Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It is the one day where you are supposed to eat your face off and no one will judge you when you go back up to the buffet for a 3rd or 4th serving. Honestly, I wish everyday were Thanksgiving. I don't forget, though, what the holiday is truly about, just like I don't forget that Christmas is really about celebrating the birth of 5 pound, 6 ounce, newborn baby Jesus (copyright Talladega Nights/ one of the funniest movies/ every movie by Will Ferrel is histarically funny). When I sit down at the big table with my huge family eating our mile high plates, first I think "wow we are a family of gross fatasses". Then, I remember how lucky I am to have a family that loves and watches over me. This Thanksgiving is going to be the most thankful one yet though. I have been away from my family for the longest time ever and am in a new chapter of my life. Unfortunately, they aren't 20 minutes up the road where I can drive and talk to them about my problems or questions I have. When something that good isn't available like it used to be, you really understand how lucky and blessed you were to have that time with them. Of course, I call my relatives every once in a while when we just absolutely need to talk and catch up, but it's the little things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving that I got to experience everyday for 18 years. I am thankful for my amazing chef grandma who always knows how to entertain everyone with her random screaming comments like "Did ya forget to make the bed Sal!". Yea, she says that in the middle of dinner when it is completely irrelevant for her to be worrying about her bed being made. I am thankful I have two parents that are polar opposites but understand me and relate to me in their own unique ways. I will be going home for Thanksgiving and have a huge dinner feast with my big Italian family that knows how to have a great time no matter what. During my break, I will also see my other extended family, my friends. I can't wait to drive over to my friend Sirenna's house and meet up with all my friends for a cookie party (those things get out of control, trust me). We will bake 100 different desserts and probably make a music video we will regret. Someone, like my hilarious friend Blake, will probably act out Bella giving birth, like last time, in charades (you really had to be there, it was that moment where you laugh so hard you cry). All in all, I can't wait to spend time with the people I love in Boca Raton, my home away from my new home. 

Typical Italian Sunday

My family is my crazy factor. My family is my therapy session. My family is my rock. My family is my sanity. My family is my best qualities. My family is Italian. 

The best way to describe my family is to give an explanation of a typical day with my entire family. First off, we ALWAYS meet up at my grandparents house for family nights, which is usually every Sunday at 2pm. Never, in the history of ever, have we hangout at another family members house; my grandparents house is the only one that is a neutral playing field. 

This is what I mean by neutral: there is no bickering over who is the favorite of the family that gets to host all the functions. If we host it at my house, then my mom is considered the best cook of the family and then it gets around and there is a weird, non-existent fight in the air. If we host it at my uncle's then everyone gets mad because he lives so far that there must be something really special about his family that we need to drive all the way to their house. And the insanity goes on and on. 

When we get to my grandparents house there are two things that are certain:

                            1. my mom, dad, brother and I are always 2 hours late. Never more. Never less.

2. we always prepare something to eat to bring over that day 

Once we walk in the door, you have to seriously watch out. My cousins are always running around bumping into important possessions and falling all over the place. After we make it past the traffic, it's like we stepped back in time into the 1920s. All the men are sprawled out on the couches watching the latest sports game and eating chips, pepperoni, cashews and olives. I make my way over to the women in the kitchen and start to help prepare the dinner for tonight or at least the appetizers (bear with me, it get's very very 1920s). Once we all sit down to eat at our very long dining table, to house all our family members, we eat like there is no tomorrow. Politics and religion seem to always wiggle its way into the conversation and once it gets too heated to even bear the situation, I take my latest book and head to the bedroom for quiet reading time, of course, after I help clean the table. Occasionally I can hear my grandpa scream from his comfy couch seat in front of the TV, "Die! Get me some Cuwafeee!". Before he can even finish, my grandma, Diane, screams back from the kitchen, "Do I look like your servant?! Get it yaself!". Then, in a couple hours, we have dessert and watch a movie or gossip until we are too tired to talk or until the first adult drops from being too drunk. Time to go home!

Even though this scenario sounds pretty weird at parts and something I would dislike, I really love it. These crazy people are what sends my safe, little, orderly world into chaos, which is what I need. I love when my cousins come to me with problems or when I have to breakup a fight between two little italian stallion boys. Even though we have our family drama, I know we will always be be there for each other even as the generations come and go. I hope that when I have a family of my own, we still have the same Sunday get togethers but maybe the men will cook this time around more while the women get some laid back, much deserved chill time.  

I was sitting on the bus, minding my own business, when I saw my friend reading a book. She had just finished it and I was obsessively staring at the back, from a distance, trying to read it. Of course my friend saw my book stalking and gave me the book to look it. The bus ride to our next soccer tournament was a very long one, so I began to read it. Like so many other girls, I fell in love with the book Twilight and its sequels. I hadn't even known it was going to be recreated into a movie until I saw the trailer for it on tv one day. I loved the book because even though it was slow in the beginning, it was mysterious and interesting as I kept reading. Bella, the main character, seemed a lot like me at the time: quiet, self conscious, and observant of everything around her. I loved the little things about her character like the way she would never understand or see that all the guys had a crush on her. Bella wasn't the only character that caught my interest though. Edward, the vampire that falls in love with Bella, was handsome and all knowing in a "I can read your mind" way (if only guys could do that in reality). The book was cute and very teen romancey so, as a freshman in high school, I was bound to like it. Once I saw the movie though, I was so pissed off. The setting wasn't the same as the book. The little conversations and details that I loved were cut out of the script. Even the way Bella acted wasn't the same as her character in the books. After complaining to my friends, who looked at me like I was crazy, I began to realize that the things I loved about the book were the insights into what Bella was thinking, which a director couldn't really display too well. I watched the movie again after it came out on dvd and all of the sudden couldn't stop watching it everyday. It's like my brain flipped the switch to screw with me. I started to find those little things that they put into the movie from the book as I kept watching, which made me fall in love with the movie also. The audience for the book and the movie both reached a younger, teen girl demographic that I related to at the time. Every girl wants to be swept off her feet by a handsome guy that has an edge to him, more or less. I still get those girly fantasy moments when I wish Edward went to my school and I could meet him. Then, again i wouldn't mind bumping into Jacob too!