This is an office party?

Last night went to an office party...at 10:00 p.m. Roberta's co-worker's boyfriend works for an advertising firm in Trastevere. It's on the ground floor of this buidling east of Piazza Santa Maria. A few blocks after we passed the Piazza I could hear music. They had a bar, food, a DJ, and turned the back office area into a dance floor. There were a ton of people outside, leaning on their scooters, smoking, drinking, and flirting. I cannot believe none of the neighbors called the cops about the noise.

Everyone was asking me about President "Boosh" and the war. Neither were popular with this crowd. Of course we also had to talk about movies. One of Roberta's co-workers did his thesis on the role of women in Taratino's Jackie Brown. He wanted to know when I was leaving town so he could throw a dinner party.

After some wine and dancing I walked home exhausted. The party was still going on, did not feel like a Monday night. One of Roberta's co-workers said she was worried about the creeping American work habits/consumerism influence on Rome (although the salaries here are much lower). If this keeps up she might as well move to Milan. :) She knows things are changing in this global economy but she refuses to become a workalcoholic who never sees her family or friends. When you live in a place where you see things that are thousands of years old, it makes the 75 or so years you are here on earth seem very, very short.

People here think it's bizarre I have to plan weeks in advance to see my friends for dinner/drinks. Then 70 percent of the time, it gets rescheduled because we either have too many scripts to read, a screening or have to take out talent etc.

When I'm in St. Martin, I am not working at all so I cannot make any true comparisons between my life there and L.A. Here, I have been working and it is crystal clear I need to make some serious changes when I go back to Los Angeles