The tide has turned

Thank god that my rash of bad luck has ended. On Friday, I managed to make some real progress on my To Do list and even had the sore feet to prove it.

To start with, our slightly unreliable cleaning lady showed up, and early at that. A day that includes clean sheets on the bed cannot be a bad day so I knew things would be Okay. Of course, since the cleaning lady showed up early, she buzzed at the door just as I was soaping up in the bath tub. Atleast she didn't have to wash the floor, since I splashed water across the apartment running to the door to let her in. Sigh; its such a shame that we can't count on her to come twice a week because otherwise she is brilliant- she cleans really well and she is great with Ella. If I went back to work and needed a housekeeper I would honestly be ready to hire her. BUT (and this is a big but) she cancelled atleast 40% of the time when we worked with her before. When we count on her being here and I organize my schedule around her (ie when to invite people over and organize dinners, etc) it makes me want to murder someone when she would cancel 5 minutes before I expected her to show up.

Ella was being totally nutty over lunch so I decided to abandon any attempt to put her down for a nap before garderie, which meant that I could start my shopping an hour earlier. First stop- Eres. It was so much less of a chore than it might have been. The salesgirls were really really nice and totally happy to get out every single model to show me when I couldn't quite make up my mind. The changing cabins were big with flattering light so that the glare of my pale skin didn't blind me. The only thing that they might want to do is that trick where you tip the mirror up a bit so that you look taller? Despite weeks of Pilates, I couldn't stand how stumpy my legs looked in the mirror. Even worse though, I discovered that I have a giant in-grown hair on my leg, or considering the size, perhaps a small animal has burrowed beneath my skin. Its awful! But I was bound and determined to buy a suit that day, so I forced myself to ignore the legs and focus on the task at hand. I wanted a red bikini but they didn't have the bottoms I wanted in my size so I ended up getting my second choice, in a sort of red batik print. The second choice was nearly a 100 euro cheaper though, so the decision wasn't so hard. It so weird- I was at Printemps about two weeks ago to look through the suits and they only had out a few. I didn't try any on but I checked the prices and the Eres suits had a single price tag on them for around 130- but at the shop that was the price of either the top or the bottom. I think that maybe they messed up the pricing at Printemps but didn't realize it since they hadn't maybe sold any yet. I'm really tempted to run over there today with Ella just to see. I would be really tempted to buy a plain red bikini if I could get it for half price.

Anyways, after an hour or so of trying on suits at Eres, I hit my stride. In the next hour, I managed to buy new ear buds for my Ipod, batteries for my cameras, sunscreen, the Nuxe body oil, a box of chocolates for my in-laws, and some new mascara. I just want to add right here that despite being really pricey, I love buying Sisley products because I end up with an entire bag of free products every time, face cream to last a month, plus a new make-up pouch. Yesterday I couldn't decide between the black and brown mascara so the salesguy told me that he could just give me the black if I bought the brown, so I did. B would tell me that there was some trick involved, but frankly I don't care. I spent half the money that I thought I would have had to for twice the product. Seems fair to me.

Since I still had time to spare, I made a the very bad decision to take a peek through the new summer collections. I ended up buying far too much- two dresses, a top, and a sweater. So silly since I really didn't need any of it. Have hid the bag from B and might actually return some of it next week after I see what I will keep from the net-a-porter order. Anyways, the guilt was killing me so I made a gorgeous dinner last night. We hadn't organized a babysitter for Friday night and so we ended up staying in and watching a movie. Also, I should admit, we were watching the Brazilian guy across the street with his new girlfriend. I can always tell when he has a guest because he keeps his shirt on when cooking his dinner. Eventually his lady friend wandered in to the kitchen, and they started kissing. Then- all the lights went out, and we giggled about Brazilian guy's great success with the ladies. Unfortunately, the lights were all back on about 15 minutes later, so I think we may have pin-pointed why there is such a revolving cast of female visitors... Oh, Hairy Brazilian, when will you learn the joys of post-coital cuddling?