On a fait les quatre cents coups ensemble

This past weekend was what one might call a doozy. Starting on Thursday with two amazing shows by my friend, the talented Ms. Krystle Warren...the first, a sold-out big deal at The Olympia complete with a backstage pass, whiskey, a smokey dressing room, and a pretty kick-ass catered dinner; the second, a low key "after show" at a club that I've been to a couple of times. I think it's called La Regine? It's kind of an after hours situation, so the times I've been there have been in the evening and well, after hours of drinking...so the name is admittedly hazy. I had such a great time, made some really cool new friends, and got to party like a rock star...or at least like a pretty damn successful singer/songwriter.
Friday night my dear friend from NYC came to town, and we had a blast hanging out with her brother and friends. Raniah's one of my favorites; born in Saudi Arabia, raised in London, and recent US citizen...we simply fell head over heals for each other riding the bus home from our rehearsals for Offending the Audience this time last year. She was lovely enough to bring me some supplies from home including the EmergenC I'm sippin on right now. Until she departed on Sat, we had tea and biscuits, and wine and salads, and beer and beer, and coffee and butter...interrupted briefly by a few hours of sleep. We went sexy stocking shopping and on a beautiful afternoon promenade around Le Cemetaire de Monmartre near her bro's place. After losing track of the time, we ran through the streets and the metro and Gare de Lyon, "pardon"ing ourselves all the way for trampling poor Parisians in our path. We got her safely on the TGV to Switzerland just as the whistle blew and the doors closed behind her. It was absolutely exhausting!
And yet! I mustered the energy after a nice long nap to meet my friends at a party last night. Well, I met Lauren on the train...and we finally made it to the party after an hour of searching because our friends Nicolas and Andrew were apparently too intoxicated to give us proper directions. Andrew's a lovely late addition to the program I'm in, and we get along like gangbusters. He's a sensitive soul, and a hopeless corner-cutting optimist, and he cracks me up. His boyfriend Nicolas is gracious and kind and patient with my French. They've got a cozy little place and play great hosts (such as brunch today...bloodymarys+grilled cheese+Tina Turner+ hot fudge sundaes=perfect Sunday).
Lauren is a complete doll. The moment I met her on Halloween, I asked her to be in my short film. She's beautiful and totally has that New Wave/Anna Karina-look going on...she's also a talented actress to boot. Although we were frustrated getting there and had to run screaming from a guy masterbating in the street (my first incident of this kind that I wish NEVER to have to experience again), the party was pretty fun.
Right after we arrived, Andrew was like, "let me introduce you to this hot guy."
Hot guy asked where I was from and when I said KY, he says, "Oh, my best friend married a girl from KY and lives in Cincinnati."
"Really? One of my best friends from KY married a French guy and lives in Cincinnati."
"Etienne?"
"Patricia?"
In unison, "Holy shit, this is CRAZY!" And so on and so forth. It was pretty hilarious. This tiny little planet. C'est comme ça. Later, Hot Guy introduced me to his girlfriend. This tiny little planet full of couples. C'est la vie.
I then took the night bus home for the first time, and saw some pretty interesting characters. It took forever, but is a safe, cheap alternative to cabs since the metro closes at a laughable 1:40am here. I'm sure it won't be the last time I use it.
My house mother's driving me crazy, but has redeemed herself this evening with a delicious soup for dinner. I feel like stuff keeps getting lost in the laundry she won't allow me to do, she asks me repeatedly to do things I'm already doing (nothing serious, just returning the phone to the cradle, cleaning out the coffee maker and such), and she continues to eat any desserts I have in my freezer. I seriously don't mind sharing food (I actually prefer it), but she's constantly commenting on her "problem" with food, and makes comments about how it's unfair how thin I am. I want to be like, "You're 60 and look great...give it a flippin rest already!"
This week is full of classes and film editing and such, but I can't wait for a party in the Catacombs and BERLIN this weekend! I'm gonna miss all these characters when I go, but I'm excited to go home soon, too. It's hard to believe I'll be back in NYC in less than a month. So much to see, so much to do...but first on the list: sleep. Goodnight small world.

Il fait mauvais

I'm curled up in bed on a Saturday night with a bottle of tasty wine (1€70 at my local grocer), a good French flick, and blankets piled high. Outside, it's cold and windy and rainy, and I don't think I could be dragged out of this house for anything ce soir. Over the easy jazz music my house mother seems to be blaring downstairs, there's the steady sound of rain on the skylight outside my bedroom door.
It wasn't so bad this afternoon. I sat near the lake in the park a block from my house and wrote a few pages of crap. I've been feeling kind of stuck. Or lazy, I suppose, for the last week or so. My head is swimming with French words and facts about writers and artists and philosophers whose names I will inevitably forget. I feel frozen in the shadow of these great thinkers. As it's been said, it's all been done.
Like millions of Americans, I felt inspired by the election of Barack Obama this week. I watched on a big screen at a bar in Paris with 2 young Tunisian friends (one of whom is convinced I am his future wife/mother of his 6 children...HA!) while a band sang ridiculously wrong lyrics to classic American rock. I woke up the next morning still buzzing. Perhaps from lack of sleep as I'm 6 hours ahead; perhaps from excitement. I watched his acceptance speech (this time with the sound on), and got goosebumps. If you didn't, I think it's time to throw in the towel on the whole being human thing, because there's obviously something wrong with your heart. It wasn't until I saw a friend's post on Facebook, that I learned the disgusting news about Proposition 8.
This situation makes me incredibly nauseous. The propaganda I saw for prop8 was so ridiculous, I had a hard time imagining anyone taking it seriously. They used kids in these ads, saying that allowing gay marriage is bad for children. It will confuse them because marriage is an institution for procreation. Public schools will be obligated to teach children about gay marriage, therefore undermining any religious beliefs of some parents. And the sanctity of marriage will be desecrated.
- Did I miss the day of school that we had the "marriage" lesson? And are we not giving children enough credit? Is it really so difficult to describe it as a legal bond between two people who want to share their lives together?
- If this choice of adults that allegedly affects children in a negative way is banned, we will now have to make divorce (you know the way over 60% of marriages end) illegal as well, right? That's not even alleged! We know how badly that affects children.
- Hmmm, 40% of births are out of wedlock in the US, and a lot of married couples don't ever have children. You don't think the definition of marriage as an "institution for procreation" will confuse children?
- Am I having deja vu? Didn't we already have this fight about teaching evolution?
- If you truly believe in the religious beliefs this country was "founded on," not only should divorce be illegal, but we should reinstate slavery, women should not vote (and should also be burned at the stake for reading or other witch-like behavior) and don't even get me started on the whole manifest destiny bullshit that pretty much wiped out the very first Americans.
What our country was founded on was life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our basic, constitutional rights as Americans. If we look really close and are honest, we can determine this whole proposition is completely blind, intolerant bigotry. The same kind that would not have allowed Obama's parents to marry in some states at that time.
For those of you that support this ban, could you please tell me why so much time and energy (that could be used for so many great works of compassion) was spent to prevent happiness for others? Really. I know not everyone who reads this shares my views, and I want to know what you think.
Anyway, I don't want to sound preachy...I'm just confused, and sickened, and saddened. Ah well, nothing like French existentialism and red wine to turn it all around;-) Ha! Bonne nuit, mes amis.