As you guys know, I had a reading last night. I only had ONE glass of wine before the reading which is AMAZING because usually I can’t even step in front of people without 10 vodka grapefruits which leads to what my incredibly talented friend, Dr. Lee Foust (also an expat in Italy) refers to as, “The interesting way that you read things,” but what he actually means is, “The drunk slurring way that you read things that is super embarrassing but kind of endearing so I’ll keep being friends with you.” So, one glass of wine and I was SCARED. Why? I don’t know. I’ve had intense stage fright ever since I was a kid. In school I would do book reports and then not turn them in because they made you read them IN FRONT OF PEOPLE. I always enjoy readings after I do them but beforehand I kind of freak out. Totally sad in comparison with Lee who is a performer and a natural but maybe we kind of offset each other in an interesting way. Who knows?
The reading went pretty well, there were loads of expats, and new people studying in Florence, and I was asked a lot of interesting questions which I will try to answer here soon. The first being, “How did you meet your Italian husband and WHERE?” I wrote a story about that in my memoir and I’ll post it here for you to read (I’m talking to YOU short and adorable SACI student with the epically cute pixie-ish hair cut). I offered to get a drink with her but I think I freaked her out. Kind of like that American couple last week who I offered to walk to their hotel because they were lost and the husband was all, “NO! NO! We’re TOTALLY FINE! ThANK YOU!” And then he literally RAN AWAY with his wife. It took me a few minutes to realize that I scared him because he probably read somewhere in a travel book to NEVER EVER let a tiny woman with an obvious AMERICAN ACCENT, her husband and poodle walk you to your hotel because of risk of being robbed and or killed. With that I’d just like to add that Florence isn’t dangerous people, nobody is going to put that much effort into killing you here. Robbing you, maybe, but first you’d have to let them INSIDE your house/apartment/hotel and I just wanted to show you the street. I didn’t plan on coming up for a shower. Assface.
I jokingly told Lee to not leave me while I was reading and he came back to sit by me which was super cute but LEE, I WAS JUST KIDDING! I’m not THAT crazy (lie, I totally am that crazy but I don’t want to be so I’ll deny it and you’ll let me, k?)
Another question I was asked frequently was, “Where can I buy your book?” Well, I have an agent and that’s cool but honestly I have no idea. It could be soon it could be never. Tell someone to publish M.E. AND buy me a capybara. Everyone wins! HOWEVER, you can totally follow one of my blogs and I’ll keep you up-to-date on all things M.E.
