Frog Blog

today is may day, and traditionally in france people celebrate by exchanging les petits bouquets de muguet, or little bunches of lily-of-the-valley. on every corner in reims two years ago, vendors set up booths to sell the flowers for a couple of euros (sometimes the “booths” consisted of a folding chair and empty coffee cans full of bouquets). they smell like the loveliest spring day you could ever imagine. unlike the cherry blossom, which emits the newness and promise of sping, the lily-of-the-valley breathes full-on warm spring wondefulness. it’s an amalgam of rain on pavement, a gentle breeze, new leaves on trees and meadow all in one tiny flower bud.

i celebrated today by wearing caron’s “muguet de bonheur” perfume. it couldn’t smell lovelier and wearing it brings me joy. i also checked at a flower shop near my office to see if they had any of the flowers; the owner said she brought some in yesterday but someone bought the whole lot. she arranged to bring some in tomorrow, fresh from her garden. i’m going to pick them up before work. B has never smelled them before and i can’t wait to inhale. the whole apartment will smell beautiful.

this past week was uber-busy: i finished a book review (technically, that was last week), read my book club book in record time (tc boyle’s “the tortilla curtain”), got slammed at work and booked a ticket to paris. i’d been trying to get a ticket to spend a week in maine this summer but no dice: there was no way i was going to fork over $550 or more to go to the east coast. sorry, mom. especially knowing that for a few more bucks i could go twice the distance and across the pond.

i didn’t think i’d be able to pull off the france trip at all. my family started planning a trip for september last fall and i figuredn i wouldn’t be able to afford it (er, i was still paying off the last france trip) nor did i think i’d have the vacation time at work. but my dad, aunts and uncle started dropping little bugs into my ear which got me thinking more and more about the possibility of going. just see if you can get a few days off without pay, they whispered. think of how cheap it will be: we’ve rented a house in st. remy with four bedrooms, they nudged. you can share a hotel room in paris with your cousin, they hinted.

it didn’t take much convincing. the powers that be gave me the green light at work and voila, tuesday afternoon was capped with a ticket to de gaulle on sept. 2. i arrive on the 3rd, return on the 15th. i am beside myself excited. i cannot wait to see G and N and reims; to see the seine and sip mariage freres at the source, to eat baguettes until i burst. and crepes and croissants and yop. YOP!

i plan to blog overseas and this time i plan to focus on the little details, the million tiny moments that make up a day. i want to remember, how much did i pay for that demi baguette? how much for a train to reims? i want to take photos of storefronts: marche plus, carrefour, monoprix. i will write down the name of that cereal B and i adore from monoprix. and so on and so forth. last time, i took a lot of photos of outdoor markets; while those pics of apples and oranges are gorgeous, i’m more interested this time in what they cost; i want signage and street scenes and street names. i want to absorb every possible everything because it will have to carry me to the next time.

a man and a woman in full leathers on a motorcyle; man driving, woman texting.

*this is my 200th post!

when i was a freshman in college, “pulp fiction” came out. i didn’t see it until late winter at a cheap-seat theater with this guy named K, who started out gold but quickly turned to shit. my friend A had the soundtrack and i borrowed it relentlessly to listen to “let’s stay together” by al green. i didn’t have a cd player at the time but my roommate did; i listened to that track 4 on repeat over and over and over again. i couldn’t get enough. A thought i was weird. she said, i never listen to a song over and over— maybe a whole album, but never a song. strange; i repeat songs like i blink.

i’m more of a tunes girl than a lyrics girl. i can sing any tune but can’t tell you what most of the words are. i don’t get words wrong necessarily, i just don’t bother with them. i’m batting an 8-word-per song average and they’re usually in the chorus. it’s all about the mood for me. there are certain songs i can no longer listen to though, not because i burned out on them but rather because they represent a very specific time in my life that i can’t bear to think about anymore. like “picture perfect morning,” the first solo album by edie brickel. a lovely record but it’ll always remind me of the november dreariness of freshman year when i was all wrapped up with J, the neurotic piano player from los angeles. parts of “trainspotting” are ruined for me because they remind me of D (specifically, the blur song, dommage). fiona apple and sarah mclachlan? nope, sorry, played more times than i care to say after S dumped me. now elliott smith, on the other hand, also got me thru the S dump, and i still listen to him. but i think that’s because it’s simply impossible to burn out on elliott smith.

the song i had on repeat today was “everybody’s changing” by keane. so heartbreaking. it has momentum and lilting desperation that speaks to me. tom chaplin and his sexy, piggy face. i know i’ll burn out on it like i did with “soul meets body” by death cab but i don’t care. (incidentally, one of the things i love about “soul meets body” is the part where instead of words it goes “dah dah dah”— that’s my kind of song.) keane keane keane. all day long on my ipod: walking to work, walking to the post office, walking home, doing dishes, packing for the weekend. i first heard it in france- perhaps that’s why it feels so good.

repeat songs from my past include “ego tripping at the gates of hell” by the flaming lips (not quite finished with that one yet), “golden” by my morning jacket, “haiti” by arcade fire, “hard to explain” by the strokes, “swear” by moby, “age of consent” by new order, “let down” by radiohead (i think i came close to meeting god once when i heard that one for the 154th time), “anyone who ever loved” by dionne warwick (gets me every time), “float on” by modest mouse, “the model” by belle and sebastian. to name a few.

i’ve noticed lately the large number of ipod users. they’re ubiquitous: on the bus, in the grocery store, joggers, walkers, drivers, even a schmuck at the sushi bar a few weeks ago. but i totally understand. i, too, have to tune out most days. i need to get out of my own head and get away from noisy traffic and inane bus conversations the the general confining sounds of the city. keane will take me home every time.

i toyed with naming this post “fuck going to the dentist!” but decided against it because a) my dentist is quite nice, b) i didn’t want to invite anymore spam than i already get and c) i’m trying to be a little more original in my vocabulary. excessive swearing is nothing short of lazy… but quite effective sometimes.

but anyway. two fillings today turned into four (one for decay = two decayed; one old leaking filling = more decay on the other tooth next to it), and two hours later i was walking home, sweating in the blaring afternoon sun, cursing my seventh grade teacher for giving out whole candy bars to us kids when we did well on homework, tests, pop quizzes or for simply showing up for class. let it be known that before seventh grade, i’d had maybe one or two cavities; afterwards i was blessed with five full-on cavities, plus a dozen or so teeny ones between my teeth that could only get better by flossing… something i didn’t do regularly until about eight years ago. throw in a love of bread, crackers and, well, sugar, and that all equates to a dental dam prying my mouth open for eternity and a super sore jaw.

it’s rather embarrassing, but mostly i’m pissed off— i made a few bad choices when i was 12 years old and am still paying for it now. and who knew that just because you have a filling doesn’t mean it’s going to last forever? on the contrary, mr. dentist told me today; fillings only last between 15-20 years on average.

some things in life i’ve just resigned myself to: bad teeth, dry skin, easily sunburnt skin, partial scoliosis, inflexibility, asthma, 20/400 vision (it might even be worse), narrow feet, allergies. what’s a girl to do? focus on the good things: dental insurance (up to $1500), low blood pressure, a working brain, no major illnesses, a dry wit.