Back from Milan, we've dropped off Grace's visitor at the airport and vacation week is over.  Tomorrow starts the diet.  I have put on a lot of weight this winter though I don't know how much as our scale broke last spring and I haven't replaced it.  Scales are evil.  Dieting in itself is horrible but dieting in Italy is torture.  If I can stay on it for the allotted time of two weeks I think I should be up for sainthood.

the Duomo - purty huh?

Speaking of sainthood, I saw a photo in the newspaper today that showed a group of South American priests in Piazza San Pietro who were visiting Rome for the canonization of the two new saints.  They were sitting in a group singing, all dark and handsome in their black cassocks.  What a waste of beautiful manhood.  OK.  I just lost serious points with the Catholics.  So as I'm already in the hot seat here's another one with which to condemn me.  Yesterday when the girls were at their YouTube convention I walked around Milan's center.  I visited the famous Duomo, the largest cathedral in Italy.  Inside is so big it's like a columned and pewed, (look this one up on spell-check), football stadium.  At the alter there was a vast red curtain hiding who knows what.  I kept expecting the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz to jump out from behind it.  Alas not.  The church is of course beautiful and amazingly ornate.  The exterior looks like lace.  It seems so delicate it's miraculous that it's still intact.  I hope there are never any strong earthquakes nearby.  It took six-hundred years to complete, it would be tragic to lose it in an instant.

I had all day to kill so after visiting the Duomo I went to a lovely park and spent hours moving from one bench to another, sometimes sunning, other times reading in the shade or people watching.  It was perfect weather and being alone there reminded me of when I backpacked around Europe a hundred years ago.  I wouldn't do it now.  I enjoy being alone for a day but more than that and I get lonely!

Tai Chi in Milan

Now to the reason we were in Milan.  As I mentioned, Grace and her friend G attended a YouTube convention where all sorts of "YouTube personality" (who make videos and post them) get together and meet their fans.  Kids spend all their waking hours watching these videos like we, in ancient times, used to watch TV.  The downside of this is I'm sure it's aiding in ADD, (the videos are very short and loud therefore need no attention whatsoever), and antisocial behavior in the same way so much technology does today.  Grace and her friends spend all their time alone at home texting about nothing or talking about nothing on facebook and no time just hanging around together doing nothing like we used to do.  We might have been equally aimless but at least we were social about it.  The upside is that many of the YouTube people are advocates for various causes and are using their programs as platforms.  I say "upside" because they are obviously liberal causes that I support.  If they were advocating "The hunting of gorillas in the mist", or something, I wouldn't let Grace watch them!  I hope at least one good thing will come out of this brain-numbing social media which is that kids may become interested in community service and/or politics.  Grace is so obsessed with this venue that she has started her own videos for her project in Technology class at school and she has decided to study Communication in college.  I'm not sure what I think of this....  MUST NOT BE CONTROLLING MOTHER.  Yeah, right.  xxoo me