23.5.10

gauntlet o' fun tidbits (a.k.a. mitrailleuse #19073)

Sans ordre particulier...
  • pretty much keeping the TV on MTV-type channels nonstop while I work - every so often I get sucked in but not as much as the first couple of days - ANYway every time there's something particularly cool I add it to my YouTube summer2010 playlist (or I add it to the postit that has future candidates for the playlist on it if I don't want to risk getting sucked into 4 hours of Web2.0 playtime)
  • lunch with Christina yesterday - SO yummy little tarte-specializing bistrot (I had broccoli/carrots/spinach - miam! and we split a carafe de chardonnay - as I told Christina, I HATE chardonnay in the States - it's just downright insipid. But chardonnay here always is yummy.) The resto itself went straight into my Paris address book for future ref. - also we had a fun chat of course plus a nice walk to see cool stuff the likes of which only the famous CVK can seemingly just pull from thin air regardless of what corner of Paris one happens to be in
  • Friday Christophe and I got sandwiches and sat at the Pompidou (I have one sunburned shin to prove it) and yacked and ate and watched people. Very cool - not least because he is someone who not only had my exact job before and so knows that there are cool things about it but also truly knows the more crap side of certain Clems*n things so I can bitch with impunity and not feel like I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth like I do when I'm griping to some people
  • remarkably uppity fruit guy yesterday down the street - especially as he had no apricots - shameful!
  • apricots in general seem weird in France nowadays - I noticed last year that they seem much less common than in the old days but when you do find them they are quite iffy - weirdly pale and never ripe - kind of like produce sections in American groceries - NOT like it used to be buying fruit here - will have to try to find a fruit market sometime so I can feed my apricot fix - it's not France if I can't have apricots!
  • conversely the Clementines are as yummy as ever and still make you do a gustatory double take b/c they're sooooooooooooooooooo sweet - almost too sweet - honestly if you could open a clementine in the U.S. and put in some kind of jam that was clementine flavored that would almost be as sweet as this - but more orange flavored and less syrup/jam-ness
  • my copy guy is still alive and well and -again this year- is great at taking in stride my strange requests - he might be channeling my dad, too, because he is tremendous at looking at a situation and figuring out a simpler way to do it - he helped me several times last year with stuff like that - yesterday it was scanning to pdf a bunch of stuff that the students needed since I found out from the FNAC that our book will not arrive until next week - so I (don't tell the copyright gods) xeroxed the first little bit to hold the students over until the book order arrives - then put my pdf on Blackboard last night so they can print it at home to bring with them
  • ah the convoluted ways of going about things here in Paris with no printer and no fun email scanner like in the dept. office at Clems*n
  • have yet to have a baguette! I'm not kidding either!
  • have yet to have a crêpe! oh là là là là!!
  • Joseph from the dept. is going to be here next week and kindly offered to take the students to the Cinémathèque - very cool impromptu outing and very nice of him
  • Natalie from last year's group will be here a few days next week as well and will stay with me again - I enlisted her to direct an outing to the Catacombes since I've never been and the students might like it - that one will be voluntary - that week is filling up and how! so if some want to do their own thing totally cool - I still want to go! :)
  • dream that the kits were here the other night so real that every so often I feel like I've seen one of them out of the corner of my eye and when I came in yesterday eve I looked around to see where they were sleeping :)
  • rather fun cat at the librairie where I stopped yesterday to buy a used copy of Mauriac - kind of a Lucy-mooded kit - I held my hand for her to sniff and she promptly bopped it with her paw - no claws but quite a hard tap like the Lucy Boo does - then she put her paw down and returned to the sedate look she had when I walked in (which was another reason the bop surprised me so much)
  • need to get serious about the cat and dog pics this year - I've already seen way more than last year - want it to be more of an official thing this year - there are so many fun cats and dogs in all the stores and cafés
  • 4€ at my corner grocery for a truly yummy Touraine sauvignon blanc.
  • Just remembered I have yet to open that rouge that the landlady left me as a housewarming. Must remedy that situation - probably Tuesday night if all goes well that day.
  • French TV shows (i.e. original French, not dubbed US or German stuff) seem particularly few and far between this year - things with plots that is - seems like way more reality TV and game shows and shows that digest other shows - consequently I'm watching a lot more US stuff in translation than normal - last night I watched 2-, 3-, and 4-year-old episodes of 24 Heures Chrono and New York Police Judiciaire and Lost: les Disparus. I did NOT watch Les Simpson even tho it seems like one particular channel is entirely dedicated to them, right next to the one that seems to be dedicated entirely to Stargate SG-1. (NYPJ is Law & Order, the others you should be able to figure out)
  • I really really really really really really need the Parishuttle people to call me back! gah!
  • Of course I have plenty of other stuff I could be doing. But I was already working straight thru from 7h50 to just before starting this post (maybe 13h30?) so I've kind of lost momentum. Glad to have found that much in the first place actually - my head is way less wonky than it was all spring but I'm still having a fair amount of trouble concentrating and staying on track.
  • OK these Stargate people have dreadful aim. They're trying to kill some big blobby monster thing and they didn't even come close - with machine guns! I haven't shot a rifle since I was 12 or so probably but I bet I could have hit it better than them.
  • The last thing I did work-wise was to clean out my school email a bit - it is down to one single screen of emails for the first time in months. France makes everything better!
  • Message from Leah on Facebook and an email from Paul today - I guess everyone in my brother's family is holding their own more or less (my sister-in-law's brother committed suicide last week). Aunt Charlette had surgery Thursday and I called her beforehand and she said my cousin's neighbor's baby just died. Kelly's Westie, Hamilton, died just a few days before I left, and that's just the tip of the iceberg where crazy awful turmoil in people's lives right now is concerned. Anyone know if there is some planetary alignment causing all of this?
  • weird place to end this and not very fun (belying the post title) but I'm pooped - better get out and about a little bit to clear my head before digging back in on work - thank goodness for French Sundays - even in Paris lots of things are closed so it kind of forces you to chill a bit - and tomorrow's one of the less-official holidays so lots of stuff will be closed then too - by the time I head to the airport Tuesday morning to greet the students I really might be all caught up on work!

3 commentaires:

Marty a dit…

So nice to get this little summary IN ENGLISH!! Smile!! Sounds WONDERFUL!! Except for the TV...walk by the river for me!! And have fun when the students come! Miss you! LOVE, Marty

Susan a dit…

I guess you mean b/c of listening to music all the time? maybe I wasn't clear - it's french music!!!! and my playlist is french stuff for students and/or others!!!! :)

Applecart T. a dit…

all my complaints have been met by "mercury retrograde," but that's been going on a year or so. "they" tell me it's almost over.

i envy your fruits and your cafe-food. when i was a freshmen in college, i almost always took the stairs to the 8th floor in my dorm where i lived.

i wish i could find shoes that are both nice-looking and great for real walking. everything causes friction … blisters …

may copy guy continue to delight!