AliThinks

Des Bloggeuses à Paris

Yesterday (this would be Wednesday, July 2; I'm not changing the time stamp on my blog just for three days, and it's nearly 5 am in Paris right now) I had lunch with one blogger and dinner with another.

Polly and I connected recently, and I was delighted to meet her at the same café I had a Perrier with Jeorg at last year. (And it was a total coincidence, which makes it even better). We had each had a tarte salée, salad, and a glass of rosé for lunch, then coffee. Then another coffee. The second coffee we had out on the terrasse, because the rain had stopped, and coffee on a café terrace is one of life's better pleasures. See here:

Polly's lovely daughter and her adorable friend joined us for a while, then we all went off to do other things. In my case it was a reconnaissance mission at La Droguerie.

Samantha and I arranged to meet at 7 for dinner somewhere. She crossed the Seine and we met at Les Halles, which was kind of her, since it meant I only had to walk about 300 meters. She'd heard of an Italian restaurant with great ravioli; I knew there was one on the rue Montorgueil. It turned out the be the same place, so we had ravioli (hers with figs and Parma ham, mine with truffles, Parma ham, and button mushrooms) and the house red.

By 9:30 I was back in my room, exhausted. An hour later, I was asleep. A dream woke me at 3:00, and here I am.

But what matters here is the people I met. Blogging is such an amazing thing. (YES. I know I said I thought about quitting.) You encounter people via the blogosphere, and if you're lucky enough to meet in person, you automatically have a connection. My jetlag-addled brain can't think of a better way to say that.

In any case, spending time with Polly and Sam was a great way to spend my first day in Paris. (My second day in Paris will actually involve fast trains, the city of Bordeaux, and picking up my children.)

Merci, les filles !

(Now, do I try to sleep a little more, or do I hit up the hotel breakfast in 40 minutes?)

The Backyard

We have a husband-and-wife rabbit couple who live in a warren somewhere in the bushes that edge the far end of our backyard. The two bunnies spend time in our yard in broad daylight, munching on the clover and dandelions. They're not afraid of us anymore.

Tonight as we ate our dinner of ribs and salad o'CSA goodness, the rabbits ate theirs. Clover, clover, dandelion, clover. Monsieur was feeling randy, and hopped close behind Madame, who lay her ears flat and tried to make her way back to the safety of the bushes. She didn't seem in the mood.

I'm pleased that we have these creatures sharing the land. We may live in the middle of the city, but we still have Nature.

23 Years Of Friendship

This weekend Allan and I attended the wedding of my best friend from high school. Back then we didn't call each other "BFF," but rather Befri St. End, after the way the words were split on the heart-shaped necklaces that you can still buy today.

We haven't been in constant touch over the years, but we have shared joys and sorrows with each other. It was a joy to see D. wed to her soul mate. I wish them many years of happiness with each other and ALL THOSE BOYS they have. (They each brought two sons to the marriage.)

For your amusement, there are a couple of photos after the jump. 

The Storms, They Are A-Comin'

Literally, there is a line of storms racing across the US and Canada. I can see the lightning and hear the thunder and look at the weather radar on the Internerd.

Figuratively, there are storms in my brain. I'm not saying this is a bad thing (FLASH! CRASH! BOOM! RUMBLE! outside), but it's happening.

Morphine on the radio, it's all buena buena, good good good.

March 4, 1936

That's the day my mother was born. She would be 72 today.

I miss her; it's hard to believe she will have been gone fifteen years next month.

R & R

Allan and I decided to Get The Hell Out Of Dodge™ last week. We came to visit our friends BlueHeronDruid and hobbitt in the Pacific Northwest. It was quite a spontaneous trip, and we had no agenda.

Today Allan and I went to Seattle to meet up with a couple of friends from Radio Paradise. I also have a couple of blog friends from Seattle: Margaret and Sizz, and I don't think Karan is too far away either.

I really thought about contacting my blog buddies while we were in the area. But then I thought about why we were here. And I didn't want any stress in planning*. Today was easy because Tommy isn't working at the moment, and Saundrah just met us for lunch at a tasty place she suggested. Tommy took us around the city, as much as you can do in a few short hours.

We visited Pike Place Market, Post Alley, the Sculpture Park, and Kerry Park. We also got to walk through a bit of Capitol Hill.

Today was a great day. And it's been a great week. This is a gorgeous area of the country. We'll be back. And you can see some photos of our trip here and here, although as I write this, most of the Seattle photos have not been uploaded to Flickr.

*Forgive me, blog friends.

Somebody, Please

Explain to me why I woke up singing Foreigner's "Double Vision"? And no, it's not because I overindulged at the launch party for 24 Hours of Flickr. 

(Now you hate me because you're singing that song too, now, aren't you?)

The Flickr shindig was a lot of fun. I went not knowing a soul, and got to meet a number of VERY cool people, including some of my Flickr contacts. It was a great way to spend my first night in town. Also? Yahoo! knows how to throw a party. The venue was intimate without being crowded, the food was spectacular, the wine was delicious, and the music wasn't overpowering.

This morning I'm having coffee with Jeorg. We live in the same damn town and never see each other, so I'm laughing at the fact that we are meeting here in Paris. And this afternoon I'm having coffee with Gentry, although she has also told me we'll be eating cakes as well. In between the two coffees, I have no idea what I'll do. The French have a great word, flâner. Je vais flâner dans les rues. I'm just going to mosey about.

I love this city. My children are the reason I came to France, and I can't wait to see them tomorrow. But I'm glad to have this time in Paris; I visited only a handful of times during my marriage, and that was early on.

There's more to say (there's always more to say about Paris), but I'll leave it for now.

In Which I Stop Being A Whiny Whiner

A little while ago, a friend IMed me:

Her: So have you stopped being a whiney whiner?
Me: Fuck off.
Her: And will you forgive me for saying so?
Me: LOL
Me: Yes.
Me: To both.
Me: I just wanted to say fuck off.
Her: Hello, my dear.
Me: Hi!

******

I have GREAT friends. Not only did C. rightly give me the what-for for complaining, but our friend A. stopped by, bearing Woodford Reserve bourbon balls. She had sent me a message (regarding my previous blog entry) a bit earlier:

You do NOT go out in the rain to get chocolate. 

a) it will ruin your straight hair, believe me. 

b) I'm bringing you some b4 I go to work.

Here is a photo of the last bourbon ball, about thirty seconds before I popped it in my mouth:

I'm done complaining, at least for today. And really, how can I complain? Allan is in the kitchen making soup for dinner. I have some chocolate in my tummy. It's warm in the house, and I can look out on the cold rain from the comfort of this couch.

So yeah, it's actually been a good day.

Wow. I'm In A Good Mood.

The meds have kicked in, apparently. And my upcoming trip to France is kind of organized. All I need is a train ticket and a set of wheels at my destination. And I have new kitty shoes, and a new purse, and a couple of tiny new hoops for my ears, and one or two other new items (see one of them here).

But life is not all about material goods, no way.

Allan and I have a couple of new friends that we met at Radio Paradise: local people who are VERY cool. We've been out with them a few times in the past couple of weeks. It's great to expand your horizons, and I really feel that A. is a kindred spirit.

And then there's the knitting. You can see my creation here; I have decided that I need to cast on some more stitches and start another practice swatch. My goal is to become dexterous enough to knit with ease. But, hehe, I'll never be really dexterous, because I'm sinister. I kill me.

I'm so out of practice with blogging; I don't know how to write a coherent post anymore. Forgive my blathering. It feels good to want to blather, though. It's been a long time.

We Interrupt This Hiatus

...to whisper in your ear that today is Allan's birthday.