daily life

Grouchin’ in a Winter Wonderland

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

In case you’re wondering, this is what I did not post yesterday:

I am done with winter, I am done with cold feet, and I am done with sick people trying to kiss me and my kids! I think I will spend the rest of the winter hibernating in my house. Wake me up when it is half-past May.

Yesterday at Church I hope I didn’t offend half the branch, because I just could not do the kissing thing. I resorted to the friendly wave from across the room, and acting really busy between meetings picking up all the food and pencils my children obligingly scatter around.… Read more

What’s in a Name?

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

I have been married for nearly seven years, and have never been able to decide exactly what to do about my name. Every new bride in the United States must decide whether to keep her maiden name or take her husband’s. In effect, society views it as a choice between showing your support for family values or asserting your identity as an individual equal to your husband. The debate is fraught with cultural significance, and you’d better believe that you will be judged by everyone (including yourself) on which choice you make.

What happens to those of us who would rather not choose between the two?… Read more

Our First Snowfall

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

The long-awaited snowfall finally came yesterday. We woke up to a thick white coverlet over the whole yard, and large flakes drifting slowly into the stillness of a Sunday morning. It was picture-perfect, except for the fact that it was Stake Conference, and we had to drive all the way to faraway Alessandria for church. We already had our breakfast and lunch packed, and we woke up the children and piled everyone into the car at 7:45. The Conference began at 10:30, but they wanted everyone in their seats by 10:00, so we had planned an early start. As we pulled out, our landlord was shoveling the inch of snow off the driveway, and shook his head over our lack of snow tires.… Read more

A Few Thanksgiving Thoughts

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

It’s Thanksgiving in the United States today. Last year we had Thanksgiving with Grammy and Pampa and Uncle Curt on our back porch in sunny Fallbrook. I was sick and depressed. Tony was between jobs again. Grammy mostly cooked the whole dinner herself. I don’t remember if I even did anything besides feel tired. This year things aren’t quite back to normal, but they are better. A lot better. At least I can picture them getting back to normal, which was hard to do last year. So this Thanksgiving I feel thankful for some really big things, and a lot of little things.… Read more

Chinese Buns

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

You know you’ve been in Italy too long when your daughter’s copious drawings suddenly all consist of huge psychedelically decorated depictions of candy. Is she attempting to visually portray the sensation of a sugar high? Her latest covert source of caramelli is our next-door neighbor, who in all fairness does gift her seed pods of various sorts as well. They seem to have a special understanding. Who else would have intuited that the offering Axa would appreciate most (aside from those caramelli, of course), would be random yard clippings?

Yesterday we also inadvertently netted birthday cake, syrupy baked pears, and chestnut cake.… Read more

Pizza and Conversation

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Sorry you didn’t hear from me yesterday. But I have a good excuse. We came home from Church at mid-day, opened our front door, and were nearly bowled over by the heavy scent of gasoline emanating from our apartment. I took a deep gulp of fresh outside air and dashed heroically into the house to see if I had left the gas stove on. I hadn’t, and we don’t really have any other ways to leak gas into our house. So we went upstairs to talk to our landlord. He was not at home, but when his wife phoned him, he confessed that he had indeed spilled gasoline that morning as he was filling up his car in the garage.… Read more

WordPress is here!

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

You may have noticed that Casteluzzo has a new look. I’ve been contemplating this for months, and finally made the big switch to self-hosted WordPress yesterday. It only took me three long chat sessions with Aravan in India and then Alexei in Russia (my hosting service is apparently an international employer. Isn’t it ironic that all three of us were up in the middle of the night together keeping faraway American time?) to get everything sorted out. Between my (virtually nonexistent) php skills and their (slightly better) English skills, I’m still not quite sure what I did wrong in the first place.… Read more

The Mother of Invention (aka Sarah)

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Faithful readers, thanks for indulging my bad day/week/year. And I really appreciate the responses, both public and private. I was especially touched by the personal stories of your own challenges that you so generously shared with me. The difficult roads we travel are a little less lonely when we walk them together. And of course, Goethe said it best:

The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us, and though distant, is close to us in spirit – this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.

… Read more

Unromantic Interlude

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

So, it’s been a pretty stressful week. (Couldn’t you tell from my heightened irritation with politics and Facebook?) Today being Saturday, Tony was home, and stayed with the children while I took a much-needed walk alone in the beautiful rainbow autumn of Piemonte. I had been out walking perhaps five minutes when I saw a man on a bicycle up ahead, and instinctively avoided eye contact. There was something just a little creepy about him. He said good morning, and I repeated the greeting tonelessly, still without looking at him. “Hey,” he said (in Italian, obviously), “Aren’t you even going to say hello?… Read more

Bicentennial Bash!

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

That’s right, faithful readers. This is post number 200 on Casteluzzo. And you are here to see it. I took a trip down memory lane today and went back and read old posts (yes, I’m afraid I spend way too much time reading my own blog). I thought for today we’d go on a little treasure hunt through the archives and I’d let you know what are some of my favorite posts of various sorts.


I started this blog as an occasional outlet for the profound thoughts I just had to share with the world. After all, it had been only a few years since I was in college taking philosophy classes, and I was still full of profound thoughts at the time.
… Read more