802. Let's give this a go, shall we?

It's a rainy Saturday afternoon and I'm sitting on my bed with my back propped up against my pillows in my new apartment in the historic center of Brescia. My butt hurts, because it's not a bed at all that I'm on; it's a old futon whose mattress needs replacing.

I started work 3 weeks ago this Monday at the University of Milan-Bicocca--a pretty famous school (at least here in Italy) of science. It's a contract position to cover another American who'll be going on maternity leave in November, and after my training I'll manage the grants of the department (biotechnology and bioscience) and the accounting of a genetic consortium that's affiliated with and located at the campus.

Although it's just a temporary position, I'm very happy to have landed this job. It's steady, good paying work at least through February and the position will look mighty impressive (or, so I hope) on my CV (resumé).

My Funny seemed to have completely abandoned me in Siena where I had problems galore, not the least of which were financial woes: difficulty finding work, the high cost of living, the unreliability of my private lesson students to show up for lessons, and mainly because of just plain bad planning. (Bad, Janelle! Bad!)

Now I'm off to find a cute black dress for my romantic life's funeral that I've been planning this past week. Its dying wish was to have a funeral that's celebratory, but try as I might, I'm afraid its tone will be more Seinfeld than Kool and the Gang. I wonder if I should hire one of those clowns who makes animal balloons...

Until next time!