casa mia e casa di tutti (my house is everybody's house)

Marta coined a word tonight that I think is brilliant. I was telling her about my blog, that most of my readers are my relatives - parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents - and she was suprised. Grandparents? She said it's great that I have cybernonni.

cybernonni.

We have a full house right now. Marta arrived with fiance Gabriele in tow, he left today a few hours after her little sister and friend appeared on our doorstep. Thursday Nellie arrives, and Friday the little ones take off. They're 19 - the realization that I've got ten years on them makes me a little self-conscious about my age. At some point this week I'm supposed to make dinner for Enrico, Gabriele P ------ (Letizia's older brother), and Jean from Marseilles. Gabriele doesn't eat now that his girlfriend is studying in London, so Enrico has been procuring invitations for him for meals at friends'. In this case, Enrico decided he'd better come along (I've cooked him a nice veal chop one time before - I think that may have something to do with it). Additionally, I've promised a dinner to Marta and Alvise. And then, some charming Americans studying Italian literature here invited me to play cards one night.

Up until all this I've been a shut-in for weeks, alone in the house - back injury, cold, depressed. Now we're swarming, peoples everywhere and a crowded dinner table. Do I sound like I'm complaining? I couldn't be happier than at dinner cooking for five or six instead of my solitary vigils by televisionscreen light.