Wednesday, April 29, 2009

As of late...

So, I've been reading this book lately about this aspiring writer who's spent her whole life saying she'll get to England one day and follow in the steps of Jane Austen. Her dad one day asks (in reference to another dream of hers), "What are you doing to accomplish that goal?", and she realizes she's been doing nothing to accomplish any of her life dreams. So, she saves up her money and spends a year in England, visiting all the Jane Austen "sights." Anyway, this book originated as a blog, was apparently well-received by its readers, and eventually turned into a book format. All this made me think, "When I finish these two years with France, what will I have to look back on?" Certainly not my blogs, since I've turned into a "once a month" type of blogger.
But honestly, I've become the world's most inconsistent blogger, my journal has fallen by the wayside, and my self-discipline in general is nothing to brag about. The good news is that tonight I've decided to be a new me. I've decided to really start consistently DOING all those things I intend to do and never do--practice my flute daily, write, update my blog, write, learn how to cook something other than couscous and chicken, and WRITE! Of course, I make this resolution all the time, so there's nothing to say that tonight's new-found resolve is anything different.
However, rather than getting flustered by this, I've decided to start small and just record what happened today.
So today...

The building at La Courneuve has become really unliveable, and quite honestly, needs to be quarantined. I opened the closet to turn on the lights yesterday morning, and a mouse sprang out at me. Now, I say it "sprang", when in reality, it just stood still for a moment and then scurried back into the shadows. I'm aware that this isn't precisely "springing" in the technical sense of the word, and yet, my story is much more popular when I say "sprung." So, the mouse sprung at me, and I stood there and screamed and screamed. I finally realized that it would do no good screaming, so I locked the mouse in the closet. I should have shooed it out or done something that responsible people do, but I didn't. As far as I know, the mouse is still in the closet.
I didn't see it there this morning when I turned on the lights, but none-the-less, I was very careful as I put my finger inside the door.
In other news, I went home with one of the women today for lunch. I'd gone with her a few weeks ago, and we'd spent the afternoon watching Tunisian soap operas and drinking Arabic coffee out of these ridiculously small mugs. Today was almost the same, although, in place of the Tunisian soap operas, she wanted to watch Patrick Swayze's Ghost together. But there were still the ridiculously small mugs filled with little, tiny portions of heavily sugared coffee. So, you know, about the same...
As I was leaving this evening, I had my travel pass in one hand and a book in the other. I swiped my pass across the card reader, but as I was stepping into the tramway, I dropped my pass in the space between the tramway and the wall. Now, this pass isn't that easily replaceable. I'd just reloaded the pass for the month of May, and had spent about 100 euros for the month. I couldn't just let the thing go. Behind me, I heard a man say, "Oh la la. That's not good." And he was right: it wasn't good at all. So, I dropped to my hands and knees, and tried to jamb my arm down inside the crack. I twisted and turned and started getting very nervous as the tram filled with people and prepared to leave. Just before the final bell rang, I fished the card out, jumped up and started waving it triumphantly in the air. A few people were grinning at me from inside the tram, so I yelled, "I have it! I have it!" And just as the doors started to slide closed, I hopped inside.
Certainly, the day ended on a high note.

I'm off to bed now. Along with attempting to be a more consistent blogger, I'd also like to be a "before-midnight" kind of sleeper. I'm really reaching for the stars here. So, I hope I'll be updating again tomorrow, but we'll see how life-changing this resolution really is.
A demain!