This one time in college, my friend Katrina had a gigantic fight with her boyfriend. She says that afterwards it was like a red mist rose up and the next thing she knew, she was standing in front of the bathroom mirror with a disposable razor in her hand and only one eyebrow. 

These things happen. The eyebrow eventually grew back and, in the meantime, Katrina looked really rather chic.

In a not completely dissimilar episode, I gave myself a haircut last Tuesday. I, however, do not look rather chic. I look like someone who gave herself a haircut in the bathroom mirror without really thinking things through. I comfort myself with the knowledge that, like Katrina's eyebrow, it will grow back eventually. In the meantime, I am happy to say that I recently bought a hat.

We met with the immigration lawyer on Monday and learned that I will have to pass an Italian language test sometime soon. If I am tested on things said by drunken marble workers in bars, I am set. If not, I am toast. So my new Italian tutor came up to the house on Friday to meet with me and assess my skill level. She had quite an entertaining drive up the hair-raising Via Capriglia and eventually just abandoned her car at a convenient stopping place by the side of the road and decided to walk the rest of the way up to the house. The Via Capriglia can have that effect on people. We have decided to meet via Skype from now on. (There are major doubts about my language skills, but my driving nerves are clearly Grade A.)

The poppies have reached our grounds now and a rose bush has appeared out of nowhere covered in deep red blossoms. The jasmine all around the house has begun to flower. It is blooming all over the village and tonight we saw the first honeysuckle.