Cannes Cannes and the Cups

After finishing work early yesterday, I was flat out exhausted. I think I may be coming down with something - bleh. But before going home to lie on my couch in PJs and convince Copain to watch a chick flick with me, I took a detour to Hema, an amazing Ikea-esque store near Châtelet les Halles. 

Remember my Hema-tights???

I'm not sure why I thought that going to Hema was a good idea - it just makes me want things. And you know how I feel about things.

Bref, I pretty much tortured myself for an hour. All I could think about was how I don't have one water glass that matches another, that I only have one wine glass because all the others are broken, that my bowls are cracked and crappy and that oh my god I hate my apartment and I need all new stuff but I can't have all new stuff until I get a bigger apartment and crap this sucks and I want everything in this store! ... But oh no! What if I buy everything in this store and then I decide not to live in France and then what will I do with it ahhhhh????????

It was enough to send me into an existential tailspin.

I came home with 5 new bath towels, a bag of my favorite spicy rice crackers for food therapy, and some door hook hanger thingys to hang the towels on. Then I washed all the towels and overloaded my teeny apartment with wet towels to dry. 

Thank god Copain was up for a chick flick, otherwise I may have had a complete breakdown.

This morning I woke up with a stuffy nose and ridiculous depression. The girl who has a roof over her head, food to eat, a good job, wonderful friends and family - the girl who has no reason to be depressed, is sad because her cups don't match. And if she does buy cups, it somehow means something about her life here. Wow. Way to be awesome Cannes Cannes.

As I explained my frustration to Copain, the ridiculous tears welling up, he started to sing a little song:

Doo doo doo dooooo

Chin up!

And get the dust off of you!

Isn't that how it goes? The song your mom used to sing to you?

Doo doo doo dooooo

Chin up!

And get the dust off of you!

How can you be sad when your Copain starts to sing the song that your mom sang to you when you fell down as a child? 

Pick yourself up,

Dust yourself off,

and start all over again!

Even though he got the words all wrong, he got the meaning behind it right. And even though as adults we don't fall down on playgrounds and scrape our knees in the sand, sometimes we do have to pick ourselves up, dust off the silly sadness, and start over again - remembering that our futures are shiny. Right?

And then, just to make me feel better, Copain took out all our cups, lined them up and laughed at the off-the-wall collection that has overtaken our miniature cupboards:

Then he promised me a trip to Ikea. Baby steps, baby steps.

Parisian Living - the Art of Making it Work in 0 Meters Squared

It is only by renting your own apartment in Paris (or perhaps New York) that you actually realize how valuable space can be.  Just to give you an example, Copain and I live in a one-bedroom apartment that measures 29 meters squared - teeeeny.  And it's not cheap either - sigh.

In Parisian apartment buildings, we live right on top of our neighbors and are often (malheureusement) privy to what happens chez eux.  As a result, space is not the only big commodity - so is privacy. Parisians have had to get creative to make it work!

On my way back from a millefeuille break this afternoon, I caught some great Parisian creativity in action...

When you don't have a balcony AND you live in a shoebox...why not lock your bike to your window ledge?

A tree may grow in Brooklyn, but a forest grows in Paris...

A few things Copain and I have had to do since our move from 56 to 29 meters?

• Install hooks in our shower to hang our mop, broom etc
• Install a shelf in the toilet for cleaning supplies
• Stack our suitcases on top of our closets - feng shui? what's that?
• Prop up our bed on risers for prime "under the bed" storage space
• Cram our hollow storage couch with extra blankets and pillows and whatever else will fit
• Purchase a vertical silverware holder - the horizontal one took up the entire bottom kitchen shelf
•  Become experts at eating on the couch (no room for a dining room table!)
• Restrict ourselves from purchasing any additional housing supplies - otherwise we might have to start locking things to our window ledge.

The upside - 

• We can clean our house top to bottom in under 1 hour.
• We are rarely there - we enjoy Paris instead :-) - check out my millefeuille, enjoyed on Boulevard Voltaire, for proof!

Bam! Délicieuse!