The Bold Soul: A Writer's Life in Paris

The Last Halloween

Today is the big day in America, a favorite holiday: Halloween! The sun is shining, the horrible weather of the past week has abated and it should be a delightful evening for our little ones to roam the dark streets begging for candy. I read where Halloween had been making some inroads in countries like the UK and France, but now it seems the pendulum is swinging the other way and it just isn't "taking" over there. So for all intents and purposes, this might be my last Halloween, American-style. Whenever I hear that people (both here and abroad) are anti-Halloween because (a) it's commercial (true, but so what) or (b) they feel it teaches children about "evil", my first response is always: "Oh, chill out already. They're KIDS and it's FUN!" (The "Halloween evil police" are also probably the same group that thinks Harry Potter books should be banned in schools and public libraries. Puh-LEEZ!) So I plan on enjoying myself tonight when the kids come a-knocking in their Batman, Ninja Turtle, Punk Rocker and Elmo costumes. Because there's nothing more fun for a kid than playing dress-up -- and getting a lot of grownups to give you free... Read more →

Who would you give $1,000 to?

I missed the show but caught this CNN article about how Oprah today reached a new high in her annual giveaway shows. She gave over 300 audience members a gift debit card with $1,000 each, and instructed them to donate that money to someone else. "I can honestly say that every gift I've ever given has brought at least as much happiness to me as it has to the person I've given it to," the 52-year-old talk-show host said. "That's the feeling I want to pass on to you." The recipients can give their gift to one person (but relatives aren't eligible) or split it up among a number of people or charitable causes. Which made me think: if someone gave me $1,000 for the express purpose of paying it forward to someone else, to whom would I give it? After thinking about it for a while, what I realized is how tough a decision that actually would be. There are so many worthy causes and individuals in our society, from single mothers struggling on welfare to environmental causes to charities supporting research to cure AIDS, cancer and heart disease. There's One.org and SaveDarfur.org and countless others that focus on... Read more →

Goodbyes and Bonjours

It's sinking in now. Just 11 days until I board my flight to Paris. Wow, this past month went fast. I had lunch with my best friend the other day and as we left the restaurant, she started to go all weepy on me, saying: "I can't believe you're really leaving!" I had no choice but to waggle my finger at her and say: "Don't you DARE make me cry in the mall. At least wait until we get to the parking lot." When we got there, I surprised myself by not really crying at all, which is unusual because I'm typically the water-works girl in these situations (as you'll see in a few paragraphs). But I'll get another opportunity to bawl my eyes out with her, because I'm actually having the airport limo service pick me up at my friend's house since it's closest to the airport and less of a hassle for everyone. I'll have to say goodbye her, her husband, her four kids AND my own mother that day. But I have ten more days NOT to think about that. Yesterday I got to see another friend, and fortunately we had no tears there, just a lot... Read more →

Packing Light

This week's Bonjour Paris article has been posted, (and it's a free one this time) entitled "Packing Light". Enjoy! My move to Paris kicks off in just three more weeks. Three short weeks to pack my entire life into a few suitcases, boxes and a rented storage unit. My head hurts just thinking about it. Moving abroad means making some tough decisions about what really matters to you in terms of your “stuff”, because taking it all with you is just not practical. When I first decided I wanted to live in Paris, I started out by scaling back my lifestyle right here in the good old U.S.A. I knew that a Parisian apartment was likely to have very little closet space compared to what I’m used to. Paris being one of the most expensive cities in Europe, I also knew I’d have to rent a rather small apartment. And I knew that shipping everything I owned was likely to be both unnecessary and cost-prohibitive. So scale back I did. I sold all the furniture I wasn’t completely in love with. I donated bags of clothing to charity. I gave things to friends and family members I thought they could... Read more →

Oh, yeah. NOW I remember...

... what it was I forgot that I was all jonesing to blog about earlier. I came across two totally fabulous video clips you just HAVE to watch: (1) Frog with a Blog. Recommended by Vivi, this was my first intro to Frog and I am so glad I dropped by. Check out his video of a typical Parisian commute. Hmmm... I wonder if he happened to catch my pickpocket on film in the Métro? (2) Dooce's Wonder Dog, Chuck. This IS the best dog in the world, one of the most photogenic, and easily the most tolerant because he puts up with a lot of crap. Watch him as his "mommy" piles noodles on his head and Chuck waits for his "all clear" to eat them. If dogs could be sainted, then Saint Chuck he'd be. Watch for his 2007 calendar available through Dooce.com soon... very very soon. Read more →

Blogdrawl

Typepad (who hosts this blog) was having all kinds of technical problems over the past 24 hours making it impossible for me to log in and approve comments or post anything new when I wanted to -- although the blog itself was visible to the public for your reading pleasure (lucky you). In fact, I now cannot even remember what it was that was so damned important an hour ago that I just HAD to blog about it. I got so distracted with not being able to log in that it's completely slipped my mind. Gee, it's fun being over 40. Read more →

And Thank You, Donna Karan

... for making these TOTALLY FUCKING WONDERFUL JEANS that I am now thin enough to WEAR (in public) now that I have lost 25 pounds. (Yeah, I'm braggin'. So sue me.) I think I'll have to go back and buy I went out today and bought another pair, in a slightly different wash. Because they are comfortable and my butt looks GOOD in them (I carry my extra weight around the middle but have NO "saddlebags"). Do I need another reason? Read more →

Thank You Note

I'm going to do something I don't normally do here on the blog, at least not in quite this direct a manner. A personal blog is, by definition, very self-focused because the author has the freedom to say whatever she likes and doesn't really need the approval of the masses. So we bloggers get to be a bit selfish about what we write about and how we write it. And it's a great outlet for whatever's ailing you. Blogs can often turn into a bitch-fest. We write about what we don't like about ourselves, our neighbors, our bosses, our coworkers, our politicians, our spouses, our lives. We bitch about the state of the world and what's going wrong with it. We vent about that thing someone said to us last Thursday or about how we got shafted on that last promotion at work. It's a bit sad to admit, but sometimes we know as writers that we can be funnier and more entertaining when we're sarcastic and negative in our writing, and people will respond. It's the old "misery loves company" thing, magnified by the wonders of the internet. I sometimes get more reader mail when I'm crabbing about something... Read more →

It's all in how you look at it

About 10 years ago, perhaps a bit longer, I used to wear a size 16. And I hated wearing a 16. I mean, I really hated it. I hated shopping because I was in the XLs and could only fit in the biggest size in the Misses department. In my imagination -- when I wasn't confronted with my reflection in a full-length mirror or plate-glass window -- I was slim and sexy. I felt like a thin person on the inside but just couldn't seem to BE that on the outside. I also hated wearing a 14, when I wore that size. Same thing when I was a size 12. I got into a 10 for about five minutes back in 1989 and I thought I looked pretty hot even though I REALLY wanted to be a size 8 and was about 10 pounds shy of that goal. I remember that I achieved size 10 status that year because I had my 10-year high school reunion and dieted like a fiend to lose two sizes, and I knew I looked better at the reunion than when I left high school. Not long after that reunion I got laid off from... Read more →

Safety in the City

My new article, Safety in the City, is posted over at BonjourParis.com. Alas, it's not about safe sex (or even unsafe sex). It's a Premium article (again) about the time I got the pockets picked out of me by some of Paris' light-fingered youth. One thing smart travelers need to think about is safety, especially we solo travelers. Paris is actually a very safe city in most respects, but there is one way in which it stands out, criminally speaking: the Paris Pickpocket. Dickens’ Artful Dodger has nothing on these sticky-fingered guys. And I speak from experience. I had read about the pickpocket problem in Paris before my first visit in 1998. I was there on my own, and as I was in unfamiliar territory, I did all the usual common-sense things to protect myself, like keeping my purse in plain sight at all times and not walking down any dark alleys. I had a delightful and very safe trip. On my next visit in 2001, I was not quite so fortunate. Having been to Paris before, I committed the cardinal sin of experienced travelers: the arrogance that comes from having “been there, done that”. I thought I was too... Read more →