Danny has landed!

 After an 8-hour flight, a 6-hour layover in Paris, and another flight down to Nice complete with a 40-min delay.....Dan has made it to me in the south of France!

He arrived jetlagged, yet excited --- so we hit the ground running in my home base of Juan-Les-Pins right away in an attempt to prolong Dan's head hitting the pillow and get his body clock adjusted to France time.

Living just half a block up from the blue Mediterranean Sea makes for a lovely view from my balcony as well as easy access for strolling along the boardwalk.  Dan and I did just that as soon as we unpacked his very well organized suitcase.  :)

 

On the way to the restaurant-lined beach we made a quick pitstop for some mid-afternoon gelato (which I seem to have adopted as a daily ritual).  Dan LOVED his cone full of Snickers and chocolate goodness.  We then walked out on a rocky point to admire the distant yachts and crystal clear water just at our feet.  Dan can't get over the scenery of Juan-Les-Pins...restaurants with couches and tables that allow its patrons to dine with their feet in the sand, colorful awnings from the shops and apartments looming just behind, and not to mention topless French sunbathers as far as the eye can see.

We got him some good handmade French pizza that is as thin as our Arby's FSI's.  He LOVED that too.  We had a great (cheap!) bottle of French red wine with our pizzas which you could've mistaken for warm milk as it began to lull Dan to sleep while he was still seated at the table.  At one point during our conversation I had to inform him that only one of his eyes was still open --- I'm pretty sure he doesn't remember most of that first day/night as I've had to repeat a lot of what I said - but I can understand.  I've already dealt with the exact same thing with our 25 students when they arrived.  I'm a pro now.

The next morning we got up and went to my favorite spot for breakfast crepes - "Pan & Cake."  We enjoyed ingredients like ham, cheese, mushrooms, and egg warmly wrapped into our soft crepes.  Yum!  Grabbed two 'pain-au-chocolats' to go and headed toward the train station for a day on the beach in the neighboring town of Golfe Juan.  Below are some pictures from our afternoon - it was great and so relaxing.

                       

 

Today is Dan's third day on the ground here and the students have been given a day off class to allow time for a "travel weekend" of their choice.  We are going to use this time to take a day trip over to Monaco and hopefully stop in Eze on one of the legs of the train ride.  It's another beautiful day with a bit of a breeze so it should be perfect for walking around and exploring new areas.  I've never been to either of these places, so I'm excited to see them for the first time today with Dan.  I'm sure we'll have SO many pictures to post after today.

Okay, better go check the train schedule before the entire day gets away from us on the internet.  Talk to you soon.

-ab & dd

To all worried family/friends...

[***I tried to post this the other day after receiving a concerned gmail message from my dad, but my internet connection failed during the posting.***]

I guess I should have clarified better in my previous "French Hospitals" post that it was NOT ME who was in the hospital last week.  I was there with a student --- who is also doing fine.  All is good - just want to make sure no one is worrying because everything here is great.

Again, I am a big fan of the French medical system.  The doctors make housecalls, the over-the-counter prescriptions at the pharmacies are to die for (not to mention they cost like 3euros), the prices for hospital visits are a miniscule fraction of what they would cost in the States.....it's incredible.  I love it.  If this is what everyone refers to as "socialism," then vive la France because it is daggum wonderful!  A nurse has continued to come to our residence once a day every day since our student returned from the hospital to check up and make sure everything is okay.  We are in great hands!!

That is all.  :)

Laundering

About to spend the day washing sheets of the Juan-Les-Pins guest apartment (in addition to washing some of my own clothes for the first time since I've been here).

Hope to also get some sun by the pool and write some postcards (and maybe a better blog post) this afternoon as well.

A tout a l'heure!

More Cannes Blogs

Click on the following links to check out blogs from some of our students over here.  

http://angeyang.blogspot.com/

http://lindseybrooke.tumblr.com/

http://sarahwalpert.blogspot.com/

http://georgefrance.blogspot.com/

http://www.bryceincannes.com/

http://grino-grino.blogspot.com/

I love looking at these although I tend to find myself getting jealous of their fun adventures.......which really makes no sense since I am here in France with them.  I think seeing their experiences through posts and pictures vividly reminds me of (and makes me miss) the camaraderie I shared with my fellow classmates when I attended this program as a student back in the good ol' days of college.

*P.S. -- If any students see this and want me to add their blog to this list just let me know.  I only posted the ones I knew about...  :)

I booked my hotel in Paris the other day

The only reason I am devoting an entire post to this is because:

 (a) I am spending more money on this 3-night, post-Cannes program hotel stay than I ever have on a hotel visit in my life.  Granted, in my past hotel-booking experience it has often been with the mindset of: "Can I cram fourteen of my other friends into this standard 'double' room conspicuously enough after a night of one too many games of beer pong or bar shots in (fill-in-the-blank) college town?"  In those such cases the rate usually ends up being no more than $10/person, so my Parisian booking this time around is certainly a shock to my poor credit card's system.

(b) The hotel was chosen from a long list of potential venues after some meticulous Google-searching on my part.  I reviewed the list thoroughly and repeatedly, considering factors such as location and decor with price being very low on the list of considerations because, 'Hey, when in Rome (er, Paris), right?'  Besides, by the time this Parisian getaway takes place I will have been housed in the south of France on UGA's dime for more than a month...so to justify my frivolity once more, I guess I just feel like I can finally 'splurge' a little. 

The hotel is called HOTEL A LA VILLA DES ARTISTES.  The aspect I liked most about this hotel is the uniqueness of each "Arty" room as shown in the website's pictures and descriptions:

"  The “Arty” Rooms have been entirely renovated and dedicated to 

the modern arts. Each room has its own special atmosphere of different 

artistic periods such as Fauvism, Cubism or Surrealism.  " 

The location of this place is also ideal because it is situated just south of the gorgeous Luxembourg Gardens directly adjacent to the iconic Latin Quarter, the arrondissement in which I spent most of my time during my 4-month period of studying at the Sorbonne back in college.  Four years have passed since my semester-long stint in Paris and I cannot WAIT to get back to my old stomping grounds.  Paris is, after all, my absolute favorite city in the world.  

It was also my first love.  No really.  I fell in love with that city when I lived there.  Returning to school in Athens, GA after my time abroad in Paris if ever I saw photos of the city on tv or in books my heart and stomach would drop as if I was seeing an ex-boyfriend with a new girl.  Call me creepy or weird, but Paris has this lasting affect on people - it certainly has with me.  Ha - sidenote - a actually read not too long ago about a woman "legally" (in the loosest sense of the word, I'm sure) married the Eiffel Tower, changing her last name to 'Eiffel' and all.  I wouldn't take my obsession with the city that far, but apparently this woman did.  Anyway, that's neither here nor there...

Now that I have this glorious place booked I am left with the task of trying to figure out who I can show Dan, a European newbie, all that Paris has to offer in a mere three days.  I'm up for the challenge...

French Hospitals

I have been absent from my blog, my email, and normal life as we know it for the past few days as I was spending some (unexpected) quality time getting to know the French medical system --- particularly the hospitals.  My observations are as follows:

- The exterior of a French hospital may appear to be a rundown "Jefferson's"-esque apartment complex from the '70s, but this is misleading because the interior has definitely "moved on up to the Eastside" and is far more in line with our 'American standards.'

- If you are a visitor accompanying a patient in their room for the night the bed you are issued by the nurses might turn out to be a stretcher...like the one on wheels used in ambulances.  If you enjoy sleeping on a permanent incline and if you don't mind lying on a surface where a dead body may have preceded you then THIS is the bed for you!

- Your single room will be very nicely accommodated with a patient's bed, window, desk, chair, and private bathroom with accompanying shower (i.e. a drain in the floor next to the toilet with a handheld shower thing mounted on the wall).  However, be prepared when you ask for the accessories needed to shower -like a towel, some soap, and shampoo- as this hospital is not a hotel and does not have such things.  Instead you will be issued a hospital bedsheet for drying, some gauze dressings to wash your face, and a mystery murky fluid in a dixie cup that may or may not be turpentine and molasses with which to wash yourself.   Use on private parts at your own risk.

- Nurses changing the IV's of a patient are not concerned with the IV fluid OR the patient's blood splattering onto the bed, floor, or visitor's feet below.  Once finished, their concern level does not waiver from the aforementioned when it comes to to cleaning up said splatterings, thus leaving the visitor to clean off the blood from their own feet with a towl...I mean sheet.

- As a guest of a patient, you can occasionally be served food (pending the patient you are

 with is temporarily not allowed to eat per doctor's orders).  This is good.  You may, however, be given a beet salad for your lunch.  This is bad.  The only halfway decent thing about a beet salad is that for one brief moment it will remind you of Dwight Schrute from "The Office."  Then the smell and appearance of the beets will once again overtake any remotely entertaining thought you may have had for the remainder of its presence in the room. 

*These are key observations that I have been fortunate enough to note firsthand, so I felt it essential to share with any and all of you who may find themselves one day in a French Hospital.  Now back to my regular updating of this blog...

Slacking

I promise to finish writing about the last few days.  I have seen three new movies that I am dying to tell you about among many other things.  So I will include all of this when I finish posting later tonight (afternoon - your time).

For now, though, I'm going to take a break from this blogging business to take care of some REAL business over here.  I have to:

- Get back in touch with film critic, Michael Phillips (Chicago Tribune), about speaking with our students this Friday evening.  And since it seems like our good fortune has run out at the Hotel Victoria (their hospitality for our "free" meetings lasted only so long) I must book another place for us to meet with our guest speakers.  Luckily, I found a super swanky hotel right across the street from the Victoria that looks like it'll work.  Need to get back in touch with the manager there and book a time/menu for us on Friday (they're charging us in food/drinks instead of a base price....which I can appreciate).

- I also have two friends in town who arrived via train last night.  They have backpacked through 5 countries in the past week.  That makes me tired to think about.  So now they're shacking at my place in Juan-Les-Pins to slow down their pace for a few days of R&R on the beach.  I think I may join them for a couple hours this afternoon.

- While sunning in the sand today I also need to jot some ideas down for my next article on athensexchange.com since I have left them hanging since last week.  I feel really bad, but the business of Cannes has consumed my life and left little time for solid, reflective writing.  I will give it my best effort later today, though.

- Tonight is the red carpet premiere of the in-competition Tarantino film, "Inglorious Basterds," starring Brad Pitt.  The Croisette is going to be CROWDED tonight because everyone will want a glimpse of Brangelina.  Most of our students are going to beg the hardest they've begged so far for a ticket to tonight's screening, I know.  While I would love to be in there with Brangey and 'tino, I think the chaos would be more than I could handle in heels.  Instead I think my visiting friends and I will don some long-sleeve tees and flops to observe the red carpet from afar and then hit up the laid-back movie on the beach with a make-shift picnic on a blanket.  That is much more my speed these days.

- Then hopefully tonight I can muster up enough energy to finish posting about the last few days.  I'll channel "The Little Engine That Could" as much as humanly possible ("...I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..").

Until tonight, mes amis...   A bientot!

A busy beaver, am I

Realizing the last post I made on here was on Day 3 of the Festival is quite daunting given that it is now the morning of Day 7.  Trying to remember what has happened the past four days is killer.  So much happens and you think you'll remember so easily then - voila - you don't.

Here's my best stab at what I've been up to (without going into a 'Dear Diary'-esque rundown):

(the rest of) DAY 3

- Saw a late afternoon showing of the Un Certain Regard selection, the Japanese movie "Air Doll" ...it was okay, certainly not great.  Glad I saw it, but don't care if I ever see it again.

- Went to a great pizza place ("Le Pizza") at the far end of Cannes with Sophie, Raven, and Chaz Ebert (and their longtime assistant, Car

ol, who showed up with camera in hand per Roger's request for her to snap some pictures that night for his well-read postings at Cannes).

- Discovered the similarities that Chaz and I share when it comes to writing and basically taking on any task 

--- perfectionism.  Don't want to start a task if you can't devote all the time to it that it needs and once we do start a task it's hard to ever finish it for fear that it is not perfectly done (i.e. scrapbooking would be a nightmare for us).  We both did agree that we are good at planning events and following through with those because we can see the instant gratification from the people they serve immediately following their completion.  For example, I said I feel that sense of accomplishment when I execute various events for Fletcher Martin or for this Cannes group and she followed up with a very nice, reassuring, "Yes, I felt the same way when I planned t

he event surrounding Roger getting his star on the Hollywood walk of fame."  So, as you can see, Chaz and I are operating on very similar scales here.  We're basically one and the same.  :)

Day 4

- Utilized the space I arranged for us at the Hotel Victoria for the first time when the Swedish producers, Carl and John, from "Let The Right One In" spoke to our group of students.  They were perfect and so was the Hotel Victoria staff.  At the end of the day the use of that space cost us 20euro in glass bottles of Evian for the speakers.  Not bad.

- Walked around Cannes all afternoon  shopping and whatnot.  Ha

d high hopes of begging for tickets for Ang Lee's red carpet premiere of "Taking Woodstock", but apparently nature had other plans for me.  My body's condition deteriorated rapidly throughout the day as more and more signs were beginning to show that I was wearing myself out.

- Nixed plans for the premiere and grabbed a train home, lymphnodes fully swollen and chest and head feeling not so good.

- Went to bed and tried to sleep this off until the next (very busy) morning of meetings and more planning.

Day 5

- Woke up with the Swine Flu.  (Probably not, but it was definitely a close cousin.)  

- Slep

t in as long as I could before I had to get another train to Cannes for an 11:30 meeting in the Cannes Classics office of the Palais with one mister very Greek, Van Papadopoulo.  Still not well, but as you know, "The show must go on!"  Nate (who by this time had already flown back stateside to NYC for the Peabody Awards) had set this meeting up for me in his absence before he left.  I was to meet Mr. Papadopoulo and get details on the admission of our students into this year's Cannes Master Class (being held the following Tuesday - i.e. today...in an hour - i.e. why the hell am I still typing this freaking blog).  Last year the Master Class was conducted by Tarantino, the year before it was Scorsese.  Usually the class is held in a 1,200+ seat theatre, but this year the theatres size was a paltry 350 seats.  (Yikes!)  Luckily though, Mr. Papadopoulo really appreciated the Athens, GA to Athens, Greece connection and decided to reserve a tenth of the theatres seats for our group of students (insert shock and happiness on my part).  So that meeting w

ent very well and we left it on the note of, "See you Tuesday at the Master Class...and if you ever make it to Athens, GA please bring us a fantastic Greek restaurant."

- Went back outside to kill time before our next speaker presentation at my little gem, the Hotel Victoria.  Sat on a bench to change into some basic, black flats that I'd just purchased from the shoe store Andre, and ended up meeting a pleasant new friend on a sidewalk bench.  As I was changing my shoes I heard this poor girl getting hit on by two not-so-suave French guys and though, "Poor thing."  As soon as the guys left she looked at me for a unifying girl-to-girl glance and was surprised when English came out of my mouth.  We struck up a conversation immediately and found great compatibility in one another.  Originally from Romania, she now lives in San Franc

isco working on the account side of advertising, most recently for Razor Fish.  She was killing time in Cannes while the friend she was visiting worked during the day and I was killing time before my next meeting.  We decided to grab lunch together and keep each other company.  Talked a lot about the industry and whatnot - she was very amazed and interested at what I was doing in Cannes, so I was glad to show her around the sites and hotspots along the Croisette.

- Left Felicia to run to the Hotel Victoria and set the place up for our second guest 

speaker, director Paul Cox.  Paul is a lovely Dutch man who claims Australia as home.  He is cynical, realistic, and strongly set in his beliefs.  I kind of love him.  I'm sure some of the students were taken aback by his often polarizing opinionated stances, but I think on the same token several students "got" him.  He had prepared a 6-page, single-spaced document to read to us basically laying out his views on things not only in the film industry, but in life.  Thankfully he's emailing that piece to us so I'll be able to post some of his words on here.  He is truly a poet and a lover of art and beauty.  Everything else pales in comparison.  I thought of my brother frequently during Paul's talk with us.  Alex, an extremist in many senses of the word, sometimes takes his thoughts and opinions too far...but for being a 19-year-old, I am just damn proud that he actually puts thought into things about which other people his age are either careless or ignorant.  Alex - I will forward you Paul Cox's email as soon as I get it because your thoughts on religion, politics, war, life, value systems, etc. are eerily the same.  I wish you could meet dear Paul, but for now his Word Document words will have to do.

- Came back to our home base in Juan-Les-Pins for the rest of the day in hopes of ridding myself of this phlegmy chest/cough condition.

- Made some depressing phone calls to Duffy - missing him and our dog, Charley.  (Apologies again for my morose nature.  Blame it on Paul Cox who seems to put everything in crystal clear perspective for you.)

- Read a bunch, went to bed, and slept soundly until my next day in France.

to be continued...

*More later.  About to run to the Master Class in Cannes (with the Dardenne Brothers) .... will finish this post and write about my experience with the D. Bros when I return.

-ab

P.S.

The guest presenter at the Roger Ebert Dedication we attended at the American Pavilion this afternoon was Martin Scorsese.  Sooo, you know, it was basically just a typical Friday afternoon for me with Rog & Marty.  No big deal.

P.S. - Scorsese is shoorrrrrrt.  Seriously short.  But just as perfect and cute as you would expect him to be...thick-rimmed glasses and all.  And yes, I did just do a 'P.S.' within my "P.S." post.  I'm allowed to because it's my blog.

My First Contribution to ATHENS EXCHANGE

I am contributing to this online Athens Exchange site about my experiences while in Cannes and I submitted my first article to them this morning.  My contact point for the site told me he read my entry as more of a "blog"-type style (go figure), so he posted it under that section of the site.  Anyway, you can find it here :

http://www.athensexchange.com/blog/335

There's more to come from me on www.athensexchange.com AS WELL AS on this blog.  Mark my words!

Yes, I know...I need to post more often

I've been busy like you wouldn't believe.  Take this morning for instance...

I had my alarm set for 8:15AM with the intention of waking up early enough to finish my first article for the online Athens Exchange before heading in to Cannes to catch the 11:30 reprise of last night's in-competition film, "Fish Tank," directed by Andrea Arnold.

Well those plans remained in tact long enough for me to fall asleep last night and get woken up by a different phone sound at 8:09AM.  The head professor/director of our program, Dr. Nate Kohn, was calling to inform me that he had arranged for our 25 students to be admitted into the American Pavilion later this afternoon for a dedication they're doing for Roger Ebert.  I was to immediately get to a working email network (easier said than done in France), email a lady at the Pavilion the names of all our students so she could clear them with Festival security, and print 25 copies of the make-shift invitation from a forwarded gmail chain.  This is how quickly my morning took a complete turn in a new direction.  And such is the life in Cannes.

It has now been four hours since that phone call from Nate and I have checked all of those things off my list and then some...  At noon I had to call the Swedish producer, Carl Molinder, of the movie, "Let The Right One In," because that's when his plane was landing in Nice.  We spoke about scheduling a time for him and (I believe) his producing partner, John, to come and talk to our students. He's calling me back in an hour to confirm the day/time.

Which reminds me...I'm also supposed to reserve a meeting time for our group at 2PM on Sunday to listen to Nate's life-long friend, director Paul Cox.

P.S. Quite possibly my biggest accomplishment since I've been in Cannes so far is walking the strip of hotels along the Croisette, going door-to-door, trying to find a meeting space (room, terrace, large closet, etc.).  The hard part was trying to find a space within our tiny budget of 100euro/hour.  Well, I ended up talking to this old man working the desk at the Hotel Victoria (situated right behind the Hotel Stephanie - formerly the Noga Hilton) at a rate of FREE!  Yes, 0euro/hour is what I got us.  (I'm patting myself on the back AGAIN for this accomplishment...arranged completely in French, I might add).  Anyway, gotta call my old man friend Andre again this morning over at the Hotel Victoria to set up times to meet with the Swedes and Paul Cox.

Okay - it's now 1PM and I have to book it back up to my apartment to change shirts and splash on some make-up.  Gotta meet the students at 1:45 outside of the Grand Lumiere Theatre to stealthily coordinate our entrance into the American Pavilion for the Ebert dedication.  Oh, and I just found out the trains are on strike (as of an hour and a half ago).  Brilliant.

Soooo...I need to run out of here, ready myself in two seconds' time, catch a cab to Cannes, celebrate Ebert's dedication, possibly catch a 5:30PM showing of the Un Certain Regard reprise of "Air Doll" (aka- "Kuki Ningyo," a Japanese film directed by Kore-Eda Hirokazu).  Then tonight - if the weather holds out (it's been sprinkling some this morning) - a bunch of us are going to try and attend the 'Movie on the Beach' (Cinema de la Plage) where they set up a HUGE movie screen about 10 yards out over the water of the Mediterranean.  They have a couple hundred cloth folding chairs set up in front of it in the sand for one of the most unique viewing experiences you can imagine.  Tonight they're showing "Pink Floyd: The Wall," so it will be absolutely awesome if the weather stays on our side.

Okay - gotta run.  I'm late.  Can't keep Roger waiting.

One is the loneliest number

This is the first post I've been able to do since I've been here.  The internet has been down all along the coast for my past three days in France, so voila - just pretend like I posted this on Wednesday, May 6 (my true first day in the country).

One…(o’clock) is the time I got to Hartsfield-Jackson airport in ATL on Cinco de Mayo.  Three (o’nine) is the time I made it to my gate for my 3:20PM take-off.  *Note to self- Do not eat at the airport Houlihan’s for a pre-departure lunch no matter how bad you want the greasy American potato skins before you leave.  The only “skin” I will remember from this experience is making that flight by the skin of my teeth.  Never again…

One…bag made it all the way through with me on my journey to Nice (which, as you know, began in Atlanta and then connected in Paris).  It is important to note here that I was expecting two bags to meet me in Nice.  For reasons why I had to end up checking a second bag please refer back to paragraph ONE.  For future reference: if you arrive at the gate that late there will not be any more overhead compartment room on the plane and the lady at the gate will throw your bag under the plane with the other checked luggage and that lady will forget to enter your bag into the online airline/airport system of all-knowing all-important information….thus, your bag will take a detour in Paris for longer than the four hour layover you had planned.

One…day is how long your bag will spend in Paris without you.  (Lucky bastard.)

One…is the number of passports a person has in their name at any given time in their life (pending they are not a criminal with multiple identities).

One…is the number of passports that I had going into this trip.

One…is the number of passports that I left on the seat of my taxi that drove me thirty minutes from the Nice airport to my residence in Juan-Les-Pins.  (Given what I went through a mere two weeks before this trip with my passport at work involving a moment of severe ADD, a dumpster, and a really nice Mexican cleaning lady who deserves a major raise…this is not a good pattern of behavior for me and my beloved passport.) My dad will likely kill me and assuredly roll his eyes when he reads this because it will remind him of another not-too-fun story of a

One…hundred dollar bill that I haphazardly threw away (on accident) on a flight to Honolulu about five years ago with my family.  That was a Christmas present from my parents that I never saw again (and a $100 tip that some lucky stewardess got for some last-minute Christmas shopping). *Note: to any current/future employers who may be reading this – I am superbly good at organizing people, events, and figurative things…but on occasion the palpable things in my life can get a little messy.  *Note: to any current, licensed doctors who may be reading this please consider making me your poster child for ‘Adult ADD’.  It should also be noted that I will accept (nay, I desperately need) your free samples – hint hint.  Anyway, back to the situation at hand-

One…heart attack is what I nearly had when I realized my passport was gone.

One…(billion) is the number of phone calls I and the kind sweet French girl, Charlotte, and I made (combined) to the taxi company and the Nice airport trying to find and retrieve my passport.

One…crazy emotional phone call is what I made to Dan in a telephone booth on the street of Juan-Les-Pins, crying my eyes out amidst a jetlagged haze I can barely remember and will absolutely choose to forget.

One…is the number I have assigned to the angel-of-a-woman working this day at the Nice airport Air France desk --- she searched the airport bathrooms for my passport, spoke to me slowly and calmly in French throughout my debacle, and ultimately arranged for my passport (which was later turned in to airport 'Lost & Found' by my female taxi driver, another angel I might add) to be delivered to me at my residence along with my lost luggage the following day.  Yes, this lady is #1 in my book.

One…place setting was set on the beachside restaurant dinner table at which I ate this first night in France.

One…beer and beautiful Mediterranean sunset is all it took for me to settle my nerves and remember, ‘Hey, I’m in France.  Life could be worse.’

One…minute is all it took for me to fall asleep on this neverending day/day-and-a-half that started in Atlanta on the 5^th and ended in France on the 6^th.  Beginning this trip in a very “me” fashion surely made today feel like a lifetime.

So in conclusion and on the bright side – I am here – in France – and I made it in ONE piece ('one' being a very strong, yet loosely defined word in this sense). At the end of the day, after the ups and the downs, I still know that I am a strong person and I can definitely handle this, however, the saying 100% reigns true that “ONE is the loneliest number.”  But hey, it’s only day ONE and things can only get better from here.  Tomorrow being day two is a fantastic start…

Packing Shmacking

Spending the day (eh hemm...weekend) packing for my 5-week stint in France.  Such an arduous task - especially with so many distractions around.  

Speaking of distractions... Is anyone else in awe of the toothless, possibly drunk redneck who just won the Kentucky Derby?!  And apparently the horse's owner is either Brooks or Dunn - I can't decide.  I am already fantasizing about what "a cartoon by Robert Smigel" would look like for this.  I love it!

Okay, back to the grind.