La Dolce Visita

At the end of every month at the museum, the interns have a special party for those who are leaving. It's aptly called "Festa Fine Mese". Each party has to have a theme and we vote out of a list of choices. This month no one could decide so we compromised and chose the most popular: fruits, flowers, and Fellini. Under normal circumstances (i.e. having access to costume shops and thrift stores) I would probably have gone overboard with the Fellini theme. (It's kind of difficult to muster restraint with him) so I was planning on being the Trevi Fountain into which Anita Ekberg famously wades during a night with Marcello Mastroianni in La Dolce Vita. But I ran out of time and the printer broke. More importantly, I found a hat in one of the rooms of the family I'm living with and they let me borrow it:

It's a swim cap for a synchronized swimming costume! So I became a flower.

I ran out of time to make my costume, because at the last minute I was asked to give my very own tour! I'm moving up in the world. How very Peggy of me. The tour was today and I think it went quite well, although at the end I felt as if I had just run a marathon (50 years of art history and the life of Peggy all condensed into one hour). My audience was of the geriatric variety, so they were very sweet and very interested in Peggy. I'm not sure how much gossip about her we're supposed to relay to the visitors, but it's what the people want.

At one point my throat got very dry and I coughed, so one of the women pulled out a hard candy for me. At first, I was touched because it reminded me of my Grandma Menton, (who always kept a dish of them) until I realized it was quite large and severely affected my ability to be understood clearly. So, instead of spitting it out, I put it to the side of my mouth in my cheek. I must have looked very attractive with a giant hard candy shaped lump on the side of my face. What a glamorous life I lead.