Slowly But Surely

I have a love hate relationship with running. I love the idea of being a runner. I want to be able to tell people I'm a runner. I just hate the fact that I'm SLOW and this some how discredits all my efforts. This love hate relationship developed sometime during my cross-country and track days of high school. I have fond memories of cross-country training with Carmen running around Windansea and La Jolla Shores and sometimes jumping in the ocean. Less fond memories of running track. I was the slowest, running a 9min mile, therefore, got stuck running the 2 miler - to this day, I still don't understand the logic! Psychoanalyzing the situation, this is probably where my shame of being slow began. Nowadays, I would only wish to run 9min miles.

Fast forward to law school. I began running again and training for the Chicago marathon. Again, I was the slowest in my group running a 10min mile but I had a coach who would run with me and encourage me so I began to really enjoy myself. I think I have a tendency to talk about things in excess when I'm a little obsessed ... these days it's Bikram and I'm sure many of my Parisian friends are quite sick of me encouraging Bikram on them. Back in law school, I guess it was running, as I have quite a few friends who have run multiple marathons and thank me for being their motivation. Umm, by the way, I never made it to Chicago on October 13, 2002 to run the marathon. The most I ever ran during that training season was 18 miles. Basically, while packing my boxes to leave Boston and move to Florida I fell off my ladder (back in those days I use to have to climb a ladder to get to my bed) so I was injured and then really just couldn't motivate to run those 20+ miles in the treaded heat and humidity of Florida. My running days were over ... at least for the moment.

Then in 2008, I decided I needed to start running again. I joined TNT in Boston with Tara and we did the Maine half-marathon. I was worried about raising the money but that ended up being the easy part. I won't bore you with the details but this ended up being a horrible experience for me and after the half I didn't run anymore. But as always, I still have that burning desire to run a marathon one day and to be able to say I'm a runner and not be a phony. Last year, I said I would start running once I moved to Paris. I even made a deal with Jenna that we would run the Paris marathon together. Jenna an experienced marathoner was willing to run at my pace just for the fun of traveling to Paris. Ahh, I developed an addiction for Bikram instead.

This long drawn out running history brings me to this summer, I convinced Heather (my amazing sister-in-law) to join a running group in Montreal with me. Her friend Kelly described me as the sister-in-law from hell subjecting her to such torture but Heather pleasantly disagreed :) No, I don’t have her brainwashed! I ran a handful of times in Montreal, once in NY, once in Winthrop, once in Boston, once in Maine, and twice in Florida. Not too shabby for someone who hasn’t run in about three years. Heather and Alex, my Floridian running buddy/cheerleader, are greatly missed here in Paris … only if I could have brought one of them back with me. My last run of the summer was with Alex on an early humid Sunday morning sometime in mid-August. That is until yesterday!

Here in Paris, my friend Kay is part of a running a group where I think the slowest person is about a 9/10min mile. I have been a little hesitant of joining Kay’s group for all of the above-mentioned reasons. I'm even slower than my law school days, about a 12min mile these days. Yesterday, I decided to meet the group for their track practice at Stade Emile Anthoine ... this way I can avoid public humiliation. How many people could actually be at the track? Ugh! Yeah, I was wrong! Football (soccer) practice, track practice, and some avid runners were all on the track/field. Oh well, too late to turn around. I participated in the speed training and abs workout and the two people who lapped me … he he he… were super encouraging :)

It was a beautiful night and the stadium is right next to La Tour Eiffel so when the night fell and the sparkling lights of La Tour Eiffel turned on I thought to myself - life is good. I'm back! This morning I signed up for the Les Foulées Villenogarennoises 10K on Nov. 6th. And as an extra bonus, I figure this blog about my running may also be another motivator not to give up :)

I found the picture below from a google search. For users of Picasso your photos can be access by the public hence me :) This photo is from someone’s Parisian vacation … It's not the best photo but I figured nobody wanted to see the one with the strange old lady.

Stade Emile Anthoine

A Reoccurring Theme

Everybody who loves me knows by now that I have an issue with backing things up or for that matter computer savviness. Seriously, I should consider dating someone who is a computer whizz just so I can transfer these responsibilities over.

About two weeks ago, I dropped my iPhone on the ground and the screen severely cracked. After having a ghetto fabulous phone for about a week and concerned that its life was coming to an end, I decided to find out about repairs or exchanges. Unfortunately, Orange (my Verizon here in France) has not discovered the promotional phone upgrade for renewing a contract. However, Apple is amazing no matter what country you are in and they fix everything or give you a new one for a really good price :o)

It took me a week to get an appointment with one of the genius guys at Apple and today was the day. Now, I have learned from my past experiences that backups are important - I'm not that flighty. I actually made an effort to try to backup my iPhone but my new computer wasn't recognizing the phone. Oh well, they're just fixing a screen it probably won't make a difference ... right? Real quickly, I realized that was a negative! First question asked - Avez-vous fait une sauvegarde (Have you done a backup)? That's when I knew I was screwed. On the bright side, I have a new phone ;o)

Devastated after my computer died this year and I lost all my photos, I can actually only laugh at myself now. Completely my fault! Though, in my defense, I did try. The most valuable thing I lost, I would say, were the videos/recordings I took of my friend Ben, a jazz violinist playing his manouche jazz. Ben lives in Boston but spent last winter here in Paris. [To all my Boston folks and anyone interested in manouche jazz you should check out his website ben@ben-powell.com, he is super talented!]

I mention music and Ben, because last year I thought it would be great to have a post about the music you hear throughout the streets of Paris. It truly is one of the things I love about this City. So with my handy dandy iPhone I started taking photos and videos of music I would stumble upon. That post barely had an existence. I only ever uploaded one photo to a draft blog and then kind of forgot about it but continued to record. Since all of that evidence was deleted this afternoon ... I decided maybe I should post the music videos/photos as they happen.

So here is the photo I uploaded a year ago, a man with his cat and music box, on the streets of Paris. If my memory serves me right, I believe this photo was taken near Gare St. Lazare and Printemps.

You never know where but you can guarantee that at least once a day you will hear music from one corner or another, whether it's in the metro station, on the metro, or thru the many streets of Paris, and if you're lucky you may even have more than one encounter in a day. Going forward, I vow to make a better effort to post my musical encounters.

Starbucks Parisian Style

While living in Paris, I have stayed away from Starbucks out of principle. Why go to an American chain when I can stop by any corner cafe and enjoy a Parisian café crème. Yesterday, after having lunch with my friend Michael and his husband Michel, we decided to grab a cup of coffee. They ended up suggesting Starbucks; I wasn't going to object after all I have been to a Starbucks in Cologne, Germany. Might as well try one in Paris ... once in a while can't hurt, right? They took me to a Starbucks near l'Opéra, which has the reputation of being the most beautiful Starbucks in Paris. It's Starbucks, how pretty can it be? Well, I was in awe! It use to be an old theater and now it has transformed into a Starbucks.

the chandelier

the main sitting area

the ceiling

Now, I can't believe I'm about to say this ... but the next time you're in Paris it is definitely worth stopping by Starbucks at l'Opéra.

Truly Spoiled

I often think to myself what a lucky person I am ... I am living my dream, living in Paris! The City is so beautiful that it is like living on a movie set. I really couldn't ask for anything more ... well, maybe a job ;o)

Birthdays in Paris have really proven to me what a truly lucky and loved person I am. I have spent the past two birthdays in Paris which is a fantastic opportunity in itself ... but I feel like I have been extra spoiled with birthdays.

Last year Julie came all the way from Boston to celebrate my birthday with me and on the big day we went to the comedy show How to Become a Parisian in One Hour (see last Septembers post for tips on how to be Parisian). Then this year, Carmen who about two weeks ago just moved from Amsterdam to Geneva decided last minute to come to Paris for a long birthday weekend celebration. On the big day, we had tickets with a group of friends to an Opéra en plein air (open air opera) showing of Madame Butterfly in the courtyard of Invalides.

Picture taken with iPhone while waiting to entire Invalides

I was also fortunate enough to receive so many emails, texts, and facebook messages that I felt overwhelmed with love. Especially being so far away from my friends and family it means the world to me. Thank you so much!!!! I couldn't have asked for anything more ... I had an absolutely wonderful birthday!!!

Back in Paris

Hurricane Irene did not stop Ralegh and I, we are back in Paris and I’m sporting a new MacBook Pro. Besides the jetlag, it is nice to be back. I even think Ralegh enjoys having me to himself again. Don’t get me wrong; a summer off from the real world just to visit friends and loved ones was great. Though, I did start to miss my new city and life here (and of course my Bikram classes). I think I knew it was time to head home when I was in Lauderdale and saw a lady clearly in her late sixties early seventies (and I’m being nice) hop out of her massive Hummer wearing skinny white jeans, 6 inch heals, a sequins top and the kicker… a stamp tramp!!! Seriously!!! I couldn’t help but stare … only in South Florida are you going to have such visions. I could actually go on and on about the things I saw in Florida, such as, a baby stroller being used for a dog or knee high ugg boots in 95°F weather, but I won’t bore you with my ramblings.

Now that I’m back, all I have to do is update my resume and translate it to French and the job hunt begins. So wish me luck! And of course if anyone has any advice or contacts for me please don’t hesitate to send them my way.