My HOLY SMOKES Weekend with Kimmie...

Kimmie's Welcoming Committee of Cranes outside our Home

Jennie & Natie helping Kimmie settle into our Hotel Room

Natie, Jennie, & Kimmie = Long Lost Triplets!

Our Triplet Photo on the Hotel Room Couch

Jennie & Natie giggling before Jumping WILDY on the Hotel Bed

Jennie & Natie attempting to be GRACEFUL while Jumping

The WILD Twins Jumping with Glee on the Hotel Bed

We imagined that this song should be playing while we jumped:

"Shout" by The Isley Brothers (1959)

Kimmie...You know, you make us want to SHOUT!!

Jennie fanning & Natie clapping after the SHOUT FEST!

Natie & Kimmie Celebrating the Gift of Our Own Hotel Room

Kimmie & Natie Excited for our WILD WEEKEND!!

(This photo was submitted to the Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin!)

Kimmie & Natie's Hotel Room...HOLY SMOKES!!

Natie preparing her NEW CAMERA to "Memorex" our Weekend

Natie in PURE BLISS!!

Kimmie & Natie in PURE BLISS together :)

Kimmie preparing her Camera to Record our Shenanigans!!

Kimmie's Camera took this Titled Photo of the Hotel Desk Area!!

Natie's Reflection shooting a photo of the Hotel Painting

Natie & Kimmie's DARK SHADOWS!!

"DARK SHADOWS" by Tim Burton with Johnny Depp (2012)

Ooooh...Drapes of Darkness -- Now, all we need is Johnny Depp :)

Sunlight streaming through the Drapes of Darkness

Kimmie & Natie Soaking Up the Sun through our Dark Drapes :)

Apparently, we were following the advice of Sheryl Crow:

"Soak Up the Sun" by Sheryl Crow



Natie, why don't you Lighten Up??

Natie officially LIGHTENED UP in front of the Macy's Fountain! 

Little Orphan Natie Seated on the Fountain Ledge

Natie Chillin' Outside of Barnes & Nobles

Natie's "Magazine Look" at the Fountain

Natie & Kimmie at the Fountain

The Breast Cancer Memorial Wall Plaque

Natie's Purple Heaven at Charming Charlie's

Natie trying on Jeweled Head Gear at Charming Charlie's

Little Natie's Charming Purple "Fascinator" :)

Kimmie is a Boticelli Painting even with her Fishnet Fascinator!

Here is my favorite Boticelli Painting:

"VENUS & MARS" by Boticelli



Does not Kimmie's Hair look like Venus's in Boticelli's Painting?

Windswept Natie Outside the Cafe

I'll Have an Iced Coffee with Half & Half, please!

Natie Striking a Pose...

And Imagining Madonna singing in the background:

"Vogue" by Madonna

CAUTION!! NATIE'S OFFICIALLY GONE WILD :)

Kimmie & Natie are WILD GIRLS!!

Even though that was the door of someone else's Hotel Room, Kimmie & I were indeed the WILD ONES in Florida:

"Wild Ones" by Flo Rida featuring Sia:

I am the Wild One, Running with Wolfs & I'm on the Prowl :)

Hey, it's not a Wolf...it's our Beautiful Ben-a-mino!!

Natie & Jennie on the Prowl with Benamino!

Benamino Love

As this song plays in the background:

"Stereo Love" by Edward Maya

Natie, Benamino, & Jennie Happy to See Kimmie :)

Jennie, Natie, Mama, & Kimmie Celebrate Christmas in October!

Because Natie is SUCH a Florida "Cracker" next to the "Barrel"

Because Natie is WORTH IT ($129.99)!!

Classic Portrait of Kimmie with her lovely Draping Skirt!

Kimmie & Natie Begin their Last Wild Night together :(

Natie's Night Reflection at the Window Sill

Natie's "SAINTLY" Aura Shines through the Window

Natie Embracing the Heavens from the Hotel Bed :)

Little Red Riding Hood

 Bolero Natie

And hearing Ravel in her head:

"Bolero" by Ravel

The Return of "SAINT" Natie

YES! VICTORY FOR NATIE!!

Or as my Father would say, "Vincero":

"Nessun Dorma" by Puccini



Natie & Kimmie by Hotel Lamp Light

Kimmie, I can see your Halo, too!

And Beyonce can prove it:

"Halo" by Beyonce

Don't Natie & Kimmie look like Sisters?

Obviously, Natie has gotten Kimmie to read the Hotel Bible!

Natie finding Joy in Reading the Holy Book!

Or Natie Drunk on Klondike Bar while Reading the Holy Book :)

Natie's Sinful Grimace at the Holy Book!

Kimmie Comforting Natie as her "SAINTHOOD" is in Question :(

Hallelujah, what (Disco) Light from yonder Heavens Breaks?

 Kimmie's Discovery of God's Karma for Natie's Unholiness

Natie in PANIC -- AHHHH!

Natie's Doomed Sweater -- Blackened with Soot!

Natie's Resurrected Sweater -- Saved by Angel Kimmie :)

The Hotel Pool View from Our Window

Tampa International Airport View from Parking Garage

 Kimmie, Is Not Parting Such Sweet Sorrow :(

For My Gorgeous Better Half, JENNIE, On Our Birthday...

JENNIE!! Here is your BIRTHDAY SONG, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by the identical Scottish twins "The Proclaimers" off the soundtrack from the quirky romantic comedy classic "Benny & Joon"  (1993), starring your beloved favorite actor, Johnny Depp, opposite Mary Staurt Masterson:


"I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimers

My BIRTHDAY WISH for you is that a Johnny Depp clone, with "a look of Buster Keaton" wearing a top hat & suspenders and swinging carefreely OUTSIDE your 8th story WINDOW to win your attention, will "proclaim":

"I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more just to be the man who walked 1000 miles to fall down at your door!"

I ♥ SHARING MY BIRTHDAY WITH YOU, DEAREST ONE!!!!

In this week of our birth...here is the touching story of Patricia & Joan Miller, identical twin sisters who left this world together at the age of 73 -- as you said, "it's like The Notebook," but with twins!"

Twins Patricia & Joan Miller Article and Video:
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/08/10610435-cops-amateur-sleuths-find-relatives-of-mysterious-twins

And here we are...a photo memory for our birthday...

BIRTHDAY TWINS!!

Because...

"I thought I understood it -- that I could grasp it, but I didn't...
Not really. Only the Smudgeness of it.
The pink-slippered, all-containered, semi-precious Eagerness of it...I didn't realize it would sometimes be more than whole...that the wholeness was a rather luxurious idea.

Because it's the Halves that Halve you in Half.

Didn't know, don't know about the in-between bits --
The gory bits of you & the gory bits of me..."

--Felicity Jones in Like Crazy (2011) -- your favorite film of the year which we received during our birthday week on March 6th!  Anna & Jacob in the film are like twin souls that can't be apart...

LIKE CRAZY TRAILER 1:

Because, as Anna tells Jacob...

"The things we have with each other are things that I don't have with any other person -- with any other human being apart from you."

Because...

I Love You -  LIKE CRAZY!!

LIKE CRAZY TRAILER 2:

From Your "Bennie" ♥ ♥

If Things were Easy to Find...They wouldn't Be Worth Finding!

Two weeks ago today, I went with Sharon Masturzo to see the film Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.   Beautifully directed by Stephen Daldry, and based on the critically acclaimed novel of the same name by Jonathan Safran Foer, the film intimately follows the unique perspective of Oskar Schell, a nine-year-old boy with manifestations of Asperger's Syndrome who struggles to make sense of the death of his father during the World Trade Center attacks on September 11th, 2001.  A year after that "worst day," as Oskar calls it, he finds a mysterious key in his dad's closet and obsessively plans an expedition to find its purpose, which he believes will "stretch out his 8 minutes with his father."  Armed only with a backback of bare essentials, a tamburine to keep him calm, and, most importantly, a newspaper clipping on which his father circled the phrase "To Not Stop Looking,"  accompanied by the vivid memory of his father's favorite adage, "If things were easy to find, they wouldn't be worth finding," Oskar battles his hypersensitive fears of the outside world (made even more acute in the wake of the attacks) and the strangers he meets in all five boroughs of New York City to search for the lock that, by his reasonings, his father's key must fit.

I knew I would love the film from the trailers, especially in light of the fact that Stephen Daldry directed another of my all-time favorite films, Billy Elliot, about an extraordinary boy who, like Oskar, struggles with the loss of a parent at a young age.  Interestingly, Billy Elliot was released into theaters a year before September 11th, and the week I was released from an extensive hospitalization which left me frail and depressed.  I will never forget how the opening sequence of Billy leaping gracefully with ballet moves "like electricity" to his favorite record lifted my spirits.  This opening is skillfully echoed by Stephen Daldry in the beginning shots for Extremely Loud, although in a much more somber manner. 

Trailer 1: "My Dad said, "Sometimes we have to face our fears."

Trailer 2: "If things were easy to find, they wouldn't be worth finding."

It must not have been easy for Stephen Daldry to find Thomas Horn, the 13-year-old first-time actor/newcomer who, despite his lack of acting training or experience, delivers an innately moving and emotionally complex performance as 9-year-old Oskar. The energetic and agile spirit of movement that Thomas Horn embodies as a small boy who could fit into tiny spaces and run through New York City streets brought back the spirit of dance that was, of course, a part of Billy Elliot.  A recent "For Your Consideration" online article praises young Thomas, saying in part:

“Thomas Horn, who gives perhaps the most extraordinary performance by a child in a leading role in recent cinematic memory (above Anna Paquin who won the Oscar for her supporting role in “The Piano,” and on a par with Keisha-Castle Hughes who was nominated for her newcomer leading role in “Whale Rider”), particularly considering the fact that he had no previous acting training and yet delivers an incredibly moving and frenetic 8 minute monologue at a pivotal moment in the film (to adopt Oskar’s obsessive phrase, “I know because I’ve counted!”), was incomprehensibly not recognized by the Academy.  If only our 8 minutes with Thomas (like Oskar’s 8 minutes with his Dad) were stretched out a little longer…”

It is during this fast-paced 8 minute monologue that Thomas, fully embodying Oskar in a tormented outpouring to "The Renter" (played Max Von Syndow in an Oscar-nominated supporting role), recites his father's favorite adage.

Clip 1 -- Oskar to "The Renter": "How come you don't speak?"

Oskar's father is played by Tom Hanks, whose encouraging rapport with young Thomas Horn in each scene they share as father and son is "incredibly close," in tune, adoring, and precious.

Clip 2 -- Oskar to His Dad: "Was there really a 6th Borough?"

Indeed, Thomas's work in the film was further recognized this week when he won the Critic's Choice Award for Best Young Actor/Actress against other notable teenagers who have been in front of film cameras since before they could talk.  His receipt of the award is well-deserved, though, because it is his performance -- most notably the expressiveness of his coin-size blue eyes and the depth of emotion he channels through them -- that drives every scene of the exceptional film.

Critic's Choice -- Best Young Actor/Actress: Thomas Horn

http://www.vh1.com/video/misc/723951/best-young-actor-actress-thomas-horn.jhtml?xrs=playershare_fb 

Another article published on the Canadian film website Tribute.ca in December 2011 likewise praises Thomas's performance as worthy of an Oscar nomination:

Tribute.ca Breakout Star: Thomas Horn

http://www.tribute.ca/news/index.php/extremely-loud-incredibly-close-breakout-star-thomas-horn/2011/12/14/#.T2Lggl542-Q.facebook

Remarkably, Thomas Horn was discovered after appearing on an episode of "Kid's Jeopardy" by producer Scott Rudin, who happened to be watching that particular evening in 2010 when it aired.  Thomas, who is by all accounts, just as exceptionally intelligent and hypercurious as his character in Extremely Loud, won the game by an impressive margin over his equally capable competitors, gaining the attention of Mr. Rudin, and subsequently Mr. Daldry who called him in for a grueling 5-day audition. 

Finding Thomas Horn: Jeopardy Kids Week 2010

Thomas Horn Interview 1: "It's not the typical casting procedure..."

http://www.hulu.com/watch/310769/access-hollywood-thomas-horns-curious-time-in-extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close?from=fb_share&fb_source=message

Thomas Horn Interview 2: "Oskar's Dad is 95% of his world..."

Thomas Horn Interview 3: On Finding the True Purpose of Oskar's Key...

Thomas Horn at the Berlin Press Conference PART 1

Thomas Horn at the Berlin Press Conference PART 2

Aiding Thomas's portrayal of the grief-striken Oskar is the film's original score composed by Alexandre Desplat.  My favorite track of the score is #4 called "The Very Best Plan" which plays over a poignant scene when Oskar is preparing to embark on the expedition for his father's key. I love the at once fragile and urgent piano melody that comes towards the end of that track which captures both Oskar's fear and determined resolve to "Not Stop Looking."

"The Very Best Plan" Track #4 by Alexandre Desplat

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which is nominated for a Best Picture Oscar this year, particularly touched me because Oskar's personal journey (and how Thomas expresses this journey, while portraying the boy's hypersensitive phobias) captures so many familiar aspects of losing one's father at a young age.  Like Oskar,  I was nearly 9 when my father died, and still hold on to many indelible memories of how "incredibly close" we were.  Beyond that, it captures the universal experience of deeply grieving over and trying to make sense of losing a loved one who -- in Oskar's case -- is senselessly taken too soon and, like the phantom "6th Borough" and the collapsed and crumbled Twin Towers, can never be recovered or replaced.

What Oskar ends up finding, in the end, is in his father's words, his "own excellence (worth)," as the enduring human legacy his father left behind... (or in another words, as Tom Hanks exclaims to young Thomas, "You ROCK!") 

As the original song "Everything Must Find Its Place" by Sleeperstar reinforces:

Music Video: "Everything Must Find Its Place" by Sleeperstar

      

Back to December...

The title of this post is taken from my favorite Taylor Swift song of the same name from her latest album, Speak Now.  Not only does the song's title appropriately evoke December since we are currently in the final days of that month, but it also evokes a universal story and theme that particularly resonates with me as this year draws to a close.  Although "Back to December" addresses a male significant other in the wake of a breakup, as portrayed in Taylor Swift's video for the song, the lyrics can be applied to any kind of friendship or close relationship, and expresses the hopelessly wretched feeling of wishing one could take something back that seems irreversible:

"...Your guard is up and I know why --
So this is me swallowing my pride, standing in front of you, saying I'm sorry for that night...
And I'd go back to December, turn around, and make it alright --
I go back to December all the time.

These days, I haven't been sleeping, staying up, playing back myself leaving --
And I think about summer, all the beautiful times, I watched you laughing from the passenger's side...
I'd go back in time and change it, but I can't --
So if the chain is on your door, I understand..."

The lyrics of the song also convey the importance of appreciating those close to us whom we could easily take for granted, and of "speaking" (the theme that threads the songs of the album) that appreciation to our loved ones, as Taylor Swift demonstrates in her video for the song when she drafts her "poem of apology" which she slips into the boy's jacket pocket.  The video also effectively depicts the desolation of the speaker's feelings through the December snow blowing into the house -- notably from outside the bedroom WINDOW -- and through the boy being left "out in the cold", so to speak:


"BACK TO DECEMBER" VIDEO -- TAYLOR SWIFT

 

Finally, the sentiment expressed in the song of desperately wishing one could go back and change things, or make things right, or do things over, particularly resonates at the end of a year or at the beginning of a new one when the so-called "resolutions" are made.  Such "resolutions" can all too soon be forgotten, or broken unless consciously scribbled in a notebook, as Taylor Swift shows us in the video.

So, to all my dear family and friends that read this blog post: here is my conscious scribbling of the resolution to "speak" my appreciation and gratitude for you and to you in the coming year, or as Taylor Swift puts it, to "go back to December all the time."  

I Know I am Small, But I am Quite Grown Up...

I am often reminded -- by strangers and friends alike -- how small I am, and how young I look. 

Two and a half years ago, when I visited Emily Dickinson's Homestead in Amherst, Massachussetts during a week-long writing retreat, the tour guide at the homestead singled me out to illustrate to the rest of the tourists, how tall -- or more accurately -- how small Emily Dickinson really was, standing under 5 feet, and fitting into a child's size lace housedress that she wore daily until her death at age 56.     

More recently, upon my return from England two months ago, I visited two doctors in one day -- visits that left me feeling quite "otherworldly" when they were through, half because of what was taken from me during the first appointment, and half because of what was said to me during the second, as I reflect in my Facebook status later that evening:

·   

This morning, I felt Edward Cullen's presence as the doctor took 6 viles of my blood for tests...and then felt Frodo Baggin's presence when, a couple hours later, another doctor told me, "Your just tiny all over!" What world am I in, praytell?

Immediately picking up on my Frodo Baggin's reference, a friend commented on my status:

You're not a hobbit trust me..You must be a fairy princess :-)

I replied:

...Just like in the John Keats movie BRIGHT STAR, when Fanny Brawne (small girl that she was) tells Keats about the Fairy Princess engraved on the wall in the room that they share, and he responds: "Is the Fairy Princess you?" Have you seen that film??

BRIGHT STAR TRAILERS:

U.S. Trailer

European Trailer

Bright Star "Fairy Princess" Clip

 

Still, the Frodo Baggins' Hobbit reference inevitably returned on several occasions... 

Around this time, Elijah Wood, the young-looking, diminuitive actor who played Frodo in The Lord of the Rings films, gave several late-night interviews, first to Craig Ferguson during which they mostly converse about places they've been, even engaging in humorous banter about visiting Florida:

Craig: Have you been to Florida?
Elijah: Uh, I have, yeah.
Craig: What's your favorite part of Florida? The tip?
Elijah: The...airport...
(laughter)
... I'm not a big Florida fan.
Craig: Really? You don't like the warm weather & old people?
Elijah: Uh, you know what? I've not spent enough time there...I've never been to Miami & I've never been to South Beach, so I think those are super...

Craig: Oh, great...

Elijah Interview with Craig Ferguson

 

So, I lamented:

"OH GREAT, FOR SURE!!! I think all hopes I had for him are now officially dashed :( And I so wanted to have a chance to become, in essence, Natalie(a) *Wood*..."

The second interview Elijah gave added a ring of truth to our jokes about me being his female match since the actor barely has time to get comfortable in his chair before Conan O'Brien launches into the subject of Elijah's apparent inability to age:

Conan: You do not age...and for a while it seemed kind of cool -- now it's just getting scary to me.
Elijah: (laughing)
Conan: (To audience) Have you noticed that this man does not age at all?
(Audience Applause)

Elijah, seemingly used to such remarks, self-deprecatingly goes along with Conan's observations, and evokes two other literary characters that he was never cast to play -- Dorian Grey and Edward Cullen (the 108-year-old vampire that is physically frozen at 17, the age he "changed"):

 Elijah: It's weird...I'm like...I'm 30, Conan.
... Conan: You're 30?
Elijah: I'm 30!
Conan: Wow.
Elijah: I freak people out constantly about this. I look like I'm 18 still, believe me, I look in the mirror every day. I try and grow my facial hair. It doesn't grow out fast enough...it's pitiful. Conan: Right. It's going to be creepy if I talk to you in 40 years and you still look exactly the same...(laughter) and I'm a skeleton. Elijah: What's that character with the picture in the attic?
Conan: Dorian Grey.
Elijah: Maybe I'm Dorian Grey...
Conan: Yeah, there's a picture of you somewhere aging...you're getting younger and younger. You might be a vampire!
Elijah: That's true. I do hang out in Venice alot...

Link: Elijah Wood Interview on Conan Video
http://teamcoco.com/video/elijah-wood-secret-look-young

Despite Elijah's impressive and light-hearted handling of the subject, Conan manages to markedly return to it again toward the end of the interview, joking:

"I just realize why you look so young -- you're cloning yourself!" 

All joking aside, though, Elijah's interview reminded me of a striking scene in the Masterpiece Theater adaptation of Charles Dickens's gorgeous novel, Little Dorrit, when the tiny, selfless heroine, Amy Dorrit, seeks work as seamstress to pay her father's insurmountable debts, and goes to interview with the intimidating Mrs. Clenham.  Upon first beholding her, Mrs. Clenham's butler exclaims:

"You're very small, ain't you!" 

Not missing a beat, Amy replies:

"Yes, sir...I am strong."

Skeptical, the butler eyes her up and down and insists:

"You look a shrimpy little thing to me."

Moments later, when Amy meets Mrs. Clenham herself, the elderly woman sits forward in her wheelchair and observes:

"Why, you're a child!"

Again, without hestitation, Amy replies:

"I'm 21, Mrs. Clenham. I know I am small, but I am quite grown up."

Little Dorrit Part 1: Amy meets Mrs. Clenham

Little Dorrit: Scenes from Episode 1

Little Amy's experience going for the interview with Mrs. Clenham captures the essence of why I identify so strongly with her character, a fact never more so apparent to me than in the past week because...

Last Saturday, October 15, I interviewed for a full-time Tenure Track English Instructor Position at the college where I currently adjunct and tutor part-time.  When I entered the interview room, I expected that the members of the hiring committee, particularly the College President who hadn't formally met me yet, would no doubt observe my small stature and youthful appearance...And, from their initial looks, I believe they did... 

But, to my own surprise -- perhaps because I expected it -- this did not seem to intimidate me, and I was able to answer their questions without wavering, just as Elijah Wood (a.k.a Frodo) and Amy Dorrit had in their interviews. 

A few days later, the College President formally offered me the position! So, I am set to begin as a full-time instructor in January! In an e-mail of congratulations, one of the committee members wrote, "Your interview was impressive, indeed."

Whether Hobbit, Fairy Princess, or Little Dorrit, it does seem that, despite appearances, I am quite grown up, after all...

ABBIAMO VINTO, CARA AMANDA!

Today, after spending 4 excruciating years behind bars in Perugia, Italy, and with the unbearable prospect of spending the rest of their lives locked up for a heinous crime they did not commit, Amanda Knox, and her former boyfriend, Rafaelle Sollecito, were at last acquitted and set free by an Italian appeals court which, in their decision overturning the convictions, vehemently repudiated the prosecution's baseless, slanderous, and malicious accusations against the innocent Amanda and Rafaelle that threatened to destroy their lives. 

My mother, sister, and I have been emotionally invested in this case from the beginning -- first, because of our Italian roots (my father was raised and spent much of his adult life there, and my mother still has family who live there) and because the event took place in Perugia, where Jennie and I -- like Amanda -- went to study Italian at the Universita' per Stranieri during our first years in college at Bryn Mawr. Somewhat forebodingly, at the urging of our mother, Jennie and I left Perugia after only a couple of weeks, and instead, spent the remainder of our summer abroad in our father's hometown of Riva Del Garda at the base of the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy.    

Like most who heard about the brutal murder of Meredith Kercher in late 2007, and subsequently the strange behavior of the young couple who were seen comforting each other outside the apartment Amanda and Meredith shared, we were initially taken in by the sensational reports that were coming from Italy, which portrayed Amanda and Rafaelle as something more sinister than young lovers.  But, as we followed the case more closely, and learned about Amanda's merciless and coercive 48 hour nonstop interrogation by the Perugian police, in which she was was asked by investigators to, in effect, imagine a scenario in which she were present inside the apartment as the crime was taking place, as well as about the ruthless and corrupt prosecutor named Guiliano Mannini who had a decades' long history of building prosecutorial cases against innocent defendants who had nothing whatsoever to do with the crimes they were accused of committing, we soon became absolutely convinced that neither Amanda nor her co-defendant, Rafaelle, were remotely connected in any way to the killing. 

Our belief in their innocence was further confirmed by the fact that none of Amanda or Raffaele's DNA were found anywhere in the room where Meredith lost her life, and that another man, a drifter named Rudy Guede, who attempted to flee to Germany after the murder, was shortly thereafter apprehended and convicted of the crime since his DNA was found all over the room where Meredith was killed.  Furthermore, the unwavering loyality and determination of Amanda's family and friends through her arrest, to her conviction, and finally throughout her appeal, firmly testified to the fact that a girl raised and beloved by such a close-knit, generous group of people could never have even conceived of killing an insect -- let alone another young woman who was, by all accounts, not only her roommate, but her friend. 

Still, prosecutor Mannini (despite being himself indicted on corruption charges during Amanda's first trial) with the inital aid of the Italian media throughout the first trial, deliberately ignored the blaring lack of evidence and set out to paint Amanda and Rafaelle as deplorable human beings deserving of a life sentence, complete with months upon years of daytime solitary confinement.  Mannini's perverse pleasure in prosecuting the two young people (going so far as to say, "Lucky for Amanda, we don't have the death penalty in Italy!'') and sending them away for the rest of their lives, rather than admitting his own mistakes, combined with the Italian media's sensational coverage of the original trial which depicted Amanda as wild and promiscous, and lead to the unjust conviction of both her and Rafaelle two years ago, made us lose faith in our ancestrial homeland.  We were crushed by the news late in 2009 that Amanda and Raffaele had been found guilty and sentenced to 26 years in prison. 

But today, following an emotional, and at times painful, 10 minute statement from Amanda in which she articulated in fluent Italian throuh tears and short breaths that she "insists on the truth -- that she and Rafaelle are innocent -- a truth which must be recognized and defended," and following another equally compelling statement from Rafaelle, in which he declared that "Amanda is a sweet, beautiful, and shining person" and pleaded with the judges to set them free, our devastation, and, more pressingly, the devastation and torment endured by Amanda, Rafaelle, and their respective families, came to a just end. 

While we still mourn for the senseless loss of Meredith Kercher for whom justice would not have been served had two more innocent young people's lives been stolen from them, and our thoughts and prayers go out to her family who will never have a chance to bring their daughter home, we are so grateful and overwhelmed with joy at this vindicating outcome for Amanda and Rafaelle. We pray that Amanda can now return to her life in peace and that she can enjoy every moment of her newfound freedom with her family back home in Seattle. 

First, though, Amanda needs to take care of herself -- start eating and sleeping again, and perhaps see a doctor to be checked for her physical health -- because she looks truly ghostly and worn out. She needs to feel the grass under her feet (as she told her father in the days leading up to this decision), the sun on her pale face, and recuperate at home with her loved ones. She needs to step "outside the window," so to speak, and rediscover the hope for life she once had before her self-described "suffering" began on that dreadful day in November 2007.   I pray that God will bless her in her recovery.

ABBIAMO VINTO, CARA AMANDA!!


Chronicle of Video Segment Links:

Today Show Report on Amanda's Plea to the Court:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/44754352#44754352

Corriere Della Sera: Amanda's Full Statement to the Court:
http://video.corriere.it/dichiarazioni-amanda/90c39d46-eda7-11e0-8721-690dea02417b

Corriere Della Sera: Rafaelle's Full Statement to the Court:
http://video.corriere.it/dichiarazioni-spontanee-raffaele/b1955b40-eda2-11e0-8721-690dea02417b

CNN Translation of Amanda's Full Statement to the Court:
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2011/10/03/knox-sot-full-statement.cnn

MSNBC: Amanda and Rafaelle's Conviction is Overturned
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/44762140#44762140

MSNBC: Interview with Amanda's Italian Lawyer after Ruling
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/44769088#44769088



Full Press Conference of Amanda's U.S. Return:

CNN Video --
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvB3LHz8_mM


3News --
http://www.3news.co.nz/Full-press-conference-Amanda-Knox-returns-to-US-thanks-


CNN: Amanda's Parents Speak at Press Conference
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2011/10/04/ac-knox-arrival-parents.cnn#/video/bestoftv/2011/10/04/ac-knox-arrival-parents.cnn


CNN: Amanda Speaks at Press Conference
 http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2011/10/04/sot-wa-amanda-knox-arrival.cnn#/video/us/2011/10/04/sot-wa-amanda-knox-arrival.cnn

CBS 48 Hours Mystery -- Amanda Knox: The Untold Story
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7383976n&tag=contentMain;contentAux

CBS 48 Hours Mystery Extra -- Curt Knox Interview
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7383954n&tag=segementExtraScroller;housing


NBC Today: Why the Court Cleared Amanda Knox
http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/15/9470253-revealed-why-court-cleared-amanda-knox#.TyDcNELvhtQ.facebook


Print News/Opinion Stories Links:

The New York Times: Amanda Knox Freed after Appeal
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/world/europe/amanda-knox-defends-herself-in-italian-court.html?_r=1&hp

The New York Times: Lessons from the Amanda Knox Case
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/justice-in-perugia/