Chez moi

Welcome to chez moi,
this is for all of you that have never made it to france to visit me and meet J.D. which is everyone except my mother. so that's quite a few of yo'all.

I'll give the long descriptions on my 'hood' later. But this is a view from our livingroom windows looking to the right. See the rainbow? At least all the rain is good for something.

On to the abode....
the nice part is we have a little house sandwiched inbetween other buildings. so we don't really hear our neighbors. and our front door is right off the sidewalk (excellent for bringing bike in and out). So at number 57 on rue St.Vivien you ring the doorbell and i pop my head out the window to say, "it's not locked". you turn the handle, open the door and Bienvenue à notre bordelle!

The entry hallway, has become our "garage" storage space.




Look very carefully, do you see my grocery caddy at the end of the hallway? I never in my life thought i would love having a grocery caddy. and it's cute! all the ones they sell here are for little old ladies,ugly, ugly, ugly. mine is adorable.
because i'll tell you, the market on sunday is fun but when you're taking home heads of califlower, broccoli, cheese, a rosted chicken, bottles of whatever, etc, etc, etc. it all gets quite heavy, hence my fabulous little wheely cart.

And my fabulous Peugot bicycle. a lady i was giving english lessons to was moving and asked me if i would like it. a free bike!!! i love my bike. i really really do. i really can't explain why i love to bikeride but my mother can tell you when summer came around for days on end i would dissapear. and i was doing nothing but pedaling like i had somewhere to go.

As you negotiate to the end of the hallway there is a first twisty stair case. you turn about 180° and come up into the living space / area.

we have what is called a "cuisine americane". I find it hilarious that a kitchen that looks over the living room with a bar divider is called a "cuisine americane".

so here's our living room

Notice the wooden cabinet under the large painting. Three years ago this was an old boarded up condemed fireplace. i turned it into a cabinet. this is the only cabinet we have for our stuff. and yikes do we have stuff. this was quite the handy woman project because in the apt nothing is at at 90° angle. and i did it all with a hand saw, no not a table saw, a hand saw.

and here's our corner kitchen. it really is super practical for dinners. everyone is in the same room; so we can chat and sip wine all while i'm doing the dinner prep thang.

Do notice our fabulous fridge and range. these would be two of the three new rebel appliances J.D. and i invested in recently. See "my appliances don't love me" blog entry.

And on the fridge my favorite words game. i do love to fiddle with the words while i'm waiting for dinner inspiration. thanks K.

and these are the windows Manteiga loves to look out of, what a little busy body.

Next, if you go up another little twisty bit of stairs (attention for the guard dog!) you come to the bedroom/office space.

Don't tell J.D. he's been posted- in my pink slippers. i promised him i wouldn't but i think he's forgotten about it.

and so my friends, i think this is it. i hope when i publish this the photos won't get all switched around.

now i really must get back to doing productive things.

is three a magic number?

Okay, so here's the situation (as i decide to take a break on this lovely sunday afteroon from doing the work i'm supposed to be doing)

I am going to meet up with a friend i haven't seen in about ten years.
First striking thing - that i can get to the point now where i can say it's been ten years that i haven't done something or seen someone. scary. makes me feel older than i am. in all of my 31ness.

so, she's coming to france and through mutual "oh-my-goodness-we-will-be-closer-than-5,000kms" feelings we are getting together. Well, her and I and her husband (how bad is it that i'm not really sure of his name, i think it's mark, yeah, i'll go with mark.


first of all Kate - love her dearly- how to explain Kate. Kate was my first friend that used fun words like "ghetto" as a silly strange general slang adjective for whatever that was, you know, ghetto. (funny sidenote - this word got me fired from a waitressing job :) but that's another blog)

Kate was a different slice of America, me midwestern girl (terrible dresser at that time) meets smart Northeastern D.C. girl. And good lord did we have a mutual reverence for Gin & Tonics at the time. One of my greatest exploits was her, me and a bottle of Gin. Months of training went into that night. I will never forget the feeling of wanting another gin and tonic then suddenly realizing the bottle was empty. Still had limes, still had icecubes. Unfathomable. simply unfathomable.

Anyway, the day after tomorrow i'm taking a train to hook up with my Kate. (and her husband)

Worries?
ehhh, just bitty ones.
Will we be overflowing with things to say or has it been so long nothing needs to be said? and if we don't really have much to say, how long will it be before we get bored of each other.
which wouldn't be catostrophic, she's got hubby and I've got the summer sales.

Will she still be the same Kate? which is a ridiculous notion i know, but, what has the last ten years done to her? or to me? I like to think (egotistically maybe) that I haven't changed much, however i dress lots and lots better than ago.
Is her hubby going to be cool? Will he try to reach out to me? or will he be happy just letting me be forever and ever the 'frenchified friend of kate'. I hate that. reducing people. because kate loves this guy, i would love for him and i to get along. but it'll more or less depend on where he wants it to go.

will i imagine the worst and will it get the better of me?
sigh

well, that's that i suppose. i've just been off daydreaming for the last five minutes about it, so i suppose i really have nothing more concrete to say.

here's to hoping old friends are still good friends.