...they forget to get their haircut

overheard chez la coiffeuse:

in response to the statement that australia is a continent:

thing 1: "oh. no, i think it's austral-asia, or austrasian."

thing 2: "no no. australia is its own continent. a continent is a land mass that is generally surrounded by a body of water. there are 7 continents. australia, europe, africa, south africa, wait, no, just africa. north america, south america, asia, north pole, south pole. oh that's 8. i guess north pole and south pole count as one."

           

                   has anyone seen this? from the "it gets better" campaign.

bazille's studio, by the man himself. i spy manet, and a still life by monet.
i want to go to there.

youz a slippery one

per usual, i had a weird dream the other night. i was mothering a mini baby who was not mine. i must have adopted him or he was gifted to me. the baby was kind of like that stewie character from family guy, except really really small. anyway, it was a long dream and i remember at one point being near a pool with lots of moss in and around it. i think i was directing a mason how to fix the pool area. the most vivid part of the dream was after i had given lil pooks a bath. i was holding him in the palm of my hand and drying him off, and he just slipped out of my hand and fell on the floor. i freaked out, obviously, but he just looked at me and said, "it's ok. happens all the time."

  

clémence

clémence, my 6 year old neighbor, just came over for a half hour while her mom went to run an errand. she had a sucker in her mouth, so everything she said was all mumbly jumbly. we played a game she brought with her. on small wooden planks of wood are drawings of baby animals and their titles. the goal is to lay them out and match the animals on one plank with another plank of wood that has the same drawing. i was thinking we were going to play "memory," one of my fave childhood games that provided me with hours of entertainment. WHERE THE FUCK IS THE BABY LAMB!? OH AH NOOO I KNEW IT!  WHY DIDNT YOU TELL ME?! hm. now that i'm giving it some thought, i may have learned to regret while playing memory. ohh life. speaking of life, the game of life and also candyland belong up there on my faves list. maybe chutes and ladders, but that always irritated me. why are you going down the slide? get back up that ladder, fool. and the version with snakes made my skin crawl.
            

back to the jeune fille. i googled the name clémence and found a forum discussing whether or not it's a BCBG name. ha. see below a cute description, in french, that describes the "profil psychologique" of girls named clémence.

"Pour vous, la vie est une aventure passionnante : en aucun cas vous ne la boudez. Les vicissitudes de l'existence ont très peu d'emprise sur votre moral, car vous êtes animée d'un enthousiasme toujours renouvelé. Si vous tombez, vous vous relèverez le plus vite possible et reprendrez votre marche comme si rien n'était arrivé."


basically says that a clémence is a passionate person who loves and embraces life with open arms, and doesn't avoid it. when she falls, she always gets back up as if she had never fallen.


makes me want to read my horoscope. 

dancin with muh-seh-elf

i made a friend. her name is camille. she is rull purdy, in her late 20's and engaged to this super adorable manchild named something french who won me over when he offered me a glass of champagne while dining in a restau. gaw i'm such a lush. camille invited me to a party tonight at their place in centre ville to celebrate a "concour" that whatshisface won...i think that's texto for a "competition" of some sort.
it is during these times, though rare, when i really wish i had a PIC (partner in crime, not like i'm into criminal acts or anything). i feel nervation nation to go alone, but i must,  in the wise words of every bored gym teacher, "suck it up." 

bursting at the seams

corinne warned me that blogging would become an obsession. i am incredibly green when it comes to this whole new world (shoutout INTENDED), but i really feel like the blogosphere is my new bf. am i jumping the gun here? should we slow it down, Blog and i? i mean, i just raced home from class to document rando shit that flashed into my mind. is that normal?!
i'm actin all ali larter in the critically acclaimed film, obsessed. scary.
 

lil' trixter

the neighbor’s durrrty but rull cute cat just made her way into my room. after a brief purr n’ snuggz, i brought her outside only to find a fresh note from TP on the dining table. i heard him brushing his teeth in the bathroom and i wasn’t of the humor to get into convo, so i did a read and scram. 

the note says, “coucou hannah. i am going to the neighbor’s for dinner tonight around 730. will you be here to come with me?” 

i am very perplexed considering it is 10, and the note just appeared. i think he is trying to trick me into thinking he was here earlier and wrote the note then. DISSED. 

don't stand so close to me

i busted out of paris early on sunday to meet last year's assistant for dinner chez sandrine. i was exhausted when i got to sandrine's house, but had to push through it...to be nice? this chick would be a vanilla milkshake with a baby pinch of cayenne pepper if she ever turned into a food. i have to think more about what food i'd be, but i am sure it would be some sort of meat dish. i really like the flavors of boeuf bourguignon and pesto, i'm just not sure if they'd mix very well together. she is married and from michigan but is living in canada with her hubbz because les canadiens are a lot less strict about immigrants?
sandrine made this giant lavish dinner--fish soup, salad with little pieces of red meat in ball-ish form (literally, they were RED). i asked carrine the next day at the gym what animal had been present in the salad, and she told me it was some sort of duck innards. geuhhhh. next there was steak and potatoes au gratin (a favorite around here), and then a "galette des rois" for dessert. this is a theme dessert.

i love a good theme food

the galette is eaten in france around christmastime/january. hidden inside the flaky, almondy tart is a little trinket, often a SMALL PLASTIC BABY, and whoever finds the buried treasure BY VERGING ON TRINKET INGESTION wins the game and becomes the king. i mean, not literally, as france has abolished the monarchy system, but king for the evening. france will not, however, rid itself of the bourgeoisie, a group that is still very much alive and with which i find myself rather obsessed. READ: BCBG: Le Guide du Bon Chic Bon Genre
(forum: http://www.casafree.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=44697)

THINK: the official preppy handbook about french elites.

it was at this time when i told milkshake that i was planning on moving to austin after the program ends. her response was the following. "texas, huh? there are a lot of fat people down there. i don't have anything against fat people, i just think it's horrible that they refuse to take care of themselves. i mean, i work out, i'm not fat, i take care of myself." orrrr, we can go there. whichever you prefer, lady. i nodded and smiled and mumbled something about barbecue.
vat else. she made lots of references to her husband. "my husband is belgian." "my husband works in computers." "my husband blah blah BOREDOM." i was really irritated by this choice of words, not sure why. maybe because she's two years older than me and is already maui'd, or maybe because he has a name, other than just a title? look at me, fighting for his rights. you know, i should be more sympathetic. after all, i want to be a therapist. girl is thrilled to be married and loves how the word feels on her tongue. i hear you.
toward the end of the evening, she started telling me about how sandrine and her husband and children are like a second family to her. she said she never left on the weekends because "i did all my traveling when i was in aix." (like you can really say you've done all the traveling there is to be done?) as a result of staying anchored to the town, she reaped two incredible benefits--her french is bomb, and she is incredibly close with a few people over here. so close with them she considers them family. this makes me feel really envious of her experience. i am so happy to bounce around on the weekends and to see friends in different french cities and to escape country life, but what i really want is to be happy here. i want to love this town and its people and feel comfortable spending time here on the weekends. i've found that the answer to many of my problems is time, and i know that time would make all the difference--if i spent time here getting to know people and getting to know the place, i would probably begin to love it. i just don't know if i am willing to give that time, and sacrifice being with people with whom i am immediately comfortable, with whom there is no necessary transition/waiting period, or willing to sacrifice this chance to travel and get to know other cities.
at the beginning of the year i met some really lovely townies (townies in the nicest possible sense of the word) and we all went out a few times. but then i felt like there was a huge disconnect between us. i am in a completely different place than them, and i saw an obstacle that prevented me from being able to really get comfortable with them. laïd taught me a french expression to describe the situation--"je suis trop mûre," which literally means i am too ripe. mature is another definition, but i don't know if i'd say i'm more mature than them, because they've all got their shit together and their own lives; our worlds are just too far apart. i kind of fucked up after that. i mean, you can still be friends with someone who is on a different path than you. unfortunately, i think they got tired of hearing, "no, sorry, can't, leaving on thursday for montpellier/paris/..."
i know what i need to do to make this all better, i just don't know if i can bring myself to make the right choices to arrive there. 

you don’t gotta worry if you got no money, people on the river are happy to give. 

                    

quilt from st. flour

escape from teepee

heard about an open apartment in centre ville. contacted the dude about renting it. was denied due to my need for apartment during only 3 months time and what if there was someone else who wanted to lease it for a year but couldn't because i'd be living there? mm..yes...lots of people lookin to move to the mountains IN JANUARY.