Excerpts from emails about France:

"...already, we have seen l'arc de triomphe, la musée d'orsay, walked along the seine par nuit, took a tour of montmatre with the bogs' friend niki with whom we spent most of the day yesterday. she showed us most of what there is to see in montmatre, including le lapin agile(famous cabaret), les moulin de gallettes (two really cool oldwindmills with vines and all) the grocer that amelie goes to, and the place where amelie works."

"...our hotel is funny. it's this nice little respectable hotel thatserves breakfast of croissants and bread with all the beverages youcould possibly want in the morning. the room is small but sufficientwith its own bathroom (terribly rare in europe), and is right in the heart of the touristy sex district of montmatre. dan and i were a bit surprised at first, but niki assured us that it's entirelytouristique. having noticed that all the signs are in english and thesidewalks are all clean, i believed her."

"we're taking pictures, alright, but we're not going crazy onthem like i did on my last trip. i find that oddly enough, i takemore pictures when i'm by myself because it takes my mind off the fact that i dont have a companion. dan and i have been much more adventurous together than i was when i was alone, taking more night walks and such. we're having a great time :)"

more to come on paris in future installments.

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

Found this at one of my friends' livejournals:
http://quizilla.com/users/obviouswombat/quizzes/What%20kind%20of%20coffee%20are%20you? /

I'm a double espresso after 3 a.m. I'm not sure i totally agree.

Pay Off

Hey, y'all, remember how i sent those letters to Concord Trailways and Fritos? Well, i heard back from Fritos, and they sent me some pretty cool stuff! First off, they loved my letter and thought it was funny. Secondly, they sent me three coupons of increasing coolness:
• One coupon good for $0.55 off any Frito-Lay product
• One coupon good for $1.00 off any Frito-Lay product
• One coupon good to get any Frito-Lay product of my choice for FREE!

Call me lame, but i thought it was cool. Hey -- does anyone have any idea where i can find the sign for the word cents? I had to do the points of a dollar thing, which pisses me off. If anyone out there finds it, please put it in my comments section or email me immediately so that it may be mine for all time.

On another note, i really hate having all these important decisions in my life, like in what aspect i would like to get more involved in the community (i.e. lounge singing, acting, a choir, volunteering for the Homeless Empowerment Project, what have you), have to wait. And the worst part is that it's all hinging on something i won't know about for a couple of months. Yes, months.

Anyway, FIVE DAYS TO PARIS, BABY!

ONE WEEK TO PARIS, BABY!

Ok, so maybe i've had a bit too much red wine, but i'm in a great mood. Yeah, i know i have to go back to work tomorrow, but i told the boss the other day everything that has been bothering me about the job recently, and it felt so great to get it off my chest. It's not in my hands anymore, and that is quite relieving.

Additionally, daN and i have had a wonderful weekend together. Yesterday, we had a lazy morning and then went to see "Meet the Faulkers," which wasn't nearly as painful as its predecessor. We both really enjoyed it, and it should go high on the list of "renters" to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. While we were in Davis Square, we found a place to eat called "The Blue Shirt Cafe" which has smoothies, wraps, sandwiches, and soups for entirely reasonable prices. It is excellent, and the combination of flavors they use is pleasing and unique. Then, we came home and cooked yummy noodles parmessan, and i read a chapter or so of "Wind in the Willows" to him while he doodled to stay awake (i have to knit while he reads to me so i can stay awake, too).

Today, we got up bright and early, despite my greatest efforts, and went downtown to Macy's to work on getting daN some polo shirts that will look nice on him when he goes to France (WOOO!) and to wear in general. No one was there to balk as i helped him figure out which one looked better on him in the fitting room, and he walked out with three new shirts that look handsome on him :)

We went to a tea party this afternoon at the home of his co-worker Sarah. The beginning was somewhat awkward, as we thought we were fashionably late but were actually quite early comparatively. But in the end, we had a great time, and we left when we got new-people'd out. So, we walked around the corner to Q's house! Yes, his co-worker literally lives within a block of Q. So we hopped over to visit her, and GOSH wasn't it refreshing to feel like we have mobility in this city!? (Can you tell i miss having a car?) Good visit, a walk to Davis Square that provided me with the much-desired exercise that i had lacked today, and we stopped at the Star Market at Porter Square on the ride home to pick up some last minute dinner stuff for the week.

What a great weekend. Tonite, we both needed to chill, hence the red wine. But all i have to say is, ONE WEEK TO PARIS, BABY! ONE WEEK!!!

Le Weekend du Superbowl

This year, Superbowl took on a whole new meaning. Not only did the Pats win their 3rd Superbowl in 4 years, creating what many have come to call a dynasty, but the Superbowl Party we had was perhaps the most non-Superbowl oriented we could have come up with. Lyrica and Aria came over, and Aria brought a big soup. We made veggie kebabs, homemade pizza with broccoli, mushrooms, feta and onions, and some Moxie. OK, so the Moxie along with the Fritos and Doritos, made the party football-ish. But every female there was knitting and/or crocheting until Ana showed up, who had some snuggling to do with Razz. Dan was drawing. We did watch the game though! And it was tense (i can knit and watch tv at the same time). But most of the tension came from the fact that it was the SLOPPIEST pro-ball game i have ever seen! I couldn't figure out if the defenses of each team were working really well, or if the offenses just didn't need much to set them a bit off. At any rate, it was a great time, and the cleaning wasn't all that bad. It was a good weekend, accompanied by a nice shopping excursion to H&M with former roommie-Laura. We had some good "girl time," that we haven't had for a while, got caught up, and got some great clothes. Yeah, baby. I wasn't excited to go into work today, but then again -- who ever is on a Monday?

A higher cause

The Principles Project:
Perhaps this is good, and perhaps this is lame and/or bad. But it's worth looking at -- it's an attempt at claiming morality, a sense of values, for the progressive party who suffered so heavily in the election because the rest of the country/voters think that the democrats have no "values." Is this all for naught? Well, if the only reason is trying to appeal to conservative voters, then yes. However, as i pointed out to Sen. Tom Allen, (D, Maine) last summer, the democratic party really needs to take a few moments to listen to each other and work productively rather than geekily sit on a high horse attached to their individual causes and which causes need more attention in Congress. We're not going to get anywhere fighting against ourselves, so i think this page is a good place to look at so you can see where we might start the internal dialogue and external outreach. http://www.principlesproject.com/

Letters

Tonite, i embarked upon an evening of productivity that started with completing the FAFSA as the final step in applying to financial aid for grad school, and culminated in writing thank-you letters to companies whose products/services have been particularly beloved unto me.

The following is excerpted from a letter written by daN and i to Concord Trailways in an expression of gratitude brought on by their incredible service on Christmas Eve:
"The line at South Station was abominably long for boarding one of the morning bus-runs to Portland, and we were convinced we were going to have to take the next bus up. Then, a second bus pulled up as the first one was full. Even still, we were pretty far back and didn’t think we’d make it onto that one either. To our surprise, a third bus pulled in as the second bus was filling. Despite incredibly long lines, Concord Trailways was prepared for the rush, and we made it to Portland on time to meet our ride.
We are grateful for the service Concord Trailways provides, and we always have been. But the service on that day impressed us to the point that we had to write a letter about it to make sure you know that your efforts to serve your customers didn’t go unnoticed."

The following is excerpted from a letter that i wrote to Frito-Lay for their incredible chip with an incredibly short ingredients list -- the Original Frito Corn Chip:
"Only in the past couple of years did it dawn on me why I love the Original Frito so much – there are only three ingredients! I practically advertise for you to all my friends when I pick up bags of Original Fritos in the store and exclaim, “Only three ingredients!” It’s all you need to make a delicious, addictive, and yet totally natural form of food that I feel good about and don’t feel bloated and disgusting after eating like I do with chips that have a list of ingredients that is longer than my Christmas list. Sure, I still love them, as I love the flavored varieties of Fritos. But I always come back to my Original favorite.
So thank you for making a chip that is an honest chip with honest ingredients I can feel good about eating (and can pronounce): corn, corn oil, and salt."

I wrote these letters for two reasons:
1. I like to be a responsible consumer and let the companies know when I'm satisfied with their products so they won't go discontinuing them on me.
2. I'm hoping for coupons.

So go to your favorite company's website, find the "Contact Us" link, and be a responsible, if cheap, consumer.