Have YOU seen this missing mini pony?

Now that I'm back to school hopefully these blogs will become more funny and informative and less introspective again. I suppose introspection is to be expected when one has alot of alone time.
I'm halfway through my first week and have experienced all of my classes except for Armenian Culture which is once a week on Fridays. My first day back was an okay start with Conversation French but I started to panic as our first assignment was an oral autobiography. I HATE speaking French in front of any sort of class. This sounds stupid coming from someone who is a French major. I don't mind one-on-one conversation where I can take my time and find the words, still sounding like a retard, but at least its only in front of one. In all of my classes it feels like I'm the worst one, although I'm sure quite a few others feel the same. Tuesday came and my next two classes were also French but upper-level this time. These are classes I shouldn't be in, but have to be in order to finish my major and graduate on time. I am only catching about 50% of the lecture in both classes, which is problematic since one of them is a lecture course on French Civilization. By the time I left school at 7pm after being there since 11am, I was ready to throw in the towel. My Pop Culture class is nearly 3 hours long and with the first class always being incredibly boring with administrative stuff I was bored into a headache. I don't mean to be snotty but if you can't figure out how to log onto a website per written instructions I suggest you ditch college because you're beyond help. I don't like to be bored, I don't like to go slow, and I don't like to be hand-fed simple information. It's always been hard for me to step back and realize that not everyone thinks like me. This is half the reason I picked a foreign language major, everything else arts, English, or humanities related would have been a cakewalk and I need to be challenged. This knowledge doesn't, however, stop me from being a baby about having to work harder.
Surprisingly enough today has been the most fantastic day. Not for any reason in particular, which is the best part. I got some sleep, did most of my ridiculously long to-do list, and after checking out the syllabii from my classes I readjusted my attitude. I may not get the grades I want necessarily but I will be fine. I even stopped being anxious and silly about the autobiography presentation, which I didn't even have to give this morning. I bought some new music on iTunes the other night and one song in particular was my anthem the entire time I was in the car....Bonfire by Third Eye Blind, off their new album. Also check out Ingrid Michaelson.

There's been some sort of shift in me about everything that I've been pondering this summer and now I know I've surpassed so many of my stumbling blocks. I was literally laughing in the car to myself...just happy. I think I've finally reached a new level of confidence and concreteness in myself. I wish I could articulate why but I just can't. Maybe it's simply because being absolutely concrete in who I am obliterates all worries and doubts when it comes to my relationships. It's been amazing to watch alot of my friends realize their lessons and come into their own. These are usually things I pinpointed ages ago as simple guesses with my perceptiveness. I think it's building my confidence in my intuition to finally be proven right over and over. My point is...I know what's going on!! Life is crazy, and weird, and always surprising, but if you can pay attention to the signs, the details, you can start to see the pattern. Shannon always says I read too much into things. Maybe that's true but practicing being aware makes perfect.

Hurry up and wait OR Be Here Now

School starts Monday...darn! I am both excited to go back to classes and 'blah' about it at the same time. I didn't get the exact schedule I wanted, which means I have to take an extra class but at least it's one that's online. I'm enjoying the last week of freedom but mostly I'm just bored. Not exactly bored but right now I am struggling with patience and waiting. Everything I want is concreted into a process. It will all happen, it just has to happen eventually. I'm working on getting the discipline to stop wasting my time sitting around waiting for it but to live in the now and get stuff done. It's not that I don't have stuff to do so it's just a matter of shifting the focus. I'm very much the kind of person who will stay up all night to get something done that needs to be done and none of these things call for that kind of work ethic.

There has been alot of relationship-type news this week from all fronts and most of it makes me want to scream, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH EVERYONE?" Are we so fundamentally opposed to being alone that we marry in haste, or deal with crazy people, or get married at 19, or any number of stupid things I've heard this week. What is so wrong with solitude?? Not saying I've got it all together or that I do everything right, but with the wealth of bad examples around me I don't see any reason not to be absolutely cautious before jumping into something with another human being who is just as flawed and full of issues as I am. And no matter what our emotions say, love is not enough. I've loved a number of people in my life that I would not be able to stand on a daily basis. Really LIKING someone is key, also getting to know them well enough that you figure out their flaws and decide whether or not they're flaws you want to deal with is helpful. Everyone has them, and we all have different things that we will and will not handle. I'd rather not do all this figuring out after the fact. More important is knowing myself. If I don't know myself and my good and bad points, what I like and don't like, how on earth will I be able to accurately assess a decent partner. It's like walking into a car dealership with no idea what you want or need. 5 hours later and you're walking out the door with something that may or may not have decent gas mileage or trunk space and then you spend the next however long realizing that something else would have fit you so much better. But at least it's pretty on the outside, right? And it seemed like a good idea at the time because of the adrenaline rush of actually purchasing something that's just yours. What kills me more is the people who have had failed major relationships including marriages and have no issue jumping right back in. Someone failed to learn their valuable lesson here. Maybe my standards are impossibly high. The fact that I've only met about 4 people in the last 10 years that even come close to good enough might evidence this but I dare you to tell me that I need to lower them. I've had enough experience to know exactly what I do and don't need in a partner and I'm not afraid to wait for it. I may not LIKE waiting for it, but I'll do it anyway. I grew up in a war zone and I refuse to reconstruct that for my future. Obviously I am slightly annoyed at this point but I just have trouble understanding what everyone else is thinking.

'This time next year you will wonder what on earth you'd been so worried about'

I have been home from Paris for about 6 weeks now. The summer is flying by and before I can even blink I will be back to the daily class grind. Maybe because I was in Paris I didn't notice the warning signs of the coming avalanche that is now my life. I'm sure there were little trickles of shale, a golf ball sized rock or two, along with a couple of tremors but no inkling of the massive build up of just life that has swept me off my feet. I've done alot of life experimenting now that I'm back to my real life. I wanted to keep up the momentum of experiences that was set in motion in Paris. There was no reason to just sit on my couch and do nothing just because I'm at home. I think I've managed fairly well. Los Angeles has so much to offer if you just venture out into it. I've had some amazing random nights out in West Hollywood where it's a normal evening for people to be standing on the street corner handing out free hugs, and you never know who you might run into. In addition there has been alot of Pool Party USA time with my girls. The making of essential new friends. A hilarious night of shooting music videos with puppets. BBQs and Taco Tuesdays. A first Ethiopian food experience. Drinks and music and dancing. Visits from long lost friends that will always be near and dear no matter how long it's been. The most amazing kiss of my life to date. A much needed mystical encounter. Nights of insomnia where, for once, it was me making the 2am phone call to someone else. Plenty of nights where I was receiving the 2am hysterical phone call. And there have been sunsets...exquisite moments of stillness and beauty. There is just so much going on and everything has such a momentum to it that I feel like one of the kids when Rob or Walker would take their hands and spin them around in the backyard. I am suspended in the air, secured only by the grip of those around me, and the world is rushing past me. Of course I am laughing, loving every minute, but I am dizzy all the same. Dizzy, and overwhelmed. There seems like too much all at once and I'm trying my best not to be afraid.
Last summer on my birthday I had a vision of the woman I wanted to be. She was confident, secure, classy, with perfect hair, and a really fantastic pair of shoes. At that point I had no idea how I would ever get there because it doesn't take a genius to realize that you can dress up every single day and that doesn't buy you class or sophistication. It's like there was this giant black abyss between who I was and who I saw myself becoming, and what's worse is that I had no idea how to even go about getting there. Little did I know that a little time and faith, and life will lead you where you need to go, it provides the way. I am not there yet, but I feel like that dark divide is getting smaller and smaller until one day I will just be there. I correct myself, because I don't feel that it is smaller, I KNOW that it is. I had no idea the 'becoming' would be so painful. It's crazy the people who end up teaching you things and even crazier when a 9 year old and a 4 year old can bring your past and your future crashing together without even being aware of what's happening. I feel like I am on the brink of getting everything I ever wanted in life and that adds a new scary dimension of "well now what?" It's easy to want, you know where you stand, it doesn't require much of you, and more than anything it's safe. I like being safe, but I like expanding more. If you aren't living most of your moments scared out of your mind then you're not living up to your potential. Leaving room for possibilities leaves room for the universe/God to bring in more amazing things than we were even able to imagine existed.

I have been struggling because my heart is a willful child who does what it wants without consulting me. It doesn't listen when I tell it to stop running so fast or to put down the scissors or to stop talking to strangers. But the point is that it doesn't need to listen to my silly head. A head filled with doubts and the opinions of those around me. It only amplifies the fears that are collected from a lifetime of heartbreaks and disappointments and the little voice on your shoulder that tells you to be careful, you don't want to be stupid AGAIN, you don't want to be heartbroken AGAIN, you can't trust that ridiculous child, give it any leeway and it'll jump you off a cliff. I finally realized this morning that I'd been listening to my head too much and I've been angry with my heart for all the times I feel it's led me astray. Angry that it could even consider doing the same thing to me again. All the times I've loved someone and it didn't work out or was unrequited, or felt secure in some circumstance and it changed. What it's taken me all this time to realize is that my heart is the only thing that I can trust, the only thing that makes any sense when there are so many words and details I can get bogged down analyzing. The people I have loved in my life have all led me to where I am now. I've been thinking I need to battle myself and my emotions, squash them, manage them, put them in a box so they can't torture me at night. I have been thinking so wrong. Perfect love is freeing for both the party doing the loving and the object of that love, whether it be a friend, or whoever. It means that you love them enough to want them to be happy, even if its not with you, or them not doing what you think they should. This love creates a fullness and a healing for the person doing the loving. Obsession is the antithesis of this, it's selfish and restricting and usually mistaken for love. The right kind of love allows for a release in both parties and whether that love comes around to meet yours or not it won't even matter because of what's been gained by simply allowing it to just be. I have been instructed by so many to figure out how I feel, to put a label on it, and up until this point I have been at a loss and I couldn't understand why. I realize now that it's because I've been cripplingly obsessed out of fear for myself and the outcome. I can now accept that what I feel is love because I've risen above all that and truly let go. Release of the stranglehold on something that refuses to be held brings such peace. There is no need to be afraid, as Rilke says, "life is in the right, always." It may bring us what we want, but if it doesn't it will bring us more, and it will be sweeter than our sweetest dream.
This life is difficult and rocky, but that's why we have people around us to hold our hands and break our fall...to pick us up, crying, off the floor when putting a beautiful little boy to bed touches a soft spot of emotion so deep we didn't even realize we had it in us. Life demolishes and rebuilds, and yes, it hurts, but the end result will be truly amazing. It's all about faith after-all. Faith that life knows what it's doing. Because it does.

2 Euro Rhum with a Monoprix Cider Chaser. Yuck.

Since I'm writing these after the fact its hard to be linear so I'm going by the pictures in my camera, which can be limited.

The next day was spent in recovery. I don't believe I made it to school, which is great since I only missed 2 classes the whole time I was there anyway. That night we had a group activity in the form of the Musee D'Orsay, my favorite museum in Paris. This one houses all of the Van Gogh, Monet, Maney, Renoir stuff. I wandered around with Lauren and Emma for a bit and then lost them as I took the express escalators up to the best rooms at the top. I managed to find the outdoor balcony where I had an even better time taking a hysterical call from Shannon while feeling really bad that I was having a fantastic time. Even worse I was observing the Left Bank on a gloriously sunshiney day from the roof of an old train station where there are quadruple-life-sized statues looking out over the city. Paris is so beautiful it could heal anyone's soul. I listened to her freak out as I gazed over at Sacre Coeur, the highest point in Paris, as my eyes wandered down the streets of the Marais, as I watched the water of the Seine rush under the ornate bridges. I felt like a terrible person. Anyway, I got the summons that the girls were ready to go so I met them at the exit.

Our next fun excursion was more Seine! Of course. Julie and I got ready for another night out and met Emma and Lauren over in the Latin Quarter for dinner. We chose Le Menhir, which I'd eaten at on another trip to Paris. The guy was super sketchy because he enticed us in with a 10 euro set price menu but didn't want to give it to us when we sat down. Jerk. I ended up striking up a conversation with the couple sitting practically in our laps next to us because every time he said the word 'Yankee' I wanted to strangle him. They ended up being a very nice couple from Georgia or something. We decided not to go back to the house to get wine but ran into the small issue of not having a corkscrew and not wanting to pay for a new one. Oh, we of little faith in how easy the French make it to laze on the Seine with an open bottle. We stopped in at the Monoprix on St. Michel Blvd and found carafe shaped bottles with pull tab tops much to our delight. They also had Monoprix brand cider for under 2 euro, and better yet, something called Rhum for 2 euro that looked like the kind of bottle that usually comes with a brown bag and a bum attached to it. We bought it of course, and then briefly stopped in next door to beg some plastic cups at Starbucks as we were trying for a classier sort of evening. Pleased with our purchases AND our free cups, we head down to a different part of the Seine, possibly on the Ile St. Louis...I'm not entirely sure. The draw of this spot is that its smack in the middle of the Seine on an island point that juts out into the water. We plopped ourselves down in the crowd and immediately Lauren knocks our cups down the embankment onto a ledge by the water. Curses! Back to swigging out of the bottle. As is the norm now some guy comes up to us and tries to speak French with us. Lauren is more than happy to accommodate but when the conversation goes silent and awkward he just wouldn't go away. We finally had to have Julie tell him that 'NO, our alcohol is for us, he has to go get his own,' and that got rid of him. She's pleasantly mean like that...we like it. It was rather cold out so we opted to move up the steps and into the grassy park. Small problem...grassy park was gated off. Clearly that hadn't stopped the hundred other people who'd hopped over the fence to get in so, as they say, when in Rome...err...Paris... We hopped the fence and plopped on the grass. Another two random boys came up to us who spoke decent english. They were very charming and invited us to go hang out with their group. We might have but once again I had to pee so we made our exit. Finding bathrooms in Paris is REALLY hard, hence this problem that keeps popping up. Funny, but we find ourselves at peeing boy bathroom again. Emma and Lauren decide to head home but Julie and I aren't ready to call it a night. We head towards Rue de la Huchette stopping on the way for the most delicious pizza ever. The crust was like biting into a cloud....really. We decide to try a bar on the left that looks promising. There are alot of fun lights, random conga lines, and 'No-stripper' signs posted on the walls. Great! Drinks are expensive so we only get one and then head out. Randomly these two younger people come up to us and start talking to us. They recommend the bar across the street from where we've been because of the salsa dancing. We're tired but we decide to check it out anyway. As we're walking in they tell us that they'll be closing in 20 minutes so we say okay and continue to look around. Another bouncer tells us that we need to buy a drink or leave so we say okay, we'll leave. As we're walking out the door Julie gets shoved from behind right out of the place by security. We couldn't believe it. Needless to say, although I love staying on Huchette, I will never frequent a bar there again since 3 out of the 3 that we've visited have been terrible. Tired we start the walk home only to be stopped by another weirdo. This is no surprise since Paris has an endless supply and in my weariness I could have sworn he was the exact same fellow who wouldn't leave us alone on the island.

Est-ce que vous avez...um...'preservatives'?

The very next day we decided to make a second trip up to Sacre Coeur/Montmartre because Julie and Rachel hadn't gone the first time. The rest of us also wanted to spend some more time in that gorgeous area of Paris with windy streets and square-filled artists. I wanted to do some shopping at H&M so I met Julie outside our apartment and we walked up to Saint Placide. This took quite a bit longer than I'd anticipated so we were running behind practically before we began as we were to meet the girls at 3pm. I HATE H&M still but I did find a fantastic black dress to wear on nights we go out. Julie and I rushed back to the metro and rode it all the way up to Northern Paris because Emma, Rachel, and Lauren had already headed in that direction. The metro was terrible, crowded and hot and smelly. We skipped one transfer train but pushed onto the next one for the short one-stop ride to Anvers. We were pretty much about to faint from heat stroke so we stopped and purchased multiple beverages for the trip up to the cathedral. We met the girls at the top and stopped for some photo opportunities. While we were hanging out there was this street performer who could spin a basketball on pretty much anything...WHILE climbing up the giant lamppost. It was cool. We were hungry so we dragged the other girls to Place du Tertre where all of the street artists gather. There are restaurants in the center of the square as well for outdoor dining. After perusing every menu in site we ended up at Chez Eugene in the center of the square. I had thrown a minor tantrum because I did not want anymore paninis or crepes but I settle myself down when I saw the menu was quite varied. We got squished into a table meant for four and the French ladies next to us muttered something about us being sardines. They were incredibly sweet to us and we took over an extra table of theirs when they left. Dinner was amazing. I got the Confit du Canard...duck leg and it was seriously good. We got little carafes of wine and had great conversation. The end of our dinner was terribly exciting as Rachel got pooped on by the same kind of evil bird who stalks me through my apartment window. She kept talking about scrubbing her arm while slathering on mass amounts of hand sanitizer. We did a little shopping in the souvenir stores and Rachel and I got Gelato - Nutella Gelato. Yum! We had a little time before we were supposed to meet Ruchita for wine on the Seine so we sat with everyone else on the steps up to Sacre Coeur. Lauren, who was still sick, managed to croak out a few practice round of her oral presentation for class. I somehow got the giggles and couldn't stop laughing. Finally it was nearly 9:30 and I insisted it was time to go. We picked up wine from home and Emma, Lauren and I went to meet Ruchita at the Saint Germain stop. We were nearly to the Seine when three men stopped us. We figured out that they were inviting us to their 'accommodation' meaning their apartment and I put my foot down about going to anyone's apartment. We ditched them and made it to the Pont Des Arts to fulfill the promise of seeing what all the fuss was about with the rest of the locals. The Pont is one of the best bridges in Paris. It's a wooden pedestrian bridge situated directly between the ornately carved Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris, and a view of the Eiffel Tower which sparkles for 10 minutes every hour. Everyone on the bridge is sitting in groups with wine and/or picnic items, playing music, talking...it's fantastic. We pick a place and sit down trying not to gripe about the lack of cute boys in the immediate vicinity. As we would learn time and again, the weirdos will come to you without fail. After awhile of girl talk and bonding two moderately cute boys join us for conversation. Matteo and Greg. I chat with Matteo about politics and Sarkozy for awhile, who knows where the other conversation was headed. They attempted to punk some of our wine, a talent specifically reserved for Frenchman, it wouldn't be the last time that happened. At some point Ruchita and Julie had to pee so they followed Greg because he said he knew where the bathrooms were. Thankfully I didn't join them because the 'bathrooms' were some bushes off of the bridge. Classy! Not only are we swigging from the bottles we're peeing on the streets...actually, that makes us more Parisian than anything. Its starting to get late and the bridge is clearing out when we notice we're out of wine. THANK GOODNESS there are hobos selling bottles of wine on the bridge. That's what I call service. We purchase one and decide to find a bar somewhere else because now I have to pee as well. As we're trying to leave we get accosted by random people wanting us to smoke weed out of a hookah. Thanks but no thanks. These same fellows happened to have a 'preservative' (aka condom) on them when Julie asked. Why she asked I will never know because she freaked out the minute it was produced. Hilarious. All of a sudden the boys disappear so we ditch them to go find someplace that Ruchita knows about. All of a sudden they reappear and jog after us up the street. I need a bathroom really badly by this time so we magically arrive near Rue de Buci and the bar that we always manage to happen upon when it's time to use the facilities. I remember it because there's a creepy painting of a peeing little boy on the door. We somehow manage to convince them we're going home, which WAS the plan at the time, at least for Emma, who decided it was late enough for her. Ruchita, Julie and I decided we were hungry and I remembered that the Dungeon always serves pizza for decently cheap. How we find ourselves there so often I will never know. Maybe because its open til 5am?? Anyway, we order a pizza and the rest of the night passed until somehow its 6am, daylight, and I am making the trek back to our apartment with Julie. It was a FUN FUN evening.

'Have you had YOUR red pleasure today' and other 'private jokes'

Tuesday was Karl day! He'd scheduled us a ride on the Bateaux Mouches Seine River cruise since the weather decided to clear up and be nice. Before that I went to lunch with Julie and the cute South American boys from her class, and we commenced shopping on Rue de Rennes. They had some really awesome stores but everytime I purchase something I dread having to haul my bags around Dublin even more. She needed to go meet one of her family members, Francois, who I think I'd marry if he were about 40 years younger. He's awesome! I caught Nicole online and told her to get off Facebook and go do something since she's in Paris. She invited me to go to the Luxembourg Gardens to read so I headed off to meet her and Laura. We didn't get much reading done but got alot of girl talk done instead which was nice. Laura was a good girl and jogged around the park while we relaxed on benches. Some guy came up to Nicole and asked her to go for a drink and with a completely straight face she grabs my leg and goes, 'Oh no, this is my girlfriend.' He gets all excited and gives us high fives and apologizes that he didn't know. I could barely contain my laughter until after he left. Yick to weird french boys. We finally realized how late it was getting and I had to get to the Monoprix and then home in time for the cruise. I met Ouida on the way so we decided to head over together. We got to the meeting place ontime and then couldn't find Karl and the boys. Apparently we'd walked right past them after wandering on Pont Alexander for much too long. I think they were lying, there was no way we wouldn't have seen them. We always wait when it comes to group activities so wait we did. The meeting time was at 9, so naturally we didn't actually get on the cruise until 10:30pm. It turned out okay though because then all of Paris was lit up. We realized why we hadn't seen the bars packed at nights, every single young person in Paris was on the Seine I swear. There were rotundas on one section with a different of dance in each one. The islands in the middle were packed with people eating cheese and bread, and drinking wine. We seriously wanted off the boat so we could join them. Paris is the most beautiful city in the world without question. We made plans to join them on the banks with our own wine as soon as possible.

Winnie Caca and other things that don't translate.

I know it's been an awfully long time since I've written. Honestly there has just been too much going on. I don't suppose it'd be good use of my time turning down offers for activities here in Paris just so I can blog about the other stuff. I shouldn't have waited quite so long though since now I have to remember all the interesting things that have happened in the last 9 days.
Last weekend I was invited with my friend Julie's family to their country house in Normandie. I know, my life is horribly rough. I finished school on Friday and then went to have wine on the Seine with Emma, Lauren, and their friend. I couldn't stay too long because I had to pack to leave. I headed to Julie's house at 7. They live in a really pretty suburb of Paris called Fountain of the Rose in English. There would be 5 of us in the car with Ramie, the dad. Palmyr and her boyriend Geoffrey would be going as well. The other 2 girls Eloise and Ruffine were already at the house. We drove past Versailles Palace, 2 hours into the Normandie countryside. It doesn't get dark until like 11pm here so we got there right before dark. They have 4 big horses and 2 miniature horses. The house is old and theyre renovating it which is a dream for alot of people back home. There is a second house on the grounds as well, and that sits in the middle of a four square garden complete with cherry tree, raspberries, cassis, roses, and so many other plants. It was wonderfully relaxing. Saturday we woke up to coffee, baguette, and nutella in the garden. Julie was super sick so she went back to bed and I helped the girls put up the big tent they'd bought for the upcoming family reunion. It was surprisingly not awkward with us barely being able to speak to each other. Eloise and Palmyr speak some english and my french is terrible. I can understand it but speaking it is awful for me and anyone required to understand what I'm trying to say. Anyway, I now have an even worse farmers tan than before. I was asked to help Eloise with lunch and she made an amazingly tasty and simple dish with mushrooms, chicken, cream sauce, and pasta. Ramie had purchased a lovely cream cake so we had that for dessert. Oh and cheese and bread after the meal too. Cheese and bread come after EVERY meal. I rested for literally 10 minutes and then we started getting the horses ready for the afternoon ride. It was SO FANTASTIC. I got a quick refresher course and all of the French names for grooming bridleing and saddling. They ride English saddle here and it's nearly the same thing but the saddles are less complicated. The horses were really big and Geoffrey was strong enough to pretty much lift me onto it with ease. I was amazed. Once we were seated and Julie had instructions since this was her first time on a horse, we were on our way. All of us got to go because with the addition of the two ponies that pulled the little carriage Geoffrey drove, we all had a seat. The ride was lovely and the tree-lined country roads almost brought Louis XIV back to life. We rode for what seemed like 4 hours. My butt was incredibly sore but it was just really nice to be back on a horse, breathing in the fresh air, greeting small children and villagers like we were a parade...awesome. I also amused myself by using the word 'villagers' just then. Anyway, it was about 9pm by then so we had dinner at the house. It was salmon and capers with green beans, and then of course, bread and cheese. A few of them needed to be back in Paris the next morning so Eloise, Julie, Ruffine, and myself were left to ourselves. I talked with Eloise for awhile after the other girls went to bed and I found my french much improved when the pressure wasn't so strong. Sunday, Julie still felt terrible so we didn't do much bit sit around and listen to a bunch of french music courtesty of Ruffine including some very funny french rap. We headed back into town and I didn't end up getting home until 8:30. It was Lauren's birthday so we just celebrated with some wine in our apartment and got homework finished for the morning.

Monday we had our usual test in class. Hurray. After class I rushed home to eat and get psyched up for my tattoo appointment that was at 4pm. Rachel offered to go with me so I took her up on it. We got there early and it was done in no time. It looks really great! I was on such a high from the experience that we decided we should all go out that night and stop being so lame. Earlier that day Kathy and Nancy had emailed about having a dinner together since we'd all been doing different things for the most part. We met at Rue de la Huchette and found a restaurant. After dinner it was still raining (rain in Paris sucks) but we trudged back to Buci and got ready to go out. Ruchita, Nicole, Emma, Rachel and I all headed to this little dive Ruchita had heard about. The Sangria was amazing and so cheap. We decided that our plans of an early night were silly so we headed to where Jenn and Chelsea were having dates. The girls ordered B52 shots which the bartender sets on fire. He gave them straws for some odd reason and Ruchita thought it'd be a good idea to put them in the glass before blowing out the flames. Needless to say the straw lit on fire and the grouchy bartender had to put them out. Funny. It was stuffy in there with not much happening so we decided to leave them alone and go to Rue de Princesse again. Getting drenched does nothing for ones hair so we looked stellar by the time we made it to that street. Ruchita yelled something about how soon even her panties would be wet, which made all of us laugh hysterically as she sputtered that she hadn't meant it that way. Nicole scared some old lady by threatening to pee on her dog. I'm not entirely sure what the story was with that but it was amusing. Ruchita's theory that if Rue de Princesse was hopping on the weekends it be moderately busy during the week. She was correct. We ended up at a place where the shots were 20euro for 10 and it was a good good time. We finally decided to call it a night when Nicole comes rushing over and whispers, "We've got to get out of here I just stole the toilet paper out of the bathroom." The lights came on and she started panicking about a possible bag check. Ruchita found out that the guy she'd been talking to had a girlfriend and the night ended rather quickly with us stalking home in the wet...again. Good times.