Leave it to my grandparents to meet an Italian couple from New Jersey to add to my Senior Citizen getaway and invited them to our villa last night for Broccoli di rabe and orecchiette, a traditional Barese dish. Only Italians make Southern Italian cuisine in the Caribbean. Grandpa made us Jack Daniel Manhattans while my Grandmother prepared dinner and complained that the kitchen has no soul and its a good thing that she doesn't have a fat ass or else nothing would get done. So dramatic. The loud 'beats' of a Bahamian band playing reggae covers of Elton John love songs down by the pool set the soundtrack for our dinner. you haven't lived until you heard a calypso version of "Daniel".
The couple arrived and the husband, Frank looks exactly like Richard Gere. He told me was that he was 72 years old, but it's just not possible. He looks better looking than Richard Gere does today. I have never checked out a 72 year old man in my life, but this guy is ridiculous. My drooling got interrupted when, during dinner, my Grandmother casually mentioned that she had offered the veil that my great grandmother made and that Mother wore to my cousin's fiancée for next week's wedding. The veil that was being saved for me but since no one thinks that I will ever get married and that I choose the wrong men, she thought that it should go to use. Awesome. Whenever I come home, I become a walking chick flick. Next week, I will watch my veil that I was supposed to wear, get married.
To add to my isolation, my grandmother thinks that this whole 'Paris Thing' is a silly idea and that I should be home. Why would I want to be 'home' where the fact that I am not married, attached to a man, live in a studio and my non-plus 401k is frowned upon, and family heirlooms get passed on to people who were strangers only two years go. In Paris, I'm spared these details and am in a city full of other expats who are just as lost and/or adventurous as I am. Paris is that amazing that taking some set-backs before finding your perfect niche is worth it. You have to live there to understand it.
My lifestyle isn't parallel to my family and the people that I grew up with and it always becomes more obvious when I return. I know that I could have stayed in my apartment in Brooklyn, my job in Fashion and continued going out with single girlfriends who were desperately seeking Mr. Right where going out for a drink was some strategic ploy to 'meeting someone'. Beurk! I wanted to challenge myself and its not always understood here. Today is about not giving a shit what anyone thinks. Including family, since no one considered that watching my Mother's veil get married by an in-law would be painful. Good to be home...
