mardi, août 25, 2009

More List-y Things

To continue the list of things I'd like to do someday....

11. Get a French driver's license (sounds simple, but oh boy, is it ever complicated. And expensive!)

12. Pay off credit cards (DONE!!! That feels so good! No more debt in the US. Only apartment mortgage debt here, which is cool. Thanks again for the advice on how to do it, Momsie!!)


13. Make bagels from scratch (If I can do this, I can do anything....)


14. Beat Handsome more regularly at the French version of Trivial Pursuit (three times in four years is NOT ENOUGH)



15. Re-tile the bathroom and kitchen floors. The linoleum needs to go. Soon.



16. Get a PADI Open Water scuba diving license. Handsome loves to dive, and it would be nice to be able to share one of his passions with him. Now that I had the hole in my heart repaired, I just might be able to! (More on that later. If you insist.)



17. Update my blog more often. I do like sharing my stories, and it does me good to exercise the writing muscle.



18. Have my portrait taken by a professional photographer. And maybe some nudes - 15 years after the first ones I ever had done. I am totally crazy. Or masochistic. Or narcissistic.



19. Finish framing the pictures and art I have been wanting to put up but haven't because - wait for it - they aren't framed.



20. Avoid killing the flowers and herbs in the window boxes. I am usually lethal to green things, but so far, so good...(maybe that's because Handsome is taking care of them....hmmm.....)









mercredi, août 05, 2009

10 Trendy List Things

Sorry about that rather long hiatus.

I have felt rather uninspired as far as this blog goes, despite the collection of scraps of paper and random notebooks in which I've scribbled ideas for what to write here. The problem isn't a lack of stories to share. Boy, do I always have stories. As my mom once said, my life is never boring. Thank goodness. It has been more a case of hating everything I wrote. I typed up numerous tidbits of things I thought I could write down and share, hated them, saved them in draft and never opened them again. Which doesn't really ever lead to progress, now does it?

As a remedy, I thought I'd take a stab at that ultra-trendy list: the list of things you dream of doing one day before your time is up.

This wouldn't be the first time I've made a wish list. My first was right after my divorce, when a good friend convinced me to go to a workshop to learn how to connect to your inner voice. Well, actually, the technical term was "angels", which really didn't work for me, so the instructor told me to substitute whatever word spoke to me. I think I went for "universe" at the time. Semantics aside, the idea was to clearly identify what you wanted for your life, write each item down as if it were already fact, and then use the list to recite them out loud after doing some brief meditation and breathing. (I very badly needed to breathe at the time.)

I still have the list, and aside from some rather embarassing items : "X is my regular lover", "I weigh 125 lbs" (seriously? dream on, honey) there are a few like these : "I live in Paris with Max in a nice apartment where I feel comfortable" , and "I have a job I like in Paris". Pretty cool that I can look back at that and think to myself "I did it!"

So I think it's time for another list. Which will not include who is my lover or how much I weigh. These are things I would love to do some day. In no particular order. Maybe I will, and maybe I won't, but as I now know from experience, dreams can come true.

1. Act in a play on the Paris stage. (I start professional acting classes in October. Whee!)

2. Act in a movie, either as an extra or in a larger role.

3. Write a novel. (Nevermind that I have been saying that for over ten years and never actually doing it. And nevermind aforementioned hating everything I write. Maybe someday I will get up the courage.)

4. Re-visit the Cairo Museum and spend as much time as I want in the collections. The first time was really cool (I burst in to tears I was so moved to see in person the things I studied in college) but way too short.

5. Visit Thailand.

6. Spend a romantic weekend in London (it is only a train ride away, and we still haven't done it!)

7. Spend a romantic weekend in Rome.

8. Spend a romantic weekend in Venice. (I detect a theme here...)

9. Make a successful tarte tatin.

10. Be able to do a series of 10 manly-man pushups. I'm still on the girlies.

There is so much more, but I'm starting at 10.

What do you dream of doing?