Who I am…

Well, I am Dorina.  That is sometimes just how I define myself…by my first name…it’s different, unique, musical, Italian……..but really…who the hell am I?

I honestly ask that question often.  The answers are sometimes clear and other times confusing and contradictory.  I guess at the moment my first title is MOM… so I will describe that one first.

The 6 Men in my life!

I am the mother of 6 children, that is if you can call all of them that anymore!  Enzo and Nico, my twins, are my first born and are in college now.  How the hell did that happen I keep wondering!  Leo and Tino are in high school, Carlo is in junior high and Angelina –yes I finally got the girl!–is in elementary school still.  We have a dog that we were told was 1/2 black lab and 1/2 golden retriever when we got her that we have concluded is definitely a border collie!!!…..and I wish I had a horse…but I don’t!

My Angelina

As a MOM, I am a mean Italian mother who loves her children more than life itself even if one or the other of them make me cry almost every day whether they are being cute or growing too fast or pissing me off.  It’s like all the cliche saying you hear…” the hardest job you’ll ever love”  but honestly I do understand at times why some moms jump off of bridges…hmmmmm….there is a nice bridge down the street!!!  OK …really no time for that…I have to make dinner!!!

Well…now what else am I?  I did mention I am Italian.  I have to say that is a big part of who I am.  I wasn’t lucky enough to be born in Italy, but I was MADE there!!!  Someday I think I’ll get a MADE IN ITALY tattoo on my right cheek (not the one on my face!)  My parents took me and my next sister to Italy when I was four and I went to pre-school in my Papa’s home town –Roseto Valfortore…the most beautiful place in the world…for me anyway!  I went back a bunch of times as a kid and a couple of summers before I got married.  Then I spent 10 years having kids and finally started going back almost yearly in 2001.  Me and the kids even got to live there for a year back in 05-06 since Nico and Enzo were invited to play soccer in Italy and of course we jumped at the chance!  What a glorious year that was but I’ll get more into that in a blogpost later on!  I just want to finish this part by saying that the people, scenery,  lifestyle, architecture, soccer, cars, wine and FOOD in Italy are the best in the world I am convinced!   I will live there again someday come hell or high water.

I am a self proclaimed CHEF.  I was lucky enough to grow up with an amazing, constantly cooking grandmother who everyone– including all my friends –called Nonna.  My mother too is a very good cook although when she tried to make Nonna’s meatballs when I was a kid and was trying to put in enough cheese “til you could smell it” like Nonna said to do…Mom forgot she had a cold and it took a TON of cheese before she could smell it…well we had really nice cheese balls for dinner that nite!!!  LOL!!!  I learned a lot from both of them.

I also grew up in an Italian Restaurant so I was lucky to learn a lot of good stuff from Luigi our chef as well as my aunt Tettina who made a lot of the traditional dishes from our region in Italy.  I used to LOVE to go into the restaurant kitchen at the end of the nite and make something for myself and have fun “playing chef”

Now, I have a daily audience of 7 who are always starving…and critical…so I have to cook at record speeds  and make sure it’s tasty like I’m in a contest on Chopped on Food Network! 

I also consider myself an artist.  I draw, paint, bead, sew a little and love to work with clay.  Sometimes I even make a little money from it.  I truly feel the NEED to create.  Sometimes I am so busy the only sewing I do is a button (if I can find one!) and the closest I get to clay is trying to get silly putty out of clothing once it has gone thru the laundry in a pocket!   

I also think I am a writer.  I dream of being a writer, I write almost every day…does that make me a writer?
I am a soccer coach. NOT just that parent who volunteers and knows nothing about what they are doing…NO WAY!  I played soccer my whole life.  I played in college.  I busted my knee. So now I coach.  I have been coaching for 26 years.  I have coached 3 year olds up to 18 year olds….girls AND for even longer…BOYS.  I have all kinds of coaching licenses and diplomas which state I know what I am doing.  Really I have learned more on the field and even from the kids and what they present to me than any coaching course …but I have to admit I love learning all there is to know about coaching these kids that give me so much joy. 

I have coached all my own kids and lots of others.  Since I speak not only English but Italian and Spanish too, I get all kinds of immigrant kids who come and play for me too since I can speak to them while they are just learning English!!!  I love yelling in 3 languages on the soccer field!!!  hee hee!  Anyway, I have done so much in soccer I am thinking that might be one topic for one of the many books I want to write.  We’ll see…..

AND….  I’m a wife. I am married to Pasquale who sometimes I call Pas and other times I call Pat.  Sometimes I call him other unmentionalbe names but most of the time I call him HON.  We have been married for 20 years but you’d never believe it since we are still so very young …looking!!!  LOL!!!     Ok so I like to think that anyway!  But I have to mention that he is very good looking, –and of course whenever we argue I just remind him that it’s a good thing he’s so cute or I would have kicked him to the curb a long time ago…ya know though,  i don’t know why he hasn’t kicked me and my big mouth out yet….maybe cuz I can cook???….hmmmmm.

So, of course at some point I will be writing about how we met on the Washington DC Beltway– talking on CB radios driving side by side– while he was in the Marines driving from New Jersey to California and I was just giving a friend a ride to Alexandria, Virginia from Bethesda, Maryland where I lived –and then I wrote to him –and I moved to California –and we were married a month later…and ..and..and  here we are 20 years and 6 kids later trying to decide what to do next with our lives.

So… I think I know who I am now….

An Italian, Wife, Mother, Chef, Soccer Coach, Artist, Writer…who wishes she had a horse and lived in Italy but really doesn’t have a clue what is coming next in life!!!