rebecca_in_blue | Entries tagged with goat cheese

Just when I thought the High Holy Days were over, along comes Sukkot. Our congregation had a little hamotzi and kiddush under the sukkah on the lawn after services tonight. The weather was perfect for it -- cool and crisp and autumn-y. But everyone from the temple tried to fit under the sukkah (Mr. G said, "It's as crowded as a New York City apartment!") until the whole structure started rocking and rolling. I was honestly afraid it was going to come down on top of us at some points. Someone handed me a little paper cup of wine for the kiddush, and when I said that I don't drink alcohol, Paul immediately said, "Pour it into my cup! I'll drink it for you!" And he did. I got a paper cup of grape juice, like Maggie. :)

Ben totally surprised me by giving me two excellent belated birthday gifts yesterday: a big log of goat cheese, and a burned copy of X-Men: First Class. I just finished the last of the goat cheese for dinner, and it was delicious, of course. I've spent a little bit of my birthday money, trying to stretch it as far as I can. So far I've bought a ~~prayer shawl~~ scarf resembling a prayer shawl (I sit in the front of the temple, the coldest part!), bladder control pills for Sable, a new pair of jeans, and a jacket and three shirts in very fun fall colors -- all for <$35. All hail Rebecca, thrifty shopper extraordinaire!

The landlords have been on the property a lot this week repainting parts of the building. The ~~busybody~~ landlady has taken up the annoying habit of scanning the grass behind me when I walk Sable, even though I always pick up his mess. Hmph. And I put my hand/arm down in wet paint two days in a row.

I love my new LJ layout! I had to tinker with the coding a lot to finally get it to show up the same on different browser windows, though. Here's a look back at my old layout (I had this one for about four years) before I forget what it looks like:

Current Mood: writing fanfiction
Current Music: That's Judy, Andrea McArdle

Almost every time I turn on the radio now, I hear "Good," by Carrie Underwood. I'm ashamed to say I actually like it, but geez, there's a limit to how much I can take. (Edit: I just googled the lyrics, and it's actually called "Mama's Song." Ugh.) But it is better than the Christmas music that some stations are playing. Today I heard that awful Christmas song by Alvin & the Chipmunks, and even more disturbing, a tweaked version of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" called "Hanukkah and Christmas Hand in Hand." Listening to it was easily the biggest what-the-fuck moment of my day.

Speaking of which, the Hanukkah service at the temple last Friday was really lovely. There was a dinner afterwards, and I ate my first latke and, miraculously, several bites of salad. I never eat healthy foods, especially salads, so it was a big deal. It helped that there was goat cheese in it. Finding goat cheese in salad was like running into an old friend in strange place. I also met an older lady who recognized my last name because she went to school with my Aunt Alison and Uncle George. They live in California and I haven't seen them since 2006, so hearing their names dropped was really random and surprising. When I tell people at the temple my last name, I usually get, "What? Cohen?" — my last name is unusual, Scottish, and not Jewish in the least, but it sounds a lot like Cohen — not, "Oh, I know your Uncle George." What were the odds that we would be seated next to each other? I guess it is a small world.

I have still haven't put up Christmas decorations or a tree. I've done a tiny bit of shopping, but not much. Some years I just can't get into the Christmas spirit, and I think 2010 might be one of those years. I've always hated wintertime, and I still do.

Current Mood: fanfic makes me feel better
Current Music: Shalom Rav, Kol B'Seder

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I got it narrowed down to two choices, but I can't decide between them. #1) Driving to New Orleans with Aunt Carolyn, Sara, and Athena. We had so much fun back in the day. #2) Driving to Star Island with Dad (which would be an extremely long drive, almost all the way from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border). I keep thinking about our drive to Shreveport. I read him articles out of his latest New Yorker.

I know the prompt specified one person, but that was no fun. Is it just me, or has LJ had some very lame Writer's Block questions lately?

Within two weeks of each other, we got a flat tire on the truck and I let my driver's liscense expire. Of course, said things would happen in the same month that we have to get our truck inspected, too. But today I actually managed to take care of all three things: got a new liscense (my old photo wasn't that good, but this one is horrible!), got new tires, and got the truck inspected. Now if I could just find time to give Sable a bath.

Rebecca is one spoiled bitch. Among the edible things I got for my birthday were a dinner of sloppy joes with Grandma & Co.; lunch at DeAngelo's with Mom and Sara; dinner at Cici's with Sara and Athena; and two packages of goat cheese from Ben. I baked them in the oven before eating them, so the entire apartment was filled with the smell of fresh goat cheese. You can't imagine the bliss Rebecca was swimming in. If Heaven were a smell, that would be it. But if Heaven were a pie, it'd be cherry. If Heaven were a towel...

Gotta go wash dishes now.

Current Mood: my head hurts again!
Current Music: This Land Is Your Land, Lee Greenwood

Mom, Ben, Adam, and I took a trip to Houston on Saturday, and unlike most trips anywhere with my family, it was actually enjoyable, even though it's a lot frickin' colder in Houston than it is here. Easily the best part was eating lunch at Star Pizza in the village. We had an appetizer of baked goat cheese with olive oil and tomato on bread, and I had pizza with mozerella, feta, and goat cheese. It was so good, when I finished, I pushed back my chair and said, "I pity everyone in the world who wasn't me while I was eating that meal." (Okay, writing about it was a mistake. I just ate dinner, but now I'm hungry again!)

After lunch, we went to the Chocolate Bar, Candylicious, and Half-Price Books. I hadn't bought anything at Half-Price in a long time, but on this visit I actually found some good stuff: a copy of Robert Browning's The Pied Piper of Hamelin with illustrations by Kate Greenaway (which I didn't buy, even though her pictures were awesome, because I already have that poem in at least one of my poetry anthologies, and I really only like the second half of it), and GK's Good Poems for Hard Times. I also found a copy of RLS's A Child's Garden of Verses, which I didn't buy because it wasn't a very good copy, but it reminded me of how much I want that book. Think I'll buy one online.

After that we went to the movies and then out to dinner with Mark and Vickie. We ate at some seafood resteraunt, and even though I don't really like seafood, I did drink my first ever Shirley Temple! It was Sprite with cherry syrup -- very yummy and quite worthy of Shirley's name.

Things I will never like: The sound of dishes banging together. It's absolutely the worst sound in the world. When I wash dishes or put them in the cabinet, I always try to do it with finesse, not to make noise. My mom always did it as loudly as possible (and probably still does), to the point where I either had to leave the kitchen or grab the dishes from her and put them up myself. Words cannot describe how much I hate that noise.

Current Mood: Happy February!
Current Music: Anna Paquin in A Walk on the Moon

Well, Adam and I drove to Houston on Wednesday, and I finally found Roger's grave! The cemetery where he's buried is massive: over 45,000 graves! But it's very organized, divided into sections with each plot labeled and numbered, so finding his grave wasn't hard at all. I took some pictures and wanted to stay longer, like I usually do in cemeteries, but this one had almost no shade at all, and it was so hot that we soon left. Afterwards we browsed around some places and had dinner with Mark and Vickie at Prego's in the Village. I had goat cheese pizza, for the first time since I left France! It wasn't as good as what I ate in France, or what I would've eaten if we'd gone to Star Pizza instead, but I can't complain.

I made a super delicious cake as a welcome-home present for Sara. It was a double-layer yellow cake with chocolate icing, decorated with Reese's Pieces candies. It was really quite pretty and not hard to make at all. (I borrowed some excellent cake pans from Grandma. She bought them sometime during the 1950s. I was surprised she couldn't remember the exact year.) Perhaps I'll get into the habit of making cakes.

And now for some bad news. Instead of listening to the radio at work, we now have to listen to elevator muzak. It's awful; I told Tracey yesterday it reminded me of that joke on Family Guy: "You know that mediocre, generic sound you've been looking for? Well, listen to this!" And next week, we're expanding our store hours to ten. Boss Man said when he announced the news, "Corporate is making all the stores do this, but do not tell the customers! Maybe we can keep them from finding out." The back-to-school season is more hectic than ever, and they're saying this week will be even worse!

I would post pictures of the cemetery and my cake, but I'm too tired right now. In fact I've felt tired for days (on reason I haven't posted in a while). There's a sinkful of dirty dishes to wash, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow. This is Rebecca signing off, walking her dog, and going to bed.

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: Sara watching TV, Sable whining

Rebecca actually did some hard work this week. I put a new coat of varnish and finish on Grandma’s porch swing and picnic table. It may not be what everyone would consider hard work, but it made my shoulders hurt. I didn’t ask Grandma to pay me for it, but of course she did, and I decided to finally go to the one place in town that sells ... goat cheese!

To my surprise, they actually had, like, four different types of goat cheese for sale. They didn’t have the brand that I lived and died by in France (Petit Chèvre Doux, meaning Little Sweet Goat), but they did have another brand I had eaten there. It was the kind they served in the school cantine, but I hadn’t been a big fan of that, so I bought a cheaper brand, plus a big loaf of so-called "French bread" that wasn’t remotely baguette-esque.

I ate all the goat cheese and most of the bread for dinner. It was the absolute perfect, perfect meal. It may not have been as good as I got in France, but I’ve been so goat-cheese-deprived since I got back to Louisiana that my mouth didn’t know the difference. I took the Lord’s name in vain several times while eating. Goat cheese bubbling from the microwave, fresh bread, a can of soda – when I took a bite and closed my eyes, I could’ve been back in the Lycée Européen kitchen. And what made it even more perfect was that I ate it all on a Friday night. On Friday nights in France, I always had a package of goat cheese and a baguette. (Monday and Wednesday nights, goat cheese pizzas. Tuesday and Saturday nights, ravioli. Thursday and Sunday nights, steak haché and green beans.)

I’ve decided to start reading as many autobiographies of former child actresses as I can. This is what I have on the list so far:
Home, Julie Andrews.
Little Girl Lost, Drew Barrymore.
Child Star, Shirley Temple Black.
My Fifteen Minutes, Sybil Jason.
A Paper Life, Tatum O’Neal.

Current Mood: stuffed with goat cheese
Current Music: You're as Sweet as Sugar on a Stick, Barry Polisar

Being back home feels ... weird. I don't think anyone who's never been in this kind of situation can really understand. I've done a most of the things that I was looking forward to while I was away: written more comments in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, eaten an entire jar of Kroger-brand pickles, updated my iPod, taken my dog for a walk. But at the same time, I miss France so much. The days are shorter here (in Villers-Cotterêts it didn't get dark until after 9 pm). It's not as hot as it usually is this time of year, but of course it's humid, and all the humidity in the air outside, along with various things inside my mom's house, are making my asthma really terrible. In Villers-Cotterêts, I hardly needed to use my inhaler at all. And did I mention that this American keyboard is making me crazy?

I did ending bringing a little goat cheese with me, but I had to leave an almost-entirely eaten package of my favorite brand, Petit Chèvre Doux, in the school kitchen. Sarah and Heather, if you're reading this, I hope you ate it and enjoyed it.

So for some reason, I don't feel very tired right now, even though I'm operating on very little sleep. How little? On Monday morning I woke up around 6:30, left the lycée around 8:20, and took the 8:40 train to Paris. After an eight-hour flight from Paris to Philadelphia, about four hours in the airport, a three-hour flight from Philadelphia to Houston, and at least a two-hour car ride from Houston to here, I finally got home and into bed around 8:30 am, France time (some twenty-six hours later). I wasn't able to sleep at all on the planes or in my mom's car. I am not kidding. And yesterday I woke up around 11 am, didn't go back to bed until about 10 am this morning (I just didn't feel tired), and got back up at 2 pm to go to Grandma's.

Needless to say, I'm going to bed as soon as I finish this.

Current Mood: wheezing
Current Music: Over the Rainbow, Judy Garland

What Rebecca did yesterday, for reasons that remain unknown (warning: grossness ahead)...

Ate one meal, breakfast, around 7:30 am.
Took a shower in the middle of the day (which I never do, and you wouldn't either, if students and teachers were walking by outside the door).
Tried to get to the school nurse's office while dizzy, nauseous, and wearing no glasses or contacts. Walked into a wall. In front of students.
Banged on the walls between my room and Sarah's and Heather's rooms, in an unsuccessful call for help. Sarah wasn't in her room at the time and Heather just wondered what the hell I was doing. But boy did they feel bad later. I guilt-tripped them for all it was worth.
Prayed for death, also unsuccessful.
Gripped my sink so hard I almost pulled it loose from the wall.
Threw up three separate times around 3:30 pm. It was yesterday's breakfast and lunch from the day before, and it was very easy to identify.
Learned the French word for to vomit.

Edit: I forgot to mention that today, April 23, is SHIRLEY TEMPLE'S 80th BITRHDAY! Yes, her 80th! And this entry's title is an almost verbatim line from me to Marlene last December, when she couldn't believe that I walked to the grocery store in the rain just to buy a goat cheese pizza. "Well, what am I supposed to do, Marlene? Not eat goat cheese pizza?" When Nathalie came to see me while I was sick yesterday, she said, "Don't eat any goat cheese pizzas for a while. I mean it."

Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: Copperline, James Taylor (Loudly please, says Sarah)

I got back to Villers-Cotterêts early yesterday afternoon, after seeing Sara off on her plane. As good as it feels to be back at the lycée again, that's how depressing it feels to think about how soon I'll have to leave. But when life gives Rebecca problems, she eats goat cheese, and she's going to have some as soon as she finishes this entry.

Anyway, our trip was wonderful and exhausting. Please see this entry by makebeliever for a much better recap than I could ever write. The only thing we didn't do, it occured to me just after she left, was have our pictures taken in a photobooth. I've been meaning to post some pictures since we got back yesterday, but instead I made a YouTube video and went grocery shopping. I had no groceries or clean clothes when I got back, and I still need to do my laundry tomorrow. And think up something to do with my classes next week.

While on our trip, I finally started reading that big old novel Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier. Sara brought it with her to read on the trip, but I stole it from her. I think the plot moves at a snail's pace, or maybe even slower than that, but I'm still enjoying it. Du Maurier's writing style is something you can get lost in; the world she writes about is so foreign, but the way she conveys the narrator's feelings is so personal. Anyway, it's certainly made me like my name more; when I was a little girl, I hated my name because I never knew any other Rebeccas. Then around the time I got to high school, I started liking it for the exact same reason. (95% of the girls in my high school were named Kate, Katie, Ashley, or Amanda. I am not kidding.)

And now onto what everyone really wants to see ... pictures! There are only a few right now, but I'll try to post more later.

( Some Big Pictures )

Current Mood: hungry for goat cheese
Current Music: Little Big Shot, Sybil Jason

Funny Chinese Sarah Moment. When Nathalie took us shopping last Wednesday, Sarah bought one thing, a bottle of vinegar, which she drinks by itself out of a glass. She opened the bottle the minute we got back to the lycée and took a swing right there in the parking lot, while Nathalie watched in horror, literally screaming, "Sarah, don't drink that! Sarah, that's vinegar! Stop! Oh, no! No! She's drinking it out of the bottle! Oh, I can't watch! It gives me a stomach ache just to watch!" (She then asked me if we drank vinegar out of the bottle in America, too.)

I've been meaning to post since Wednesday, but I've been busy lately. And I mean busy with unimportant crap, so I really don't have much to say, anyway. The lycée is giving us a three-day weekend for Easter, which is nice, and this morning, Madame Camus, one of the English teachers I work with, totally surprised me by giving me a little chocolate bunny as an Easter present. It is so cute that I'm not sure if I'll be able to eat it! And American Sara and I are finally starting to make plans for her trip here (hooray!).

The sun came out today, and I immediately dropped what I was doing and went for a walk. I initially headed for the train station to go to Crépy-en-Valois, the next town over, but then I realized I had forgotten my debit card and my carte 12-25, so I instead headed for the Villers-Cotterêts cemetery. I enjoyed about 45 minutes of sunlight and blue skies before the clouds rolled in again.

I think I have found a solution to the goat cheese and baguette problem. Today when I walked to Leclerc Express for my baguette, I also picked up a few kiwis, figuring that eating something cool and juicy with the goat cheese would take the edge off. It seemed to work, although my tongue is a bit sore from all the citric acid and Marlene said she was surprised to see me eating something healthy. Haha.

The other night I had a dream that a Piano-era Anna Paquin and a Chocolat-era Victoire Thivisol were making a movie together. I woke up disappointed that I couldn't see it.

Current Mood: three-day weekend!
Current Music: Don't Stand So Close to Me, The Police

The town library has the first two Lord of the Rings movies but not the third one, which drove Marlene crazy. Fortunately the lycée library has the third one, so I checked it out yesterday and we stayed up until past midnight watching it. Marlene has a Ron-Weasley-like fear of spiders and had to cover her eyes every time the giant spider came on.

I think I may have to scrap one of my favorite meals, which is a package of goat cheese microwaved and spread over a big baguette. (I usually eat this for dinner every Friday. I had it last night while we were watching Return of the King, and Marlene said, “Oh yeah, it’s Friday.”) But the last two times I’ve eaten it, I’ve felt strangely ill afterwards – very hot, thirsty, and out-of-breath. Last night it was so bad that for a minute I thought I was going to pass out. But I don’t know if I have the willpower to resist goat cheese, no matter what ill effects it might have on me. (Or should that be "affects"? Eh, who knows?)

The other day there was a debate on CNN between spokespeople from the Clinton and Obama campaigns, who spent most of their time saying, “Can I finish?” and, “I didn’t interrupt you.” In the past two weeks or so, I’ve seen the dollar hit a record-low against the euro separate three separate times (it’s now at €1.54, I think). Ugh! If the economy doesn’t get better soon, it’s tempting to just stay in France.

Current Mood: it's dark outside
Current Music: The Freshman, Verve Pipe

Nathalie usually takes us shopping every Wednesday, but during vacation we have to fend for ourselves. I had forgotten how difficult it is to go grocery shopping without a car. Today I had to seriously prioritize my list; I could only buy what I needed immediately (goat cheese pizza) and what wasn’t heavy (goat cheese).

Heather returned from her trip to

Switzerland

yesterday, bringing with her lots of incredible pictures, some tasty Swiss chocolate, and an abrupt end to the nice weather. That last one isn’t her fault of course, but as soon as she returned, it got foggy and very cold, the complete opposite of the warm, sunny weather we’ve had since last Friday. Tonight Heather, Marlene, Sarah, and I all watched The Two Towers in the kitchen, which was a lot of fun. We are all fans of Lord of the Rings, but the key difference is that Heather and I watch them largely to make sarcastic comments, while Marlene treats them like the serious epic films they are. She was genuinely mad when we made jokes that Legolas was in love with Aragorn. “Why do you keep saying these things about Legolas? You know they were just good friends!” And that made Heather and me laugh so hard we almost collapsed.

I have finally located the address of the Paris theater where Peter Pan made its French premiere in 1908. The original building still exists, but it has been a movie cinema since the 1920s. I am hoping to go to Paris next week and see a movie there – how awesome would that be? I would also like to visit the hotel where JM Barrie stayed during his visits to Paris, but I think that no longer exists.

Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: Friday I'm in Love, The Cure

Last weekend was beautiful here – blue skies, and the trees around the school were flaming orange and red. I went for a little walk on Sunday and took some pictures, and I'm glad I did, because the weather was horrible this weekend. On Friday there was a heavy rainstorm that washed all the pretty leaves off the trees, and it was so windy that many of them blew right inside the school. The commons area inside the main entrance was so covered with leaves that I should have taken a picture of it before the cleaning ladies sweeped it up. Nathalie (who says she's our "replacement mother" while we're here) asked us later if the storm had scared us, and I told her no because in Louisiana we have hurricanes every day. She believed me!

And since then, the weather has been cloudy and very windy. I've been able to hear the wind roaring outside my window almost 24/7. It reminds me of the sound the wind made during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but it's different; more than anything it reminds me of the first line of a very cheesy Celine Dion song. Anyway, the unfortunate thing is that Nathalie has given us assistants a bike to share, and I wanted to go for a ride this weekend, but with this weather all I did was be lazy. Fortunately I think that's all the other assistants did too, so I don't feel quite so bad.

For those of you who don't know, on Friday the shit hit the fan with regards to Rebecca's phone bill. Apparently the Singulair representative we spoke with before we left was a great big liar, and now I basically don't have a phone anymore. It was depressing to think that I wouldn't be able to talk to Sara anymore, but Rebecca's new motto is, "When life gives you problems, eat goat cheese," so I had a goat cheese pizza for dinner Friday night and felt better about everything. Later Sara and I figured out how to chat to each other online. I kept laughing and banging my hand on the table the entire time, which got me a lot of weird looks from the other assistants.

Current Mood: pissed at this computer
Current Music: The Remedy, Jason Mraz

Today was the last day of school before vacation, which was a really wonderful feeling. We are off all of next week, and the first three days of the week after that, in honor of All Saints Day. It's a rather strange thing to give a holiday for, especially considering the unique situation of the Catholic Church in France. Anyway, All Saints Day is also Mom's birthday, and I mailed a little birthday package to her yesterday, which I hope will arrive on her birthday or the day after. I am hoping to make a trip to Belgium, maybe from Tuesday to Friday, to see the grave of George Llewelyn Davies (one of JM Barrie's adopted sons, for those of you who don't know). It will be expensive, but really, when am I ever going to get another chance to see George's grave? I think Heather and Nakeisha are planning a trip to EuroDisney in Paris. Heather also wants to go to Germany, if she can.

Heather, Nakeisha, and I went out to run some errands today and found the French translation of the last Harry Potter book at the bookstore. It was just released yesterday, and the store had a big display of them right in front of the door. I got the first book in French a few weeks ago, but so far reading it was been much more difficult than I expected. We also bought some groceries, and I just had an extremely delicious dinner of a two-foot long baguette with goat cheese, a lemon (Nakeisha and Heather stared at me like I was crazy the entire time I was eating it), and a chocolate pastry. Nathalie is going to try to drive us to the big store tomorrow, if she has time, which would be nice, because I need to buy some more warm clothes.

My teaching experiences were better this week than they were last week. It was Week B, so I only worked with Madame Y, who is probably the nicest English teacher at the school – although I like the other three, too. So far she has just had me stay in the room with her and assist in the lesson, rather than leave me alone with students (which I really prefer, but I'm not sure how long my luck will hold out.) The worst that happened this week was when Madame Y asked me to raise the window blind. Window blinds in France hang on the outside of the window, not the inside, and they don't look at all like the blinds we have in America. They are operated by cranking a stick – it's difficult to explain – and since I don't have one in my room, I didn't know how to do it. I tried pulling and twisting the stick instead, which the students found extremely funny, until Madame Y showed me how to do it.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Hey Mickey, Toni Basil

Here are some details of my daily life here in France...

Breakfast here is my favorite meal of the day, because I always know exactly what I'm going to get. (Sometimes I can't identify what they serve for lunch and dinner, even after I've eaten it.) Breakfast is a stick of bread, an orange, a bowl of cereal, and a cup of orange juice. The cereal is usually something like Coco-Puffs, although sometimes it's something like Frosted Flakes, and they serve it with hot milk. I know that sounds weird, but it's actually good, because it's cold here in the mornings, and it's nice to have something warm.

Lunch and dinner, as I said, is sometimes food that I have trouble identifying, although they seem to serve a lot of pork dishes. I rarely eat the entire meal, so I always eat the entire stick of bread that is served with every meal here to help me fill up. It used to be a chore, but then I discovered that they served little packets of goat cheese to spread on the bread, and I love, love, love goat cheese. I always tell myself on my way to the cafeteria that no matter how weird the main course may be, at least I'm going to get my bread and goat cheese. It's like dessert, really.

I eat most of my meals with the other assistants. I've gotten into the bad habit of hanging around people who I know speak English, which is stupid, because I came to France to improve my French. But often when I'm around a native speaker or a non-native speaker who speaks it better than I do (and that includes most of the other assistants), I clam up because I'm afraid I'll make a mistake.

I'm still observing classes. I introduce myself to the students and tell them a little bit about myself at the start of each class, and sometimes they ask me questions. I always tell them that I'm from Baton Rouge, because almost every class wants to know why my city has a French name. Most of them speak very, very quietly in English, I guess because they're not sure of what they're saying, so I often have to ask them to repeat themselves when they talk to me. One of the most common mistakes is that they think to rest means to stay (They ask, "How long you rest here?"), which is expected because in French rester means to stay. I made the same mistake until I was in Brager's class. A lot of them either don't use the -ing form of verbs when they should or use it when they shouldn't. But this is also expected, since there is no French equivalent of the -ing form in French.

Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: White & Nerdy, Weird Al Yankovic

The drive from Mark and Vickie's house to the French Consulate was only about thirty minutes, but Mom and I left two hours before my appointment, because the Consulate won't see you if you're late, and appointments have to be made so far in advance that if I didn't get my visa today, I probably wouldn't get it in time to leave for France. I almost thought that I wouldn't get it today, because the photos on my forms weren't in the correct format. The clerk who told us this got into a very loud argument with Mom because he was being extremely rude and Mom wasn't listening to what he said. We ended up having to make a mad dash to a nearby drug store (we actually drove past the same department store where Mom bought her wedding dress over 30 years ago) so that I could take new passport photos and glue them onto my forms. Thankfully when we got back to the Consulate, the mean clerk was gone, replaced by a nice old French lady who processed all my paperwork and handed me my visa. What a relief.

While we were in Houston, and we ate dinner at Star Pizza -- their goat cheese is so delicious! -- where I hadn't been since Dad took me and Sara back in 2004. We actually sat in the same room that we did back then, because I remembered the poster of David Bowie on the wall. Sara had told me and Dad that one of his pupils was permanetly dilated, and Dad had gotten up and taken a closer look to see. We also visited Candyliscious (I still don't think it can compare to the Candyland Cottage & Ice Cream Shoppe in Rayne), where I bought a jump rope with detachable, candy-filled handles for Eva's birthday. I can't believe that she'll be 10-years-old.

I'm over halfway through with Harry Potter and the Deathy Hallows. As of tomorrow, I will have made it last for three weeks.

Current Mood: relieved
Current Music: Fields of Gold, Eva Cassidy

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rebecca_in_blue

March 2013

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Page Summary

"This sukkah doesn't feel very well put together!"
Rebecca a essayé d'acheter un livre de cuisine français en anglais, mais...
Now Rebecca's been here ten thousand years...
Reading a poem a day for the rest of 2010. Maybe.
Rebecca hopes she's not coming down with something.
If there's a food better than goat cheese, Rebecca doesn't want to know.
Rebecca stayed awake for 26 hours.
What is Rebecca supposed to do? NOT eat goat cheese pizza?
Don't even try to pretend you aren't jealous.
The bells in France have gone to Rome!
Rebecca's love of goat cheese has become an obsession.
What did Rebecca eat for dinner? Goat cheese pizza.
Dull November brings the blast, then the leaves are whirling fast.
Rebecca is on vacation!
Rebecca loves goat cheese and goat cheese loves her!
Rebecca's visa is in her hand!

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on your journey, i will bless you...

...and you will be a blessing

Entries tagged with goat cheese

"This sukkah doesn't feel very well put together!"

Rebecca a essayé d'acheter un livre de cuisine français en anglais, mais...

Now Rebecca's been here ten thousand years...

Reading a poem a day for the rest of 2010. Maybe.

Rebecca hopes she's not coming down with something.

If there's a food better than goat cheese, Rebecca doesn't want to know.

Rebecca stayed awake for 26 hours.

What is Rebecca supposed to do? NOT eat goat cheese pizza?

Don't even try to pretend you aren't jealous.

The bells in France have gone to Rome!

Rebecca's love of goat cheese has become an obsession.

What did Rebecca eat for dinner? Goat cheese pizza.

Dull November brings the blast, then the leaves are whirling fast.

Rebecca is on vacation!

Rebecca loves goat cheese and goat cheese loves her!

Rebecca's visa is in her hand!