meilleurs voeux

So I live right next to rue de Levis which is a market street filled with specialty shops (cheese, meats, fruits/vegatables, bread, even olive oil). Imagine the beginning of Beauty and the Beast except without the singing or reading.

Unfortunately on the same street is a big chain grocery store and I must confess I always end up succumbing to it's convenient charms and regretting it afterwards.

But for New Year's Eve this year we decided to avoid the overpriced restaurants and eat in. Seizing the opportunity we went from specialty store to specialty store to get what we needed. Although it did require more time, surrounded by the aroma, colors, and expertise of "les artisans" shopping for food became more of a pleasure and less a chore.







Happy New Year.

faceboo

So I had been off facebook for a while for the sole reason that one day I signed on and everything had changed making me feel as though I had had some kind of stroke that left me discombobulated and confused in what should have been familiar surroundings.

It's no coincidence that the analogy makes me out to be old because that's how I felt when dragging my mouse around the screen to find [hidden] link options. What's wrong with trying to do things by reading? Is that so passé? Isn't it a social commentary when people no longer have to use reading skills to navigate? Yes I know clicking on your profile picture which will then give you the option to change it is intuitive and "easy" but scanning the screen looking for the words "Change profile" requires at most a 3rd grade reading level.

But alas using all the adaptability I could muster I did what I had to do and quickly logged out vowing never to return again leaving those more apt [read younger] at flourishing in this strange new world. I would stick with my all familiar email thank you very much [although I should note that gmail has since also incorporated this finding hidden options by hovering your mouse business].

But then I realized that some people actually only communicate nowadays via facebook. So I was sucked back in.

Resigned to the fact that I could not avoid facebook in the modern world I decided to try to understand how to use it.

Major fail. I tried to categorize my "friends" to limit access to "friends" who's name or face I didn't recognize. Seemed that facebook gave me the option of "Acquaintance" or "Close Friend". What about people in between I thought to myself? Unfortunately I didn't take the time to really consider this since I had 200+ people to go through and categorize.

Maybe there was an option to do mass categorization? Hoovering my mouse around the screen revealed no such option. I only got about 20 people in. Tired I went to bed.

I woke up the next day to find a dozen or so emails informing me that my "Close friends" either posted a link, changed their status, or liked something. I quickly went back to facebook to try and put everything back to the way it was.

Except, I couldn't put people back to just "Friends". I googled "how to change close friend back to friend on facebook" and got no results. Hovering my mouse all over my "manage your friends" page also had no result.

So apparently the only way someone can remain just a "Friend" is if you never ever ever touch this option, which is what I recommend.

My only option left was to make everyone an Acquaintance so if these people are somehow seeing a different profile of me in facebook I am very sorry.

I would "dislike" what facebook has done but, as it seems, there is only the option to "like".

I'll keep hovering my mouse though, just to be sure.

Cendrillon

So a friend of mine had an extra ticket to the ballet performance of Cendrillon
at the Opera National de Paris so I decided to tag along. Not that I know anything about ballet.

But honestly you don't have to. The dancers were memorizing especially the lead female dancer Marie-Agnès Gillot. She was amazing in the way she moved. I mean really breathtaking.





And Rudolf Nureyev who did the the adaptation, choreography and stage direction has an amazing history. Here he is dancing with Ms. Piggy.

His humor and grace show in this adaptation of Cendrillon. Bravo.

U.S. Embassy paper distributer

So to be legally married in France you have to have an official ceremony in the town hall and of course to do this you need to submit a dossier. As part of the dossier they have requested two documents "Attestation de celibat" and "Certificat de coutume". Do these things exists in the States? No. Does the town hall want them anyways? Yes.

The solution to this is that the U.S. embassy provides two forms that you fill out with information (passport number, date of birth, etc.) and attesting to the fact that you lived in the states, you attend to marry someone in France, and that you have never been married before(or pac-ed even though this doesn't exist outside of France).

Afterwards you pay (50 dollars a pop) and swear before the Consular officer that what you say is true and he/she motorizes it.

What's the difference between the two forms? From what I can tell nothing except one form has your home address in the States plus name of your fiance and the other has your parent's information on it. Why couldn't they combine these two forms and save me 50 bucks? I don't know.

Anywho my first attempt at the embassy was a fail because I needed to know the city the bf was born in and I couldn't call him because they took my cell phone before entering the embassy (I was also already 2 hours into my lunch break at this time).

So I took the papers and came back a second time despite my 3pm meeting that sprang up last minute that morning thinking, I have all the information all I have to do is pay and swear right?

Yes except on this day there were many people including one who was blind and cut in line which I understand but will say took a painfully long time getting things done.

Which of course I understand but I was late to my meeting anyways (I should note here that at some point in this process they took my passport so I couldn't leave the embassy even if I wanted to).

But it's fine. Two attempts totaling five hours and 100 bucks for two pieces of paper with information that I myself provided. As my co worker stated if Antalis had that kind of margin selling paper we'd be rich.

fiac 2011

So at work I won an invitation to the grand opening of FIAC (Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain) for myself and a guest at the Grand Palais.



In my mind I was going to be nibbling on horderves while sipping champagne with cool artsy "in the know" Parisiens. I wore the perfect outfit for such an occasion, complete with red lipstick.

What I should have gone for instead was this. Why? When we arrived there were two long lines wrapped around the Palais. And yes everyone had an invitation.

Reluctantly we got in the line. The bf started questioning if it was really worth it. Unfortunately at this point escalation of commitment had kicked in and I was still holding on to the idea of horderves and champagne.

One hour and half way through the line later some friends arrived so I told the bf that he was free to go if he wanted. He fled. Five minutes after he leaves we move up to the front of the line so I called him to tell him that we were almost there if he wanted to come back. When he finally called me back (he's not good at answering his phone) we were still waiting and explained to him the situation. He decided to come back.

Making his way back up the line was in his words "hard". Apparently people weren't buying his "Where are you guys I can't see you!" routine when he was on the phone with me.

But he made it and was there and that's when they made the announcement that there were too many people in the exhibition so they weren't letting any more people in.

People were not happy. It was a scandal! We had invitations! They had to bring reinforcements for the barriers.

As the other American girl there with me said, if this had been in the States she would have just left after the announcement. But she's been in France long enough to know that everything is a negotiation.

So we stand there for a while 20 steps away from the entrance cold and hungry but the laws of escalation of commitment will not let me walk away because at this point I was 2 hours in. Some people left in a huff, some people bitched, some people tried to get a side deal. Me, I apologized to the bf for calling him back into this mess.

In the end we got in. Was it worth it? Let's just say I didn't stand out in the cold for 2 hours in heels and red lipstick for nothing.



Actual piece was 3 inches deep



Pretty



Black thread



Someone left their bag?



How I felt an hour earlier



Art or bathroom wall?



Not a person (I hope)

3.1

911

So the bf and I decided to check out what was going on for the 10th anniversary of 911 at the Eiffel tower. When we got there we saw , as advertised, the replication of the twin towers. Underneath was an orchestra that appeared to be in the process of rehearsing. There were chairs in front so we decided to have a seat and watch.



10 minutes into the rehearsal I started to noticed that everyone sitting in the chairs around us had badges. I looked around and the area around us was now blocked off from all the people crowding around behind the barrier. The scene was complete with security guards.

Realizing we were where we weren't suppose to be, the bf and I looked at each other and shrugged. If someone were to ask to leave we'd simply do it. What's the worse that could happen?

5 minutes later a one of the guys sitting next to us comes up to us... and hands us badges.

"You will be better off with these" he informs us.

Goes to show you, rules are for suckers.