Showing posts with label smile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smile. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
The Incredible Story of One Lucky Mitten
After the farmer's market this morning, I headed north on my bike to stock up on staples that don't grow from the ground here like maple syrup, muesli, and oat milk. Once inside Auchan (European Walmart equivalent that normally makes me think deeply about the Russian anarchist group Voina, but that's a different talk show...) I noticed that one of my new gloves was missing! I immediately retraced my steps back to the bike rack, but turned up nothing.
After coffee and shopping I retraced my bike route home scouring the ground for one bright green mitten. Turning around the second time, I started hearing my boss at SweetWARE in the back of my head quoting Einstein "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." I'm having visions of Tom Robbins' Skinny Legs and All, my bright green mitten bravely striking out on it's own and making it's way in the world with other escaped inanimate objects. This was craziness, and I loved these gloves so much... I was determined to reunite this perfect pair.
Flash forward three hours, I'm walking and looking. After no more than fifteen minutes of walking up the street like a crazy person with one glove on (which apparently is the international sign language for "I've lost a glove") I hear a woman from across the street yell "Madame!" Yeah? She's sitting at the bus stop about to catch a bus going the opposite direction. You will not believe this. She goes, "Have you lost a glove?" I reply, "Why yes, I have!" What a coincidence! I cross the street and she explains that she picked up my other glove on the bike path a few hours ago and took it home. She happens to live nearby and can get it for me and it will only take a second... We walk together for a minute (I'm feeling much less crazy by now) and I agree to wait on a bench outside the entryway to her building.
A few minutes later, an old woman wearing kinda outlandish jewelry and a disheveled hair cut cops a squat next to me and almost sets her scarf on fire lighting her cigarette. She asks me if I'm visiting someone here. I tell her I'm waiting for someone. Not much time passes before I see two people in scrubs leaving the building, which is when I ask the woman next to me if this is a hospital. She says, "YES, this is a psychiatric hospital." Uhhh... The crazy is starting to creep back. Haha! Now, I'm sitting here wondering if this lady is going to come back with a rubber ducky declaring "Here's your glove back!" ...or just forget about me entirely. Wrong on both counts. Wonderful woman #1 restores peace to my universe and I walk home (so overjoyed) with two warm hands.
After coffee and shopping I retraced my bike route home scouring the ground for one bright green mitten. Turning around the second time, I started hearing my boss at SweetWARE in the back of my head quoting Einstein "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." I'm having visions of Tom Robbins' Skinny Legs and All, my bright green mitten bravely striking out on it's own and making it's way in the world with other escaped inanimate objects. This was craziness, and I loved these gloves so much... I was determined to reunite this perfect pair.
Flash forward three hours, I'm walking and looking. After no more than fifteen minutes of walking up the street like a crazy person with one glove on (which apparently is the international sign language for "I've lost a glove") I hear a woman from across the street yell "Madame!" Yeah? She's sitting at the bus stop about to catch a bus going the opposite direction. You will not believe this. She goes, "Have you lost a glove?" I reply, "Why yes, I have!" What a coincidence! I cross the street and she explains that she picked up my other glove on the bike path a few hours ago and took it home. She happens to live nearby and can get it for me and it will only take a second... We walk together for a minute (I'm feeling much less crazy by now) and I agree to wait on a bench outside the entryway to her building.
A few minutes later, an old woman wearing kinda outlandish jewelry and a disheveled hair cut cops a squat next to me and almost sets her scarf on fire lighting her cigarette. She asks me if I'm visiting someone here. I tell her I'm waiting for someone. Not much time passes before I see two people in scrubs leaving the building, which is when I ask the woman next to me if this is a hospital. She says, "YES, this is a psychiatric hospital." Uhhh... The crazy is starting to creep back. Haha! Now, I'm sitting here wondering if this lady is going to come back with a rubber ducky declaring "Here's your glove back!" ...or just forget about me entirely. Wrong on both counts. Wonderful woman #1 restores peace to my universe and I walk home (so overjoyed) with two warm hands.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Ready to Wear
Today I went shopping for warm winter clothes in downtown Tours (Thanks, Meghan!). I bought a pair of boots with fur lining, some (fabulous) bright green fingerless wool gloves with mitten flaps, and navy blue low top Asics (not especially warm, but will *for sure* help me go undetected as a foreigner in far more social situations - that is - until I open my big American mouth to talk or laugh abnormally loudly). Haha!
Since today was the first day of real winter weather (ie in the negative numbers, fyi -1°C = 30°F, ex see breath, check, frost doesn't melt, check, need visible confirmation that fingertips still exist, check), this cash gift from my beloved sister arrived just in the nick of time. And guess what?!? I only paid... drum roll please.......................................................... 75 euros! Ah yes, because today I was welcomed into French hand-me-down heaven. Here they call it Prêt à Porter (Ready to Wear). One step inside this particular thrift shop and I knew immediately that I had struck second hand store gold. In fifteen minutes flat I found three completely unique (basically new) items that fit like a charm. The price was right, but - being the huge cheapskate that I am - that didn't stop me from haggling anyway and getting everything marked down another 15 euros. Sold! I wore the boots and the gloves out of the store and a huge dumb smile on my face for the rest of the day.
I'm so warm! ...and, I tell ya, it's getting harder and harder for peeps to pin me as 'not from around here'! Double score!
Since today was the first day of real winter weather (ie in the negative numbers, fyi -1°C = 30°F, ex see breath, check, frost doesn't melt, check, need visible confirmation that fingertips still exist, check), this cash gift from my beloved sister arrived just in the nick of time. And guess what?!? I only paid... drum roll please.......................................................... 75 euros! Ah yes, because today I was welcomed into French hand-me-down heaven. Here they call it Prêt à Porter (Ready to Wear). One step inside this particular thrift shop and I knew immediately that I had struck second hand store gold. In fifteen minutes flat I found three completely unique (basically new) items that fit like a charm. The price was right, but - being the huge cheapskate that I am - that didn't stop me from haggling anyway and getting everything marked down another 15 euros. Sold! I wore the boots and the gloves out of the store and a huge dumb smile on my face for the rest of the day.
I'm so warm! ...and, I tell ya, it's getting harder and harder for peeps to pin me as 'not from around here'! Double score!
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