Going Places.

Oh heyyyy Eiffel Tower.

No, literally. I'M GOING TO PARIS!!!!!!!!!!!


I put it on my list because I both wanted and intended for it to happen. And yet when I see the email subject in my inbox -- "continental.com reservation for Paris, France (CDG)" -- I have 0.5 seconds of that "wait, whose inbox did I just hack into?" stomach flip-flop before remembering that it's myyyy email. So yeah, I kind of can't believe I'm actually going.

I wish I could Photoshop
sequined berets on our heads.

So, this is the deal: I set a price alert on Kayak a few weeks ago, after my friend Andrew and I decided that we were really going to take le show on le road (note: after 12+ years of French classes, I should probably consider brushing up with some Rosetta Stone, or at least dig out my old Berlitz tapes when I go home this month). Prices were dismally high until yesterday, when a too-good-to-be-true-especially-for-a-non-stop-flight-to-Paris-in-May flight showed up in my alert. I promptly forgot about it, as I tend to do after I check my email on my phone in the morning and then snooze for 15 more minutes, until I got to work later and saw the email again. Yadda yadda yadda, we booked, and we're going to FRAAAANCE, bébé!


I'm so ridiculously excited. I've never been, but I've talked a BIG game about wanting to go for a very long time, probably since I read Madeleine when I was about 8. And I have to say, even though I like to think I would have done something like this without creating a list and subsequently holding myself to that list by creating a blog, I'm not sure I would have. So I guess this thing works!

Okay Fyodor, show me
what you're working with.

Andrew has promised to indulge me in eating crepes and champagne, so I look forward to officially being able to cross off #4 on my list sometime in early May, shortly after I cross #8 off my list. I want to see the touristy stuff (for those of you who know my Keira Knightly-as-the-Duchess impression, I really think it's going to reach new levels at Versailles) but I also want to just wander the streets, eat lots of cheese, drink lots of wine and butcher the French language while wearing a striped boat neck top and beret. Pretty standard, really. Suggestions for other must-dos in Paris are welcome!


I also finally got the Brothers Karamazov in the mail, and it is a MONSTER (see right...she's a girthy one), but I'm going to break into it sometime in the next few days, and next week I plan to hit Café Habana for some en fuego salsa dancing (most likely bookended by a number of $5 mojitos). And I am officially planning my inaugural "hey, I think I'm going to start running again because I have to run a marathon at some point in the next year" run for this coming Monday. Perhaps I will do it in a sequined beret.


Vive le progress!