Buongiorno Italia Pt. 2 -- Riso Amaro

I neglected to mention that, aside from Bossman, I had one other traveling companion: the stalwart Ganache the Chocolate Moose.  Of course, I couldn't take Ganache around town with me, much to my chagrin, but during my trip, Ganache had some adventures of his own.

"Victoria, did you seriously move your stuffed moose around the room just for a photo shoot?"

Buongiorno Italia Pt. 1 -- Parla Inglese?

It should come as no real shock that traveling kind of gives me anxiety.  Do I have enough clothes? Do I have the appropriate clothes?  Will I get lost on the way there?  Will I get lost when I am there? Is my phone battery going to die, leaving me stranded in the middle of nowhere?  Am I flying?  Is my bag going to be checked even though it is well under the carry-on bag dimensions because none of these asshats knows how to properly store a suitcase in an overhead bin?

So on and so forth.

Of course, add international travel to the mix?

WILL I EVEN BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE WHILE I AM THERE?

Let me back up.

With my new job, I was made aware that I would be traveling on a semi-regular basis to interact with vendors and various contractors.  One of my supervisors had mentioned a few times that he was in talks with a company from Italy, and that I might have the opportunity to visit.  "Oh, haha, ok, that's really cool," was effectively my response, because these days, honestly, there's no reason to expect or get excited about anything.

And then... May rolled around, and he walked into my office.  "Is your passport up to date?"

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh fuuuu---.

I don't talk about politics often, but when I do...

Despite being passionate and outspoken about certain social issues, for the most part, I've tried pretty hard to stay well and far away from outright politics on this blog. From contextual clues, you can probably at least guess where I lean on the spectrum, but if you're expecting me to ever declare a party...

Well. I've been too lazy to register as anything besides Independent since I was old enough to vote. So, take that as you will.  (But, you know.  At least I'm registered.)

Tonight was actually the first Presidential debate that I'd ever watched in its entirety.  What.  I'm an old woman, and 10:30 is past my bed time.

Anyway, armed with mushroom pizza and NPR Fact Check & Analysis of the debate, I jumped in.

Um.  Again.  No serious political statements here, but here are the top three takeaways that I cannot stop fixating on from tonight's Dinner & a Show.

Hip-Hip-Hyperbole

I established years ago that, as I writer, I am an inveterate liar.  Even when I'm telling stories about my own life, I can be given to embellishment and stretching the truth.  You could probably chalk it up to self-bias -- everyone has their own version of a story, seen through their own eyes.  Even with that in mind, I can get a little carried away, especially when prestige is on the line.

So, I may or may not have mentioned this in the past, but when I moved to my current assignment, I also joined the DuPont Toastmasters chapters.  What is Toastmasters, you might ask?  In a nutshell, an organization dedicated to improving professional leadership skills through public speaking and communication.  Chapters give their members an opportunity to work through guide books that are focused on certain kinds of speeches meant to teach basic skills -- vocal variety, body language, etc.  A coworker of mine recommended (read: insisted) that I join because I, unsurprisingly, speak too quietly in meetings.

I'm not really going to talk about Toastmasters today, because that really belongs in an entry of its own, much as I love it.  The reason I bring it up, though, is because a few months ago, a friend of mine from TM introduced me to something called Story Slams.

Not-so-September and the Cat Cafe

"Jiminy wigging christmas, Victoria.  SJH kept up his end of the bargain.  Where the hell is *your* BEDIS???"

I have... a lot of excuses, not many of them that great.  The long and short of it is, I had another major writing project that I had to be finished by early October, and so it was hard to dedicate any blogging time in September.

"Ok, but then what about October 1-16?"

Uhhhh...

Look!  The convenient distracting cat picture!!!

"I can kill you with my brain."