Ironique

Two things:

1. At metro Strasbourg-Saint Denis, there is a poster for that Owen Wilson movie called "You, Me and Dupree." The poster is annoying, in the same way that Owen Wilson films are annoying (yes, I said it). There are probably 15 of them lining the wall, but I love one of them in particular. Scribbled across the top part of the poster, in the typical felt-tip marker style of cheap graffitti, somebody wrote in French, "I prefer Jules Verne." And honestly? I sort of love Paris - and by extension all of France - for even *thinking* of writing that kind of graffitti, let alone actually going through with it.

2. My regular supermarket is huge, the closest thing that Paris gets to Wal-Mart. The top floor is all clothing and home goods, and the bottom floor is all food items. I have the store mapped out in my head, so much so that The Boy - on the FEW occasions he goes grocery shopping with me - just goes into a strange sort of sub-space while I pluck things through the aisles and work my carefully plotted and efficiency-tested route from vegetables to dry goods.

Recently, however, the store has undergone a transformation, and they are entirely remodeling the bottom floor. At first, they shut off the veggie station with massive plastic barriers, and I looked on suspiciously as wiring became increasingly exposed along the ceiling. Next, they moved all of the refrigerated goods into the section where they used to have pots and pans, and let me tell you -- the Frenchies were NOT down with having a reduced cheese section.

The first trip to the grocery since the renovations began was pure chaos. The same amount of people were cramped into a smaller-than-usual spac, all of them turning in circles or second-guessing where to find canned corn. I was disturbed because, as a creature of habit, I could no longer do my veggies to dairy to meat to dry goods loop, as the dairy was now split in two on opposite sides of the store.

As they have finally started getting things in order, I've been redrawing my mental map. Some things haven't changed, but I did find it funny to note one new development: the diet/heath-food aisle has been placed directly opposite of the candy aisle. I would think somebody would have interjected during the meeting on how to set up the new store, saying that maybe this wasn't the most practical solution. But really I think they're taking a sick pleasure in watching those health-food types go through the mini-war each and every time they choose the rice cakes over the Malamars. I wouldn't be surprised if they installed a surveillance camera, just for shits and giggles during staff meetings.

Did I take this too far in my head today? Probably. Maybe they really just weren't thinking.