I am embarking on the most impossible crochet project I have ever concieved of. Well, not that I concieved of it, it's a pattern I've been thinking about for years. Serious crocheters know that the pineapple pattern is one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult, and one of the very earliest crochet formations. So why would someone attempt to make a tablecloth that is insanely intricate and has a zillion pineapple formations? (they don't look like pineapples by the way, that's just their name for one reason or another.) Because she's crazzzyyy! And she has several long bus rides coming up, and I mean LONG bus rides....like crossing under the English channel long. Yeah, I'm going to England for my spring break! Even though this week currently was the first week, I haven't gone anywhere because of the stupid fucking volcano in iceland, so carolyn adn i had to cancel our irish adventure this week, which was really disappointing. Taylor had to cancel her trip through Spain as well, which she was going to take with her boyfriend Nick, except his flight was cancelled, rescheduled, cancelled again, rescheduled again, and cancelled yet again. So bottom line, he isn't coming to France, and she couldn't travel Spain all alone. In the words of the Beck song currently playing on my ipod (i love that crazy scientologist/beat dropper/my husband?) "It's a chain reaction!" So the positive out of all the ruined trips is that Taylor is coming with us to England! Wooo! No separating the trio!!! Haha. Mme Suraqui calls us the triplets, or sometimes just the three (les trois), which annoys us cause she thinks we're not friends with anyone else, but obviously we're friends with everyone, and our program has even clickier groups of 3 or 4 than us 3, who love everyone else. (except the socially awkward crazy girls, haha)
anyways, we leave sunday! Long ass bus to London (downloading movies and music to prep myself, also this crochet bohemoth) then short bus to Oxford, then visiting Amanda for Sunday-Thursday. Thursday short bus back to London, visit Bailey until Saturday! Saturday another long ass bus back to Paris! And then Monday, restart school adn have a TON of work to do for that week, which I should be doing now, but I'm not because im crocheting THE PINEAPPLE TABLECLOTH!!!
wooooooo
I'm excited to finally get out of Paris for a bit, especially since I missed the trip to the valley of the Loire. Au revoir until after break!!
Friday, April 23, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
crochet frenzy
first and foremost, i am officially better! Have been so since like Monday, but was still really limited in what I could eat all week until like yesterday and Weds. SO glad that mess is over, also have even more respect now (if thats even possible) for Celeste, because I feel like I got the smallest taste of her condition and it was awful, makes me feel like in awe of her that she is a functioning, happy, normal and amazing person all the while dealing with that shit (literally. bad pun?)
now onto other issues besides by gastro-intestinal system: CROCHET
i have actually been crocheting quite a lot since i've been in france, found a couple places to buy yarn at decent prices, though with meager selections. have a few more places bookmarked that i need to check out. since i've been here i have also taught carolyn and taylor to crochet, and made some addicts out of them too. taylor and i have some serious plans to start an etsy store together, and some silly plans to get a PACS (french version of civil union). but yeah, she is my crafty kindred spirit! So far I have crocheted: a maroon cowl with a lacy open-work pattern, a brown beret with bubble stitch, a grey hat with double crochet clusters, and started a zillion and ten other projects and then undid them midway through after deciding i didn't like them. i've made a few other things I can't remember as well haha. right now im working on a pattern i'm creating myself. usually my patterns end up not working out cause i realize i didn't quite get the math right, or the stitch combination only works on paper and not in practice. but so far this one is going well, it's for a table runner or placemat or square thingies of any domestic use you please, depending on how long you make the pattern. i want mine to be a table runner though, i think if i finish it, if i have enough yarn to do so, ill give it to my momma! i miss my parents so much lately. i'm a touch homesick still, i just miss america. taylor and i relented to our homesickness/cravings/devil's temptations and went to starbucks today. it was the same price for a grande latte as a normal cafe creme at a cafe, maybe 50 centimes more, for so much more coffee in volume. it tasted just like the lattes at home, and made me feel both comforted and like i was supporting an evil stupid corporation, and a coffee chain in a country that is known for its cafes and espresso. but damnit, it was good and im not ashamed. i read an article recently about how french have a different taste preference when it comes to coffee, they like dryer, more bitter, sharper beans and americans tend to like, deeper, softer, more robust beans. I definitely agree with this theory, it seems completely true to me. not to mention the whole espresso versus brewed coffee thing, espresso just makes the sharpness of the coffee here even more intense. it's like yes i want to wake up and have a caffeine pick me up, especially in the mornings and mid afternoons when i need the jolt of energy, but no i don't want to blow my face off by a too sharp, too intense, kick in the teeth cafe creme. i miss having a mellow but dark and deep and soothing cup of coffee with my daddyo on sunday mornings while doing the crossword puzzle and clearning out the fruit in the produce drawer- something we do a lot over the summer. aahhhhh i miss home! (and yes i call my father daddyo and he refers to himself as such when he writes me emails, he was a hippie and it's a silly little thing we've always done. and i call my mom mimzy, just because when i was like 10 i was so desperate to be unique and different i didnt want to call her mom like everyone else and i wished my name was more interesting/less common than sarah. i used to wish it was chrysanthemum hahahahha. oh lordy. but when im really down in the dumps or sick or whiney or whatever, i revert back to calling her momma unintentionally, i don't really know where this comes from, but it happens. oh momma, i miss you so! it's weird cause noah always just calls them mom and dad. so unoriginal!)
ok enough ranting and rumbling and grambling and grumbling and rambling and and and i'm out of otomatopoeias. tragic!
now onto other issues besides by gastro-intestinal system: CROCHET
i have actually been crocheting quite a lot since i've been in france, found a couple places to buy yarn at decent prices, though with meager selections. have a few more places bookmarked that i need to check out. since i've been here i have also taught carolyn and taylor to crochet, and made some addicts out of them too. taylor and i have some serious plans to start an etsy store together, and some silly plans to get a PACS (french version of civil union). but yeah, she is my crafty kindred spirit! So far I have crocheted: a maroon cowl with a lacy open-work pattern, a brown beret with bubble stitch, a grey hat with double crochet clusters, and started a zillion and ten other projects and then undid them midway through after deciding i didn't like them. i've made a few other things I can't remember as well haha. right now im working on a pattern i'm creating myself. usually my patterns end up not working out cause i realize i didn't quite get the math right, or the stitch combination only works on paper and not in practice. but so far this one is going well, it's for a table runner or placemat or square thingies of any domestic use you please, depending on how long you make the pattern. i want mine to be a table runner though, i think if i finish it, if i have enough yarn to do so, ill give it to my momma! i miss my parents so much lately. i'm a touch homesick still, i just miss america. taylor and i relented to our homesickness/cravings/devil's temptations and went to starbucks today. it was the same price for a grande latte as a normal cafe creme at a cafe, maybe 50 centimes more, for so much more coffee in volume. it tasted just like the lattes at home, and made me feel both comforted and like i was supporting an evil stupid corporation, and a coffee chain in a country that is known for its cafes and espresso. but damnit, it was good and im not ashamed. i read an article recently about how french have a different taste preference when it comes to coffee, they like dryer, more bitter, sharper beans and americans tend to like, deeper, softer, more robust beans. I definitely agree with this theory, it seems completely true to me. not to mention the whole espresso versus brewed coffee thing, espresso just makes the sharpness of the coffee here even more intense. it's like yes i want to wake up and have a caffeine pick me up, especially in the mornings and mid afternoons when i need the jolt of energy, but no i don't want to blow my face off by a too sharp, too intense, kick in the teeth cafe creme. i miss having a mellow but dark and deep and soothing cup of coffee with my daddyo on sunday mornings while doing the crossword puzzle and clearning out the fruit in the produce drawer- something we do a lot over the summer. aahhhhh i miss home! (and yes i call my father daddyo and he refers to himself as such when he writes me emails, he was a hippie and it's a silly little thing we've always done. and i call my mom mimzy, just because when i was like 10 i was so desperate to be unique and different i didnt want to call her mom like everyone else and i wished my name was more interesting/less common than sarah. i used to wish it was chrysanthemum hahahahha. oh lordy. but when im really down in the dumps or sick or whiney or whatever, i revert back to calling her momma unintentionally, i don't really know where this comes from, but it happens. oh momma, i miss you so! it's weird cause noah always just calls them mom and dad. so unoriginal!)
ok enough ranting and rumbling and grambling and grumbling and rambling and and and i'm out of otomatopoeias. tragic!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
fresca!
i have just mentally planned the best summer picnic/barbecue/pool party menu in my head. If only I were home, if only it were July, if only it were hot, and if only I could eat things other than bananas, apple sauce, rice, potatoes, and tea. (current gastroenteritis diet of great variety and fun. not to mention, i hate bananas.)
but anyways I will make this summer bbq menu happen when im home in CA and hanging out with friends in my backyard, since my parents told me they just got patio furniture! finally! our last set either a)broke in the 94 earthquake, b)was just too ugly and got thrown away in 94, or c)otherwise disappeared before I hit first grade, or d) some combinations of the above. i'm a touch homesick right now because i'm sick, it's not warm enough here yet, and i can't eat anything, and monique keeps making me eat bananas.
enough moping! planned menu:
-grilled corn
- delicious salad with avocado, edamame, cherry tomatoes, and jicama, and whatever other veggies join the party with my blackberry avocado vinaigrette.
- grilled veggie burgers mexican style with guac and salsa and cheese (meat eaters can have whatever they want, i'll let them figure that shit out. but no cheese on their meat, not at my parent's house! soy cheeze acceptable, but gross)i might even home bake the buns for these babies!
- balsamic marinated berries, probably over either lemon sorbet or vanilla ice cream.
- fresh lemonade! or some alcoholic version thereof depending on where the parents are. i still feel awkward drinking in front of them even through im 21. maybe the red wine fresca combo plus chopped up citrus fruits that is delicious and frowned at by adults, ie- poor man's/college student's/sandra lee's (jahahahahaha) instant sangria! my god fresca sounds so good right now. too bad a) it doesn't exist here, b) i'm forbidden to eat anything citrus.
i will continue to dream about this elegant and fun backyard soiree as a distraction from the lingering stomach aches of this stupid sickness. next step: mentally planning the decor of course! when (not if, but when) this party actually takes place, i will document all the cooking for the foodie part of this blog. i know this blog is supposed to be 1/3 me talking, 1/3 crafts, and 1/3 cooking, but umm i can't really cook here in France sadly, and i haven't crafted all that much. so those other two sections of the blog will get kicked off in july when i go home! normally when i think about leaving i get really sad and don't want to leave, but right now, it seems like i just can't wait. i think it's just cause im under the weather and sick of the weather here!
anticipating the glorious summer months! let this stomach sickness be a kickstart to my summer weight loss goals?! yes? no? funny?/not? whatever, i want to be toned this year is the bottom line, i say that every year, and of course gastroenteritis is not the way to lose weight. it's all the tylenol and other french meds gone to my head!
but anyways I will make this summer bbq menu happen when im home in CA and hanging out with friends in my backyard, since my parents told me they just got patio furniture! finally! our last set either a)broke in the 94 earthquake, b)was just too ugly and got thrown away in 94, or c)otherwise disappeared before I hit first grade, or d) some combinations of the above. i'm a touch homesick right now because i'm sick, it's not warm enough here yet, and i can't eat anything, and monique keeps making me eat bananas.
enough moping! planned menu:
-grilled corn
- delicious salad with avocado, edamame, cherry tomatoes, and jicama, and whatever other veggies join the party with my blackberry avocado vinaigrette.
- grilled veggie burgers mexican style with guac and salsa and cheese (meat eaters can have whatever they want, i'll let them figure that shit out. but no cheese on their meat, not at my parent's house! soy cheeze acceptable, but gross)i might even home bake the buns for these babies!
- balsamic marinated berries, probably over either lemon sorbet or vanilla ice cream.
- fresh lemonade! or some alcoholic version thereof depending on where the parents are. i still feel awkward drinking in front of them even through im 21. maybe the red wine fresca combo plus chopped up citrus fruits that is delicious and frowned at by adults, ie- poor man's/college student's/sandra lee's (jahahahahaha) instant sangria! my god fresca sounds so good right now. too bad a) it doesn't exist here, b) i'm forbidden to eat anything citrus.
i will continue to dream about this elegant and fun backyard soiree as a distraction from the lingering stomach aches of this stupid sickness. next step: mentally planning the decor of course! when (not if, but when) this party actually takes place, i will document all the cooking for the foodie part of this blog. i know this blog is supposed to be 1/3 me talking, 1/3 crafts, and 1/3 cooking, but umm i can't really cook here in France sadly, and i haven't crafted all that much. so those other two sections of the blog will get kicked off in july when i go home! normally when i think about leaving i get really sad and don't want to leave, but right now, it seems like i just can't wait. i think it's just cause im under the weather and sick of the weather here!
anticipating the glorious summer months! let this stomach sickness be a kickstart to my summer weight loss goals?! yes? no? funny?/not? whatever, i want to be toned this year is the bottom line, i say that every year, and of course gastroenteritis is not the way to lose weight. it's all the tylenol and other french meds gone to my head!
Saturday, April 10, 2010
oh my word
the most recent episode of bones!!! oh my goodness. finally!!! gaaaaaggghhhh!!!!! bones is such a damn fool! and my stomach flu is half better after getting a ton of medicine from a doctor. still not really eating solids, or feeling like im at full energy, but getting there!
i think ill take a nap. i missed out on the trip to the chateaux de la loire this weekend because of being sick, which sucks, but i need the time to recover. now you should go watch bones!!!
i think ill take a nap. i missed out on the trip to the chateaux de la loire this weekend because of being sick, which sucks, but i need the time to recover. now you should go watch bones!!!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
oh me oh my
i have the stomach flu. i am miserable. ive never vomited more in my life. yuck sorry. the flu made me say that. oy vey.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
blargghhhh
ooooh my stomach hurts! twisting and turning and folding in upon itself. whenever my stomach hurts like this, i imagine it's like the inside of a clock, with all the gears turning in different directions and twisting around each other. i just tried brioche for the first time at breakfast, and i hope this is not the reasoning for painful stomach, because it was delicious and i want to eat it again sometime. it was like a softer, slightly sweeter version of challah.
other news: midterms and assignments are finally upon me. this whole semester was coasting by with barely any hw, just a weekly grammar worksheet in my french class which i would do the day of french class in the hour before hand, or on the metro, which Pascale, my teacher, thought was an excellent use of our commute. She'd be like, yes yes! metro is very parisian place to do homework!!! But then last week real assignments started coming in to play. I had an oral presentation last week on Berthe Morisot, that I completely over researched for, as is my curse, and then had to stay up late writing it after the night of the first Passover seder. Passover in France was very very interesting, but very exhausting and starvation-inducing.
Ok, so I didn't starve, but it was way harder to keep passover here, even with eating corn and beans and other seeds (kitniyot) which western european jews (sephardim) eat and eastern european jews (ashkenazim) do not eat. My family is ashkenazic, since my origins include Poland, Latvia, Belarus and maybe Germany (no one can remember where that one great grandfather was from, but it wasn't Latvia or Poland like the rest of them), so obvioulsy my family is very very Ashkenazic. I've been known to throw around yiddish words like others throw around a Frisbee! It's my mommaloshen, what can I tell you? And this little pisher loves to kvetch, ain't it the truth!! But since I was in France, obviously Western, I decided to be sephardic and eat rice and corn this year. Even so, passover was hard to keep with baguettes and croissants all around me. I went to my cousin's house for the seders, her name is Irit and she is my dad's second cousin from the Israeli branch of our family. My grandpa's family came to the US in between the two wars, or right after WWI (thank goodness), but then at some point one or two of his first cousins moved to ISrael to support the new state. So Irit was born in Israel, but then moved to France when she was a young adult, married a French Jew, and had 3 kids who have my hair color. I had always wondered where the blonde came from, now I know, it's from my grandpa. Whenever I asked him, Grandpa what color was your hair when you were young? (He's very very bald now and what's left is white and puffy like a cotton ball) he would just say, Yes dear I used to have hair! How about that!? But what color was it Grandpa? Did I get my blonde hair from you? This would always somehow segway into him telling me, for the zillionth time, about how I'm named for his mother and how she (Sarah Eisenberg Bresler, or Sarah Bresler #1) would have been an engineer if she had been born in a different generation. I love hearing the stories about her, she really was an engineer without the degree of course, but he never gets back to me about the whole hair color issue, and all the pictures of my grandpa when he's small are a) black and white, and b) there are only 2 such pictures. He's old, my grandpa is, his name is Arthur and he was born in 1922 I believe! Wow!
So anyways, I went to the seders at Irit's house, who is dirty blonde herself, and her three kids are also varying shades of dark blonde, so now I finally understand! Her kids are Talia (22), Keren (20), and Dan (15) and her husband's name is Simon. The seders were basically the same, a few different melodies here and there, and a few other differences, like sephardic charoset, eating lettuce as maror instead of horse radish, and eating radishes as karpas instead of parsley. For those of you reading who aren't Jewish, this makes no sense I'm sure but I don't want to take the time to explain the whole seder, that's wikipedia's job if you're really that curious. Oh, and the matzah ball soup was different/weird.
Ugh! My tummy is still twisting and turning and ouch! I have an exam tomorrow that I'm not ready for, and thus I am not going to my first class today so I can study, but I think I'm having an anxiety stomach ache! Bah! Gregghhhjjkklll!!! Mmmpph! Gadzooks!
other news: midterms and assignments are finally upon me. this whole semester was coasting by with barely any hw, just a weekly grammar worksheet in my french class which i would do the day of french class in the hour before hand, or on the metro, which Pascale, my teacher, thought was an excellent use of our commute. She'd be like, yes yes! metro is very parisian place to do homework!!! But then last week real assignments started coming in to play. I had an oral presentation last week on Berthe Morisot, that I completely over researched for, as is my curse, and then had to stay up late writing it after the night of the first Passover seder. Passover in France was very very interesting, but very exhausting and starvation-inducing.
Ok, so I didn't starve, but it was way harder to keep passover here, even with eating corn and beans and other seeds (kitniyot) which western european jews (sephardim) eat and eastern european jews (ashkenazim) do not eat. My family is ashkenazic, since my origins include Poland, Latvia, Belarus and maybe Germany (no one can remember where that one great grandfather was from, but it wasn't Latvia or Poland like the rest of them), so obvioulsy my family is very very Ashkenazic. I've been known to throw around yiddish words like others throw around a Frisbee! It's my mommaloshen, what can I tell you? And this little pisher loves to kvetch, ain't it the truth!! But since I was in France, obviously Western, I decided to be sephardic and eat rice and corn this year. Even so, passover was hard to keep with baguettes and croissants all around me. I went to my cousin's house for the seders, her name is Irit and she is my dad's second cousin from the Israeli branch of our family. My grandpa's family came to the US in between the two wars, or right after WWI (thank goodness), but then at some point one or two of his first cousins moved to ISrael to support the new state. So Irit was born in Israel, but then moved to France when she was a young adult, married a French Jew, and had 3 kids who have my hair color. I had always wondered where the blonde came from, now I know, it's from my grandpa. Whenever I asked him, Grandpa what color was your hair when you were young? (He's very very bald now and what's left is white and puffy like a cotton ball) he would just say, Yes dear I used to have hair! How about that!? But what color was it Grandpa? Did I get my blonde hair from you? This would always somehow segway into him telling me, for the zillionth time, about how I'm named for his mother and how she (Sarah Eisenberg Bresler, or Sarah Bresler #1) would have been an engineer if she had been born in a different generation. I love hearing the stories about her, she really was an engineer without the degree of course, but he never gets back to me about the whole hair color issue, and all the pictures of my grandpa when he's small are a) black and white, and b) there are only 2 such pictures. He's old, my grandpa is, his name is Arthur and he was born in 1922 I believe! Wow!
So anyways, I went to the seders at Irit's house, who is dirty blonde herself, and her three kids are also varying shades of dark blonde, so now I finally understand! Her kids are Talia (22), Keren (20), and Dan (15) and her husband's name is Simon. The seders were basically the same, a few different melodies here and there, and a few other differences, like sephardic charoset, eating lettuce as maror instead of horse radish, and eating radishes as karpas instead of parsley. For those of you reading who aren't Jewish, this makes no sense I'm sure but I don't want to take the time to explain the whole seder, that's wikipedia's job if you're really that curious. Oh, and the matzah ball soup was different/weird.
Ugh! My tummy is still twisting and turning and ouch! I have an exam tomorrow that I'm not ready for, and thus I am not going to my first class today so I can study, but I think I'm having an anxiety stomach ache! Bah! Gregghhhjjkklll!!! Mmmpph! Gadzooks!
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