor said we might even see the left canine come up this month! Holy shit!!! That will be a day for celebration!! Chinese food for EVERYONE!!!

I will continue to share our progress. I can’t wait for these teeth to be born.

August 18, 2019

I had the pool moment I’ve been waiting for all summer. We were all in the pool and I was floating on Watermelon Island.

I wonder what I would be like if I didn’t grow up in Boca, for so many reason. Most of which I will not get into now. There is a boat load, I still work on in therapy. Believe it. I am realizing more and more how unique it was to grow up with a pool, close to the ocean, near the equator. We spent our entire childhood swimming in our pool, or the pools of friends, or the pools at the club. And the ocean. This has created a tremendous connection for me with being warm, and swimming, and sunshine, and ocean. Which i crave, always. Maybe I didn’t realize this about myself when I moved to Portland, but it is loud inside of me and only getting louder. I dream of living on a tropical island. I love the air and the water and the fish. The wind. The food. Mostly being warm, all the time. And wearing not so many clothes. A dress. A bathing suit. Flip flops. That is it, that’s what I want. I pledge to float on Watermelon Island every single day until October 1st.

Miss you! Love you!

Love, Eden

August 17, 2019

We went blueberry picking today! That’s the good news. The bad news, well, two things. One: blueberry season is over and there were not very many berries left. We were only able to pick 3 pounds of blueberries. Bummer. Two: I brought my camera with me, but I forgot my memory card at home. So no photos of the bummer that was blueberry picking.

Instead, please enjoy this photo of Aaron and Sunflower. If you’ve met Sunny, you probably know that she is very shy. She won’t really let anyone pet her. She has one person and that person is me. I can do anything I want to her, and she lets me. She is the sweetest and snuggliest. She is unbelievably snuggly, I think she’s even more so since we’ve been home from our trip. She purrs always. She also drools a lot. Sometimes, and this is the worst, she’s purring and purring and purring and she’s snuggling and giving so many head butts and so much love and then she shakes her head vigorously and the drool flies everywhere. Sometimes all over my face, which is so gross. I’m always trying to anticipate when this happens so I can hopefully avoid getting hit directly. Aaron is also her person, but I’m her superstar. That’s the way I prefer it.

Also, Aaron and I had a great date night. We tried a new restaurant, which was good. He liked it more than I did. It’s called Short Round - Vietnamese, Korean, Sports Bar. Very interesting. Aaron had a delicious, home made ginger beer. I had delicious sake. We had grilled shrimp, curry, a weird rice, egg, chicken dish. Pretty good. They also have banh mi, which looked really good, Aaron will go back to try that. Then, we walked to Pinolo Gelato. The walk was wonderful. I miss walking so much. In Italy and Greece we walked everywhere. Here, not so much. So, it was a lovely walk. The gelato was delicious, I had peach. We also had espresso. It was fabulous.

Tomorrow is a lounge at the pool day. I feel like I haven’t had enough pool days this summer. And it’s so surprisingly cool here this summer. I love 90’s, bring it. It looks like we’ll be in the 80’s for a while, which I love, as well.

Love you! Miss you!

Love, Eden

August 15, 2019

I really, really, really wanted to go blueberry picking, but we missed the season. We went to this beautiful farm in Hillsboro and picked a little bit of blueberries, but we also picked lots of gorgeous, gigantic, delicious triple crown blackberries. So good! Also, we met our new and wonderful friends there, so that was fantastic! I love summer so so so much.

Love and miss you!

Love, Eden

August 11, 2019

Hello again. I’ve been neglecting my blog. Reentry into “real life” has been a process. As some of you might know, and others may not, our trip home from Athens was OK, totally fine, except that I threw my back out at the airport in Germany, right before I had to get on a 10.5 hour flight home. I literally did nothing out of the ordinary to cause this to happen. To be honest, I was in the bathroom and I threw my back out pulling my pants down so that I could take a shit. So so so ridiculous and stupid!

I knew I did something bad when it happened, but there was no help for it. What I didn’t know was how badly I pulled it. After leaving the bathroom, I learned that fortunately I could still stand, sort of. It was so painful to stand straight up, I had to hunch. I could walk, but it was also so painful. I just had to get myself onto the plane, that was my goal. I had to wait on several lines, I sat when I could. I had to take a shuttle bus onto the tarmac, and I had to climb the mother fucking stairs to get onto the plane. I did the best I could and I cried the entire time. It was all I could do. We finally made it to our seats, sitting was also painful. I took my medicine and slept most of the way home. Thankfully. What a sad way to end our wonderful vacation. The best news is that it happened on the way way and not on the way there, or during our travels. I got myself home with the help of my sweet family and climbed into bed with Sunny and cried a lot more. What a weird adventure.

That is the backstory, I am writing this more than a week later. So, that all happened on August 9th, when we had a double Friday, traveling back in time.

Then, we got the good news that our old neighbor and dear friend Oscar was in town. We got to see him on the day he was heading back to Michigan. The boys had the best time together! We miss you, Oscar!

Love you and I still miss you!

Love, Eden

August 8, 2019

Cats and the Acropolis. Athens, Greece. August 8, 2019

I didn’t post yesterday. Yesterday was long, hot, and boring. We took the train from Lucca to Rome. A taxi from Rome to Ciampino, where the smaller airport is for Ryanair. We woke up at 3:45 am, got a taxi to the airport and arrived in Athens at 8:15 am. It was so early I don’t even remember doing any of that.

I love Athens, so nice to have this bonus day. It’s such a crazy city. Crowded, dirty, chaotic. But so interesting and the people are so nice. We didn’t do much today. Napped. Rested. Lavi and I walked to get some things from the health food store. We walked around the Plaka and then had dinner at a restaurant we found the first time we were here. We sat next to 2 couples from Australia, and talked with them the whole time.

Sad to say good-bye to Athens. Ok saying good-bye to Italy. Ready for the comforts of home, friends, family, our bed, Honey Bird, Moko and Sunny. And time at the pool. So glad it’s still summer!

We make our trek home tomorrow!

Love and miss you!

Love, Eden

August 6, 2019

A Quiet Day in Lucca. August 6, 2019

Aunt Dot came for a visit, making me very tired today. It happens, even on vacation.

Lucca is cool, but I didn’t really get it until this evening when we had a a delicious dinner and a nice walk. Dinner tonight was so much better than most of the meals we’ve had. It was really lovely. Then, after dinner, we did the Lucca stroll. This is a walled city, and the wall is now a very easy, flat, loop that circles Lucca. The boys bitched and moaned the whole time, but the walk was superb! The highlight of our time in Lucca! It’s been very hot here, but after dinner, at around 10:30, it was in the 70’s with a nice breeze.

The airbnb we are staying in is super cool, but I don’t like it. It’s been in the 90’s here, and there is no a/c and no fans. What the what? That’s not the worst of it. The worst of it is that there are smells I don’t like. It’s stuffy in here, the air is stagnant, yuck. Not great. But, the house itself is beautiful. Oh well. This is the first place we’ve stayed this whole trip with no a/c, (except for on the island, where it was breezy and windy the whole time).

Tomorrow starts our journey home. Tomorrow we take a train from Lucca to Rome, about 4 1/2 hours. Spend the night in Rome. We fly back to Athens on Thursday. Athens to home on Friday.

Love you and miss you!

Love, Eden

August 5, 2019

Bad Ass Tower Climb. August 5, 2019

Photo descriptions: Stairs going up the Arnolfo Tower. The View! The Duomo, Giotto’s Tower, Baptistry. Santa Croce Church. The other side of the Arno River, Oltrarno Neighborhood. The Arno River. Underside of the top. More views.

Aaron and I nailed it. We got up early this morning and climbed the tower at the Palazzo Vecchio. It was awesome! The last time we were in Florence, I climbed Giotto’s Tower, which is right next to the Duomo, you can see it in these photos. This year I wanted to climb the Arnolfo Tower. I love getting up high in a city and seeing everything down below. It’s one of my favorite things. The tower is almost 312 feet tall, 418 steps. It was built in 1299 and into the early 14th century. One of the photos has the date 1690 carved into the beam, that is not original, but was added later.

It wasn’t a difficult climb. We got to the top and the walls around me were so high that I could not see a thing! I could only see the sky! Total bummer! But, I did what all short people do, I figured out a way. I climbed on the stupid cement blocks that help up the ropes that kept people from standing on the bench that runs the entire perimeter. I guess that bench gets people too close to the edge. I don’t know if there’s history there, or just paranoia, but you cannot get that close. Aaron helped prop me up and I could see nicely. Of course Aaron, being a all man, could see everything. Also, there was a platform on one side for people to stand on so they could see the Duomo easily.

It was a great climb and a spectacular 360 degree view of the gorgeous city of Florence. A lovely way to say good-bye for now. Fabulous morning, I’m so happy we did it! We left the kids at home, which was also fabulous! They had no interest in doing it, which makes me sad, but they are not sad, so that is that. I have a very strong sense of FOMO, (fear of missing out). It’s the worst! It always makes me wonder what I am missing out on. It also pushes me to do more and more things. It is also very annoying.

A good reminder: just be. Take a nice, deep breath, and just be.

Today was also a travel day. And it was a shitty travel day. The trains were very crowded and very hot. Disgusting. It was a quick trip, so that made it a bit easier. Oh, yes, where are we? We are in Lucca! Another ancient hill town in Tuscany. We arrived hot, cranky, and exhausted. We napped and went out to dinner, so we haven’t seen much yet. Tomorrow is for resting and strolling. Extreme down time before we make the long journey home to Portland. They boys told me tonight they are ready to be home.

Our trip is winding down. I feel deeply grateful that we were able to make it happen. I’m sad it’s almost over, but home is home. Home is love. I know I will be thinking and feeling and sharing more about our trip ending in the next days. Mostly I want to share that I feel grateful for all of the things we’ve seen and experienced, all of the people we’ve met and all of the good food we’ve eaten. So much richness and fullness.

I ordered fish tonight at dinner. BIG mistake!!! It was just like that other fish, with the head, that I can’t even talk about. But if you’ve been following along, you will know what fish I am referencing. I can’t even talk about it.

I miss you and love you!

Love, Eden

August 4, 2019

Our Last Day In Florence. August 4, 2019

Photo descriptions: Michelangelo’s Pieta, the Duomo Museum. A mosaic floor in the Palazzo Vecchio. A candy shop. Drinks by the Duomo. Some street photography featuring Instagram girls. The walk to Osteria de’ Pazzi. Dinner at Pazzi.

Our last day in Florence. I’m sad to leave this lovely city. We’ve seen so many things and we had the best tour ever. The tour really helped me feel connected to not only the city, but also some local people, which feels very fortunate. We tried to get into the Duomo today, but the line was tremendous and we couldn’t hack it. We did go into the Duomo Museum, which was surprisingly great. It was air conditioned, so it was nice and cool. It was not crowded at all. We got to see all of the majorly important pieces of art that used to live inside the Duomo, but have been moved to the museum for better preservation. This is where we saw Michelangelo’s Pieta, which is a beautiful, but very sad piece. It is too touching, it hurts me to see it. But, so beautiful, of course.

Then we did picnic lunch at home again. Aaron got HANGRY, but we all survived. We ate turkey sandwiches and had a rest. I blogged (see today’s earlier post covering yesterday). Our plan for after siesta was to climb the Arnolfo Tower. We arrived at the Palazzo Vecchio. It was hot af. 94 degrees. The Palazzo was not air conditioned. The tower had a 30-45 minute wait. We had dinner reservations for 8:00, so we decided to scrap the tower. The Palazzo was disappointing, I thought it would be more lavish and I thought it would be furnished. I would have loved to see it done up to the 9’s. It was mostly empty rooms with beautiful ceilings. I can only look up at these ceilings so many times before my neck has had enough. I had enough pretty quickly, as soon as we decided to not do the tower, we made our way to that beautiful candy shop. Then we relaxed and had ridiculously priced cold drinks near the Duomo. It was lovely. We had a nice breeze. The people watching was fantastic. The Instagrammers!!! Holy shit! I had to get in on that action. Those girls, holy cow. They spent forever getting their Instagram shot JUST RIGHT. With their LV pocketbooks and puckered lips. Wow.

Can you believe that dog? Perfect car, dog, and sticker.

Dinner was lovely. I wish I was braver and had the clams, but alas, I did not. It’s still so hot here, so happy we have a/c.

I’m going to pack and hit the hay. Aaron and are going to be bad ass tomorrow, get up early and climb that fucking tower!!!

Love you and miss you.

Love, Eden