Au Revoir my friends...

I think that it is a pretty safe bet to assume that Annalise is not awake every morning from 3am to 5am. I awake and think "Jeeze I wonder what Annalise is doing right now? Ah, sleeping like all good people in this part of the world are. Just like I should be." Alas I am not.
I am having a wonderful time. In the future when people tell that the French are rude and not very nice I will have to disagree with them. I speak no French and even without Michael to interpret I am finding the people here to be warm and charming.
Yesterday we took a tour of Le Cordon Bleu. Very small school for the all the hype. We got to spend a few minutes watching some classes. It was very cool to hear the master chef speak in the french and the interpreter to translate in english and the students to talk amoungst themselves in a variety of languages. We found a groovy chocolate shop where Michael and I bought some chocolate raisins that had been soaked in armangac. They were so tasty! Xan got a variety of chocolates and we have been taste testing them. I (not on purpose) found Pierre Hermes, a chocolate and macaron store. Macarons are these merengue cookies that have a creamy filling. A kilo costs 74 euros (yes, that's a lot!) and we bought three of them. A chestnut, a rose petal, and an olive oil one. We sat in the buffet at the Eiffel Tower overlooking the Seine and at our very decadent Pierrre Hermes macarons. I loved them all for their exotic and unusual tastes and textures. Xan did not like any of them and Michael likes the macarons that do not having any filling better than these chick litte wonders. We were in the store and people were buying huge boxes of them. There are even truffle flavors.
Today we are off to the flower market and I am being reminded that we better motivate.
Au Revoir my friends....

Kiss, kiss until later.

SSSHHHH! Everyone is asleep.
I must say that I've tried to get a blog in for the past two days but we were too busy packing and running around taking care of all our last minute errands.
I'm in Paris.
Did you hear?
I'm in Paris.
We are in our apartment. Which I must say is the size of a postage stamp and cute as all hell. The owners met us here this morning after our night flight and handed us croissants (ooohhh they were good, but I had only 1 bite because I really can't do the gluten these days) and the keys. The wife, Sandy, is Canadian and a voice-over artist.
As I sit here on a wee stool typing, Xan is in the tiny little roll-away sleeping but a few feet away from us. My feet are cold. I'm embarrassed to say that I've turned the heat almost all the way up and it's still chilly in here. Welcome to Paris! Xan looks so sweet sleeping in Paris. I can see her auburn dyed head peeping out of the red wool blanket. By the way, I've got to find another blanket for me because I awoke from my nap with cold feet. But I can't get to the armour because Xan's tiny little roll away bed is in the way. Meaning...I can't unpack or nothin'.
I want these lay abouts to wake up so that we can go the market that Sandy told us about this morning. She says they have regional fruits and vegetable and do all sorts of samples. SAMPLES. I love samples. And I really think I'm going to love SAMPLES in Paris. Why won't they wake up?
So, here I am on day one of Xan's 'Coming of Age' trip. I will try and post everyday and write about all the tastes and sounds. Our goal is to photograph every meal that we eat. Alas I won't be able to post pictures until we get home.
Today as we took the subway to get to our apartment I noticed that the foot traffic was so fast. People were movin' man! It was like one big ant farm.
Also, we got in at 6am and it was pitch dark. We got to the apartment at 9am and the sun still hadn't come out. Very dark and grey here so far.
I am tickled by the fact that I am in the same (or pretty damn close to it) as Annalise. I always think of her eating lunch while I eat breakfast and I'm sleeping while she is eating her breakfast. Now dear Annalise we can be eating at the same time and starting our days in unison. Just thinkin' and being kinda giddy from 3 hours of sleep.
We used a homeopathic rememdy "No Jet-Lag". I think that so far it's great.
Kiss, Kiss until later.

Shall we take a ride?

I hope that all my friends had some joyous holidays.
I wish you all a warm and hunker-down winter full of hot soup and roasted root vegetables.
Food is always on my mind. You too?
Anybody who knows me (or has seen me) knows that I am a large woman. My children tell me that I have a Goddess figure. For me being over weight is sort of a triumph. I grew up with the constance influence that the only thing a woman has to offer is her looks. In high school I was thin. Believe me not before that! I was a chubby kid right up until middle school. Magically I got taller and thinner. "Wow!" I thought, "I am acceptable now. I can fit in."
What a load of crock that was.
A few years into high school and I was bulemic. When I see pictures of me in my high school year book I look puffy and unwell. My mother would tell me stories of all the laxatives that she had taken in her lifetime to loose weight. I've worshipped the porcelain queen more than any bad frat boy I know. I was bulemic from the middle of high school until I was 25. It was such a part of who I was. I was so convinced that my total worth was the figure that I carried.
Over the years that I have gone from a size 6 to a size 20 (and I have no idea how much I weigh) I have learned that people are able to like me for me not my body image. It's been a liberating experience to be liked at size 14 and still be liked at size 20.
Lately I have been feeling fat. Over Christmas I bought my first size 20. Is that my wake up call? Have I put on too much weight, I think so friends. I feel winded too easily, I think. I think that it is time to get more exercise and start cutting out some fats. So this year I want to get into shape. Not necessarily loose weight but to exercise more and slow down, cook my own meals (do that anyway), and truly appreciate what I am eating.
My coming out of winter, out of hibernation, resolution is to make my blog more personal. To truly share what I am feeling and to make intimate connections with my friends. I am a very internal creature. I share more intimacies with myself than any other human. I don't feel lonely just not connected to others. My childhood was sad and truamatic and my defense was to be with myself and share my feelings with me. It's time for me to break yet another cycle of my past.
I've spent weeks having a personal discussion with myself about who I am and what I want. It's time to share all that is going on with me with all my friends.
So be prepared, I want to talk about my marriage, my weight, my politics, and my life. I want to share this one time trip as ME with some people other than myself.
Shall we take a ride?