It's been a bit of a slow blogging week, mainly because I've been more occupied with my step-son than usual. Le Garçon was on the second week of his annual 2-week winter school break (there's another 2-week break coming up end of April, for spring -- yeah, I know, lots of school holidays here in La Belle France). And as we didn't have anything special planned due to Georges needing to be at work all week, and all his buddies being out of town on THEIR school breaks, Le Garçon and I ended up spending all day, every day together.
Fortunately for both of us, we like each other and also he's at an age where he is often quite good company now. The first big thing we did together was launch our special blog project -- THAT was a pretty big deal since we've been planning it for something like six weeks. The timing was finally right this week to get the first installment out there, and now we're working on putting together a regular weekly post. Even on the weeks when he's not here chez Nous, we will have planned a post in advance. It means thinking ahead, getting creative and also for me, incentive to get out of the house during the week and take the Frog and the Fly out for a photo shoot or two, for future material. The next post is tomorrow and our intent is to have a new post every Monday, so feel free to tune in over here with Frogeo and Mouchette. And the Boy is very excited that we already have followers on Twitter and Facebook as well as having had 144 visitors so far on the blog!
On Monday, I took the Boy to the Musée de l'Orangerie to see the Monet Waterlilies, and he liked them very much. Tuesday we were kind of snowed in. Wednesday, after the Big European Snowstorm, we hiked on foot to the orthodontist (with an ongoing snow-ball fight en route); there were no buses running to get us there, although as we walked we saw the buses finally start rolling and we were lucky enough to catch a lift home. We met Georges for lunch near his office on Thursday to break up the week spent mainly at home. On Friday, Georges was able to skip out of work early, so the Boy and I met Georges to do a very touristy thing that even Georges had never done before: we went to the observation deck on the roof of the Tour Montparnasse! I'll post photos at a later date but here's one of my favorites until then. By the way, you can buy tickets online and during busy periods this will save you some time waiting in line. It wasn't busy when we arrived but I noticed more people coming mid-afternoon, and I'm sure if the weather were warmer we'd have had more of a wait for the elevator.
And yesterday, we... Geez, what DID we do? Oh, right. The Boy had a lunch date with his former Super-Nanny/Best-Nanny-in-the-World, and Georges and I went up to Montmartre where we just got there in time to see the bi-annual Scottish Bagpipe parade, which happens every other year when Scotland comes to play France in rugby. For some reason, the Scots come with four or five bagpipe corps, the local town council hangs banners with French and Scottish flags, and you can find a lot of guys with bare legs and kilts (yes, even in this cold weather) roaming around drinking a lot before and after the match, and Montmartre seems to be where they mostly hang out. If they got drunk enough, you might even get them to show you if they're REAL Scots... or not. And if you don't know what I mean by that, I'm not going to explain it to you. Anyway, that was fun, and there's a post coming about that, complete with video & audio. You get to provide your own earplugs.
On the way home from watching the guys in kilts, we picked up a fruit tarte from the BEST place for fruit tartes in all of Paris (in our humble opinion): Les Petits Mitrons on Rue Lepic.
Yesterday afternoon there was supposed to be a manif (protest) at Pigalle related to a DIFFERENT kind of tarte. The sex industry workers (i.e. the whores and their colleagues) were apparently trying to drum up support for them to have more benefits. And no, I'm not kidding. But we had a child to take care of that afternoon so we didn't make it over there to shoot what I'm sure would have been some FASCINATING photos.
Instead, we bring you THESE tartes:
If you've been wondering what's happening with my book, the answer is: Not much. I've really been suffering from an inability to get into any sort of consistent work routine, and I realized that in general the past couple of years I have more and more trouble sitting still and concentrating. I chalk this up, in part, to my base nature, which loathes routine, but I also attribute it in part to the distractions of modern technology. Seriously, am I the ONLY one who now finds herself compelled to compulsively check her email, messages, Facebook, Twitter, iPhone, iPad, blah-blah-blah ad nausueum? When just a few years ago, this was NEVER even a consideration because I didn't HAVE all that stuff? I think all this instant accessibility is breeding a new type of ADD, and I might just be one of its victims.
So, when I saw a blurb about Oprah and Deepak Chopra offering a free 21-day Meditation Challenge that focuses on creating perfect health, I decided now was the time to try, again, to get into some sort of meditation routine. It is something I have wanted to do for a very long time, but something I have just never had any success in doing, before now. I'm only on Day 7 and I haven't done it at the same time every single day, but I HAVE done it, and I'm very pleased about that. Seven days in a row meditating is a personal best. The meditations only take about 17 minutes (and not all of that is the actual meditation) and I find Deepak's voice and style very soothing and relaxing. I'm enjoying it and I do think it is helping me slowly shift my perspective with regard to a number of health challenges in my life. I know that change starts from within, and I also know that my lack of ability to concentrate because I'm so wrapped in in worrying about other things (my health being a big worry) that it's no wonder I'm having trouble expressing myself creatively, i.e. FINISHING THE BOOK. One thing is connected to the other. So... if I find some inner stillness, I find the creative muse to finish the book. Voila. FYI it's not too late, I think, to join the meditation challenge so click the link just above.
That's about all I've got at the moment. Not the most exciting post ever, but sometimes life, even in a place like Paris, is about as ordinary as it can get. Nothing wrong with that.
C'est la vie.
