A good day

Yesterday was a pretty good day. There was no one thing that made it great but a lot of little things. Mainly it was after work that things were so good so I’ll start there. I went to the gym to work out. The usual crowd was there and I was happy because I remembered the phrase that Umberto taught me on Monday. The phrase is “Ti puzza la fatia”. This is Brindisi dialect and not real Italian so don’t bother looking it up. Literally it would mean, “You smell of fatigue”. Nicely put it something like “Not working too hard are we?” It started as a joke in the gym when I was waiting to use a specific machine. Now we decided to make a phrase in local dialect part of the gym routine. A new phrase for every day I’m in the gym. Last night he went deeper into dialect. “Osci non ti sta` ncodda`”. Now first we translate this into Italian “Oggi non ti sta una cosa”. Now in English “Today, you don’t feel like doing a thing.” This is very similar to the first phrase joking about how you’re not working hard. Today I realized if I change the “ti” to “mi” then I could say, “Today, I don’t feel like doing anything” (Osci non mi sta` ncodda`”).
Back to yesterday. On the way out of the gym I ran into Monica and we talked for a short time. She always has a plan for something to get her out of town. Classes in Venice, work in Spain. She should realize that going out with me would be the best plan but I’ve gotten over that a long time ago. She didn’t seem to have a new plan just yet. It was funny because everyone was stopping to talk to her because no one has seen her in a while. It made having a conversation difficult so I resumed my walk home and she tried to continue her way into town. Still it's always fun to run into someone you haven't seen in a while.
About 50 feet up the road I ran into Alberta my neighbor talking to a pharmacist outside his store. She said that Nello was watching her work on the computer about a half hour ago. Nello has learned if he gets up on the balcony railing and goes all the way to one corner then he can see into Alberta’s apartment. It worries me because he could probably jump from the railing in her window if he wanted to and the window was open. Plus, he really seems to like her so he would do it. She said she opened the window and yelled at him to get down and he did. But we all know that sort of tactic will only work a few more times and then he’ll ignore it when he realizes she can’t stop him. Still I think she likes having him watching and it’s just funny to think of his curiosity in everything around him.
Further along on my way back I stopped to get a pizza at THE pizza place. It was only around 8:15 PM so almost no one was there. I showed off my new phrases and they almost split a gut laughing so hard. They really liked hearing it and offered many new phrases but without writing them down I’m at loss to remember them. This pizzeria could be the heart of Brindisi’s dialect as it used to be “La Brindisina” (Now it’s “La Antica Sapore”) and they had the lyrics to a song on the menu that was so deep in dialect I could only find a few words in a dictionary. I didn’t know what I wanted for dinner and the old man (I forget his name) offered to make the “Spiritoso”. It’s a pizza with a different flavor in every slice. Hmmm, I don’t remember seeing that on the menu. He carefully placed toppings to make about 8 different pizzas on this one. It was perfect, except for the part with yellow peppers but I ate around them. I have a picture of the pizza that I’ll put up.
The day couldn’t be perfect though because I arrived home just in time to watch the Inter –Bayern Monaco game. The game was not good at all. Inter lost 0-2 and two Inter players were sent off with red cards.