La Seizième Liste

List Sixteen: This month's soundtrack

Anything they play in my Gym Suédoise class! After trying out a class on Saturday, I signed up for three months of unlimited classes- my muscles are killing me but I'm STOKED about Gym Suédoise!

La Quinzième Liste

List Fifteen: Ways I Save Money

1. I bring lunch to work instead of buying everyday (yay for Tupperware!)

2. Though we get our own main dishes, Copain and I often share a starter and share dessert (plus, it's healthier!)

3. We buy a lot of the grocery store brand products (unless the name brand is much better...)

4. We don't pay for a gazillion TV channels (much to Copain's dismay)

5. I give myself home-pedicures and manicures (unless I'm feeling especially in need of pampering)

6. When we hit up a Starbucks on the weekend, we share a Venti intead of each getting a Tall.

7. My next save money venture: getting Copain to buy my Clarks summer sandals in London next time he's there - they are almost half price when compared to Paris prices!

La Treizième Liste

List Thirteen - My Causes

The list prompt in which I realize that I don't have any causes...

Unless the importance of learning a second language is a cause??

La Douzième Liste

La Douzième Liste

Things I do every night: 

(in no particular order...)

1. Shower (somehow a day in the city makes me feel like a shower is in order before getting into my cozy bed)

2. Ask Copain what we have to watch during dinner (bad, bad, I know)

3. Think about my new Cloud Bed (I just bought a mattress topper people - Copain and I now call it The Cloud Bed - so amazing).

4. Read blogs in bed.

La Onzième Liste

La Onzième Liste

Things I do every morning:

I'm pretty sure this blog post covers it, but just in case things have changed since then (and to simply my craziness...)

1. Hit snooze - at least 4 times. 

2. Think to myself, why am I still tired????

3. Wonder if it should be a boots + tights or leggings and a dress day or bottines with jeans and a sweater day.

4. Thank the universe for coffee.

5. Make the bed. 

6. Get irritated at Copain for walking around the house with his work shoes on.

7. Walk around the house with my work shoes on (it's soo not the same thing!)

8. Double check if I locked the door (OCD much?)

9. Wonder if I'll find a Vélib.

La Dixième Liste

La Dixième Liste

I'm craving:

1. More coffee, even though I've already had three cups today...oh Cannes Cannes.

2. A baking fest. It's Sunday, my muffin day! It's chilly in Paris which makes baking even that much more enjoyable. 

3. A bigger apartment. What else is new?

4. A movie night with cozy food, a blanket and pjs. Last night we watched Argo  - Copain's choice - and he fell asleep while I stressed out for the lives of 6 Americans trying to escape from Tehran! Tonight I'm voting for a nice, relaxing rom-com.  

La Neuvième Liste

La Neuvième Liste 

On my "oughta do" list:

(Since I'm only getting to this list at 11:09 at night, it will have to be an in general "oughta do" and not a "today" version...because that ship has sailed and I'm already in bed!)

1. Start thinking about my filing my US taxes - awesome.

2. Get mani/pedis in France more often. I just got my first one recently and I feel like a million bucks. Then again, it did cost me close to that...

The nubbin baby toe lives on!

3. Read a book from back to front, without letting my Facebook attention span get the better of me.

30 Days of Lists is Back!

I'm super late to jump on the train, but 30 Days of lists is back for March and I'm on it - enfin. Since it's now March 9th, I'll have to catch up, so here we go!

La Première Liste:

I am a Lister Because:

1. I am a Type-A control freak - listing keeps everything nice and tidy!

2. If I write it down, I can let it go.

3. Who doesn't like checking things off the list?!


La Deuxième Liste:

About Me:

1. Expat
2. Lover of *most* things French
3. Blogger
4. Blog-reader
5. Mover
6. Worrier
7. In need of some good ol' concrete decision making!


La Troisième Liste:

This_____, I am going to ________:

1. This afternoon, I am going to FNAC with Copain to look at a new amazing camera for our upcoming summer vacation - we are thinking Bali!

2. This weekend I am going to have brunch at Pause Café - can't wait to try a new one (Paris Eats post coming right up!)

3. This month I'm going to buy new cups. And maybe some other things too...

4. This year I'm going to do some moving and some shaking in my life - operation new apartment and moving forward may commence!!!


La Quatrième Liste:

On an average day I...

1. Drink three cups of coffee.

2. Think about my future apartment.

3. Feel tired.

4. Am happy to be a Véliber.

5. Consider parting my hair down the middle - then think better of it.

6. Read posts from my favorite bloggers.

7. Feel guilty about skipping yoga.


La Cinquième Liste

Things I would like to do/accomplish by the end of this month:

1. Decide where Copain and I will go next - buy or rent buy or rent.  (Which means sending in our notice letter to our apartment agency!!!!)

2. Get our summer vacation in the works.

3. Find out about Gym Suedoisse classes near my house - and do a trial class (I've heard such good things!)


La Sixième Liste

My Talents:

1. Planning
2. Organizing
3. Troubleshooting
4. Making a delicious cup of coffee
5. Stressing about nothing
6. Seeing the funny


La Septième Liste

In my bag:

1. Handy dandy credit card holder
2. Coin purse from Mexico circa 1989 that needs replacing
3. Stamps
4. Just in Case pouch - bandaids, tampons (duh), aspirin, hand lotion, chapstick, hair tie, bobby pins...
5. Iphone, work Iphone
6. Kleenex
7. Velib pass
8. Metro tickets
9. Keys to my apartment
10. Mints
11. Receipts, trash, lists...and a bunch of other junk that's weighing me down!


La Huitième Liste

Comfort Foods:

1. Coffee
2. Bread with butter butter butter
3. Pasta and pesto with lots of parmesan
4. Cinnamon rolls
5. Anything with cinnamon
6. Mint and chip ice cream
7. Hawaiian pizza

So to sum it all up: CARBS!!

La Vingt-Neuvième Liste

List 29 - Songs that make me want to dance

1. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Wham! (all time favorite - reminds me instantly of my childhood and for some reason, leotards and legwarmers!)

Ignore the ad at the beginning and go right to the good stuff - short shorts, feathered hair and scrunchies!

2. I Wanna Dance With Somebody, Whitney Huston (I know, I know, typical, but this song kicks bootay - I'm dancing on my couch people).

Hands down, Whitney takes the cake on 80's fashion! You go fluorescent yellow leggings!

3. Moondance, Van Morrison (became a favorite in high school; I could always count on my best friend to get up and dance with me when this song came on...)

a random video with photos, but hey, great sound

4. Empire State of Mind, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys (and even though I'm a Californian, I still get a little home sick when I hear this song)

5. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper (a classic!!)

Cyndi, I heart you

6. Dancing on the Ceiling, Lionel Richie (I'm sorry, I'm a child of the 80's!)

7. Sing Sing Sing (With a Swing), The Benny Goodman Orchestra (love love love!)

8. Moses Supposes, Gene Kelly (don't you just want to grab a pair of tap shoes and jump in??)

And a French Cannes Cannes special...

9. I Got Rhythm, Gene Kelly, in An American in Paris (le time-step!)

La Vingt-Huitième Liste

List 28 - My last meal would include:

Apero (French):

Champagne

Foie gras on fresh bread with fleur de sel on top

Dinner (Down-home goodness, Mexican):

My dad's homemade tacos (like 4 or 5...or 6, whatever)

Served with fresh margaritas

Dessert (Summer deliciousness):

Strawberries (nice, sweet, juicy ones), served with a bowl of homemade whipped cream

Coffee with cream

Weird combo all put together, but oh-so delicious right? What would your last meal be?

La Vingt-Septième Liste

List 27 - If I could do it over again...

1. I wouldn't have purchased those strawberry sour chewy candy yesterday. Boom! Stomachache!

2. I wouldn't have stressed so much about following the French Prefecture red tape to the letter - even the French don't know it to the letter. Just ask anyone at the Bureau des Etrangers- they'll send you to "un collègue qui va savoir".


3. I would have gone to a back specialist RIGHT AFTER I HURT MYSELF. (not two years after)

4. I would have tried to study something that I really wanted to do later in life. Then again, I still don't know the answer to that one...

Something I'm so glad I did just the way I did it the first time around? Moving to France! (Otherwise the post is just too depressing n'est pas?)

La Vingt-Sixième Liste

List 26 - My Morning Routine

I think this pretty much covers it - non?

La Vingt-Cinquième Liste

List 25 - Title options for my autobiography

First of all - hahahahahahahahahahahaha!  

ok, I'm fine now.

1. An American in Paris - duh.

2. Frenchified

3. The Expat's Lament

4. French Cannes Cannes 

5. Café Crème, S'il Vous Plait, and Other Dead Giveaways

La Vingt-Troisième Liste

List 23 - Confessions

I had a little twinge of "eeek" when I read this prompt....what kind of confessions are blog-able?! Let's throw caution to the wind, shall we?

1. In college, I was always the roomie who didn't do her dishes. Once, my roomies counter attacked, did all their dishes and left mine in the sink - just to prove what a lazy-butt I was. Ooops.

2. I never understood why my parents came home after work and had a glass of wine with dinner. Now I do. And I love it.

3. I have (what I have deemed) a thoe. When I asked the doctor WHY on earth I had a thoe, he told me I was just lucky they didn't both look that way. Thanks, doc, thanks a lot.

4. Where I'd like to be an all organic, natural food eating hippy who uses Toms of Maine deodorant, I have an overwhelming fear of sweating and then not being able to do anything about it.  I've tried Toms, Trader Joe's natural unscented deodorant with cotton??, Nivea natural deodorant (now being finished up by Copain), some Frenchie brand sels d'alun deodorant, and the Frenchie-friend recommended - only perfume in the pits (oh god, kill me now). Every single time I try these "healthier, non-pore clogging methods",  I sweat about sweating, ultimately convince myself that I smell, and go back to my reliable friend, Antiperspirant. 

5. I read baby blogs. (and yet, I don't have a baby) 

La Vingt-Deuxième Liste

List 22 - My Care Package

When I read this prompt, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to make a list of an ideal care package for myself or for someone else.  Since a blog is already very me, me, me (n'est pas?), let's make this list for someone else. Since it's my mooma's bday tomorrow, this list will be a care package for her... (she's so good at making them for other people - I've been the recipient of a few of her amazing gifts!).

Birthday Care Package for Mooma:

1. Gift certificate for a massage to start off her bday weekend.

2. A freshly ground package of French Roast coffee (she always has enough half and half on hand, not to worry).

3. A list of funny memories for a laugh...

Remember when we found this on our hike in Corsica??!! all kinds of nasty.

4. A new book that she has been eyeing - Bringing Up Bébé, for example (I've been telling her about it!)

5. A new lipstick, eyeshadow or blush... (the woman has more makeup than god - yes, god has makeup).

6. A thoughtful card - she's good at those too and taught us the importance of "the thought the counts".

7. A chick flick - for the first time in a very long time, my moom has time just for her! She goes to jazzercise (doesn't that sound like fun exercise??), goes out with friends on a regular basis, and takes time to watch chick flicks on weekends! 

Chick flick night with mooma

8. Some wild flowers in purple tones.

(she got me these when I became French...)

9. Ideally, all three of her children would also be in her care package, and sometimes we are...but when we're not, wherever we are in the world, she knows we are thinking about her on her special day.

La Vingt-et-unième Liste

List 21 - With an extra hour in the day, I would...

1. Sleep an extra hour!!!

2. Blog more

3. Respond to personal emails (I'm soooo bad at this)

4. Have no excuse for not doing pilates everyday (but I'm pulling through with 2 times a week!)

5. Walk even slower on my way home to take in the lovely evenings like ce soir...

La Vingtième Liste

List 20 - Favorite Memories

1. Snipe hunting with my dad - he should get an Oscar for his "I caught one!!!!" paper bag rustling charade.

2. Making dances in my garage. My mom would come and watch my creations.

3. Singing on my way to ballet with my uni roomie and BFF - we mastered all that was Alanis Morrisette and the Dixie Chicks. Sometimes pancake batter was involved.

4. Learning that I was French.

5. My first glimpse of Copain.  (Let the record show that he first tried to tell me that his name was Ryan - horrible French accent and all. Thankfully his good looks made up for it).

6. Moving into my very own studio in Toulouse after a hellish year in a horrible ground-floor apartment with mold issues near a prostitute-infested bus stop.  I earned that studio.

7. All the times I've lost myself in a piece of choreography.

8. Holding my best friend's new baby.

9. Pizza on beach towels in front of the TV on TGIF nights - Full House! Perfect Strangers! Family Matters! 

10. Running through Isla Vista in the pouring rain, splashing my three roomies with each passing puddle, and getting yelled at each time.  And I just kept on splashing...Wet Bandits Live!

They awarded me this magnet for my splashing...including their anatomically correct cat and elephant drawings.

La Dix-Neuvième Liste

List 19 - Dear Frenchies, you can make me happy in the following ways:

Serve me lots of this - always a delight

The more mousse, the better

sing this with fervor - reminds me of a special moment on the Ile de la Cité in 2010

Never stop making these - galette des rois, I heart you. Don't worry millefeuille, I love you too

Take me here on sunny days

La Dix-Huitième Liste

List 18 - Family Traditions

1. Cinnamon rolls on Christmas Day

2. After a year of Cheerios, the right to buy the sugar cereal of your choice on your birthday - we would peruse the cereal aisle for hours...Cookie Crisp? Honeycombs? Cinnamon Toast Crunch?! 

3. The Special Plate for birthday dinners, graduations or any other day when you were being celebrated

4. A birthday present next to our beds when we woke up on the morning

5. S'mores in Mexico around the campfire, long walks around the peninsula (plus, lots of Oreos throughout the week)

Cinnamon rolls rising on Christmas morning...

On a morning walk with my seeeester in Mexico

La Dix-Septième Liste

List 17 - Favorite days of the year

1. Pretty much every Friday (who doesn't love Friday?)

2. Thanksgiving - food, food, more food, excuses to eat food, leftovers, more leftovers, lots of cinnamon

3. Christmas with my fam - cinnamon rolls and pjs - hellooooo, what's not to love?

4. Any day where cinnamon is involved :-)

5. The first day you can wear sandals after a long, cold winter

Thanksgiving in Cannes, 2007 (that's the best "turkey" I could find in France at the time!)