2 More Weeks

So... let's just say that once again my personal sanity was in jeopardy.

Between the whole apartment thing (I have an apartment, I just don't know when I get to move in), and the whole visa thing (I STILL haven't heard from the consulate... stupid French bureaucracy... J'ai besoin du system D), and the whole "I can't get ready to leave the country for 9 months in 3 days" thing... well, I decided that it was best for my nervous system to push back my flight for another 2 weeks... basically as late as I could possibly get a flight and still make it to Paris by the 25th.

So... I'll be in Houston another 2 weeks!!! Come visit. AND... Van's going to come visit the weekend before I leave!!!! YAY!!!! So if you want to meet this mysterious boyfriend that I talk so much about (I swear he's a real person), come to Houston the weekend of the 20th!!!

That is all.

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Florence (In Photos)

Here's the 2nd installment of "Italy 2008."

This is the cityscape of Florence - the main building is the Duomo in the center of the city.

This is right after we arrived in Florence... as you can see, I don't exactly pack light.  Ooops.

My mom my fascinated with the fact that she was taller than this car.

There were copies of Michelangelo's David everywhere! I loved this one because from here you could look out over the entire city.

How can you not love that face?  I mean really.

Santa Croce - this is where all the famous Italians are buried.   Michelangelo, Dante, Galileo, and one of my personal faves, Machiavelli. 

The Ponte Vecchio - the oldest bridge in Florence.

Cool street art - this is Botticelli's The Birth of Venus in chalk on the sidewalk.

And up close of the Duomo.

Ghiberti's Baptistry Doors - these are revolutionary in the way that they handle perspective.

Breakfast at our B&B - seriously one of my favorite places we stayed.  Except for the time we got lost trying to get home... that wasn't so fun.

Take 1

Good Picture!

Take 3... in their true state... laughing hysterically and getting mad at me for not letting them "get ready" for the picture.

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Venice (In Photos)

So I know this is super late, but I just wanted to post some pics of my trip to Italy with my mom and grandmother... starting with beautiful Venice

My mom and I as we arrived in Venice.  Something about this city made me think of being on a cruise... bright, balmy, colorful... and maybe the fact that you travel everywhere by boat.  :-P

Beautiful masks... (you might also notice the "No Photos" sign in the window) 

Venice was by far one of the most romantic cities I have ever been in.  Something about it just makes you want to wander around and get lost in dark alleys.  
This is from the Bridge of Sighs... its actually called that because back in the Victorian era, Byron said that prisoners would look out this window and sigh because this would be their last sight of Venice and freedom before their dark imprisonment.


Part of St. Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace.
My mom walking down one of those alleys that I loved so much.  

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Being Willy Wonka

As most of you know, my family has a candy company. During the year (January thru Thanksgiving)... its pretty slow around here. Like I've said before - I do arts and crafts, go through the mailing list name by name, and other tasks (like go to every Hobby Lobby in the Harris/Fort Bend county area).

But Christmas is a little different.

CHRISTMAS in my family means starting the Monday after Thanksgiving, my mom, grandmother and I basically move into the factory. We eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and 2am snack here. We go home to sleep and to shower and then are back bright and early for more paperwork fun. This lasts for about 3 weeks... and then it suddenly become eerily quiet. All the candy is gone. The customers leave. The printers slow. And our slightly interesting version of Christmas is done for another year. Christmas DAY itself is spent sleeping and generally vegging - something we were unable to do during the rest of the holiday season. For a long time, no one got presents from Gran and Papa until AFTER Christmas (since they never had time to shop... but then they figured out how to order gifts online).

Some of my favorite memories have been from Christmas though.

When I was little, I remember spending the night here MANY nights. Curling up on a pallet either in my "office" or under a table while my mom and grandmother made baskets, printed orders, and hand wrote every single greeting card. I would wake up in the middle of the night to them slightly delirious from sleep deprivation and hysterically laughing at something... like Gran pronouncing "Hanukkah", "Cha-NU-kah."  

One Christmas I invented a game I liked to refer to as "Moving Christmas Tree." Basically I found some material with Christmas trees on it, and I put it over my head and would move around and they would have to catch me moving. Like my own personal version of Red Light/Green Light. 

I would play with the shrink wrap machine and make myself shoes out of plastic (feel free to start mocking me anytime now). Everything was done by them and by hand. I think this was also around the time that I learned how to sleep anywhere (a skill that I believe will take me far in life).

But Christmas was always special... as we would make the trek back home every night around midnight or later, my mom and I would sing every Christmas carol we could think of and just laugh.

I guess it wasn't till I was much older that I realized that my Christmas was somehow different from the standard gingerbread cookies, relaxing in front of the fire, reading The Night Before Christmas scene from movies.  And now, I wouldn't have it any other way.  I may not have a white Christmas, but its still a time spent with family, enjoying each other's company, eating together (even if its fast food), and laughing about anything and everything.  We exchange hot chocolate for coffee, and chocolate covered pecans (or in my case, chocolate covered pretzels) for cookies.  But Christmas is truly, the most wonderful time of the year.

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I've Got a Golden Ticket

I finally bought my ONE WAY ticket to Paris.

Talk about scary.

I know that it won't really sink in until I'm on the plane. (I'm not above having a minor breakdown in the middle of an airport.) As I was driving to the airport last summer, my mind was reeling, and I ended up getting a nose bleed. Maybe because I knew that it would be the end of my long-term relationship. Or because I knew it would be the beginning of something incredible. Who says you can't have a physiological reaction to a psychological epiphany?

But at the same time, I knew I was going to return. I had an end date. I had a future plan. Now? Who knows? If anything, I've learned that future plans are just smoke. Ephemeral. Its good to look to the future but to never count on anything.

For a long time, I've had a certain rule in dating: No planning into the future more than the amount of time you've been dating. If you've been dating 1 week, you can plan as far as the next weekend. 1 month, etc. It seems to work fairly well. I wonder if there's a way to apply the same principle to my life?

I guess on one hand, that should make me really really nervous - my lack of plan. Being the extreme organizer that I am. (Many of you can vouch for my obsession with Google Calendars.) But all I can feel is excitement! In my new found freedom from all plans, I have the ability to take advantage of any and every opportunity that comes my way.

Here's to hoping it works out. :-P

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An Exercise in Estrangement

I have now been phone-less for almost 6 days.

Rather than detailing the events leading up to this loss of what some may consider a part of myself or an extension of my arm, I would rather wax eloquent on the overall effects of this situation.

25 years ago, cells phones were merely a figment of the imagination.

Then Zack Morris starts carrying around his brick.

Now... I cannot function without a cell phone. I dance with it, sleep with it, and have occasionally showered with it. If its not in my hand, its in my pocket or on the table. We have a special (if not very unhealthy) relationship. Especially since I've come back from Europe and realized that I can text/call anyone I want, and I don't have to worry about ever running out of minutes.

So being without it has been... interesting. Not that this is the first time that my phone has been inexplicably separated from me (someone stepped on it once.) But... it is still tramatic none the less.

For one thing, I don't really feel safe without it. Ever since my car broke down in the middle of a semi-abandonned freeway and my cell phone was dead, I feel vulnerable if its not in perfect working order. So that's excuse #1 for always having it with me.

But on the up side - not having a phone allows you to kinda "check out" of the real world for a while. Maybe get your priorities straight. (And you have a legitimate excuse to ignore all phone calls.)

I've used my cell to walk unimpeded through the MSC during campaign week. Or to find my way out of Montparnasse in the middle of the night. What better reason to always have it with you? So although this week has been a chance for me to reevaluate my attachment to my cell phone, I don't plan on trying it again any time soon.

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My 5 Month Vacation

So its been a long time since I've posted... in the next few days I'm going to try to post more pics from this summer, plus a recap of my last few weeks in Paris... but until then, let me catch you up on what I'm up to.

First of all, I am considering this time in Houston as a vacation. Or exile. Or both - at the same time... depending on my mood. At first it was nice to relax, then it was tedious... now its nothing short of maddening. I am not the kind of person that can take sitting still for long periods of time with relatively little to do without going mildly insane.

The nice thing is that I have realized that I have a lot of friends from college here, and that Houston is not quite the boring place that I once thought it was. So although technically I am living with my parents (for the longest period of time since I graduated high school), I have acually moved into some friends' apartment in West U.  Thank you Liz and Bekah for the key and allowing me to crash on your couch for the majority of the week.

The candy factory (www.sweettasteoftexas.com) is slow. I've watched a lot of movies while doing arts and crafts and waiting for the Christmas season rush. But mostly its just arts and crafts... last week I was playing with glitter. Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies.  It gets on everything and spreads and doesn't come off.  Ever.

But mostly my life is spent waiting. Waiting for... something. An email. A phone call. Time to pass. Its like watching an egg boil... it won't happen if you're conscious of the time passing, because it always goes more slowly when you're aware of it. I'm trying to amuse myself the best I can... reading, movies, friends, and my various other hobbies. But mostly, I feel like I'm just treading water. I can't really start a life here in Houston because I'm not really here. I'm just passing through... on my way to somewhere else. Yet, I am here; and I believe that you need to BE where you are and not looking for or wishing you were someplace else.  It's incredibly frustrating.

So that's my life at the moment.

In regards to my plans, I'm not sure if backpacking before I start work is going to happen. Mostly because of the money thing... but I'm sure that I'll be traveling more than I did last summer. But I will be in Paris from February to November.

Sometimes when I think of that time period I get this giddy excited feeling... and then again, sometime I feel panicked and trapped. I remember the francophone bubble. I remember the emotional breakdown of my last week. I remember the feelings of claustrophobia. But then again, I remember the sunsets and the exploring... the cool air, the breathtaking views.  The ADVENTURE of it all.  So although I'm terrified, I feel like I need to do this.  For me.

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