Lucky Breaks

Lucky Breaks

All things considered, I had a great time in Venice. Things could have gone horribly wrong, but somehow I've been lucky enough to meet great people everywhere I've gone - Thierry, the security guard at TNX, Michele da Pisa, Enrico da Pisa, Enrico da Venezia, loads of Americans both in the States and here who have looked out for me when they had no obligation. For sure, I've encountered people with bad intentions, but there's something that shines through in good people that helps me recognize them.

Maybe I'm just lucky. I think that luck is a feeling, though - a sense that things have gone your way. So, lucky, maybe, but I think I should give myself some credit too - I had a lot of things on my side. I had a map, mace, sobriety, cash. I speak the language. And I have common sense.

Of course, bad things happen, and they have, can, and will happen to me. Here's to hoping the luck in my equations doesn't run out.

Vacanza di Primavera has begun! Rimarrò in Firenze.

I'll be working on my paintings and sculpture during the day. SACI closes at 5, so I'll be forced out of the making-art world back into the being-art world.

Oggi (Today) - Art opening for 3 SACI students

Sabato - Troy Pierce @ Tenax - a DJ from Indiana who now lives in Berlin

Domenica - climb Duomo, visit Boboli Gardens

Lunedì - Chianti with Anne to visit sculpture professor Dario at his farm

Martedì - Jazz Club

Mercoledì - wander Firenze, maybe treat myself to an entire pizza, mmmm! (it's easy to eat an entire pizza by yourself here; they're sized for it)

Giovedì - Vinicio Capossela

Venerdì - Berlin (Sascha Funke at Watergate, a beautiful club I've never been to)

Sabato - Explore Berlin (if you've been there, I'd love suggestions)

Domenica - return from Berlin. Do laundry ... sleep.

Ah, planning. Sounds like a good week to me. Now, where to stay in Berlin? And how to get around? I have always my feet .... but in Berlin, not the language. It's been comforting knowing I can get around and understand signs in Italy, and I wish I understood more German. To some extent there's a natural translation and I think I could read a sign and get something from it. But I certainly couldn't put together my own sentence.

So far, traveling on my own has meant going with the flow, and I'm open to that.