Archives: June 2003
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Skinny Legs and All
30.06.03 | 02:35 PM

I've been working on another web site for the last day or two while recuperating from my rather psychotic case of the stomach bug.

I tell you this because I am working on configuring a script for this other site. The script's demo page happens to be very useful in helping me learn how to configure the damn .pl, and that demo page also happens to be filled with pictures of famous actresses with their heights and weights. The script allows for user-sumitted entries into a table, and I guess the author of the script thought that a fascinating table would be one providing Cameron Diaz's measurements. And in fact, that author was right.

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link | thoughts?(37) | Filed Under: Hum Drum

The Shivers
28.06.03 | 04:29 PM

It's hot outside and I have the shivers. I think I ate something just straight up wrong - I woke up in the middle of the night with the spit squirting along my gums like I was going to puke - but luckily I kept it all down.

I haven't thrown up in a long, long time, and I have no desire to start doing so now.

But the creepy thing about having a fever/stomach flu (because I think that's what I have) in the middle of the summer is that you don't know how to dress. At least with a winter fever, you can just huddle under your blankets and throw them off when you start sweating under them, but with a summer fever, you're sort of confused once you get to the hot side of the hot/cold flashes.

For the first time in my life, I took a shower while going through a shivering moment. It was so bizarre. The water was scorching hot (even though I only had it on lukewarm) and I had goosebumps all over the place. Very contradictory, and very unpleasant.

The cold section of the supermarket was equally as uncomfortable. But in the opposite way.

On a wholly unrelated note: I walked out my front door and there were ponies in my street. Just hanging out.

link | thoughts?(2) | Filed Under: Health

7.00 am
26.06.03 | 11:36 AM

Paris in the morning leaves behind its big-city hustle and bustle to become a sprawling, quiet small town with abnormally tall buildings. Everyone that is out before 8.30 am seems to know one another, waves at neighbors, nods to the floral shop owner or the baker.

I've recently taking up running again, and with this sticky city heat striking down by 9.30, I have to hit the pavement by 8.00. And oddly, although at first I was hesitant about no longer sleeping 'til noon, I've find I'm liking my 7.30 am walks to the park more and more each day.

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link | thoughts?(3) | Filed Under: Paris

Rate the Following
25.06.03 | 09:12 PM

Put these in order on a scale of intensity. My sister and I have some issues that need to get cleared up, and the rest is just out of curiousity. Please feel free to distinguish the differences in meaning that these words may have for you.

Warning: Contains Swears (like the rest of the site doesn't)


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link | thoughts?(14) | Filed Under: Language

23 is Ok
25.06.03 | 08:20 PM

I went to go see "Sept ans de mariage" ("Seven Years of Marriage") just now. Great film. Funny, anyway. The premise: Alain, married to Audrey (for seven years) has sexual fantasies and finds he can't have sex with his wife anymore because...well...he just doesn't know. Still, he doesn't want to cheat on his wife, and, when he goes to see a psychologist (also his friend), he is encouraged to ask his wife to participate in bringing his fantasies to life. He hesitates at first (as his wife is rather high-strung), but eventually suggests a few ideas to her. They are poorly received, but gradually Audrey starts to develop fantasies of her own, and the couple begins to explore their fantasies together. Of course, this is funny material because these people are in their 40's, and that's just automatically funny. From watching them nervously go into sex shops to dressing in leather catsuits, the meat of this film is really based on their sexual evolution as a couple.

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link | thoughts?(4) | Filed Under: Flicks

Monday Mission 3.25
24.06.03 | 12:18 AM

Since the Monday Mission got me in so much trouble last time, I thought I might as well invite more trouble. Stop over by promoguy.net to give credit where credit is due. I don't know how he keeps coming up with all his questions.

Here goes:

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link | thoughts?(4) | Filed Under: Hum Drum

MTV
23.06.03 | 12:46 PM

I haven't watched MTV in a year or so, but I am absolutely planning on getting my fill come July, when I go back to the States. Actually, usually I turn on the television, watch for three minutes, and then realize that I cannot stand the channel and cannot continue the madness. But still, I plan on doing that come July.

This year, however, might be different. This year's Real World is in Paris (I have asked two of my American friends in France if they've heard anything and they both said, "What's 'The Real World? I didn't have MTV when I was growing up.") and it feels like I need to see this business.

The problem is, after skimming the web site for a sec to see where they are, I realize their "chateau" is out in BFE. Where the hell are they? Because I don't care how much cash MTV has, they can't live in a chateau with that much green grass around them in the middle of the city. Does anybody know the answer to this?

As usual, the cast members look annoying and stupid, and I have no problem making fun of them because I figure that if they are going to put themselves out there on such a show, they're just asking for it. Still, that makes seven more stupid Americans traipsing around the city (or wherever the hell they are), embarassing us Americans that are trying to live here without getting death stares from the Frenchies each time they hear us speaking English. Is there a single matre, responsable type in the chateau this year? (And at the beginning, do they say, "This is the story, the true story...of seven strangers...picked to live in a chateau..."? Because that sounds lame).

Anyway. Also, I saw Snoop is still on MTV. Isn't he, like, really old by now? I think he's hiding it - because men can do that sort of thing - but I feel like he's gotta be getting up there.

Fascinating post, I know, but I am just full of MTV questions. All to be answered in under two weeks.

link | thoughts?(4) | Filed Under: Hum Drum

Mind the Gap
21.06.03 | 11:21 PM

The Gap is a conspiracy to make you believe things about yourself that are simply not true. The proof:

Colleen and I went to The Gap yesterday. I haven't stepped in that store for...um...I don't know, a long time. Two years, maybe. But I went in because Colleen told me they had some cute, simple jean skirts on sale, and I was in the market for one.

I rarely buy clothes. I usually save my clothes-buying outings for the annual (and in good years semi-annual) shop-a-thon with my lovely mother. Hence why I had no idea about the state of American clothing until yesterday.

I have news for everybody: in concordance with growing American obesity, sizes have actually changed. A 6 is no longer a 6, and a 14 is no longer a 14. Kids, The Gap's gap has widened. A lot.

I know this because I yesterday I found out I am two sizes smaller than I was the last time I bought something at The Gap. And the last time I bought something at that store would put me at about age 18, making yesterday's shopping experience somewhere around five years and 212 helpings of French cheese later than the date of my last Gap adventure.

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link | thoughts?(4) | Filed Under: Hum Drum

Rock Stars
19.06.03 | 01:04 AM

My parents are rock stars. I have discussed this before. Recently, it has been the center of much debate. Strange, really, because I have had that information up on my about page for some time now, but I guess people just started exploring this site this week (after only eight months in).

Anyway. The term "rock star" is to be taken metaphorically of course. But, confused, my father got on the phone with me on Monday after having read such a curious fact about himself online and said, "Can I just ask you a question? Rock stars? What? That was really weird." I just laughed back.

But it hadn't occured to me that "rock stars" is sort of a semi-slang expression maybe only used by people under 30. Or, for those of you around 30, I'll graciously extend that to under 40 so as not to hurt your feelings.

So luckily, my under-30 (for now anyway, ha ha ha!) sister happened to be home with the parents last Monday to explain to my hip-but-not-necessarily-aware-of-all-the-fangly-things-youngsters-are-saying-these-days Mom and Dad what exactly I meant by "rock stars."

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link | thoughts?(4) | Filed Under: Hum Drum

Warnings and Things
15.06.03 | 12:29 AM

Life is all nutty.

Yesterday I was in my building's hallway, trying to manage four big boxes when I opened the door for someone obviously searching for the code written down somewhere in his planner/address book. Mysteriously, it was Taliesin (heh, heh), a co-blogger and co-Anglophone in Paris. After T discovered my site, and we had written emails and read one another's blogs for quite some time, we were surprised to find that one of T's good friend lives only four floors down from me (which explains what he was doing in my building). So on Friday in my building's hallway, it was T who went ahead and asked me if I was the Lee he thought I might be, and I was surprised to find out he had pretty much guessed it based on a hunch.

He was friendly and pleasant whereas I was gross and sticky from carrying the big boxes in the crappy humid weather we've been having. But still, it was groovy - albeit rather surreal - to experience virtual and real paths crossing. T introduced me to my neighbor - his friend - briefly (whom I had met once before when he kindly rescued my keys after The Boy left them dangling from our mailbox...) but we had never discussed names. Of course, I knew of Tony (the friend) even if he didn't know of me, because I go by his house daily on the way up, up, up to the sixth floor. Tony naturally has no reason to walk by my house because, well, that's four floors too many, and in the wrong direction.

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link | thoughts?(2) | Filed Under: Paris

When Trivia Hurts
13.06.03 | 10:13 AM

K and I went out last night and spent at least ten minutes trying to remember the name of the group that sings "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" (maybe that's not the title, but I'm calling it that). When I finally got it (hit me like lighting, it did) I called out "SPIN DOCTORS!!" and we both had a rush of excitement and giggled like little girls.

But I'm still stuck on the second piece of trivia, and I call on you, dear readers, to help me out. I will give you the same clues that I gave K, but she admittedly had absolutely no idea what the hell I was talking about. Yes, my clues suck, but it's all I have.

Kari, I think you might just be my victory lady.

It's a song from maybe 1998. It has a nonesense word in it somewhere, and I really dislike the song. Kari likes the song, I think. It is by a one-hit wonder band, and there is something about "pissing the night away" or something.

Oh! Oh! Here we go, more words just came to me right now: "I get knocked down, but I get up again, they're never gonna keep me down..."

Something like that. And then "pissing the night away" or "kissing the night away" or "fishing the night away"...

Help.

link | thoughts?(4) | Filed Under: Hum Drum

Stupid Bad Memories That Haunt Me Part II
12.06.03 | 02:34 AM

I am continuing the gorging of bad memories in an effort to erase their ghost-like qualities.

Smiley Goth Girl and I lived in a room in a two-bedoom university apartment for four, the other room being inhabited by the Nudist Hippie and the Very Religious Chick. We made for an odd bunch.

Our apartment was part of a group of on-campus housing buildings, and we had all just signed up for on-campus apartments and were thus thrown together like wild boars in their pen. Many adventures ensued, considering the Nudist Hippie and the Very Religious Chick were, well, the quiet, studious types, and Smile Goth Girl and myself were rather, um...boisterous. Luckily the rooms were well divided (Matisse paintings in one room, psychedelic glow-in-the-dark posters in the other) the way they were, and we all got along rather peacefully in the end.

Smiley Goth Girl and I became especially close. We were very different: I was a tall, blond midwestern girl who was still trying to master the use of the Californian "hella," whereas she was from smack dab in the middle of LA and had the most lovely Spanish-enduced accent. She was dramatic and played the whole "tortured soul" thing rather marvelously, I obsessively bought used records and occasionally forced her to listen to Otis Redding for several hours straight. "He's just got so much soul," I would cry happily as she grinned enormously while writing bad poems in her black notebook. We found in the other a lot of differences, but a lot of similarities, and we were both happy to say that we were good friends with with our roomate.

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link | thoughts?(1) | Filed Under: Hum Drum

Stupid Bad Memories that Haunt Me Part I
10.06.03 | 07:39 PM

In an effort to stop remembering pointless embarassing stories that still make me blush today, I am trying to flush them out of my system and onto this blog. Maybe making them "public" will at least reduce the amount of times per year the haunting images flash through my head.

In my first semester at a new university, I took a Spanish class. My teacher, a hilarious and determined professor who obviously knew his stuff, had decided we were to go over Chapter 3 - clothes and clothing stores.

"Can I try this on?"
"I like this blue shirt. How much is it?"
Etc.

The topic required we clarify the various types of apparel, as well as the usual adjectives used to discuss it: color, size, striped, polka-dotted.

So we learned all the terms, discussed them at length, and then went around the room talking about our clothes, or our neighbor's clothes, our favorite outfit, what have you. Each student was asked a question like, "Jamie, can you describe Jason's outfit?" and then Jamie would say, "Jamie is wearing a flourescent green latex shirt with yellow stripes, and vinyl black pants with high-heeled leather boots." Or something of the sort.

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link | thoughts?(3) | Filed Under: Hum Drum

Working Day and Night
08.06.03 | 05:44 PM

(The title comes from a Michael Jackson song)

The last three days have been entirely Arabic-centered. I have the luxury of achieving well over fifteen hours of studying in 72 hours because my other classes (besides Spanish) have finished, and although I may have a summer job, I won't know about that for another two or three days.

So for right now, it's all about Arabic.

It occured to me today that I had just done over five hours of work (mainly verb conjugation) without really noticing the time fly by. I was surprised to realize how concentrated I had been, and began wondering where this extreme concentration had come from.

Is it just the love of learning Arabic? Am I THAT into it? If so, should I consider learning Arabic as a major endeavor, possibly taking on greater proportions than it already has? Just how far does my interest in the language go?

And then I remembered that I just bought a French press, as well as some coffee, after over a year of not having any coffee in my house at all.

So that must be it. Caffeine does wonders for your concentration, if taken in responsable doses.

Although, it's Moroccan coffee, so maybe there's a connection there somewhere.

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link | thoughts?(4) | Filed Under: Language

The Zone Part II
07.06.03 | 12:07 AM

I entered the zone tonight, Friday, at 23.18. As part of the waiting before going out for my weekly (or bi-weekly) Friday-at-midnight dinner with the Boy, I've been sitting here since 20.30 studying Arabic. That means almost three straight hours have been spent at this desk writing "He goes to Samir's house" and "They take the bus to Baghdad Street." I didn't even realize it. I have pages of writing; it's all coming together. Strange, really. All week, I kept picking up my book only to trip and stumble over all those words. And this evening, very bizarre...it's all flowing.

The only thing that has managed to stop me is track six on Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Couldn't Stand the Weather." Total concentration, full speed a head, and I suddenly drop my pencil and listen to his guitar.

The music gave me a moment where I thought I had lost my vibe. My groove. My deep appreciation of music. It made me remember what good music really sounds like, and caused a wistful nostalgia that brought back memories of when I was discovering new tunes at an unholy rate.

Lately, I haven't found much that I dig. And it's sad. I've been listening to the same albums over and over, or new ones half-heartedly. But then Stevie's guitar started singing and my three hour Friday night study session's spell was broken.

I sit back in my new(ish) office chair and just breathe it in. And I think about how much I love people that understand great music, and how I need to meet more people who are willing to share with me so that I can expand my musical horizons.

Right then, I hear a singing, chanting voice calling out from the formerly silent living room. It's the Boy... feeling the soul too, at the exact same moment. He can't understand the words but he understands anyway. Now that's soul. Or the blues, in the case of track six.

link | thoughts?(9) | Filed Under: Music

My Sister : An Ode to Greatness
04.06.03 | 02:08 PM

I've got a big sister named Kari. She comes by here sometimes. She's a great person. A fabulous, hilarious, makes-you-laugh-pop-out-your-nose-sometimes-cause-she's-so-funny type. A little spoiled brat like myself didn't realize it for a long time, but I've got a kick-ass sister. Maybe it's better this way: childhood we spent fighting, but we're spending adulthood as friends.

I suppose at some point in my teens (once she was out of the house), we started telling one another more about ourselves. And then a bit more. And then some more. And even though time and space has seperated us more today than it did in the past, I think we're closer today than ever before.

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link | thoughts?(3) | Filed Under: Love

Am I Crazy Because...
02.06.03 | 10:44 PM

1. I just downloaded every Willie Nelson song I could think of and am now rocking out in my room (country music makes me think of my parents and smile, but it makes the Boy look at me like I am an official hick).

2. Every time I do the laundry, I remember how much I like doing it. Folding is fun.

3. I believe I could eat feta salad every day and be fine with that.

4. My neighbors caught me giving a rather dramatic mini-speech (not to be delivered for another three months, mind you) to myself in the mirror. Imaginary props were involved, and I spoke out loud forgetting that my windows were open.

5. I have an email account at every major email provider on the net, and only use one address. I can't remember two of my user names.

6. K and I memorized the lyrics to "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot on the car trip, and upon my return I couldn't suppress the urge to verify our guesses at some of the more mangled lines. When I realized we were way off (how did we get "Take an average butt and make a black skin hut" when the lyrics say "Take the average black man and ask him that...") I sent an email detailing our misinterpretations to KLady.

7. I am sincerely wondering if the fact that my head has gone slightly more blond that I have become slightly more airheady. Most airhead-like moment: I snagged a Pariscope (weekly booklet with all the movie/music/theater listings for the Paris region) on Sunday and outlined all the movies would be interested in seeing this week. Then I remembered that the Pariscope comes out on Wednesdays, so many of the dates and times that I had just outlined for Monday through Sunday were actually for the prior Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat. Cool.

8. I refuse to put my alarm on at at any multiple of five. My alarm is my cell phone; I set it to ring at a certain time. But while setting it, if the time it displays before I set it is any multiple of five, I believe that to be a bad omen. I will promptly change the alarm time to a far more lucky number like 8.13. On days before tests, I go through an entire alarm-setting ritual.

9. Every hardback book I have has lost its cover within a matter of minutes of reading it. I just can't stand the things. They get in the way. Even more than that hard back does.

10. I'm sort of rooting for Jackie and Hyde to break up on That 70's Show. He's too good for her, isn't he?

link | thoughts?(2) | Filed Under: Hum Drum

Back from the Break
01.06.03 | 11:27 PM

The man my father's age who runs a small cafe called "La Plage" across from the beach in Cannes deserves all of your love. After my credit card didn't work for K's birthday dinner, he said, "No worries. Go back to your hotel and get the money. I trust you."

Upon our return, he gave us two free drinks and talked with us. The sun and sand have obviously made him into what the French call a "bon vivant" - someone who lives life to the fullest and smiles easily. He runs a small cafe with his wife and children, and calls all his customers by their first name. Throughout the evening, young friends of his son's would drive up, blasting music, and the dad would start dancing and joking with the boys from within the restaurant. A real bon vivant.

The next day after the credit card incident we came back to get an Orangina (the best drink on the beach - it's just bubbly orange juice but it is GOOD) and he remembered us, calling us by what quickly became our nicknames: West Coast and Detroit.

"What's up West Coast?"
"Hey there, Detroit."

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link | thoughts?(2) | Filed Under: Travel