Getting back on Track

My husband and I had a discussion this morning and if the conversation had a name it would be "What the hell do we want to do with our lives and why are we hell bent on doing things that stress ourselves out and make us unhappy." Both of came to the conclusion that we are bent on finding the jobs we are trained for: him the Teacher and me the Herbalist. (and money, the necessary evil that it is) Both of us are happier when we have stress free jobs and can come home relax and be creative. He asked me if I still felt like an herbalist if all I had was my blog and made medicine for people when they needed. The answer I think is yes. Is this really all I need? Well maybe if I actually start blogging about herbs again :)

Speaking of pertinent entries, Think Like a Jillian has a guest post about the Gaia theory, you should check it out!

Slowly Coming back to Reality

So I know I promised many pictures of France, and much ado about Paris. Frankly this has not happened, mostly do to lingering tiredness, job hunting and various other stresses and distractions. Plus I have been pondering this blog which despite my initial set out to be about Herbs, Gardening, Green living and what not has ended up being more just.. well... stuff about me. Which I had pointed out to me also this week is typical for a blog, but not maybe all that interesting to the rest of the world. So I will spend today working on remedying both problems with a venture into herbs i met in Paris and then perhaps move on with more of what I set out to do which in affect is be informative about alternative medicine/living. Does that sound ok with everyone?

Be careful, I am contagious

Hey folks so apparently I have been tagged with a virus. A blogger virus. Not only that but I have been tagged with it twice! Once from my friend Jillian and also from my husband Sean. This particular virus was engineered by Splotchy, whom until this moment I did not even know existed. Way to go internet interconnectedness!

Here's the story:

***
I had been shuffling around the house for a few hours and already felt tired. The doorbell rang. I opened the front door and saw a figure striding away from the house, quickly and purposefully. I looked down and saw a bulky envelope. I picked it up. The handwriting was smudged and cramped, and I could only make out a few words.
***
"Interesting", I thought to myself, "I don't know anybody named Ted Kaczynski." Unless it's going to clear this damn sinus infection in my head, I'll have to open it later.I set it on the kitchen table, and prepared my tincture of herbal tea remedies.
***
As I watched the lengthy glossop of honey slather into my tea I heard a rustling noise behind me. Having spent my childhood in a rotating house (due to some awkward foundations) I am quite adept at craning my neck and utilized this skill in the current situation, looking behind myself like a six-foot-tall owl.
***
The envelope - so stationary seconds before - had started to move, an event that I found somewhat odd, given that I was four days away from celebrating a year of sobriety. I picked up the nearest implement of swatting size without thinking, and slowly approached the bubble-wrapped delivery.The envelope continued to shuffle and shake as I stood poised with the potato masher held in readiness over my head. A small bead of sweat edged down my temple, hitting the floor at the same time as a lump of congealed potato from my weapon. There was a tearing sound, and I froze, unable to move, as a disembodied hand broke through my mysterious delivery. I blinked, and the thumb and forefinger of the hand formed a mouth.
***
"Hey, dude, what's up?" The Hand/Mouth said. I just stared, perplexed and terrified. "You got any grub? I'm starving!"
At this point, my fear got the better of me and I swung the potato masher down fiercely, knocking the hand/mouth (still partially in the packaging) off the counter and onto the floor. Screaming at the top of my lungs, I ran to the kitchen stool and stood on top of it, still grasping the potato masher with white-knuckled terror.
"Not cool, man," said the thing.
***
I stood transfixed in horror. The hand now started to inch across the floor towards my stool.
Ring, ring! On the wall across the kitchen the telephone began to ring, breaking me free from the icy grip of fear.

I had been in the middle of moving into a new home, in a fairly clean neighborhood. Kids on bikes, 2 cars in every garage. This hand was not something I had expected to be dealing with.

Ring! The phone rang again.
Cautiously, I climbed onto the counter, stepping over boxes and the empty sink to answer. "Hello?" I shouted into the receiver, intently aware of the scrabbling fingers below me.

"Mr. Newman, I have a proposition to make."
***
"Wha- what do you want?" I babbled into the phone as I sat on the counter, knees to my chin, feet in the sink, phone tucked between my ear and shoulder, my potato masher still firmly clutched in my hand keeping the creature at bay as it attempted to climb the drawer handles to the counter.

"Nothing much Mr. Newman. Just the hand back."

I was just about to answer the man when I saw it. Inside the envelope, still wrapped around the hand things wrist, was a piece of paper. It was halfway out of the envelope, if I could only grab it.
***

Ok virus I know very few bloggers and unfortunately the two I know best got me first. So this virus goes onto Wil Wheaton because he is the one who got me started blogging and I read his stuff everyday. I know you are uber famous Wil, but I am hoping your blogger instincts will make this imperative to continue passing this deadly virus around.

We are back

Hey everyone we are back in the States, but since we are exhausted, working, and constantly catching up with friends and family I haven't' had a chance to do much consolidations of Paris pictures. I will attempt to do so by the weekend so stay tuned!

Last Night In Paris

So tonight is our last. We just got home from a jaunt in the rain for ice cream on the Champs Elysees (the Worlds Best, Berthillion brand no less!) and a glass of wine, at one of the restaurants on the block where we live (Cote Vignes). We had a full day of exploring, shopping, eating, drinking and walking in the blistering sun. Much like the rest of our visit here :) Only difference today was we knew we couldn't go back later to places we fell in love with, (which may account for the rash spending) and the lovely bit of rain that occurred towards evening (the one I have been wishing for since i got my sunburn last week). All in all it was a lovely day and a good note to end the trip on.

I will be posting Paris in retropect all next week as I rummage through photos and my wayword journal, and scan in some sketches Sean and I drew while here. So don't think Paris talk is through! For those of you awaiting our return in Spokane, we will be home tomorrow night! (though don't expect much from us, we will be traveling for 18+ hours tomorrow and arrive at 6am Paris time). Au revoir Paris!

Just Another Day in Paris....

Today started out like any other the sun was shining the grass was growing and the buildings were wobbling...wait that's not right. Something was definitely wrong about the wobbly building...



Not to mention the strange trip into infinity on the british flag... and we weren't even in London!










Sean tells me that at some point I completely disappeared from view when I was right in front of him!










I do seem to remember some mushrooms somewhere... maybe they had something to do with it...


Of course that foxglove we passed could have been the culprit as well...











Oh I know what it was... it was our last day in Paris...

Lessons Learned in Paris

So I learned a few things while I have been here such as: don't stop and let someone make a bracelet on your arm or expect to lose 5 euros, always watch which stop occurs next on the subway so you don't end up riding the wrong way for too long, always be polite, don't ask too many questions in english to waiters and waitresses (learned vicariously through Sean), and never order a medium drink...




























....or expect to be sitting at the restaurant a long time.

Notre Dame and Little Taste of Paris

Despite my protestations about going up the Notre Dame tower (I must admit I threatened to leave the tour line more than once) it was actually something I enjoyed. I will also say though that 400 stairs is a lot, Gargoyles, chimeras and grotesues aren't nearly as interesting from behind steel cables (erected for our protection and theirs I am sure), and 30 people on a winding staircase makes it hot cramped and airless. I had two distinct "oh my gawd, I think I am going to have a panic attack." moments... but they passed thanks to breathtaking views and a cool refreshing breeze. I doubt I will want to do it again, but it is something I will remember and I certainly know Sean had fun and really wanted to see it. Thank goodness he can be persistent.

Sean and I after we climbed to the top and back down

After the Cathedral we went to the crypts below, but it wasn't really much to see, interesting for an archeaology student, but not much for an overstimulated person whose been to 7 museums in the last 5 days. We had both been expecting skulls and bones, but found out that that is the Catacombs. We will go there next monday or tuesday instead :)

On a completely different subject Sean and I have been married now for 81 months and we celebrated our Lunaversary by going out to lunch at our favorite spot yet in Paris. Le Cheveau de La Colombe, 4 Rue De La Colombe, 75004 Paris, France. The food, superb! the wine... oh the wine... ahhhh! service was excellent the server was really friendly and spoke really fluent english, it was quite nice, all that I expected from Paris and More. We may have to go back there before we leave.





The rest of the day we spent at the Pompidou, but alas our camera had died by then so we don't have any pictures to share tonight. We found, however, a new artist to love. Her name is Louise Bourgeious, and she is the real deal!

Hope your Friday is going well!

Give her a Hug for me Dad

So it was just brought to my attention, by my friend Jillian, that Sunday is Mothers Day. I had sort of forgot, though now that i know I do think I have been seeing Mothers Days advertisements all over Paris. Just didn't connect that it would be before I got back to the States. I guess I will have to go shopping...

in Paris...

some more...

truly my life is so hard!

Versailles

Sean and I got up early and fled to Versailles today. It was crowded, but not so bad as it could have been, I wouldn't want to be there in summer when I am sure that gigantic parking lot is full and the metro must be like a sardine can; it was bad enough in the 80 degree whether, with at least three school groups flooding the Chateau and gardens. Suffice to say we had fun, the garden was simply breathtaking in its scope and beauty.

Sculptures, fountains (I wish that they had been functioning, they just aren't as pretty when switched off), hedges of every shape and size, avenues lined with trees that arched overhead, in the distance you could see forests where it would be easy to imagine the King taking his retinue hunting. All very magical.

Some distracting features were that: (as mentioned above) the fountains were off, some sculptures were hidden behind metal screens as they were under restoration (a couple were even missing, obviously needing some very desperate care), there was lots of construction, scaffolds, and of course, our luck, it was lawn mowing day. All seemed abuzz with restorations, and as I said, though it was distracting, it wasn't horrible and needed. Historical sites need to be maintained after all.
My favorite part of the day, besides just strolling the gardens, was us taking a rowboat and navigating the cross shaped canal at the far end from the Chateau itself. We had lots of fun trying to row straight and through thick cinquefoil that bogged the whole canal. It was a blessing and a curse that it was so windy, blessing because it was so hot, and curse cause it always seemed to be blowing out poor boat the opposite direction to which we wanted to go. Anyway we had fun, saw ducks and people watched, and even saw some HUGE gray carp. I even managed to catch a picture of one, which wasn't easy cause they were skittish, mostly we just saw the water splashing after they jumped for bugs on the waters surface.

We headed back for Paris after this, feeling utterly exhausted for some reason, and didn't realize till we stopped for something to drink, at a cafe near the Eiffel Tower, that it was because we were both badly sunburned. I have to say despite being in the sun all day it never once crossed my mind that we should have sunscreen. I think I am of the opinion that it is still spring. Today in France however I will say it was definitely summer. I do hope however that the forecast is right and it will be cloudy and possibly rain of Friday so my poor sunburned shoulders get a break. Anyway we asked at the Pharmacie (the pharmacy stores are everywhere, distinguished by green and blue florescent crosses, often there are two on the same street. They sell creams and such and behind the counter have all manner of powerful stuff; what in America is often over-the-counter) and they recommended a burn cream and sunscreen. The cream is wonderful and I will surely be glad of the sunscreen tomorrow, though I intend to stay inside as much as possible.

Ok its after midnight again, better go to sleep.

Stuff

Sleepy. Very Long Day. Good though. Took so many pictures, camera dead. Me talk more later. You look at pretty tower.

The Tour Eiffel, dusk, view from Arc de Triomphe.

Tomorrow's My Birthday!

...and I am in Paris! We plan to go shopping, go to a couple museums and have a drink at the Jules Verne Restaurant on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower (probably one of the most expensive restaurants in Paris!). I am going to sleep now so I don't miss out on anything tomorrow...


View of of Eiffel Tower from Jardin de Luxembourg, as you can see the park is very busy on Sunday afternoon.