Esmeralda's Road

Just a lil overall update since the launch

Here we go again. It’s almost midnight on Thursday April 25th 2024. I had all these grand plans for edits, updates and articles I would make to this newborn site. I started a grant application which I paused in order to record the recommended video pitching my company to investors. All of this to be done once I recuperated from a two week stint with sinusitis (my first, ew!). 

Sure I did some work on Monday, but since I was still recovering and had worked a bit too much on launch day, I mostly rested. Tuesday I started checking things off my personal to-do list. I had been neglecting lots of that – what with the trips back home (both of them), the wedding, the beta launch [and preceding illness].

Public healthcare & Italian bureaucracy

I turned out to be super productive on the personal front! I scheduled three out of four referral appointments, one of which was a last minute stroke of luck. Thank goodness I can do that online through the Regione Toscana site. 

Public healthcare is a wonderful thing, but it always has its cons. In Italy that means tons of running around to different places for the infamous ricetta dal medico, it means nearly everyone takes advantage of the services which tends to equal extremely long wait times. 

Sometimes though, you get lucky. I scheduled the first two (most important) for June and November. The third I figured I’d try – an eye exam. Last time I checked (in 2023) appointments were being given for early 2025! But what sometimes happens, if you keep checking, is that someone may have canceled and you get in! 

So the next morning I had to shake up the Etch-a-Sketch of a schedule I’d made for myself and take a jaunt over to Careggi’s CTO building. I’d given myself 10 minutes to find parking and boy was that an underestimation!

I pride myself in always manifesting (oopsies did I just make you cringe??)  a parking spot right in front of my destination. But every once in a blue moon the universe humbles me, and this was one of those times. 

By the time I finally made it through the obstacle course that is the triple reception desks on my way to the correct floor for my appointment, I was 34 minutes late. Even by Italian standards that’s late!

Rather than freak out, I forged on. After walking up and down that wing searching for signs of the ophthalmologist, I finally asked the three nurses I’d tried to interrupt earlier. They told me it was all the way in the back, right next to the pressed wood chip wall – construction is typical in public healthcare buildings.

I timidly (haha yes, I can be timid), walked back there and poked my head around the corner hoping they hadn’t left for lunch, yet. I was greeted by a tired-looking nurse. Despite my gross tardiness, the tired-but-nice nurse walked back and forth between different rooms and secured my visit. Phew! All that just to confirm that I still have perfect vision and the discomfort I feel driving at night once in a while is totally normal.

I am enough

Needless to say, I did not spend the 10:00 – 12:00 hour slot I’d blocked off working on the next offering I am planning for my side-hustlin’-self-work-doin’-community. Nor did I spend it writing articles for one of the many umbrella topics on the site. 

And still… I am proud of myself. Yes, here we go again. Here we go again with life. Here we go again with the cycle of unnecessary guilt. I mean, I continue to make progress, consistently. I constantly have to remind myself that every year I am better than the one before and am making strong progress. I feel this way because we are supposed to feel like we are never doing enough. 

Aahh! Oopsies again! (aka Life in Italy)

All of the above was written just over a week ago – today is May 3rd. Again, I had every intention of finishing and posting this IMMEDIATELY. But then what happened – the next day my husband was off April 25th is a public holiday and most Italians do what you call a “ponte” which is when a holiday lands on a Tuesday or Thursday and so they take the Monday or Friday off as well – a bridge.

So naturally, I spent the morning with him and then I ran a bunch of errands that I’d been meaning to run since we got back from Mexico. But honestly, I didn’t do that til about 5pm. What was I doing before that? Not sure tbh.

I could have completed it that evening (a Friday) but I had dinner plans with a friend. Then on Saturday I had to pack for our upcoming trip to Calabria (Monday) so I spent the morning doing laundry and the afternoon rummaging through my closet.

That second part turned into me emptying every single drawer of clothes I have because I knew that there were tons of things in there that I honestly will never wear in Florence. And since we tend to use the abundant space in Salvatore’s childhood home as a storage unit of sorts (sorry mamma!)… I wanted to get as much out as possible.

That evening I had more dinner plans and then on Sunday… Well, we spent the day at the biggest spa in Italy – Asmana. My friend’s mom had been in town for three months and I’d promised to take her there and somehow the three months were gone and she was leaving while we were set to still be in Calabria.

After the spa we finished packing and the next morning we were off! The drive to Fuscaldo from Florence is a full eight hours. Could I have typed in the car? Definitely. Did I? Absolutely not. I chose to read a novel that I’d started a couple of days before that I couldn’t put down. And I drove of course – we usually split the drive by doing two hours at a time.

The very next day I spent two nights at a treehouse with our nephew. We got back yesterday (Thursday) and I thought about finishing this then. Instead I decided to rest and get at it today. I’m glad I did because now I feel ready to write a few more short articles and definitely post this one. Maybe I’ll even have the energy/time to cross a few other things off of my business to-do list. Let me not get ahead of myself though… Until next time!