So What Happened to You?

This is more or less the blast email that I sent out to all my friends I haven't talked to since last October:

Where do I start? We have 12 games left in our season, 4 in the next week, then 2 weeks off completely from hockey, then 2 more games, then another week off, then 6 more and we then end the season somewhere in February... If we're top 4 we go in playoffs, and if we're in the bottom 4 we're in playdowns and that would be terrible. Right now we're 4 points from 3rd and 4 more points from last. A win is 3, a OT win is 2, and an OT loss is 1.
My ticket home is for April 7th, I think...
Somewhere in there I want to travel to Venice and Milan.

But ya, married life.. man... honestly where do I start? A part of it is having a best friend... inside jokes, doing things together, shared interests, and ganging up on other people...
But then there are things like... having to keep the house clean, picking up after yourself, shaving, showering, that they yell at you about if you don't do it EVERY DAY... ugh. And that can get difficult... and annoying.
And I have to admit that probably the hardest part for us was figuring out how to handle it when we both disagree on something fairly important... or compromising on things... because so many times it seems like a zero sum game... and so many times it feels like you're giving up everything and they're giving up nothing... Like, for example, I have to shower now... and she hasn't stopped showering or anything... so that isn't at all a compromise... now is it?... and I'm a little rattled about that.
But she's awesome in wanting her own space and giving it to me to go out with the guys when I want to... because sometimes you just need that. And she also puts up with me being a nerd and playing video games... and even listens to me when I talk about Zeitgeist, or my new thing, the end of the world in 2012 according to the History Channel and fiction. (The Earth travels through the galactic plane of the Milky Way for the first time in 26,000 years and could possibly shift the poles and cause massive weather change and earthquakes)

And Italy?

They only have 4 kinds of potato chips here in Italy: Paprika, Sour Cream and Onion, Salted, and Salt and Pepper... With the Salted sometimes we buy a bottle of Vinegar and dip the chips in it to create my favorite kind of chip.

Everywhere you go there is a restaurant that makes the absolute "best pizza in the whole world... you have to try it"... "You did it! Congratulations!!"... and every time we go to a place we realize that, yes, it's true... "that was the best pizza in the world!"... and I think it has something to do with every place have a wood-burning oven... There is one place we haven't tried yet that is maybe 20 minutes away and puts cheese inside the crusts like Pizza Hut... which I'm excited about...

Surprisingly enough there is actually a really good Steak House here in Brunico that we went to New Year's Eve.... and even more surprising is that it was the best Steak I've had in years... maybe ever... and I'm not joking about that at all...

The majority of the people here are actually German and speak dialect (a combination of German and Italian maybe?), so I don't really experience 'Italian life', per se. I do know that there is a mix. You can tell Italians by the fact that they like soccer, drive Fiats, and live with their parents until they're 40... and you can tell Germans by the fact that they like hockey, beer, drive Mercedes Benzs and raise their kids tough... cause if they are crying it will build their character in the end.

There is one road that goes through the town of Bruneck... the only road that goes to the largest ski hill in Italy... and the same road that I take every day to the rink... AND SO... some busy days I get stuck in 30 minutes of traffic on this road to travel 2 only blocks before I turn off to the rink... and other days I leave early to compensate for traffic and then there isn't a car on the road...