Heritage

My brother, Vinnie, has been doing a lot of research regarding our family history recently. It turns out that my father's father never officially became an American citizen when he immigrated here at the age of 11, which means he never renounced his Italian citizenship and that means that his Italian citizenship, figuratively speaking, travelled through his line of blood to us. There's a big long process you've got to go through - and Vinnie is doing all the work - but the point is that we could potentially have dual citizenship if we wanted to, and we both think this would be great. Figuring out how to go about this has been difficult and Vinnie's put a lot of time into the whole thing. While there have been several complications and frustrations, one of the cool things about trying to get this done has been how much he has learned about our family's history in Italy.

My paternal grandfather's family lived in a town called Roggiano Gravina in the Calabria region of southern Italy, and my brother has been sending me and my family information about the area and our family's presence there since he started his research.

Today he sent me two YouTube videos depicting life in Roggiano Gravina. The first is a seven-minute long video taken from a car as it makes its way through the town's winding streets, past historic looking buildings, while a slow Italian pop song plays in the background. He headed his email with the subject line: "This is where we're from."

The second video, which was recorded at a party in the southern Italian town, he sent shortly after the first, and the second video's purpose, I suppose, is to remind us that not only do we come from a place of great beauty and culture, but that we are descended from a people who live life to the fullest.

Vinnie introduced the second clip with the subtle comment, "There is also this:"

A update (with highlights) about (somewhat boring) things

I haven't been writing too much lately because there hasn't been that much going on to write about, or, truthfully, there's been plenty going on, but I'm not so deluded as to think you want to hear all about the mortgage proceedings we're going through in order to purchase a house. Or my job search. Ot how it's been pretty cold out. But, as I do like to try and keep this blog at least somewhat in tune with my life, I thought I'd write a brief update in the form of a few of the recent highlights:

Heading into New York City for an interview and walking back to Grand Central in the softly falling snow, hands buried deep in my pockets, enjoying the company of thousands of strangers on the sidewalks.

Taking note of the one-month-til-we-move-into-our-house mark on Valentine's Day.

Watching Cecilia gallop through the melted, wet sludge in the backyard, tongue hanging out of her mouth, in great appreciation of this New England winter, like she'd just won a trip to Disney World.

Drinking hot tea and wearing slippers.

Sleeping in.

Hearing all about J's lab adventures when he gets home from work, my personal favorite being stories about he and his labmates taking afternoon espresso breaks, because of course they have an espresso machine down the hall, which makes me insanely jealous.

Complaining about sharing a small bed in J's old childhood room, which means the person sleeping nearest the wall has to climb over the person sleeping on the other side when they get up in the morning, but at the same time stopping to laugh and realizing these will be great stories to look back upon someday, which we will look back on especially fondly from the comfort of a bigger bed.