I took a little break from posting, as you may have noticed. I suppose part of it was that I was on vacation and didn't have as much access to a computer or as much time to waste inside. But I think the bigger reason was that I just felt too bored with everything. I was awfully upset about not getting accepted to that course that I had applied to- it wasn't so much the rejection as the fact that I hadn't a very good idea what I would do with my time since that option was taken off the table. It is such a god awful nightmare to find a job here in France that I can hardly consider that a possibility, although clearly that is my new goal. Basically, I just was bored to tears by the idea of doing the same old toddler-centric activities day-in-day-out for the next few months. And then it just snowballed. I hated the boring places that we always went out. I hated the boring people talking about the same boring things. I hated Paris. I hated our apartment. And so why on Earth keep posting blog entries about all this boring boring stuff? It wasn't interesting to me and could not possibly be interesting to anyone.
A few months of holiday have done me some good. I don't HATE Paris with a capital H anymore but I can still think of quite a few places that I would rather be. Naturally, vacation was far too short and rushed. We had a lovely week in Ireland in the sweetest little cottage on Lough Derg. As we were driving away, B and I both said we would love to come back. It was the perfect antidote to Paris- an old-fashioned stone cottage with a view over miles of quiet countryside and the lake. A little country lane ran through the fields to a village called GarryKennedy, where we found the most perfect Irish pub, complete with friendly locals and drunken singalongs to Danny Boy. We ate such gorgeous food that I could hardly believe we were in Ireland (on our last holiday in Ireland, the food was so grim that it made us long for the sight of the Golden Arches just to get some proper food in our stomachs). Our best meals, however, were big family dinners around the dining room table, slow-roasted in our very own Aga. The weather while we were there was predictably grey and rainy but thanks to that lovely Aga, we were snug and warm every night. And the rain was also welcome since it gave us the excuse to try out a peat fire, so tempting since there were great big fireplaces in every room. All in all, a 5 star vacation. My mom went a bit crazy with the camera though and now that I am trying to arrange the photos into an album I could kill her. Seriously, I must have already spent about 10 hours on Kodakgallery trying to create an album to print out and send to her and I'm still not done, although I have managed to whittle the number of photos from over 300 down to 144. Honestly, I have sort of volunteered for the position of family photo archivist, putting all my parents holiday photos into albums and creating annual calendars, etc but if I don't get suitably reimbursed in the will, I will be steaming.
We spent a bit of time in the country here in France with my in-laws but then it was back to the US for a much needed dose of Americana. What can I say? After wasting weeks of precious summer holiday lolling around the apartment it was heaven to be back in Wisconsin, with big blue skies, hot days playing at the lake, drinking cold beer while sitting around the firepit, looking at great big starry skies, wasting hours watching reruns of ANTM, etc.
I almost forgot to mention that finally this summer I managed to organize a trip to NYC to see one of my best friends in the whole world. She had organized the best girlie holiday that I could have asked for- lots of long boozy dinners, gossiping over drinks with girlfriends in trendy bars in the Village, shopping in the coolest boutiques, a bit of culture with a swing through MoMA (wish wish wish I had bought the book about the photo exhibition that we saw). NYC kicked my ass a little bit though- the humidity was UNBELIEVABLE. I turned into a frizzy haired puddle and just sloshed around the city bouncing between taxis and bars. Actually, maybe all the bars were the reason why I was sloshing... Anyways, I spent tons of money but only came home with a cute little dress from H &M, which is sort of retarded since I probably could have bought that here. But hey. I'll be back, if only to spend a bundle at this great shop called End of the World on Hudson Street that specializes in 50's, 60's, and 70's glass (mainly from Scandinavia). I honestly wanted to take home every single thing in the shop. I don't know if I've talked much here about my glass fetish but I go crazy for the stuff. This shop sells original museum quality pieces and its arranged in the most inspiring way. Of course, afterwards, B was like "Well, why didn't you just charge a few things if it was exactly what you've been looking for?" after having explicitly warned me against using my cards (he knows that it would be like opening Pandora's box if he let me loose in NYC with my no-limit AmEx). Sigh. That man plays such mind games with me.
So back in Paris, trying to keep things un-boring. I think I found a good way to do that- I went and had plastic surgery on Thursday. Can you believe it? I'm still thinking that it might have been a bit of a silly idea, but going with the mantra "Sometimes you just do things to have something to talk about later" I barrelled ahead with the plan I hatched back in June before my parents visit. Clearly I couldn't have done it before they came to visit unless I wanted to spend 2 weeks listening to them silently disapprove. This way they probably won't even notice, since they'll have 3 months to sort of forget what I look like. Right? Anyways, I did mention it to my mom but I am almost 100% certain that she will totally forget since the Crazy has taken up what looks to be permenant residence at her house. Crazy moved in with its bastard child, Short-Term Memory Loss, which made our 5 weeks visit feel rather long at times... But back to the real subject at hand, my recent surgery. B was a doll and took off a few days to take care of Ella but I am on my own with her today and she's running me ragged. I thought that this would be no big deal since I am normally pretty resilient, but I am really dragging and thanking my sweet doc for his liberal pain medication prescription.
I need to get myself back into some sort of schedule because free time is the quickest way to get depressed again. I'm going to try to get back to daily posting, if only to create more of a routine. Hopefully, I'll have something good to write about, although I think its safe to say that the body modification is at an end. Because seriously? Ow.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment