Day 75: Today every Book owner is to reserve a table at Gino’s Italian Restaurant for eight o’clock on the 4th of July next year. Phone number: (225) 927-7156 Gino’s. 4542 Bennington, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Open 11am-2pm and 5-10pm Mon-Fri, 5-10:30pm Sat. Closed Sun. MC, VISA, AE, DC, DISC. No checks.
Another one of the book’s challenges that encourages you to screw over a restaurant. I refused the dine and dash and elected not to mess with my pizza man. And I won’t be calling this mom and pop restaurant in Baton Rouge and making a reservation I have no intention of showing up for, not on the 4th of July or on any other day.
I can’t really think about Italian food and the 4th of July without feeling a little wistful. There was a time when I thought I’d spend every 4th of July from now until forever sitting on the beach, feet in the sand, with a belly full of pasta olio, lasagna and sauteéd spinach and mushrooms. Maybe even a spoonful of cannoli filling. We’d walk back across the street from the beach to Lodivichie’s and have a drink with our friends. Em might be falling asleep and I’d scoop her up from the jogging stroller and put her in the buggy that attached to the beach cruiser and head back across the street for home.
Many of my memories of the beach and the time I spent there have faded, both the good ones and the bad. It’s easier that way. Negativity serves no purpose, I simply don’t hang on to things that bring me down. Sadly, the wonderful moments in time, sweet days when Em was teeny and I was navigating the first years of motherhood on no sleep and nothing but pure love, those moments are fading, too.
It was a lifetime ago. July 4th, 2007.
Excitement on the side 
LODIVICHIES!!!! That’s what I yelled the first night I met the Lodivichies crew, a good man whom I thought I’d marry, and my favorite liquor of all times! I miss those days and get wistful myself thinking of them. We should all get together at some point in the near future. There must be Tuaca, there must be a hot tub or baby pool, and there must be Kelly and Amy, for my entertainment! Oh yeah, and there must be KB and Swizz for tons of gibberish and interpreting!