New Way of Life

January 28, 2006

I am finally able to admit that the journal/blog has become a way of life for me.  I loved writing it in Rome and have missed writing at home.  So, I have once again taken up computer and Word to continue my personal journey through my life.  It probably won’t be as exciting as Rome or as challenging, but maybe I can make some of it fun and interesting.

Our day to day life here has been a lot of catching up on friends, business, my passion at CCA and golf and exercise.  Unlike Rome, I have immediately upon returning begun to have the weight battle that has plagued my entire life.  How can you not gain any weight on Pizza and Pasta and then suddenly feel like you are a whale.  It must be the water. We haven’t been home much for dinner, but our friends have played host with a vengeance.   Our pals, Sandy and Kent Larson, hosted us for a dinner last week that was so good that it reminded me of the best of Italy.  Creamy polenta with little lamb chops and wonderful company.  The wine here is bolder than in Italy and the Larsons are wonderful hosts.  They’re off to India for three weeks.  Not to make anybody competitive, but last night’s food at Steve and Martha’s with a fabulous Beef Bourgione was fabulous along with great friends equal to the task of eating and socializing.  This is not a food column but sometimes people really outdo themselves.  Kimberly’s sister and brother in law entertained our family when we first got home with another fine meal of lamb and a wonderful soup.  Not a bad way to come home - just makes it easy to eat too much. 

It is surprisingly easy to check back into life in San Francisco/Sonoma.  My routines have a level of comfort to them and I know the language.  There are some interesting things going on at CCA that I will journal as they happen.  What an exciting place.  Our new Chairperson Ann Hatch is settled in the job and not only enjoying it but doing it well.  As much as I miss the action, it feels good to let go of the work. I am having lunch with the redoubtable President Michael Roth next week and will soon be up to speed.  There is lots to do at my work and the challenge is to find enough time to be the “retired” guy for at least part of the time. 

I will firmly state that I would like to improve my golf game.  I wonder if writing that will make it happen. I doubt it, but I am hoping so.  My golf buddy, Mr. Lewis Cook, is returning from South America having played several million holes of golf since I went to Rome.  I checked his handicap at the club the other day and it will be hard for me to get cash out of his wallet with his inflated handicap.  I will be lucky to keep my house and food on the table.  I must improve rapidly if I am to survive.  My last few times on the driving range proved it to be a really hard game. 

It will probably come as no surprise that I upon my return I was met by a new car.  It is a beauty, a Mercedes Benz SLK 350, hardtop convertible.  It is not very big and not terribly fast but terminally cute.  They are all over the place and it cost less than the Porsche.  Maybe this will be my dream car.  I always think I am buying the right car even though I never seem to keep them very long.  So far, I like it. It seems responsive and fast enough for me.  For the record, it is sliver with a black interior and Kim who’s not a car person, likes it. 

Yesterday in my office, I started to sort through the hundreds of digital photographs that we took in Rome.  I took over a thousand pictures and we threw away many more.  It is a daunting task.  My computer skills are very meager, but with the help of my daughter Diane and Nancy T, I made the first pass at a slide show.  Very rudimentary, but it has the blessing of being quite short.  The music is the Pacabell Cannon and we did some effects that move the slides around and make it look like a good first effort to me.  Lots of work left to be done to complete this task. 

Born in the USA

BORN IN THE USA

January 24, 2006

The Blog Returns

We have now been home for about 10 days.  I thought when we landed that I would want to kiss the ground but after a 12-hour ride we were just happy to get off the Lufthansa bus.  Packed to the gills, we were lucky enough to be together in window/aisle tourist seats toward the front of the plane.  The most emotional moment happened when we went to Sonoma to pick-up the dogs.  We both cried and the dogs were very excited to see us and clearly remembered who we were.  Peanut is blind and slow, but Cashew is quite the same happy and friendly older dog.  My best moment was Sunday night when I took them on our normal walk from our house and around the square.  They were very peppy and jaunty.  Kim clearly was suffering culture shock and I was in heaven at being back.  Of course, she has recovered and happy to be home.  Our trip was so spectacular and productive, but home is home and I for one won’t be leaving for extended trips anytime soon. 

You always wonder how it can take so long to reenter your normal life at home.  It has been tough trying to get all the ducks back in a row.  My wonderful and trusted assistant Nancy, was pleased that I would take over my old role up on the balcony of our office yelling down the stairs for a phone number or an address. She has always told me that I am not retired, but I am resisting the thought that I will really go to work again.  But, I do. Answering many E-mails, calling friends and associates, getting back into life, as we knew it before Roma. 

I went out to the Sonoma Golf Club.  It is an expensive and pretentious place but the membership is warm and welcoming.  I had yet to see the 20 million dollar clubhouse and my own locker with brass nameplate.  The cost of this place is crazy, but my brother helped me by telling me that his club in Cleveland was also very dear.  The Men’s locker room is plush with all the amenities including a hot tub/Jacuzzi, bar, television lounge and smoking porch.  What else do we need?  We went from changing our shoes in the parking lot to this overdone Mission style monstrosity.  I really don’t care what it looks like; the golf course is great and my golfing friends are there. Unfortunately, my golf so far sucks, but what’s new? 

We have been sort of excited by the fact that we didn’t gain a lot of weight.  This does not take into account the loss of muscle and tone that I endured by not being able to work out. It is however, an ad for walking miles everyday in Rome.  I am back in my strange old gym in San Francisco.  It is called World Gym and it is a big body builder place.  My trainer, Achim, weighs 279 pounds, 6 feet tall with not an ounce of fat on his body.  He is a tough guy and I love training with him.  He is making me take it easy in the early stages of training but will ramp it up as we move on.  Even at the easy levels it is painful to restart the process and I am sore and tired. 

We finally got to the Dr. who told me that I had a sinus infection and am now taking the full course of antibiotics.  What did we ever do before them?  So far I still feel lousy, but I am hoping this course will make me better. 

So, we are home and I am relatively happy.  It is great to be back, it was great to go.  I am the same guy, a lot more savvy about life abroad and delighted to be on our shores. 

Rome: DAY 119-120 VISITING FORT KNOX

VISITING FORT KNOX

January 9-10, 2006

We have a list.   What is on the list?  Mainly, it consists of places and things we want to see before we leave.  Of course, there are also the items related to leaving the apartment, getting our things home, paying our various bills, and relieving ourselves of possessions and furniture that seem to have accumulated during our four and a half months in Roma.  Our objective as “short timers” is to check-off as many things as possible, so we are busy. 

I was able to drag Kim away from the churches of Rome.  She has now viewed at least 200 of them (an independent audit will confirm my number.)  Once again my friend Mario Teleri has arranged something that cannot be seen except by special arrangement.  We begin at the Colla Graphia, which is the repository for over 23,000 original copper plates printed by Italian artists deemed to be historically important.  It is like getting into Fort Knox and feels like it too.  They are stored in an underground bunker that protects them against everything from fire to atomic warfare.  Part of the storage is basically under the Trevi Fountain.  There is a lot of copper down there including Piranesi who has over 1000 plates in the collection.  It is fascinating.  They also have a print studio in the building that is expansive and has wonderful light.  They used to do 2^nd strikes of artist’s copper like the Louvre still does and sells in its museum shop, but because the plates were wearing down they stopped.  Now they are beginning a project to digitally remake plates they would like to reprint and will start selling them at affordable prices in the next couple of years.  We did not have time to see their restoration lab and hurried over to the Biblioteca Casanatense, which houses the collection of books donated to the Dominicans by Cardinal Girolamo Casanate.  It was started after his death in 1700 and is a huge collection of books printed before 1500 called incanabula.  The total collection is over 600,000 books. We were able to see their most famous old ones, including a medical text with woodblock drawings printed in 1535.  I had seen pages of this book at the American Academy several months ago but the complete book was even more impressive.  The main hall is immense with a three or four story height, skylights and shelves of old books to the ceiling.  Kimberly was thrilled to have come with us. 

We bid Mario goodbye until he comes to visit us in San Francisco this June. He made so many things possible for me in Rome; I hope I can show him the best of life in Northern California.  We followed our privileged morning with lunch with Roberto Mannino, my paper-making friend.  We are bringing home some of his work which I think is stunning.  In very unItalian fashion, we ate early and lightly. The BANK OF LAVORO looms in front of me like a great white iceberg.  It feels like potential disaster, but I must get my account closed before we leave.  

The weather in Rome has been bright and sunny for the last 3 days.  It is cold but dry, blessedly.  We will divide and conquer.  Kimbo will stay at the apartment to prepare for the goodbye party and garage sale combo that she has instigated.  I will get to go to the bank.  I have all of my unused checks, all of my statements, my passport and other related items.  What else could they want?  Well, they wanted a check I wrote to make a gift to the American Academy at the end of December. When I checked with the Academy on Monday, they had not yet deposited the check.  I ask them to hold it so that I could replace it with an American $ check and retrieve my Euro dollar check.  Up to the Academy and then on to my bank for the crucifixion.  I was prepared for the worst.  Nobody was going to get me churning after my nice morning. This time I was at the head of the line to get back into the bank after the lunch break (3 hours).  The same woman started the process and after much paper work and filling out of forms she advised me that it would only cost E125.00 to close the account.  What a great deal the Italian banks have.  They get to keep your money, pay no interest, make monthly charges to your account and then charge a fee to close the account.  I said nothing.  Upon further reflection I wonder what lunacy made me think having a bank account in Italy was a necessity.  I now have the money.  Riding home from the bank in triumph, I pass the Imperial Forum of ancient Rome and say a short prayer to the Gods that look over this fascinating place. 

Kim did a great job on the party/sale.  Our apartment is once again cold and bare.  Lots of people from the Academy and from Kim’s Italian class came to say their goodbyes.  I considered it a success because she ended up with more money from the sale than the cost of the party.

This morning having released ourselves from our possessions, we walked to Sant Ivo de Sapienza to visit Boromino’s magnificent architectural contribution to Rome.  His curves and buttresses, ceilings and lines are so stylish and tasteful.  Than, another short walk down the street to the French church that is home to 5 Caravaggio’s completely restored to original color and beauty.  Just another Roman banquet.

Rome: DAY 118 GENIUS IN MY HANDS

GENIUS IN MY HANDS

January 9, 2006

I guess you could call this my typical Roman day.  The usual, the good, the bad and the totally impossible are what make this trip so great and testing all at the same time.  It is later in the evening than I usually write.  We have been watching “American Splendor”, on our computer.  We had seen it before on the big screen, but it had a sweet luster even on the computer.  Watching movies on the computer, especially one with a 12” screen is not easy; you must pay attention.  The sound sucks and the picture is rotten but when you get a good film it doesn’t matter.  The everyman nature of Harvey Pekar, a guy you couldn’t stand for more then 10 minutes feels like the truth.  No review here but a nice ending to a strange day. 

I was determined to close my bank account today.  It did not happen.  The bank manager and I had one of those seminal moments that only can happen when two cultures collide. I kept thinking throughout our discussion that I was the customer.  I am not exactly sure what he was thinking, but it didn’t have much to do with  “customer”.  More likely, why do I have to deal with his guy?  At one point in our discussion he said, “I do not have any obligation to speak to you in English.  I will not close your account “.  My response is probably not exact but it had something to do with me saying, “Why are you being so rude to me, all I want to do is close my account”.  This was followed by his saying, “If you don’t bring in all your unwritten checks, I will never close your account.  This is not America, it is Italy and we have our rules”.  I will return tomorrow to do exactly as he has suggested.  There is no way to overcome this Italian triumph.  It reminds me of a cop who has the power.  In retrospect, I don’t think opening the bank account was a very good idea.

I spent the morning with my friend, Mario Telari, printmaker, teacher and new friend.  I have asked Mario to come to San Francisco so that I may honor him with the same generosity that he has shown me.  We went to the Gabinetto of Prints and Drawings at the Farnesina Palace.  It is not the one that is now the French Embassy in Campo de Fiori but the one that the Chigi family built with them on the Trastevere side of the Tiber.  He had called in advance to arrange a special showing and they had gotten out all of the best things for me to see.  I was regaled by and actually held Piranesi prints, a Goya artist book, A. Durer drypoints and a fantastic Rembrandt print.  We looked at dozens of things from the 1400’s on, all prints on hand made paper.  What a moment for me. So special and delivered by a teacher who knew all the answers and all the history.  A wonderful couple of hours in a beautiful palace.  After we looked at the prints, Mario took me to the presentation hall, up a flight of marble stairs done in perspective with frescos on the ceiling.  The hall was painted in trompe l’oeil.  Mario explained that the frescos were done as if the floor never existed and we were looking at Rome from a terrace.  It was extraordinary.  Then to the drawing room for the piece de résistance, a Raphael fresco that was realized for the Pope.  Pope who, I can’t say but I bet he loved it.  It was a Roman moment. 

Kim came back from her morning of touring churches about Mary Magdalene in the same mood, feeling good about our time here and trying to get all of our lists done for our departure.  It keeps on happening, the juxtaposition of the really unbelievable and the trial of no language and cultural differences.  What will I do without this incredible stimulation?  Even with the most difficult Bank Manager this place is like a motion picture that never ends.  It is not easy for me but neither is golf.