All the News That's Fit to Print

I haven't posted in awhile, and quite a few things have happened since then, so this will probably be a rather long post full of mirth and matter.

Perhaps the most outstanding event of the past two weeks has been my trip to Paris, France! We've been before, so we eschewed the Louvre and walking to the top of the Eiffel Tower in favor of other sights and sounds. Essentially, I did the self-guided Hemingway tour. For those of you who don't know, Hemingway is one of my favorite authors and The Sun Also Rises is my favorite book. I've read it about seven times in less than that many years and can quote directly from the text in most cases. I went to Biarritz during my semester abroad simply because at one point Brett Ashley mentions that someone wanted her to go there, but she told him that she knew too many people in Biarritz. Anyways, the story starts in Paris, and Hemingway uses very real places to set his tale. We stayed in a hotel in Montparnasse near Boulevard St. Germain de Pres. Over the course of the week we visited Le Select (a cafe which Brett Ashley mentions, and one which Hem actually frequented) and ate Croque Monsieurs and had a specialty drink called the Hemingway Sour, the Dome (another cafe), and the bar of the Hotel Crillon (which is where Brett says she will meet Jake Barnes, but doesn't show up-- the Ben Folds song "Love Just Leaves You Bruised" always makes me think of this scene). I also followed around his book A Moveable Feast, walking through the Luxembourg Gardens, and wandering over to 27 Rue de Fleurus, where Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas lived.

My love of expatriot writing doesn't stop with Hemingway though; I also followed, as if it were a guidebook, Shakespeare and Company by Sylvia Beach. Shakespeare and Company was an American bookstore on the Left Bank opened in 1919 and owned by Sylvia Beach. Her memoirs mention people and places and experiences with writers such as Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and most importantly James Joyce. She was the first to publish Ulysses in 1922, when no one else would because it was considered obscene and labeled as erotica. There's currently a Shakespeare and Company in Paris on Rue la Bucherie across from Notre Dame de Paris, but Sylvia's was at 12 Rue de L'Odeon. So of course, we found it. Currently, it is a clothing store for older French women called Moi-Cani, but the woman who owns the store apparently has recognized the importance of her location in literary history, and has bookshelves around the shop with books by all the expatriot writers and the French writers with whom they consorted, and she had made up a fitted long-sleeved T-shirt with a picture of James Joyce and Sylvia Beach standing in the store. Of course, I bought it.

We did other things, too, besides following around dead authors. I remembered from Munich a free English-language walking tour given so that students wouldn't have to choose between a tour and food. In Munich, our guide told us they were expanding out of Germany and into Paris. We looked up Sandeman's (the company) online and found the meeting point for the free tour. It was fantastic. It was about three hours long and we saw most of the famous sites and got fun anecdotes and facts from our New Zealand guide, Gabbie. Additionally, we went to the Rodin Museum, a place I have longed to go for about five years (it was worth it), to the Musee de Luxembourg for a special exhibit of Fillipo and Fillipino Lippi's, to the Invalides to see Napoleon's Tomb, and to Sacre Coeur up in Montmartre. In less elevated sounding excursions, our hotel had a bowling alley next door (Le Bowling Montparnasse) that my mother and I frequented nightly in an effort to watch real French people bowl. I think France is my kind of place as I saw one guy that got a score of over 100.

Perhaps the most interesting and surprising thing to happen in Paris was on Sunday morning; my family went to Cafe les Deux Magots for breakfast and just as we sat down I heard someone call "Abigail, Abigail!" I thought, "They can't mean me!... but then again, Abigail isn't a very French name." Sure enough, it was a friend from William and Mary! His name is Chris, and we were never all that close, but we were at many of the same parties and once ran around with the same set of friends. Amazing to see him in Paris! He told me he was planning on seeing the Louvre and paying a visit to Shakespeare and Company (he took the Joyce class).

The other part of my visit to France was a day-trip to Chartres, which my mother and I took together while my dad was at his business lunch. The train ride to Chartres was only about an hour away, and the town itself boasts a beautiful medieval Gothic cathedral. Honestly, it impressed me, which I find difficult to do after spending a semester studying art and architecture in Florence, then a semester in England living across the street from Bath Abbey. But the Cathedral at Chartres was amazing, truly beautiful. They had a carving of the Annunciation unlike any I have ever seen. Not that it was more beautiful than a Donatello, but something about it moved me more than any other. The town itself reminded me strongly of a French-speaking Bath. It centered around the Cathedral, it had lovely shops and cafes, a city square, museums, and a small-town feel. Plus, very few people spoke any English at all, so I actually got to use my limited knowledge of French! I was very excited about that aspect. Chartres was wonderfully pleasant, and a nice change of pace from the mad-house of Paris.

Not that the mad-house of Paris was all bad-- on the final night my dad took me to the Buddha Bar Paris and we got fantastic drinks in a very ambient setting. My drink tasted hardly alcoholic (though it gave me a bit of a buzz) and had a faint peppery taste. There's a Buddha Bar set to open in Washington D.C. at the end of this year, so I think I may have to make a trip up there to go out with my friends.

And, I suppose, that's the news from Paris. But I've been back in the States for a few days now, and other interesting occurrences have cropped up. The biggest news, I think, is the fact that I have officially gotten a roommate-- Stephen Cole! He moves in in September, and I couldn't be happier. He will take the third floor room and bathroom, help with rent, and generally make life better, as he does. He also told me that he has learned to cook, which I quite appreciate. I can cook in a colonial kitchen, but I'm not much above pasta and rice in a modern one. I will really enjoy having a housemate, I think. It gets very lonely without one, plus it's nice to know that if I fall in the shower and die I won't lie there until my neighbors smell me. But seriously, I'm so excited to have a housemate!

So, that's life over the past few weeks! Working at Bella still, my last day at Wren is the 30th (yay!), and trying to figure out what to do for my birthday-- any suggestions?

On the Fringe

This past weekend I drove up to D.C. to see my friend Mike's new show in the Fringe Festival. He wrote a musical called The Fall of the House of Usher, and it stars two of my friends. The show was great, though the building its in was... atmospheric. For a musical about a falling house it couldn't have gotten any better-- I'm pretty sure the building was condemned. But overall, I thought the entire thing went really well. You could tell that everyone had put a lot of work into the piece, and some of the acting was very impressive. The music itself was wonderful, but that came as no surprise. :)

Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of leaving Williamsburg. It was so nice to be in a city for a little while, and to eat Indian food, and to get drinks at a hotel bar, and not to go into work. I got caught up with news and gossip, I rode the metro, I dressed up a bit which I haven't really done in awhile (except to go to Bella or Wren, but no one I care about sees me there). I got to spend a night at my house, got to see my best friends, and even my lovely kitties. I'm having a bit of trouble with one of my cats though. She's getting very old and has ceased eating with her usual zest. Poor thing.

And soon-- so soon-- I leave for Paris. Tonight I'm packing my bags, tomorrow I'm seeing Harry Potter at Short Pump, and tomorrow night I'm driving to D.C. to prepare for my Thursday flight.

Happy Bastille Day, toute le monde!

A Place Where I Can Bid My Heart Be Still

Yesterday I took the day off.

I had worked all but one day of the past week, including the Fourth of July, and while I was supposed to go into Foodways yesterday afternoon... I took the day off. I needed the day off. I feel so much better than I did. After my dental appointment, I made a spa appointment at Kingsmill, then I bought a Stirato Roll from the Cheese Shop, and had lunch at home using my left over house dressing and goat cheese. I bought an adorable little dress at Banana Republic (to wear in Paris), and a pair of brown flats at the Gap (which I desperately need, since most of my work clothes are brown-toned and not black).

Then the spa. So nice. I got a Spring Rejuvination Facial, which was about the loveliest thing I could have imagined. The music was soft and soothing, the lighting was low, and I could just relax. I let go of everything... the world can't be such a bad place if things like facials can happen. They also had sauna and steam rooms, where I was told I could stay until as late as ten o'clock and no one could find me. A place where no one could find me, and I could just think and be... I feel calmer now. It's still not perfect-- it won't be, yet. But I feel calmer. I feel like things really will be alright.

They say that God is infallible, but I don't think that's the way to put it. I don't think mistakes are even a concept for God. It's not that He's incapable of making a mistake, it's that they don't even factor in. It's as if, for God, there's no such thing. He may be a perfect being, but it's not that he's perfect, it's that perfection and imperfection are not even concepts. We have free will, and I suppose we sometimes flout God's plan, or... not plan. God's will? I don't know. But He lets us. And we learn. And then He smiles, pats us on the head, and puts us back on track.

Maybe there are many, many tracks he has planned for, like a chess-player who can't always see the next move of his opponent, but plans many moves ahead for each possible move that the other could make. I could have chosen to go to Staunton, and God might have had options for me there. I chose WM, so God has options for me here. I could have applied to Ohio, or St. Andrews, and maybe I would have gotten in and those tracks would have opened. Limitless stretching webs that link and don't link and I choose one thing, and maybe it's not a track God wanted me to be on for long. But that doesn't mean He didn't think about what I would learn, or what I would gain and lose by choosing to make the moves I did. Nor does it mean that He didn't think about what paths open next. Lots of them. Free will. But also God's plan. Maybe that's how it all works together.

Anyways, I got home before nine and made a bowl of pasta and started to watch Gone With the Wind, but Thursday is free bowling night with a Student ID, so I ended up going bowling with Maggie and Stephen. SO FUN! I'm really no good, but that's half the appeal. There's no pressure for me when I bowl. Our lane was broken so pins just wouldn't stay up, plus sometimes it didn't count my gutter balls so I got another shot. I think I bowled a 36 and a 67 or so. I can't wait to go bowling again! It reminded me of those wonderful days of Individual Sports at Jefferson City High School. I was just as bad at bowling then as now, but this was infinitely more fun!

I love days off.

July 4th and the Aftermath

The Fourth of July was a success. I had to work at the Wren all day, and it was surprisingly un-busy, thank God, plus I got to close up early because of the Ice Cream Social going on in the Wren Yard. I got home to find Kacey, Kay, and Brian hard at work on dinner, and shortly after Maggie arrived. We ate pizza, bruschetta, a salad with strawberries and sweet onion dressing, and drank margaritas and Firefly Vodka Arnold Palmers. When we had finished with dinner we played an extremely competitive version of "Barbie: Queen of the Prom" in which boyfriends could be stolen until you were going steady, and in which there were not enough club presidencies to go around. It was cutthroat, and Brian won.

We then went to see the fireworks! For CW, they weren't all that bad. It will never equal "Wishes" (which Kay and I hummed), but they were nice and made me feel patriotic to watch fireworks just steps from the Powder Magazine, on a street that saw the beginnings of Revolution stirring in Virginia. After fireworks we played another round of Barbie, and this time I won!

The past few days have been full of work. I haven't had any time off between Bella and the Wren. I drove up to Richmond to have dinner with Kacey the other night, and last night she visited Williamsburg for dinner with me. I watched most of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly at Maggie's the other night, and I'm borrowing Gone with the Wind since I finally finished the book! I bought my tickets for the Fringe show on Saturday, and I bought my tickets for Harry Potter on Wednesday. I've begun to plan for Paris, since I leave in a week.

Mostly I'm trying to remain happy and optimistic, but due to extraneous circumstances this has been a much more trying task than I imagined. I had a dental appointment today that came from Hell, and I got my Welcome Packet for graduate school and I've begun to stress about that-- it's going to be so much work and I'm not sure how I'm going to do it all. I feel like I should have started my thesis already, and Lord only knows if I'll pass the language exam. I feel very alone here in my flat.

Tarot

Last night Kay and I decided to do Tarot readings for each other. She has a deck of Tarot cards and a book explaining them, and we found a card lay-out to use. We lit candles in the living room, shuffled the cards, then began. I found mine to be a scarily accurate reading.

For my present I got the Page of Pentacles, which has to do with new beginnings, and my immediate challenge was the Queen of Swords-- how I wish that hadn't been as accurate as it is. My distance past was the Empress, and my recent past the Ace of Cups. The best outcome of these cards was the 3 of Pentacles, dealing with laying a foundation, while my immediate future was the Queen of Cups, beloved. Factors affecting my life was the 9 of Wands, and the external factors were embodied in an upside down Star-- hopelessness. My hopes and fears card was the 10 of Pentacles, dealing with stability and tradition, and my best outcome overall was the Queen of Wands, associated with Leo, which was fitting.

It is so easy for me to become hopeless, to slip effortlessly into a dark depression even on the sunniest of summer days. I do not know what will content me. I have my friends here this weekend, but what after that? I'm working every day, which I think will be helpful to improving my disposition. If my mind has a task I can forget troubles. Sometimes I even like paper-writing for this very reason; I can become absorbed in my studies and happy in them. Granted, the Wren building doesn't offer much mental stimulation, but I love working at Bella and in CW. And soon I have Paris! Kay, Brian, and I watched Ratatouille last night, and it made me even more excited for the escape than I was before. I think everything will turn out alright-- I must believe it-- but the next week feels interminably long, a hard struggle against myself that I must win, and soon. I don't want to repeat last year. I have been incredibly happy this month, and I refuse to sink again into despair.

From Colonial to Car

I worked my second day in CW Foodways yesterday. I wore a much prettier outfit than on Monday (i.e-- my jumps!), and a much cooler one, which turned out to be a good choice since we were in the Randolph Kitchen instead of the Governor's Kitchen. As I arrived in the kitchen I was greeted by Barbara, who I have missed immensely, and she told me that Jim (who I've missed just as much) was in the storeroom and to go figure out something to cook. Usually they just tell me what to make, but this day it was up to me. I saw Jim, we caught up briefly, then I picked out 'fried onions' from The Virginia Housewife by Mary Randolph. 'Fried onions' are essentially onion rings. As I returned o the kitchen to begin cooking, Barbara and Elise said they were off to Revolutionary City with a pigeon. I decided to go, too, so I spent an hour or so teaching kids how to pluck a pigeon. I had never plucked a bird before. It was interesting. I felt a little sad, thinking how the poor thing had been alive earlier in the morning. I left before it was fully plucked and began to cook my fried onions. They turned out fantastically! I almost passed out when I had to step into the fireplace to get hot coals from the back to put under the fry-pan, but it was well worth it. Additionally, we broke out the pound cakes from Monday and both were delicious, PLUS Jim had made a chocolate pudding (what we would call a chocolate pie) and let Elise and I eat the leftover chocolate-cream filling. I was well-fed and happy. What a wonderful, wonderful day at Foodways. I would totally do that for a living if I could get hired on the permanent staff. Cooking everyday, having fun with friends, joking, eating, wearing 18th century clothing... *Love*

Today was even more exciting: I picked up my new car from Newport News! It is a shiny silver Acura and I love it. My dad really picked it out, since he knows cars better than I do, and he's so excited to show me every single feature that it has-- and it has tons. I'm a little sad to part with my Honda, though. It's been such a good car these past seven years, and though it's a little worn and doesn't run quite as well as it did originally, it's still full of warmth and love. We aren't trading it in though; my parent's didn't think we'd get enough for it, so they are keeping it as their car in Williamsburg so when they drive down they will each have a car instead of sharing one. So, I don't have to run out to my parking space and hug it goodbye forever, which makes me feel a little less blue. Plus, my new Acura looks sleek and lovely, but as full of heart as my Honda.

Watched more Rome-- Cleopatra came into play, just as full of life and sex as she should be. Mmm I love me some Egypt. Still reading Gone with the Wind, lost a bit of the reading drive after buying Rome, but it will come back, probably on Saturday when I work at the Wren Building again. :)