A Busy Life

* Sigh* Like those creatures synonymous with industry, I have been busy of late. So busy, in fact, that I have been unable to blog. Just because This Cat is bereft of gainful employment doesn't mean that I have adopted a slothlike lifestyle. Au contraire! Let me repeat: I have been busy.

What have you been doing? you ask. Well, today has been spent mostly in cursing the computer I am currently using, whose language bar keeps defaulting to an Italian setting. It is 2009, and I have to ask myself why any country would demand three freaking keystrokes to find the @ key on its keyboard. And with all due respect to punctuation the world over, why is it easier to access square brackets on this keyboard - who uses [ and ] anymore? - than the @? Is it because, after its resurrection in Cyber World, this little twirly-thing has no universally accepted name? - it's not the commercial mark any more. Is it the at-mark? the at-symbol? the snail? the whirlpool? Some even call it the strudel - although I suspect only our Teutonic friends do that.

These are the sort of lofty thoughts which have been consuming my febrile little brain of late. And while that may not seem like much, it is.

On Friday, I bought a stamp. It may not sound like much but it did represent a successful visit to an Italian governmental office.

I had intended to get a tax number at the local governmental office but because it was a Friday and it was the afternoon, the office was closed. In fact, the office which takes care of such things is only open Tuesday and Friday in the afternoons. Or - wait for it - you can pop by any morning between 8:30 until noon. I should have known that. This is Italy. The country where the unions for its de facto defunct national airline went on strike to protest the terms of its buy-out-rescue-plan. Oh! - and they called another strike today! One might have anticipated a strike when Alitalia went bankrupt not after their bail-out. Not so. Welcome to Italy.

Today Mr. This Cat's (Not) Abroad and I had to delay our trip to the grocery store until later in the day because it is Monday and the stores don't open until 2:00.

Did I mention that I want a job in an Italian governmental office?

Did I mention that I want a job in retail here?

... except that I've been very busy.

Did I mention that I bought a stamp?