Vanity and the Italian Male

I've been away from Italy for almost 9 months and naturally a few things have changed while I was away. Some of my entertainment these days involves catching up with these changes.

The hair salon that I go to here moved during my absence. They chose a newer, smaller space which costs them less per month. This makes perfect business sense. As the space is smaller, they had to eliminate a feature that their old space had. The Man Cave.

You may be asking yourself, what is a Man Cave in a hair salon? A Man Cave in the hair salon was an area specifically dedicated to men who were getting their hair dyed. They had their own private area for the entire hair coloring process. This included a hair washing station.

The new space had no room for this feature. They have compensated by partitioning off an area to make it private for them during the coloring process but they must use the same hair washing area as everyone else. That means, others will see that they are getting their hair dyed. The horror! They have actually already lost a few male clients due to this lack of privacy issue.

As you can imagine, when this story was told to me, I was in hysterics. No sympathy here from me. I've never heard of this sort of thing being made available for women. Perhaps in some uber-swishy spa but salon procedures already cost me an arm and a leg so spending extra for this sort of thing seems silly.

I've also been totally wrong about what a Man Cave was for. I thought it was for watching sports and playing video games undisturbed. I now realize it's for the guys to get together and dye their hair.

Welcome back to Italy

I've only been back in Italy 24 hours and already my patience is being put to the test.

As it turns out, today there is a 10 hour driving ban. If you happen to have a vehicle with an even numbered plate, you can't drive from 9 am to 7 pm. As it turns out, both our cars have even numbered plates. The reason for this driving ban is to help the pollution situation. There is an increased amount lately due to the lack of wind and rain so extreme measures have been put into play. Now I understand the reason for this but this happening on my first day back is a bit of a pain. I guess I don't get to ease back into Italian life.

Welcome home WineSnob.

Women Can Be Dumbasses Too

If a guy calls you the wrong name, then begs your forgiveness in the street, even if you tell him to take his bicycle and go home, if you give him another shot....you are a dumbass.

If a guy stands you up for coffee more than once yet you still give him option #3.... you are a dumbass.