The Bold Soul: A Writer's Life in Paris

I was so shocked, I couldn't come up with a better title for this post

Taking a walk on the lighter side today, after a week of bad news from back home (my friend with cancer is losing the battle and is now in the care of his loving wife with home hospice), French elections, Ugly Americans and blog comment battles. Time to lighten the hell up. So, for your viewing amusement (and mine), I submit the following photo: THIS... is a white radish. A RADISH. I never saw vegetables like this back in New Jersey; not even close. I mean, LOOK at this thing - it's longer than the diameter of a dinner plate! I have seen black radishes here in France that are roughly the same circumference but perhaps 1/3 of the length. In the States I only ever saw those little round pink ones (which I never really liked anyway). What the hell are the French doing with their vegetables? I placed my hand in the picture so you can appreciate the scale of this thing and for NO OTHER REASON. Although I was tempted to take a rather different photo, but I didn't want this blog classified as "adult material". And if you say YOU didn't immediately think of something very... Read more →

Vive la République!

France has elected a new President, François Hollande of the Socialist party. Here's an image (from TV) of the crowd celebrating at the Bastille (waiting for Hollande to arrive) after Nicolas Sarkozy conceded at his own rally across town. My step-daughter is in that crowd somewhere, being a part of history. The new Prez gave his first speech in his hometown and is en route to Paris now to give another at Bastille around midnight. By the way, "Socialist" in France is NOT Communism, so don't panic. Although France has a wider spectrum of political parties than the US, this is sort of like a Democrat winning the election. It's been a long time coming here, too. Et voila. Read more →

Meet Mr. and Mrs. Ugly American

On our way to the Apple store via the #68 bus this afternoon, I was unfortunate enough to overhear a rather loud and obnoxious American couple talking to each other. It wasn't just their tone and volume that got under my skin... it was what they were saying that put me over the edge. They complained to each other, non-stop, about how rude the French were. How whenever the French have been in trouble and needed help, America has had to bail them out (and how no one in France "remembers" or "appreciates" - something I personally know to be untrue, having had the good fortune to meet some surviving D-Day Veterans and heard THEIR stories of how much appreciation they have received from the French over the years). How some French people have had the nerve to be offended whenever SHE told them America was the greatest country in the world. And on, and on, and on. Every single stereotype of the "ugly Americans", these people were. They just kept on talking in this way, either oblivious to the fact that they were IN France, riding a FRENCH bus, surrounded by the very FRENCH people they were denigrating at... Read more →

Talk about BOLD...

My best friend, Wendy, graduated with her BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) this week. She decided to change careers after her 4th child was born, and felt drawn to nursing. So, she started nursing school. That was 11 years ago. After she finished her first year, the youngest child was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 22 months. Wendy's husband and I both encouraged Wendy to try and continue with her studies because it would give her something positive to focus on, even while she was coping with her daughter's chemo treatments. Wendy finished her 2nd year on schedule, and became a Registered Nurse. I still don't know how she did it - but she did. And her daughter is a healthy, happy cancer survivor! Wendy got a job as a nurse, and began her career. Over the years, she changed jobs and the types of nursing she was doing as she looked for what interested her most, eventually feeling compelled to do hospice nursing. I told her I thought she'd be brilliant at that, and she is. She decided to continue her studies to get her bachelor's degree so that she would later have the option of... Read more →