I should post about my week in Paris.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to write a bit more, though right now it's just of course busy busy and I'm trying not to drown in the work deadlines and the socializing that comes from attempting to pull off a full and complete life with some free food thrown in for fun.

Paris was amazing. But you knew that already. Everyone was nice, I ate lots and lots of uber-good dairy (the US is starting to get good cheese, but butter you could eat off a spoon? not yet.), Justin's parents took us out to very nice restaurants, museums, concerts, and I LOVE the outdoor markets with their beautiful garlic olives and black radishes. I came back with a blazer, a shiny brown trench coat, a beautiful blue silk scarf/wrap, chestnut cream, valhrona and michael cluizel chocolate, and 3 bottles of jam - wild blueberry, onion/red wine confit, and green tomato. Pierre Herme macaroons are every bit as good as the blog world says they are, read *Amazing*, but the Laduree ones were a bit soggy. I did start chafing at the bit w/ all the family time, however. As nice as it was to be translated and treated to a lot of Paris, I missed the wild adventuring that happens when you only have your wits and a pittance to get along. The old May, the rebel who braves crazy new things and white water and frog legs, is starting to show through. Ok, so I did try frog legs. But I felt too much like a kept woman. Even seeing Henry Kissinger walk into the restaurant we were eating at didn't erase that. (Though it was uber-cool, for the political fan-girl side of me. I nodded, and he said "hello" in that deeeeeep voice of his, and I was his for all eternity.)

Ahhh this is so badly written I want to hurt things or re-write...no time for the latter. Sigh.

Notre Dame was beautiful enough to bring me to tears. I am glad that I was prescient enough to go to that one alone. The Louvre was also amazing. I think Pressly would be happy to know that I now understand why he tried so hard to teach us paintings from black/white photocopies. Justin saw a kid walking from picture to picture, snapping photos at each one but not looking, not thinking, just clicking. I could have shook him but instead lost myself in the different emotions passing through me. PMS has nothing on the Louvre.

One thing that I wasn't expecting was the large amounts of pigeon and dog poop on the sidewalks. LARGE amounts. In all sorts of colors. What on earth are they feeding those animals???

Anyways, what I really wanted to write today is kind of a PSA for guys. Today as I was leaving for the commute to work, Justin told me I looked pretty. I immediately forgave him for any multitude of unimportant annoyances committed in the past week, extending a few days in the future.

Funny, to end up a girl after so many years of fighting it.