12.9 A good day. Yesterday I was supposed to have a meeting with the school admin to finalize the girls’ registrations. The school department called me and told me to meet them at school at 9:30. Unfortunately, it seems they neglected to mention I needed to be, not at MY school 10 minutes from home, but at THEIR school in Bardi, an hour away. WHAT?! NO. The secretary/custodian at Pellegrino (yeah, it’s a small place, why do you ask) made a bunch of calls and finally figured it out for me. The department person said, not a problem, you can come to Bardi tomorrow. BUT I’M NOT COMING TO @#$%^ BARDI! Happily, it seems the president of the school committee was scheduled to be in Varone today – a mere 25 mins away. This I can manage.

Met with her this morning and got everything finalized. I have to order 80E worth of books for Elise – gack – and that’s not even all of them, but the president said that music and art don’t meet very often and their books are all for 3 years, so it doesn’t make sense to invest. The lit, history and math books, on the other hand, are pretty important. I had a look at the history book, and if I’m going to take the Italian MTEL when I get home, I’ll need it, so that’s no problem. We’ll have to see if we can borrow or photocopy Gabriele’s book as needed.

Was back in Pellegrino by 10. Went to the market and got some gorgeous pluots and plums. Was walking back to my car feeling very satisfied with my morning when I ran into Rosana Berzieri (her son & family live a block from the school). She had invited me up for coffee “sometime” (I hate “sometime” invitations – I never know when to go) and I told her I was hoping to come today. She said absolutely, come at 2. So I motored home, asked the famille if any of them wanting to come calling on the “prince’s” family, and when they said no, I waited impatiently for 2 pm so I could walk up there.

She was making plum preserves when I arrived and informed me that I could not leave until they were ready so she could give me some. Darn, say I. We had a lovely afternoon just chatting about nothings until she needed to take her 2-year-old grandson home. Sadly, the plum preserves had not cooked down enough by then, so I didn’t get any. I did, however, get loads of good flower pictures, some of which are up on the flickr page. And I had my own plums and pluots waiting when I got home!

All in all, an excellent day.