Although I am having a great time returning to teaching, I still think about future and past shows, mostly past ones. I was watching the show on La Grotta di Leo last night before I went to sleep, and noticed that I had referred to the restaurant as a Rosticceria. Since I have been dining there for 18 years, and surely know that it is not that at all, my preoccupation was, "why would I say that?" I came to the conclusion as I watched the show that throughout that experience I kept thinking that I was actually doing a show on La Spada, which IS a Rosticceria. A Rosticceria incidentally is a part restaurant, part take out with a lot of the food under glass at the counter so people can choose what they want. La Grotta di Leo has no counter as La Spada does, and as I watched the show, I kept saying, "where is the counter ?" These are my two restaurants of choice in Florence, so I sometimes in my mind mix them up, especially on the air with the thousands of things going through my mind as they always do. Although I look very relaxed, my mind is constantly going trying very hard to be what I am never, perfect. Doing a live show, as I have said, has many pitfalls. The fun of spontaneity and whatever happens is there, but feeling is somehow mitigated by the fear that anything can go wrong anytime, and I can say the wrong thing at times. Fortunately it is cable access, not commercial TV so in all likelihood nobody was watching anyway. Most people wouldn't even notice, except perhaps when I put it on Youtube, the restaurant people would notice and be bewildered. I don't know if that happened, but the fact that in two weeks over 50 people have seen the show on Youtube, in all probability some of those people are the workers and owner of La Grotta di Leo and perhaps friends of theirs. I e mailed them the link, but have heard nothing back. I feel like telling them not to worry about my inadvertent misrepresentation of their eating establishment, but who knows if they would ever see the subsequent show when that would be done, or even if they would read my next e mail to them. I will try to e mail them and see what happens and report back.
In the meantime I am working on future shows. In fact I came to the conclusion that if I keep going at the rate of three shows a month, I will run out by February. Egads !!!! I may have to cut back even further. Ric and I have some lined up, but I have stopped soliciting guests who might want to be on, because 99 % of them never get around to that for whatever reason. My next three shows are being honed, that is Pistoia, Colle di Val d'Elsa, and Citta della Pieve. All three will focus on Central Italy's splendid smaller towns, and places which hold a special place in my travels. Of course, they will be from my point of view, Pistoia concentrating on our visit to Lidia's family's house for lunch with ample photos of them having a great time, Colle with our videoing Laura's friend, Matteo Cocci and his gallery show at Arte a Colori, and Citta della Pieve with its great restaurant, Taverna Perugino, and Laura and my experience with that wonderful Umbrian hill town since our first accidental visit in 2006. Then I return to the Venice Biennale, Ric's talk on the Orvieto Cathedral, and now we are into early December.
Meanwhile I love teaching college students mathematics and now think my taking a three-year break was one of the worst decisions of my life !!! How ridiculous I was. I could have been appropriately challenged and inspired and making some money to boot. Why did I think I needed a three year break ? One year perhaps, but not three. Also, I am not independently wealthy. I am a middle class guy who likes to live the good life, so isn't money needed for that ? Duh !!!! Thank God I am back, however, and hope to never quit again. I love the students and they really need some good math teaching as I can provide without much problem. They are now starting to achieve at a higher level and as the semester progresses, you can see them mature mathematically and gain confidence. It is really quite a sight to see, a wonderful experience. How I ever thought to end that is really beyond my ken !!!
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