A lot has happened since my last entry.
I celebrated my 25th birthday last week and it was one of the most memorable weeks of my life, I think: dinner on Thursday with MF at La Ferme, a French restaurant (delish); tapas and margaritas at Oyamel on Friday, followed by martinis and dancing til 3 at Blue Gin; recovery on Saturday with Red Bull/Gatorade/jasmine tea/Alka Seltzer/greasy breakfast; and then I had about 15 people over to continue the celebration on Saturday evening where we cooked hamburgers/made S'mores/sat under the wisteria arbor with Christmas lights twinkling/ate birthday cake and drank champagne/took group pictures in the studio. And then Sunday we went to Middleburg, VA at Chrysalis Vineyards for some wine, a picnic with leftovers and a walk in the countryside. I can't think of a better way to have spent my 25th, especially in the company of such good people.
Also, I am engaged to be married. AAAAAAA!!! MF flew to Switzerland (all the while telling me he was in Rochester NY for a business trip...sneaky monkey) to get a diamond from his grandmother; and proposed in front of the Tiny Jewel Box in DC. It's impossible for me to get any work done right now...I feel woozy!
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Friday, May 4, 2007
Bienvenidos a Miami!
I'm going to Miami tomorrow until Tuesday to visit my best friend from college. Yay! In the very near future I see: cocktails, the beach, a boat ride and flashy cars. And probably sunburn too, although I wear SPF 50, a hat, shirt and sunglasses.
Photos to follow. Cheers!
Photos to follow. Cheers!
Thursday, May 3, 2007
25
I turn twenty-five a week from tomorrow. Ack!! That's halfway to 50 and halfway in between 20 and 30. Yikes!!
I always thought 25 was so old. I don't feel old now though, I feel like my life is just starting. I am so blessed in so many ways, grateful and humbled by how kind life has been and how many things I shouldn't take for granted: good health, a man I love that loves me, my family, my amazing friends, a job I feel fulfilled in and that gives me a glimpse of what a true career is, and enough money to live comfortably and travel every now and then...I am humbled because I know it's not the same for many, many people I share this planet with. Every now and then I have to remember not to take it all for granted...it's easy to let life pass you by without stopping to appreciate it.
The other day, for example, there was an accident on Canal Road on my way home from work. It wasn't moving at all so I decided to turn around and park near Lock 6 by the river. I had my yoga clothes (a tank and a pair of sweatpants) with me and changed into those in the car, but I had no tennis shoes - although I did have a pair of big blue slippers still in the backseat from my last trip back home to NC. So I went walking down to the river to watch the sun over the water. People on the trails were looking at me like I was bonkers: I was wearing workout clothes with blue slippers. But I could care less. It was better than wearing my black pointy-toed work shoes. I sat next to the water and just enjoyed the scenery and let all of the other drivers back on Canal Road fight traffic.
Tuesday evening MF and I had dinner with our friend G who is an amazing cook: she made curry salmon (the homemade kind where you add each individual spice yourself and let it simmer). And then we watched the movie Kinky Boots: I highly recommend it. It's like the Full Monty - British humor, cross-dressers and bad teeth. It's the story of this little shoe factory in a sleepy town in England that is going belly up, so the owner decides to start making kinky boots for drag queens (basically, patent leather stilettos that are tough enough to hold a man's weight) and hires one as his shoe designer. It's funny but also endearing - especially in terms of social acceptance, identity and open-mindedness. One of the lines that sticks with me is "Change your mind about someone." I'll leave it at that - you should see it.
I always thought 25 was so old. I don't feel old now though, I feel like my life is just starting. I am so blessed in so many ways, grateful and humbled by how kind life has been and how many things I shouldn't take for granted: good health, a man I love that loves me, my family, my amazing friends, a job I feel fulfilled in and that gives me a glimpse of what a true career is, and enough money to live comfortably and travel every now and then...I am humbled because I know it's not the same for many, many people I share this planet with. Every now and then I have to remember not to take it all for granted...it's easy to let life pass you by without stopping to appreciate it.
The other day, for example, there was an accident on Canal Road on my way home from work. It wasn't moving at all so I decided to turn around and park near Lock 6 by the river. I had my yoga clothes (a tank and a pair of sweatpants) with me and changed into those in the car, but I had no tennis shoes - although I did have a pair of big blue slippers still in the backseat from my last trip back home to NC. So I went walking down to the river to watch the sun over the water. People on the trails were looking at me like I was bonkers: I was wearing workout clothes with blue slippers. But I could care less. It was better than wearing my black pointy-toed work shoes. I sat next to the water and just enjoyed the scenery and let all of the other drivers back on Canal Road fight traffic.
Tuesday evening MF and I had dinner with our friend G who is an amazing cook: she made curry salmon (the homemade kind where you add each individual spice yourself and let it simmer). And then we watched the movie Kinky Boots: I highly recommend it. It's like the Full Monty - British humor, cross-dressers and bad teeth. It's the story of this little shoe factory in a sleepy town in England that is going belly up, so the owner decides to start making kinky boots for drag queens (basically, patent leather stilettos that are tough enough to hold a man's weight) and hires one as his shoe designer. It's funny but also endearing - especially in terms of social acceptance, identity and open-mindedness. One of the lines that sticks with me is "Change your mind about someone." I'll leave it at that - you should see it.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Playing Dress Up
Warm weather is finally here, after two weird weeks at the beginning of April. It makes me ancy (antsy? ansy?) or however you spell it.
I tried on wedding dresses this past weekend. Fear not, I am not getting married anytime soon (the thought of planning and paying for a wedding actually makes me break out into a cold sweat and rash). The reason I tried on dresses is that I am going to be modeling for an event at the Four Seasons Hotel - I think it's an event for wedding planners and brides or something like that - and wearing a dress from Hitched and jewelry from the Tiny Jewel Box. They are also going to fit me with a Marie-Antoinette style wig. It should be very glamorous and fun...as long as I don't trip over myself at the event (this dress I am wearing is huge...why anyone would actually wear that on their wedding day is beyond me, considering how limited your walking/dancing capabilities would be under these 500 pounds of satin and tulle.).
I hope I don't jinx myself. Is it bad luck to wear a wedding dress if it's not your wedding day?
I tried on wedding dresses this past weekend. Fear not, I am not getting married anytime soon (the thought of planning and paying for a wedding actually makes me break out into a cold sweat and rash). The reason I tried on dresses is that I am going to be modeling for an event at the Four Seasons Hotel - I think it's an event for wedding planners and brides or something like that - and wearing a dress from Hitched and jewelry from the Tiny Jewel Box. They are also going to fit me with a Marie-Antoinette style wig. It should be very glamorous and fun...as long as I don't trip over myself at the event (this dress I am wearing is huge...why anyone would actually wear that on their wedding day is beyond me, considering how limited your walking/dancing capabilities would be under these 500 pounds of satin and tulle.).
I hope I don't jinx myself. Is it bad luck to wear a wedding dress if it's not your wedding day?
Friday, April 13, 2007
Candy Ass
So I have a funny (albeit bittersweet) story. Last night MF (Man Friend) and I went to a Thai restaurant. Somehow between the Chicken Satay and Pad Thai I started talking about my cousin Emma's wedding. She got married in 2003 in France, more specifically at Aubeville, this little tiny town of about 10 people in the countryside near Bordeaux where my family lives. Anyways, the conversation went something like this:
Me: "It was honestly the most beautiful but the most simple wedding I've ever been to...she arrived in a horse-drawn carriage with flowers in this beautiful brown and gold dress for the civil ceremony, and then changed into her wedding dress for the religious ceremony, they got married in this 15th-century tiny Roman chapel, and she made the bouquets for the chapel herself, and had her family members sing the music, and then you walk out of the chapel and it's just fields of sunflowers..."
And then I start tearing up and then just start outright crying at the restaurant and cover my face with my napkin, and stop talking entirely because I'm choking up, at which point MF says (jokingly, and lovingly, of course):
"You candy-ass!"
And then I try to explain that I wasn't crying because of the sunflowers or how pretty the wedding was, but because I have an image in my head - all I can think of is my grandfather kissing the bride outside after the ceremony and he is crying, and people are throwing rose petals. My grandfather would pass away two years later, on Oct. 13th, 2005. I still miss him so much. And so I try to explain this to MF who is looking at me like I am one of those sappy candy-ass emotional girls crying at a Thai restaurant over sunflowers!
Also, my family's place in Charente is a very special place for me, and it reminds me of my grandfather and my childhood - I spent every summer there when I was little. My mom cries every time we leave, without fail. My grandfather always said that the sunlight in Charente was the most beautiful and would tell us stories about his youth there.
Me: "It was honestly the most beautiful but the most simple wedding I've ever been to...she arrived in a horse-drawn carriage with flowers in this beautiful brown and gold dress for the civil ceremony, and then changed into her wedding dress for the religious ceremony, they got married in this 15th-century tiny Roman chapel, and she made the bouquets for the chapel herself, and had her family members sing the music, and then you walk out of the chapel and it's just fields of sunflowers..."
And then I start tearing up and then just start outright crying at the restaurant and cover my face with my napkin, and stop talking entirely because I'm choking up, at which point MF says (jokingly, and lovingly, of course):
"You candy-ass!"
And then I try to explain that I wasn't crying because of the sunflowers or how pretty the wedding was, but because I have an image in my head - all I can think of is my grandfather kissing the bride outside after the ceremony and he is crying, and people are throwing rose petals. My grandfather would pass away two years later, on Oct. 13th, 2005. I still miss him so much. And so I try to explain this to MF who is looking at me like I am one of those sappy candy-ass emotional girls crying at a Thai restaurant over sunflowers!
Also, my family's place in Charente is a very special place for me, and it reminds me of my grandfather and my childhood - I spent every summer there when I was little. My mom cries every time we leave, without fail. My grandfather always said that the sunlight in Charente was the most beautiful and would tell us stories about his youth there.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Some really good news and some not as good news
Really good news: I am moving on up in my career! I know that I said before on this blog that I wouldn't talk shop, but it is pretty exciting to have a promotion. I've never had a promotion (granted I have only been on the job market for all of three years)!
All I will say is: I get to go to Paris for work twice a year for a couple of weeks at a time. Woot! Tonight we are celebrating with our good-looking lawyer friends (as opposed to our good-looking engineering or consultant friends - I know it sounds kind of trite or superficial and silly but it really is true that all of our friends are indeed successful and good-looking when I stop to think about it) by having fondue (cheese AND chocolate) and champagne.
Not as good news: I went to dentist for the first time in nearly two years this past week. I have THREE cavities. This is not good. I've never had a cavity in my life. It makes me feel like a horrible candy-eating, slacker-brushing person. So now I have to do some serious damage control and have to swish this fluoride thing after breakfast. I hate going to the dentist and being admonished and made to feel very guilty ... this is why no one likes you if you are a dentist and that within the medical profession dentists have the highest suicide rate.
On a random note I also learned where the middle finger gesture came from. Apparently in WWI the Germans would cut off the middle finger of their prisoners (the middle finger was used to fire guns) and so the prisoners would show them the middle finger to essentially say: ... well you know.
All I will say is: I get to go to Paris for work twice a year for a couple of weeks at a time. Woot! Tonight we are celebrating with our good-looking lawyer friends (as opposed to our good-looking engineering or consultant friends - I know it sounds kind of trite or superficial and silly but it really is true that all of our friends are indeed successful and good-looking when I stop to think about it) by having fondue (cheese AND chocolate) and champagne.
Not as good news: I went to dentist for the first time in nearly two years this past week. I have THREE cavities. This is not good. I've never had a cavity in my life. It makes me feel like a horrible candy-eating, slacker-brushing person. So now I have to do some serious damage control and have to swish this fluoride thing after breakfast. I hate going to the dentist and being admonished and made to feel very guilty ... this is why no one likes you if you are a dentist and that within the medical profession dentists have the highest suicide rate.
On a random note I also learned where the middle finger gesture came from. Apparently in WWI the Germans would cut off the middle finger of their prisoners (the middle finger was used to fire guns) and so the prisoners would show them the middle finger to essentially say: ... well you know.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Ok. So let me wrap my head around this:
A guy is exiting the Gare du Nord train station yesterday afternoon around 5pm in Paris when he is stopped for a "control" (where the train station agents check to make sure you have a ticket or "titre de transport"), and he doesn't have a ticket. Then he hits the two agents, one on the shoulder and one on the face. And then from there policemen arrive and break this guy's arm for assaulting the agents. So we know this guy that didn't have a ticket is stupid, and probably the police reaction was heavy-handed as well.
But it doesn't stop there. Four hours later a bunch of punks arrive at the lower level of the station and have a stand-off with the police and it degenerates into these kids looting stores in the station, setting fire to trash cans, yelling "Nique la France!" and breaking stuff. Are these kids bored? Do they have nothing better to do than go around vandalizing stuff? Does that mean they think it's okay to bum a ride on a train without a ticket or that it was unreasonable for the agents to do their job and conduct a routine inspection? If these kids have a cause, they're not helping to promote it by doing what they've done. It seems they just want to take part in the name of anarchy, because resisting any kind of authority is cool.
Even if the police acted in a manner that was more brutal than necessary (and should have done anything to prevent this from escalating) this whole incident makes me embarrassed for France and ashamed of the people of my generation. It's pathetic and maddening. Especially when you consider that the Gare du Nord is where the Eurostar train arrives, and you have tourists maybe getting their first glimpse of Paris in the middle of this chaos. Police in heavy duty riot gear, tear gas and a bunch of delinquents running around stealing shoes from Foot Locker doesn't exactly make for the nicest welcome. France certainly has its own problems...
You can see a video from Youtube here.
Also, the BBC has more.
But it doesn't stop there. Four hours later a bunch of punks arrive at the lower level of the station and have a stand-off with the police and it degenerates into these kids looting stores in the station, setting fire to trash cans, yelling "Nique la France!" and breaking stuff. Are these kids bored? Do they have nothing better to do than go around vandalizing stuff? Does that mean they think it's okay to bum a ride on a train without a ticket or that it was unreasonable for the agents to do their job and conduct a routine inspection? If these kids have a cause, they're not helping to promote it by doing what they've done. It seems they just want to take part in the name of anarchy, because resisting any kind of authority is cool.
Even if the police acted in a manner that was more brutal than necessary (and should have done anything to prevent this from escalating) this whole incident makes me embarrassed for France and ashamed of the people of my generation. It's pathetic and maddening. Especially when you consider that the Gare du Nord is where the Eurostar train arrives, and you have tourists maybe getting their first glimpse of Paris in the middle of this chaos. Police in heavy duty riot gear, tear gas and a bunch of delinquents running around stealing shoes from Foot Locker doesn't exactly make for the nicest welcome. France certainly has its own problems...
You can see a video from Youtube here.
Also, the BBC has more.
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