Nails on a chalkboard

Is it just me or does anyone else find Elena Santarelli's voice painfully annoying? She's a pretty girl and all, but hosting MTV's TRL does not suit her.

Grow up

As I walked up to the front door of my building, I noticed something odd: my citofono name plate was gone. Not sure who did this or why, but it's a rather complicated task to remove (read: steal) these name plates because you have to unscrew the ENTIRE metal citofono panel in order to reach the individual plates. I called the building's superintendent and he's having a new one made for me but I still just can't shake the feeling of annoyance and anger. Is this gesture supposed to mean something? Is it just a childish prank? Did someone do this out of spite?
I posted a note in the entryway about this and asked the offender to return my name plate... Fat chance, I know.
I'm blown away by all these silly games people play in the condominio, is it just an Italian phenomenon or does this happen elsewhere? One of my neighbors (who also happens to be American) had her brass doorknob stolen recently, someone got their tires slashed for parking in front of the building too long, a peace flag was ripped off another person's door.
I feel like I'm back in a college dorm, or worse- in an elementary school playground!

Tips for fellow bitchers & moaners

I recently discovered two very useful outlets for my Rome/Italy issues:

One is the Consumer Protection office. Not only do they have a phone number (and they actually answer the phone!) but they also have an office you can visit to file complaints about consumer-related issues!!! They managed to resolve a year long battle with Fastweb for me, and they did it in 2 days. LOVE them.

The second is a hotline you can call to file complaints about all city-related issues. It's the equivalent of 311 in NYC. I've had limited experience with it, but so far so good.

Slowly but surely, Rome is making "progress".

I heart Google

As much as I love Google and Googling everything under the sun, I can't help but feel it has spoiled us:

Having a discussion with a friend on which subway system is the world's oldest? Google it!
Feeling a pain in your stomach but don't need to see a doctor? Google it!
Want the lyrics to your new favorite song? Google it!
I can't help but feel nostalgic for the days when we used to sit and listen to cassette tapes over and over again, trying to decipher the lyrics to our favorite songs. I spent hours doing this as a teen- play, rewind, listen, write, play, rewind, listen, write. It was a serious hobby in my circle of friends, and as frustrating as it could be, it was such an enormous satisfaction when we finally managed to transcribe the entire song! It made our favorite songs all the more special because we'd toiled away for hours to understand the lyrics. Nowadays we just type in the name of the song and Google does the work for us- instant gratification...

Sexism & politics

But wait, there's more...

My dream job

This NYT article talks about the pooper scooper law in Brooklyn and the people who are paid to enforce this law. I'd LOVE to be the pooper scooper enforcer in Rome- anybody have connections at the Comune??

Crap

I just paid 30 euro for a toilet seat... not one of those fancy, design ones, just a simple toilet seat:


After trying in vain to get toilet seat prices over the phone (Can someone explain to my WHY Italian shopkeepers "can't give out this kind of information"? If you want my business, quote your price, it's as simple as that!), I didn't feel like schlepping around the city to find the best priced toilet seat and then hauling it back home... SO I opted for the neighborhood bathroom accessory store. They had some seats on display for 19.00 euro which seemed fine but my toilet seat is particolare (HATE that word), it's not standard size so I had to fork out 30 freaking euro for a toilet seat cover. Normally I would've stormed out but I really needed a new one. This city is out of control...

You win some, you lose some

After raving about my recent discovery (online ticketing at the Warner Village movie theater), I've been slapped in the face with Roman reality again.
Despite the horrible reviews (and the fact that I swore I'd never pay to see it), I gave in last night and decided to go see Be Kind Rewind with my peeps- worse comes to worse, I'd stare at Mos Def for the entire time.
We read it would be playing in English at Alcazar on Monday (note: Alcazar usually shows films in VO on Mondays). We called in the morning to double check and the answering machine confirmed Monday was English day for this flick.
We buy our tickets, popcorn, etc, settle in to our lovely, plush, red velvet seats and the movie starts.... IN ITALIAN. Being the spaz that I am, I jump up and storm out to the lobby. The ticket seller explained that it was supposed to be in English, but the English reels were "taken away" that afternoon. WTF does that mean? Put up a sign if the movie is NOT going to be in English, change your answering machine message so that people don't waste time organizing for nothing. Seeing my crazed state, he offered to refund us our money. And just like that, movie night flopped and we all left... but at least we left with our 7 euros in hand.