From Right Here

Remember when you were, like, 12 years old and you got a new pink and blue flower diary and you told yourself “Self…I’m going to write in my diary every single day.” Then you realized you were a louse and decided, “Self…I’m going to write in my diary every other day.” And then you found that diary 12 years later and all the pages were only 1/2 filled up? And it was lying in a box next to…oh…the half-filled golden leather-bound diary you got when you were 14, and the “fill-in-the-blank” one you discarded after filling in the first 3 pages when you were 9.

Oh…those were the days…when procrastination and a lazy ass never had any real consequences.

I am now in my “I will write for 3 hours every day” phase, and while yesterday was a stellar momentous achievement, where I finished a revision on a short story I’d written 2 years ago…I’ve completely gone a-wall today. (sorry, I don’t know how to really spell A-wall). I started off thinking about things I should no longer be thinking about, and I wandered around the apartment wondering why my  legs are achy even though I haven’t been to the gym in 4 days, and I just…well…generally farted around.

So, here’s 1 of my favorite things to share. Last night I caught another episode of PBS’s Frontline.

This is a documentary series that explains really complicated stuff like “The Iraq” war and lung cancer in a surprisingly addictive way. Only problem is, I can never figure out when it comes on. I sat next to these people 7 years ago when I interned at The American Experience at WGBH in Boston. These people work hard (they don’t even have cubicle wars), and all their hard work pays off.

The show last night had me balling. It’s called “The Undertaking” and it’s all about funeral directors and people coping with expected death. They showed the actual story of a family dealing with the last weeks of their 3 year old son’s life. I think death is totally scary, but I found out that funeral directors are really cool dudes. Only negative about the show is that they didn’t mention Six Feet Under…which is a Stellar show….stellar. (I love that word today).

Check this out if you want to get in a good cry…

www.pbs.org

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My vacation of a lifetime is now over. I’m no longer in France, I’m no longer dating french guys with  motorcycles. I’m no longer eating baguettes and frommage-frais on a daily basis. I miss my vacation, but honestly- I knew it was only temporary. I’ve got to grow up sometime. It’s great to see friends again, and to jump back into living the high-life in New York City.

I’m back in NYC and all my friends are scaring the shit out of me with all this economy-crise stuff. I’m very happy about Obama…but the magic he’ll try and pull out of his hat is a little too early for all the job-hunting I’ll have to do. More on that to come…

One thing I will NOT go back to is a daily-grind that excludes doing the stuff I want to do — like writing. I’m attempting to write for 3 hours every day except Saturday - blogs/short stories/the outline stage of a novel. I’ll keep you up on my progress.

I started on Wednesday and so far - Week 1 - I got a 3 1/2 out of 4. One day, the mess I created in my mom’s living room just made me crazy and I cleaned. (cleaning along with cooking - will be my nemesis…I can already see it now… Clean room….Packed fridge…and nothing else getting done.)

To make up for my serious lack of writing in the past few weeks, check out “Slow Like Honey” a super-fun blog about baking, j-crew catalog shopping, and fiona apple. This is such a sweet and successful blog, and author Amanda updates all the time-

http://slowlikehoney.net

Thanks for the Fiona Apple link, Amanda! This really takes me back.

Photos from walking around in Paris.

These photos were taken at the Jardins des Plantes in Paris - the Botanical Gardens of Paris, if you will. This garden is completely free, had many blooming flowers even in October, and has several nice exhibits for kids and people like me who are nil with biology. One exhbit chronicals the millions of years of history of the earth while you’re walking - you just have to see to believe it!

had to get me some boots for paris - can’t do the sneakers here!

Many, Many street photos - including this little cafe - where I accidentally ordered LIVER…oh la.. (it said BOEUF!)

This is what people do, alll dayyy - hang in cafe’s - rain or shine.

These photos were taken at one of my favorite spots in Paris - The Jardins du Luxembourg. They were originally built to please Queen Marie de Medici, Henri IV’s widow - I guess she was feeling homesick. So this reminded her of Florence. It’s now the home of the Senate, and is a central place to play tennis, chess, or just walk around. It contains over a 100 statues of some of the women of France.

For the link to more, go to my Picasso site: http://picasaweb.google.com/chodger/ParisOctober#

Photos from my first week in Paris - just wandering around alllll daaayyy loonnnggg.

These are photos of a “greve” a strike in Paris. These happen quite often and people often return to work the same day or next. They are held more to show opposition - usually complaining about a salary. This was for Hospital Workers.

‘Grise’ refers to the economic crisis in the US. They talk constantly about it, as they do everywhere. So far, there have been several small French Banks that have been hurt, but the worst of the damage is yet to come. Funny enough, aside from your house mortgage, many French people I’ve met here owe nothing on credit cards or loans. It’s not part of the culture and students rarely graduate with a hefty monthly payment because school is “gratuite!”

Musee D’Orsay - The Museum of Post-Renaissance, Impressionist and Post-Impressionists (1848-1914). It’s got all the good stuff, so make sure you stop there.

(highly DON”T recommend the food - awful, tiny cafeteria, and 2 over-priced restaurants).

For more, click on the link to my picasso photo gallery -

http://picasaweb.google.com/chodger/ParisOctober#

I’ve just spent a week in Paris - it’s beautiful but bittersweet, because Paris is the beginning of the end of my past 5 months in France. After this, it’s back to NYC, back to strolling the streets looking for a job, back to the grind, back to real life.

Paris is beautiful. As far as size and diversity, it has nothing on NYC or London or Tokyo. But every road, every street is “pretty” - creamy apartment buildings, long stretching boulevards, jardins and parks at every corner. I suppose it helps your city if you’ve had people like Catherine Medici and Napolean dispensing all the people’s taxes on whatever monument they dreamed up. But even the streets that are not dated from centuries ago are “cute”. When it has just rained, all the black streets are glissening and young ladies with dripping wet bangs sweeping across their foreheads are chatting in cafes like the night will never end.

Unfortunately - my time on the computer is hindered - not by my situation (my aunt is lovelingly taking me in, feeding me and being generally super-generous), but rather because I head out every day and meet up with friends and ‘balader’ and walk around (and spend the rest of the time planning a trip to Italy).

I promise a gigantuan load of photos…very, very soon.

For now, Good LUCK to all the Americans, and to everyone else - Bonne Journee.