So. Hi. Again.
I’d make all sorts of excuses for my absence like, “Oh we spent 2 weeks in France visiting family,” or “Telecom Italia sucks,” or “I started roller skating/roller derby so I’ve been busy and tired,” but they’d all be just that – excuses. (All true, by the way.)
So. Life in Italy. Things have been going along decently well. We’re still waiting on the Italians to decide if we are responsible for paying the fees associated with the towing and impounding of our VW Golf or not so we were down to a 1 car family for a while. Not cool. But that has been fixed! Goose can now scratch, “Own a BMW,” off his bucket list! We now own a 1993 BMW 520i…or something like that. It’s got 4 doors, a working clutch, working brakes, working headlights, and is decent on gas. Oh and didn’t cost an arm, a leg, and your firstborn child like the other beaters on base. SOLD! King Tut especially likes it because it smells like whatever dog the previous owners had so he is quite content to sit and sniff the backseat. Perfect.
I won’t bore all 2.6 of you that read this too much with information overload on my first post back but clearly, I have new things to talk about and pictures to share. Speaking of pictures, they’re annoying me. I’m not crazy about Picasa right now and I can’t find any other photo organization software that I kinda sorta like. Lame. I’d like Picasa a wee bit better if it didn’t continually freeze up my computer. Also lamesauce.
There. Proof of life. The gypsies haven’t stolen me and the food hasn’t put me into a food coma. Yet. There’s always tomorrow I suppose. 
It must be Thursday.
I hate Thursdays.
Okay, okay so it’s really Friday now but still. When I worked at the American Red Cross, Thursdays always seemed to bring out the crazies. And yesterday brought the crazy too.
So the standard MO of most people stationed here is to ship one “nice” car from the states over and buy a Naples beater to use as a commuter car and/or the one you use when you want to do something fun like drive downtown. So we shipped over a 2003 Hyundai Santa Fe (we were torn – do we ship the 2003 Santa Fe or the 2003 Santa Fe?? It was an agonizing decision but I think we made the right decision in shipping the 2003 SF.) and shopped the lemon lot (no, they aren’t ALL lemons, it’s just the generic resale lot) on base for a while. We stumbled across a beauty – a 1993 VW Golf. It was scratched to hell, missing some of the decorative siding, ran like a champ, and good on gas. And it was priced right – $1,500. SOLD.
In the wee hours of Thursday morning, sometime between 0200 and 0600, someone stole our Golf. Yes, we had our car stolen. Excellent. 
The really sad part? I was up all night – literally. Around 0100-0130, I heard some extra car doors and stuff and got curious so went outside and looked around. Checked the Golf’s doors (locked), and wrote it off as neighbors having company over. While I whiled away the hours playing Halo via Xbox Live, the Golf grew legs and ran away. Goose woke up and we put the dog out where he proceeded to harass the dogs through the gate so we went out to shush them all. I had mentioned the funny noises to Goose and he took the time out in the yard to peek over the fence to look at his car.
“Hey hon, where did I park my car?”
“What do you mean where did you park? You’re looking at your car!”
“No, I think I parked around the corner.”
Awwwwwwwwwwesome. I tried calling USAA to find out exactly what to do but seeing as how it was 0530, the offices were closed and there wasn’t really much I could do. Goose went to work and reported the theft to the base police who put out a BOLO with the Italians but was told to not hold his breath. So imagine the surprise when the Carabinieri called and said,
“Oh hey, good news! We randomly raided a gypsy camp for reasons completely unrelated to your car being stolen but guess what! Your car was there! YAY!”
Okay so it probably didn’t go like that at all but that’s the gist of things. So Goose got to drive to to the Carabinieri impound lot to check out the car. Apparently the gypsies around here really, really stink at hot wiring cars. Not only did they completely strip the ignition, they also ripped wires out of the left and under sides of the steering wheel and under the dashboard on the passenger side in order to try every, single, possible wire combination. And if theft of personal property we left in the car was their aim…well, they kind of suck at that too. Their loot consisted of things like the glove box door and the rear console ashtray. Not sure why they left the almost new spare tire but hey, to each their own.
The catch to all this is that obviously we are now back down to one car. Well, we still technically own 2 but we need to total the Golf and scrap it. We can’t do that until we get the car from the impound lot where it’s accruing a fee of 10€/day that it’s there. It obviously won’t start so we need to have it towed to the Support Site so we can get it scrapped free of cost but that’s going to cost around 200€ to tow. And if we want to do it now, we have to pay all those fees. Nice, right? We get our car stolen and then WE have to pay for it all? Hooray! Can’t wait!
The good news is that Goose talked to one of the Italian lawyers that collaborates with the MP’s to help out the Americans and he said that the magistrate should rule that we are not responsible for those fees. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it’ll take weeks (and probably over a month since August is Italy’s national holiday. Yes, the whole month.) for that to happen so we’re just playing the waiting game.
But hey, I am so checking, “Get your car stolen!” off of my bucket list!
My Day
Here’s how my day’s going.
Yes, that’s my dog trying to climb the tree after that cat, why do you ask?
It’s really, really happening…
Tomorrow (today? Technically today….but I haven’t been to sleep yet so it’s still tomorrow in my world. 
) the movers come to pack up our house and move us to the new house! And the internet guy will be at the new house setting things up!
King Tut is having a slumber party as his friend George’s house (aka, Gina is watching him for us), Goose will be here handling the packers, and I will be at the new place waiting around for the internet guy who has a window from 8-12. Super. I fully plan on bringing my coffee pot though since I have cream over there.
Just a few more days in hell and then we’ll be in a much better place all around!
And the moving gets real
After much deliberation and discussion, we opted to pay someone to move the household from Aversa over to Lago Patria. Sure, we could have rented a truck or two and spent a week shuffling things from here to there on our own but there’s a couple problems with that.
1. I can’t lift things that are too heavy. (I fell working at the pool a couple years ago and if I do too much, my wrist locks up on me. No bueno.)
2. Goose has to work.
3. Everyone we’d ask to help is on leave.
4. I was stressing and breaking out just thinking about it.
So for both our sanities and our marriage, we are going to pay the nice moving men to come, box up our crap, haul it across town, and then even dispose of all packing materials. And all it will cost us is money. Genius! Those guys come on Monday. Yes, I know it’s the 4th of July but apparently the Italians don’t celebrate Independence Day for some bizarre reason. Plus, Goose is SDO. Again. Pretty sure he’s had weekend duty for the past month. Sigh.
Today though is different. I’m playing Round #749823 of the “Hurry Up and Wait” game. (And I don’t think I’ve won even half of those games. Ever.) Part of being stationed OCONUS is that we are asked to leave behind all our appliances in lieu of being assigned some when we get here. So I have a super awesome Italian fridge, dryer, microwave, an American washer (bigger! As in, I can wash more than 1 pair of jeans at a time!), and a hutch. The hitch to this moving thing is that housing “requests” (read: demands) that they move all the stuff they are loaning us to the new house. So what does this have to do with me playing the HUaW game? Oh just that housing said the guys to move things would be here sometime between 8-12 today with my American range (squee! I get a real oven! No more Easy Bake oven!) and American dryer (see: American washer, above) to pick up all the things they have supplied us with and then follow me to the new house where they will set it all up for me again. Exciting.
The way I figure it is that since I actually woke up and showered before 0800 is that they won’t show up until 1155 because that’s just how things in my life go. Oh and did I mention that we’re masters at poor planning? Yup. I don’t really know where the idea came from but we thought it’d be super fantastic if we moved over the things we were wary of the movers taking. Like the TV, my XBOX, and the couch. WTF were we thinking?! Because now I have nowhere to sit in the living room (well, there’s the dog’s crate I suppose but King Tut’s in there already. Boo.) and nothing to do while I wait. Awesome. And hey look, it means I blog about something other than traveling, aren’t you excited?
And if I don’t blog, I’ll be shopping for things online that I don’t need. Like metal chickens. Come on, how awesome would it be to watch the military movers move one of those?! Or Lucite Grapes. I don’t know why I find them so fascinating but I kind of love them, they are so shiny and pretty and go perfectly on my hutch. Or carnival glass pieces. Or, probably the most dangerous, window shopping these. Oh.My.Gawd. Think Goose would mind if one showed up??
Somehow I feel like the safer option is to make another cup of coffee and sit with my Kindle. 2 hours down, 2 to go.
Surprise trip to Menorca, Balaeric Islands!
Okay, okay…I admit it. Living in Napoli has some pretty kick ass perks. Goose’s job may suck ass at times but on the other hand, he gets the scoop on all the awesome trips that the 6th fleet band takes. Like this past weekend’s trip to Menorca. You know, an island over there in the Balaerics? Next to Palma? And Ibiza? AKA tropical paradise and beaches and drinks?
Yeah, that place.
Goose was SDO this weekend (and ended up working like 12 hours each day to boot, sadly) so Gina and I took a girl’s trip to Menorca. Hopped on the C-26 and flew out for a mini, random, tropical getaway. No reservations, no plans. We ended up staying at this super awesome resort hotel and had this AH-MA-ZING view from our hotel room:
Life’s rough.
When we got “tired” of the beach (or, rather, tired of the sand and the water started cooling down too much), we’d go to the pool:
I just love a good swimming pool, don’t you?
Sun setting over the bay. I seriously didn’t want to leave.
I tried to be all island-y and ordered fish for dinner. It came looking at me and I didn’t even get a fish knife. But, as you can see, I was victorious and managed to not mangle the fish! I win.
I had to take one of these stereotypical feet shots this morning. Gina and I hit the beach for one last swim/snorkel this morning and this was after the beach but before the pool.
And let’s not discuss the mass amounts of alcohol consumed, shall we? Although, speaking of drinks, funny story! Gina and I went to one of the outdoor bar/cafe things on the beach (the one you can kind of see in the first picture, actually) around 1400 on Saturday afternoon and ordered some food and rum and cokes. The waiter looked at us with a slightly puzzled look on his face and said,
“It’s a bit early to start drinking, isn’t it?”
We kind of looked at him like he was nuts and gently explained that it’s NEVER too early to start drinking. Hell, breakfast starts out with champagne so a rum and coke at 1400? Pfft. Child’s play.
So this is why I’ve been MIA the last 3 days or so. (It’s okay to hate me. Just a little though. 
)
New House!
I’m camped out on the couch in pain because my klutzy ass slipped down the marble stairs and I feel bruised from head to toe so I have lots of time to update you guys about our new house! I am so, so excited about this and cannot wait to get over there. We have to be out of this house by the 7th of July so we have about 2 weeks to move.
If you’re curious, we currently live in a town called Giuliano in Campania. Predictably, it’s in the Campania region of Italy, just outside of Naples. We are moving to a slightly different area to a town called Lago Patria. It’s about the same distance to Capodichino (aka the base Goose works at and/or the local Naples airport) and the same to Support Site and the large shopping center. One of the big appeals to living in Lago and the surrounding area is the proximity to Carney Park, aka, location of the dog park. Also we’ll be closer to friends, another big bonus.
And now the fun stuff, pictures! Am I the only one that’s excited??
Athens!
What an adventure! As I mentioned the other day, we flew on a C-26 to Athens, Greece. It was a free flight so hey, why not? The catch was that the flight was subject to the needs and whims of the Navy. Turns out the Navy had a need to get a spare part from Sigonella, Italy to Stuttgart, Germany to fix their broken C-130. And hey look! There’s a Navy sponsored plane about to take off with time to get the part to Germany! So what should have been a quick 3ish hour flight leaving us the afternoon of the 15th to explore turned into a 12 hour expedition getting us into Athens and to our hotel at around 12:30pm. Awesome.
It’s a travel post, lots of pictures ahead. You have been warned.
