Justice - d.a.n.c.e.

Micky Green - "Oh"

ps: I know the guy in the video lol

So I guess it's my turn, right?

Ok lovelies

If even Divorcée has started writing on the blog, I figured I should be contributing a little too..

First and foremost: the smoking ban isn't as bad as I thought (only because I don't often go to bars or restaurants during the week, thus I do not smoke)..

My friends and I have all caught pneumonia as we only chose go to bars with terrasses now (albeit mostly heated ones) so we can drink and smoke without having to go out and back in again and back out... which means that you can check out whomever's walking by and comment on their age/outfit/shoes/bad taste/good taste/facelift/lack of facelift/ugly boyfriend/cute girlfriend - grr/bad manners... I guess you see the point.

Gossip is France's favorite activity. Or at least Paris'.

I've also decided to bring a little culture back in my life, and have filled evenings (post-work) with events that I should attend (exhibition openings, movie premieres, plays, concerts) so that: I wouldn't have a single evening with nothing planned, to force me out of my recent grandma's lifestyle (breakfast, transport, work, lunch, work, transport, diner, bed); and so I'd be a little smarter at the end of the month. As you might imagine, that's not going so well, as exhibition openings and premieres etc all have free champagne to offer, and the bar has a tendency to receive more attention from me than the actual (shitty) artworks/movies, therfore leading to a drunken end of the night, dinner at 2am and bed at 3..

Last week was H's birthday, which he decided "not to celebrate as he couldn't be bothered to see his friends" - who were annoying him, but he still met up with some of them at La Flèche d'Or (the Golden Arrow) as a couple of our friends were playing a gig there. I went to the theatre first and joined them afterwards, to give H his present (a camera: Holga - Lomographic) which J (remember M's ex boyfriend? she's dating his best friend now.. rings a bell?) and I had bought. Then J, H, V (a guy friend of theirs, really cool and funny) and I all went for dinner at 2am. It was weirdly a really good time, lots of laughter and good food and wine.

But that wasn't the end of the "non"-celebrations.. Yesterday, H had decided to celebrate his birthday after all (with another friend of his - from the Pain O Chokolat "crew" - whose birthday was a week ago), and had chosen for that.. to privatise Le Baron, which is simply one of the trendiest - hardest to get in - clubs in Paris. Hum. So L and I got there (she was with her new boyfriend before, was kinda drunk and couldn't wait to go back to his to join him again - blah) along with AL's best friend. (AL being the girl I went to New York with, in case I've lost you with all the initials already).

We started drinking, and after a couple hours the night got really weird. J and V were there too, and by 2 am H, J, V, AL's best friend and I had decided to leave the club H had privatised to go to another party!

Funny.

AL's best friend and I were standing outside the club, trying to decide whether we should take a cab or ride with any of the boys who had drunk quite a bit already, when a guy walked up to us and started randomly talking to us. He was Micky Green's guitarist (see video attached of one of micky green's songs) and told us - major scoop, no one knows yet, not even micky green lol - that he was leaving her to do shows with his other band - called Spleen - and that we should come to his next concerts.. We had seen them in concert before, and they're really good, so we agreed, and then discovered that one of these concerts is with Keziah Jones in three weeks' time!! Needless to say.. We are so going.

We decided to take a cab to the next party, instead of riding with the boys, only to arrive on a tiny street near La République. We past a huge door/gate, to arrive in a long corridor leading to a long, huge courtyard, on which many of what seemed like artists' ateliers (and indeed were) seemed to open onto. In one of these lofts/houses/ateliers, there was the party. The house itself had completely bare, white walls inside, with nothing but a massive living room (with rooftop windows, video projections on the walls, a massive mezzanine with 3 djs overlooking the crowd, and a couple of other rooms and staircases leading up to whoknowswhat) and at least 60 dead-drunk or dead-high people dancing and chatting and god knows what. It was crazy. After a couple of minutes inside, we realized that this party hosted simply the finest in (what is called abroad the) "french touch" and other international artists. Indeed, there were Justice's duo (video exhibit number two lol), Pedro Winter (the EdBanger creator and his 'crew') as well as Micky Green (funny to bump into her there!) a couple of other singers, two or three very famous young French actors, a couple of successfull rock bands.... It was very interesting indeed.

Unfortunately, as neither AL's best friend, J, V or I were high, we found it rapidly boring and decided to leave (at 4h30am) and to go home.

Altogether it was a really weird/funny/weird night. At least I can now go to their concerts and feel like I'm part of the cool crowd now lol.

Alright, I'm now dead tired, I have to wake up early tomorrow, go to work, go to school, then attend a movie premiere (the new Kusturica)... Pfew, my life is so full these days that I don't even have time to think. Which, in my case, is a good thing. Otherwise I get depressed.

Anyways, see you in New York bitches.. :) (is Bam Bam coming too?)

MUCH LOVE

I'm bored. I'm bored. I'm tired.

Today is my day off but I'm at Caribou again bc mommy had a meeting that she forced me to come in with her for - we're going shopping after. So I had to crawl out of bed at 6 again - thank god I decided not to wash my hair and go for the grunge look. They know me here - I need no excuse :P At least I'm wearing pretty gold shoes.

I'm going to start my driving course thing - I'll do an online schooling thing and then go get my permit next Thursday I think - isn't it exciting? Personally, for me, not so much. I don't want to own a car. I don't want to take care of it. I don't want to have to remember to buy gas and when the oil needs to be changed. I don't want to pay insurance and I don't want to have to do all the grocery shopping. On the other hand, it spells a bit more freedom. I'm torn! Basically, I want to live in a city that doesn't require driving - that is in the future.

So I'm going to stop now and start taking this damn online learning thing. Which I don't even know if I need because there are no laws that pertain to me! I'm a sad sad case.
Woe is me. Blah Blah.

God dam varmint.

This is the song I most love to play on Guitar Hero as it's really easy. It also somewhat matches my feelings about the vent section below. Muah.

Well girlies

I'm writing a sad post because I was up for an hour last night thinking about it.

I'm really upset about Heath Ledger. This might sound strange but - who didn't grow up watching '10 Things I Hate About You'? How many millions of times have I watched that movie and lamented the story? We needn't even talk about the rest.
I wasn't completely understanding of the shock my mother went through when a childhood acquaintance of hers recently died of a sudden brain aneurysm - they weren't very close but had spent a lot of time together. They were the same age.
You just begin to realise how sudden death is and how permanent and.... and that life is fragile and that we're old enough to be at that point where things can suddenly happen. Puts an interesting perspective on things, doesn't it.

Divorcee honey, thank you for writing. A) It makes me less pathetic and B) I was so glad to read what you had to say. Also oddly appreciative of not naming the baby, if you know what I mean. It feels like we still have a purpose lol

To further make yesterday weird, I had a bad day at work. Two people were very very rude to me (one in person, one on the phone who HUNG UP on me) and this is for them. As Perez says, 'This may be offensive so please skip the next paragraph if you can't stomach it' or something like that.. whatever.

When you enter a store that is open for your convenience, I am not your god damn servant. Everything I do I do so that your stupidity doesn't hurt you or cost you excess money. When I offer you a free service like CUSTOM DESIGN but I say you will have to wait 15 minutes, don't give me shit about not wanting to give me a contact phone number for the wait pager because 'we are the only people who ask for it and it's none of my god damn business'. IF THAT IS THE WAY WE DO BUSINESS AND YOU DON'T LIKE IT, GO SHOP AT GOD DAMN TARGET. DO NOT make me feel like an incompetent moron because you have issues. You gave me your name - do you realise nearly every customer who comes through our store is searchable on the internet? You are the biggest moron on the face of the earth and if you have kids, you better hope they weren't bullied in school for having an asshole father like you. Then, when I take the trouble to try to take an order over the phone from a STORE, do not get mad at me for hearing you incorrectly. I have music and customers behind me and, dare you forget, a STORE is what you VISIT to PURCHASE ITEMS. We're not a god damn order catalog service. If you want your cheap ass boxes shipped and you aren't familiar with the INTERNET, get a life and understand that I am not here to make you feel as if you have the upper hand. You don't. In my head you are THISCLOSE to having VOODOO done on your bony ass.

Ok, I'm back. Sorry. I had to vent and you girls are who I normally vent to and I needed to get it out there before I went back to work today to deal with more nincompoops who have money and no brains. 95% of them are ok, or even nice, but still strange. 4% make me think about grabbing an Uzi and brandishing it powerfully in front of their faces. I am, of course, a peace loving person and would never hurt another person. I will admit to having contemplated hiring someone to do it at certain times though ;-) 1% are people who steal and I have no time for them.

Oh, I also had a shitty scary moment when what we think was an opossum got in to our basement and climbed up the stairs and started eating cat food. All holes have now been plugged but for a whole night I was afraid to step on the floor. You know what I'm like with moths - imagine a wild animal that can bite. YIKES!

Ok. I'm off to deal with the brainless, monied masses. OH - FYI - No more than one facelift each please. I've seen 2 and more and trust me, it's Fucking Ugly. Oh, and diamonds bigger than your nose. Now those I covet just a little bit.... just not the Joan Rivers frying pan face.

Love you more each day.

AM

definite lack of cynicism. forgive me. it'll be back tomorrow.

I can do this.
Truly, I can.
continuing AM's tradition of sad songs... all of this should be approached not only with mild sarcasm but also with a little pathetic tear in the corner of the eye....



beware everyone allergic to cliches. because this is me doing a little teenage retrospective.
There is nothing you guys don't know. So i figured there'd be nothing to write. but then I remembered that i am crap at remembering. it just hit me: the things that i forget.

Amsterdam kicked off the change. the Nazi and I had a great time. who would have thought. on our first night i managed to get both drunk and high and then spend some truly remarkable and perfect moments discovering the inner shape of the toilet in our hostel room. and then the next day after facing near-extinction 24 hours earlier i met up with M. it took about 15 minutes for me to realize that i had not just been obsessed for the past 5 or whatever years. wow, yours truly had actually been in love for the whole time. who'd have thought... so i told him. a perfect moment, perfect honesty. and then nothingness. a lot of new misunderstandings and having conversations with myself. but i got rid of it. you know, the same nothingness that had been full of the old nothingness was now actually completely empty. my all-time favorite affirmation came to be 'I'm fine'. on the train to Amsterdam i had been so scared and so so so tired of trying, that when Nazi was asleep I had a quiet but massive nervous-breakdown. somehow i expected the same to happen on the ride back as well, but it didn't. i was just empty. and then like that for another few weeks. and then i stopped caring. click. that funny week followed when i spent my whole days at the British library and nights at weird parties either alone or with weird people. probably due to lack of sleep and too much alcohol in my blood everything started seeming miniature. you know what i mean? like you can handle and conquer and have things and situations. haha. like i'm a grown-up and my life is my own.
so in between there was the day with the ex-husband and T. (How weird, I've just spent a good few minutes trying to figure out a name for T here. you know, something characteristic, etc... but i'm unable to make one up and wonder whether it's because this is seriously the first time I'm attempting a relationship (?) without approaching it with cynicism... or is the lack of a good name a sign of me not having really been able to discuss this 'thing' with all four of us around the table? so, until we are together around one table with four perfect cocktails in front of us,he shall remain T. and if he's still around then we'll change it.)
I miss you guys. i miss us.
my focus right now is not sharp... there's still too much and slightly too little. and more than anything I want to WANT more. from myself that is.

perhaps tomorrow I'll write something a little more relevant now that the catch-up with myself has been done.

BIG D.

Alright -I'm starting to feel a little pathetic. I know at least TWO of you are back from holiday.

I am writing today to make an observation on Men in Atlanta. I'm sitting in Caribou coffee again this morning and after looking up from my laptop for the first time in an hour, I was shocked.
Let me tell you why.

It's a small Caribou but currently sitting and enjoying hot caffeinated beverages are the following: 14 people - 5 of them women. Of the 9 men, 6 have grey hair or are balding, and not in a good George Clooney/Richard Gere kind of way. Of the three that appear to be under 35, one looks like a Chinese chipmunk with bad hair and white chinos on. Eew. One has a receding hairline and looks like a dead fish. Finally, the one sitting across from me looks about 28. Hair gelled and looks a little like he has hairplugs, when actually he doesn't. I wish someone had warned him. Not dressed badly. Had two coffees (yay, appreciates caffeine as much as I do). Good shoes. But he's married.
Everyone is bloody well married.

Did I mention the cute guy at work? It's a bit of a creep story, actually. For the sake of a good story, will call him Southern Gentleman - SG for short. He is, in the words of my mother, from a great old southern family, well-mannered, well-kept and fairly attractive. The older ladies at work all swoon when dealing with him because as they are always saying, he is the perfect Southern Gentleman.
Well, I had been at work about a week when I'm at home one day indulging in some red wine. Unfortunately, so had my mother and she saw fit to start telling me about some people at work, including SG. Supposedly, before I arrived in the US, he was talking to my mother and said something along the lines of 'I wish I didn't have a girlfriend so I could date your daughter, just because you're so wonderful.' Now, I paraphrase what my mother said, and my mother herself tried to say that he had said it in a way that was indeed charming and flattering to us both but... either he or she failed. MASSIVELY. I mean, on what planet does a daughter truly want to be asked out on a date because, if her mother is so cool, then she must be an interesting option? I don't know about you but I've taken to being slightly offhanded around SG. Unfortunately, he is truly the only attractive guy at work who isn't engaged or married or living with his girlfriend. I swear, the US dating culture means that I am a single girl living in a world of M-A-R-R-I-E-D-S or N-E-A-R-L-Y M-A-R-R-I-E-D-S. Eew. I can take a few, but millions?
Girlies, I might be fleeing back sooner than we thought ;-)
Muah.

I feel no shame that I am the only one with enough time on her hands to write obsessively. Truly. I'm FINE with it.

I just wanted to tell you about my evening. I was finishing up a girlie book. Well, I've been attempting to read intelligent things for a few weeks now so I figured I was brave enough to show my horrible taste to the public - I've been seen with enough 'quality' to not be judged! So, the lead character is of course single and a smoker (thank god for the normal single girls) and well, she had 'quit' and unquit smoking.... and I had had two glasses of wine. I hadn't had a cigarette since about October 23rd so I deserved one! I was outside and smoking and thinking how great it was - I love being a social smoker (I can't wait to see you when I can smoke for a week with company!) :D Further, I was finishing up and remembered by first cigarette... with Bam and our friend L behind the cinema back home. God - it was such a long time ago now. Strange :) Smoking kinda sums up my entire time at university.

Hope you're all enjoying yourselves - I'm going back to being a non-smoker for the time being. Muah.

My First Official Update

WHILE READING, PLAY THIS ( I was listening to it while writing and it seemed to strike a chord...you might want to watch video later as that wasn't exactly the mood I was writing with)

FIRSTLY - I want you to know the lengths that I go to in order to make this possible. I woke up at 4.55 AM and was at this cafe at 6 AM. They have wireless and are next to work and so I have from 6 until 8.30 to catch up on all my internattage and to write this blog entry.

So - I've been in Atlanta nearly 3 months and not much has happened. No, seriously. It's all going very c a l m l y and s l o w l y.
I had a break of over a month where I did nothing but cook dinner for the family and watch daytime TV (possibly the highlight of 2007).

Thanksgiving was spent with friends of the family and I met the kids... my age. Rather immature. Definitely didn't shine a light to you lot - needless to say, no friends made there.

I asked for and received a digital camera for my birthday with which to take pictures to send you and update you on life. I took exactly 19 pictures from then until yesterday (whoops) when I uploaded them on to my computer and nothing is terribly exciting, however I will do my best to add some that might give you an idea of my new surroundings!

So about a week after my birthday and Thanksgiving, I started work. Now, retail isn't my dream job by a far cry, however I might have hit a bit of an early life crisis with that - I now think I'll continue doing it for a while if they offer me a permanent position (I'm currently seasonal) and try to earn some money while getting my license on the side. Oh yeah, I haven't done that yet. But I'm sure I told you already. Right? I take the MARTA to work and drive back with Maman, so... well. It's my New Year's resolution to do it at some point ;-)

So yes, work... lots of people but it's RETAIL. You don't really sit and talk to people and get to know them so I haven't really made any good friends out of it. There are a couple artists who I'm going to sit down with and get the names of good galleries etc as I miss ART! Who woulda thunk it? But again, haven't had time to sit down with them yet as we work different schedules.

My life is rather mundane at the moment but I'm enjoying it, surprisingly. I've decided my new goal is to update my wardrobe completely. I christened that idea by buying a cute pair of patent leather Guess shoes and a purple leather clutch - more elegance than rock and roll, and it looks black but I love it. I didn't intend to buy it but an accident while Christmas shopping meant I ended up with it. I got it for $80 - original price $175! Am very proud of myself regardless :-D

Anything else new in my life? No. I can't even think of anything. How boring!! I don't go to bars (except for the Corner Pub. Only it's the in-spot for the old Hippies who have culminated in D so it's safer to go with Mamma and BF) but drink loads at home. Yaay! Or whatever. I miss you guys :)

So Bamster, it's the Crap Daddies club. You did make me feel better by reminding me about your own Papa - better because I remembered we're in it together lol

Finally, before adding pics, I want to remind you all that I need concrete dates for a March visit so that I can book a week out from work.... if I don't tell them I have plans if/when I can extend my contract then I won't be able to get the time off! :)
Hope to see you in NY/Atlanta dearests. Even you Frenchie, Miss Operation Heart(break) queen.

Now listen to this: ( I was in a Weepies mood...)

Grr. I'm going to upload the pictures separately. Love you. xx Enjoy Mexico Bam!!! Frenchie and Divorcee, get some sun for me too on the Canaries...

Love always,

Alabama Mama in Atlanta (ironically)

The house. That birdbath is evil and is no longer there.
And the plants are dead because of the drought lol


The kitchen (from the "dining room") Those are the flowers you sent me!

This is my cutie patootie clutch.

My shoes. Frenchie, I thought of you as I bought them.

My bed's 'headboard'. The triple pic frame actually has 3 pics of Divorcee....
I didn't notice until after I'd hung them!

My living room. The rest of the house is difficult to photograph.

I took this outside the cafe I was sitting in where I wrote the post.
But when it was warmer. Caribou Coffee!

This is the view from Caribou, but also from my place of work.
Lots of tall buildings... I feel right at home.