Happy

I am happy right now! No particular reason other than today was a good day. Well I have a few reasons to be happy particularly about today, but overall I realize I need to feel this way every day because I have every reason to feel this way all the time.  I let the bad things get to me too much, and the bad things are so small compared to the good.

Anyway, I think I am running on endorphins from running earlier. Yes, I ran, and I am damn proud of it! Running is a part of me, and I am sad I let it go for a while, but today is the day I am turning that around. Running is so healthy and just a positive thing, and it does more than help lose a few pounds. You also lose mental weight…the weight of the everyday stuff that drags you down. So my twenty minute run right before picking up the girl set the tone for the rest of the evening, which is nice because I usually just feel bleh after my afternoon/evenings being an au pair. It sucks I can’t leave after dinner and see my friends, but it’s ok. Next year I will be able to do that, so I guess I can wait for now.

I have less than a month until Mexico (by one day, but hey it is  less than a month!), so that realization gave me a light bulb—hey, you need to start running again to get a beach bod… oh and it makes you feel so good, happy, healthy, etc. So today is day one of the rest of my life and running again. As long as it isn’t freezing cold outside. Today was 50 degrees (so warm), but kinda rainy in the morning, but it was nice for running in the afternoon.

I am just gonna leave the house twenty mins before I have to get the girl and run this loop back to the car, and then go get her. It optimizes time, which is essential. I really only have twenty minutes to spare because I get home at 3:30pm, which gives me thirty minutes to relax, then I go run and pick up the girl and commence au pair evening. Anyway, I think this can be an everyday thing if I want it to be.

Today my translations of my birth certificates came back, so I can mail this darn stuff the third time and hopefully they won’t want more stuff they failed to mention the first time. Happy to make progress in that area.

On Saturday, I met up with Meghan at Place d’Italie, and we went to a Mexican restaurant, El Rancho. We both got guacamole as an appetizer and then enchiladas (chicken for me). It was pretty good! Nothing like my mom’s Mexican food, or when I am actually IN Mexico, but for France, it suffices. We also had cocktails too (pina colada for me because they ran out of daiquiris), but the meal was expensive, but worth it.

Then we had some time to kill before a movie (tradition), so I was like let’s go to the Eiffel Tower because I haven’t been there a while, and it’s my fav place in Paris! So we went, and we saw the line to go up was really short, so we paid 3 euro 50 and walked up the tower! I haven’t done that yet, so it needed to be done. It was incredibly windy up there, so I turned into Eskimoretta for a bit. Going up the Tower was great, but when you are on the Eiffel Tower and look at the Paris skyline, what do you look at? You’re on the Eiffel Tower… the epitome of Paris… of France really. Honestly to me, Paris looks like some white building slum. If you don’t have some extraordinary landmark in the background, it does look that way. Just a slum with sub-par looking buildings, but it is my slum of a city, and every time I see a skyline, I realize I live in Paris. Wow. It really takes a vertigo view for me to feel that way.

Then we saw Lincoln. The theater was so packed that we had to sit separately… so annoying. But it was pretty good. I had had a long day (climbing up the Eiffel Tower ya know), so I admit I fell asleep off and on for like 30 mins I’d guess, but it was a good movie. Not spectacular, but good.

Then I went back to Jerome’s because I was already late for a dinner reservation. I quickly changed into something nice when I got back, and we headed out to a restaurant Jerome had been to before with his work. It was a really good restaurant and reasonably prices. 24 euros for an entrée, main dish, and dessert, so I had a brie (cheese) dish with bacon on top over a piece of bread… pretty amazing. Then I had “ravioles,” tiny ravioli’s filled with this cream sauce that was just yummylicious. Then dessert was a “feuillité,” which is hard to explain, and without me knowing this particular word was when I ordered it, I knew what it was because “feuille” means paper, so I got the idea (which I know doesn’t make sense). Ok so anyway it was a flaky pastry with chocolate sauce and bananas in between.

After, we went to a friend’s apt and drank a little, and then when they went out, me and Jerome took a cab home. The next day, when Jerome finally woke up, he made lunch, which was lamb and green beans, and he made this really good cheese sauce to with it. I then made us watch Despicable Me because I like that movie a lot. It is funny because the French translation is Moi, moche et méchant, which means Me, ugly and mean. I just think that’s funny , but it is a good translation I guess.

Then I randomly got a haircut, which turned out great. It was just a trim, but when I saw myself afterwards, it was so obvious I needed a haircut… badly. Anyway some girl posted about her hair stylist friend on an fb au pair group, so I was like ok! She speaks English, perfect! Sorry, I only trust English speakers with my hair. Anyway, I met her at her apartment after texting her earlier to make an appt. She’s an Australian who lived in London for 2 years and decided to move to Paris when her visa ran out. She has been here three weeks so far. She just cut my hair in her room (very au pair style), when I get my hair cut in America, it will have been a full yr without being in a salon to get a haircut haha. Anyways, I am very happy. I just got a trim, but it looks great.

Today after class, I went to la Défense and met up with Kendall for a bit. It had been a good three weeks since I saw her, so it was sooo nice to see her again. I missed her. So I think we can make that a reg thing bc Monday is the only day we both have class, so I think it can work out!