A Little Italian in all of Us?

Last night I drove two friends up to Karen #1's house up on the mountain in Willow. I watched the temperature drop steadily on the EOS as I climbed in altitude. The little chime came on with the snowflake warning me of the potential for hazardous weather. YIKES...there were snowflakes whipping around in the wind!

Willow is a little town outside of Woodstock and Bearsville, whose history I do not know. Other than farms and perhaps some hemlock cutting, I know little about this quaint old town other than it has a lot of deer and bear.

Before I got there, a deer ran out towards the side of my car, necessitating trying out my ABS brakes. The car shuddered a bit and stopped rather quickly. Fortunately he/she narrowly escaped a rather sudden death, and I took a moment to breathe through my adrenaline rush. Karen #2 and Nanette were so busy chatting that they never saw the deer and were wondering what the hell was happening. The last time I drove up here, a deer jumped clear over the hood of the CRV!

We arrived safely, even though Ms. Garmin was totally wrong about which roads to take and when to turn. Perhaps the mountains muck up the satellite signals-they certainly seem to absorb all light making night travel very difficult.

Karen is a fabulous cook, and made me birthday dinner, one course which included fresh tomato sauce. It was heavenly. She asked if there were any Italians in the room and I laughed stating that I was pretty clear cut Irish/Scottish and Lithuanian. Karen replied "oh, don't be surprised, the Romans got around". We agreed however, if the Romans had spent a lot of time in Ireland and Scotland, today's food would be much better in those countries!

So....to get to the punchline..out of the blue my daughter emails me the family history of my Lithanian side's name... Gimbutas. Who, it seems, according to Wikipedia which has information on my family name but not about Willow, NY, traces our family to a relative of Nero who escaped Rome with 500 families. They landed in Lithuania, and Duke Gimbutas is the grandson of the Roman man. So...it is possible if anyone can ever agree on the patched together history, that I do indeed have Roman blood.

I am at the tail end of the all royalty and money in my family whether it be the Dukes of Lithuania, Irishmen with servants, Scottish who meandered their way here through Nova Scotia. The titles have long since been absorbed into the ashes of time, and the money will probably never reach me---it is a standing joke in my family that when someone dies it COSTS me money. Good thing I see money only as paper...ephemeral. WHich reminds me. I have an art piece to design for a show using a dollar bill/bills in it. I had better get a move on!

Off to bed. I had a medical procedure done and it was not nice. As long as the lab results are fine, I will get over it. But right now I am not feeling so hot.

Patti O Roman Bust

PS birthday photos