Chivalry Is Dead

Friday was a frustrating day. I was running my usual Bazaar errands (less than month away!), and I went out to my car to find it totally dead. My brain shut down. It is one thing to have this happen in a place where you can call AAA, or even 411 to find a tow truck.

But, here I have no great options. On top of that, I can't even call my husband. So, I called my friend Heather. She was fantastic! She drove right on over, and with written instructions in hand, helped me jumpstart my car.

Long story short, we ended up that day having to jump the car twice, push it, and roped our friend Julie in to help me go back and forth to an Italian mechanic and to buy a new battery. My friends are truly perfect helpers in the face of confusion.

However, my complaint is that there were LOTS of men out there who stood by and just watched us do all of this, or get huffy that we were in the way. In fact, there was one guy who drove by and flashed us an inappropriate gesture (as Julie said, he had nerve to do that in front of a Chapel, clearly with no concern for his soul).

So, chivalry is dead. I was so irate that I just lost it at one point and melted down. Who ignores two or three women trying to fix a car?? There was one very gracious man who stopped and did help us for a time. He was incredibly patient and nice.

Heather and I needed time to recuperate from frustration, so we went to Venice last night for dinner and a chamber orchestra performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It was in a beautiful building in Piazza San Marco, and the orchestra was stunningly perfect. Venice was Vivaldi's hometown, so this was the best setting to see this performance. I highly recommend it for those in the area.