we're never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy...

as i have been rather sick as of lately, i have not done much. stayed in friday night, went to bed early, and surprisingly, was up by 6:30 am on saturday morning. and you know what? i actually felt good! my garlic/onion concoction did the trick, as did my make-shift netti-pot/tea pot thing-a-ma-jig nasal irrigation. after cleaning my apartment and myself, i made my way to my neighbordhood saturday morning market, and went off to see my boy, momo, at my favorite produce stand. he remember me and was just so delighted to see me. i bought nearly everything i needed for my week from him - and it was only 11 euros! i bought some serious produce - a mango, garlic (and i learned the french word for garlic - l'ail - from a lovely french woman at the stand), the most beautiful and enormous pears, a zucchini squash, a pomegranate, oranges, some weird fruit that i have no idea what it is called but was too beautiful to pass up. i love this stand and they love me. i practice my french with them and it is so much fun. i am always grinning from ear to ear when i go. i also bought some eggs from a lovely woman. they are really beautiful eggs, nice and brown, and im sure that the yolks will be a nice, deep orange color, none of this light yellow shit from the states. rubbish. while at my egg lady, i noticed some bottles of what looked to be apple cider or alcohol. a sign stood in front of it and said 'rhumatisme.' up until yesterday, i held the belief that 'rhum' meant 'cough.' it does not. 'rhumatisme' means 'rhumatism,' which means, more or less, 'arthritis.' well, sista bought a bottle of this magic potion (apple cider vinegar) to cure her cough, er, arthritis. if you know of any magic solutions for cough/sinus infections that use apple cider vinegar, send them this way. i made my way across the street to my home to put my goodies away.

i went off to franprix to finish my grocery shopping for the week, which did not include much. now, as i am from the united states and as it is in my culture to only have plastic on me, rather than cash, i found myself in a bit of trouble. at the register, i saw that my total was only nine euros, and then found out that the minimum for a 'carte bleue' is fifteen euros. the cashier was lovely and let me just go back into the store and pick out more stuff. since i did not want to be an inconvenience, i looked for the first thing that cost six or so euros...wine. parfait! i bought a lovely bottle of red. how french. when in rome...

i ate another clove of garlic for lunch yesterday. this really is getting old. the first time at cocoliquot was sort of a dumb mistake...and it just seemed like a good idea at the time. eating a whole clove of garlic is never a delicious idea. it is potent. i actually started sweating, and that was even after putting it on bread with chevre. (i have realized, however, that i hardly was sick this summer, and im thanking that to the fact that i constantly was cooking with fresh garlic.) i chewed gum for the next couple hours, and proceeded to taste garlic the rest of the day.

since i have been enduring a lot of stress lately from moving to paris, starting work, being crazy busy with work, being sick, eating garlic, etc., i decided that i needed some therapy. and the best therapy in paris comes at galeries lafayette. oh yes, friends, i have returned to heaven. if one could combine monoprix with galeries lafayette, and put a small apartment on the top of it all for me to habitate, i would never leave. it would be absolute perfection. i was on the hunt for coats and dresses. i have seen some of the most beautifully designed winter coats on the metro and i needed to find one. and i have these darling little black suede ankle boots that i needed to build an outfit around, and decided a simple black dress with sleeves would do the trick. i wandered around lafayette for awhile before finding anything that really spoke to me. i just wanted it to call out to me, 'kendra, you will die without me, your mere existence depends on my beautiful construction of divine fabrics.' and then i saw a lovely grey, wool coat that intrigued me. i picked it up and found a little black dress to try on. the lbd is great, i bought that. the coat did not fit over my chest - now let me clarify here that i do not have a large chest. but compare to parisian standards, i am pamela fucking anderson.

and now is where i will say that if i was a lesbian, i know who my girlfriend would be. karen millen. we're basically best friends forever. oh karen, you and your beautiful blue bags with the orange circle, i could spot you a mile away. she never lets me down. i found the most beautiful pink and green and purple silk dresses (solid colors, not a mix of the three). i need an event to attend so i can buy one. i found another dress (dark grey wool this time) and some jackets to try on. and then i found it (on sale): a beautiful floral, dark blue/grey-ish, jacquard coat. absolute perfection. it gave me the death speech when i put it on. "YOU WILL DIE WITHOUT ME!" and as i dont want to die...

i proceeded to putter around lafayette when i talked to my darling friend jamie. he had asked me to help me pick out jeans for him, and as i love helping my sexy male friends (he is sexy) pick out clothing, i could not resist. i told him to meet me at lafayette asap. i puttered around the main lafayette store for a bit more, then headed over to lafayette homme. and then i saw him: my future french boyfriend. i thought he was jack gyllenhaal. but then i thought, why is jake g working at lafayette? he makes enough money doing films. anyway, my heart stopped. un vrai coup de foudre. we had some mad flirty eyes going for the next couple hours as i pranced around the store, finding jeans to make jamie's ass look oh-so-good. fake jake best be single if he knows what is good for him. ill be back - i mean, duh, i have to do christmas shopping for my brother...and will...and mike...and any other friend i can think of to have the excuse to go back and scope out mr cutie cute.

back to the point of this...jamie finally came, i was weighed down with a bunch of jeans, and after much begging and pleading, i convinced jamie that his ass looked best (it really looked good) in a pair of dark wash pepe jeans. they were even on sale (im such a saavy shopper). they are an investment (as is every other item in my closet). we made our way to the terrace on top of lafayette to celebrate our accomplishments, and as the terrace is free, to save money and get a lovely view of paris. (ps, this picture is jamie thinking how he can return a pair of sale jeans that he was coerced into purchasing - oh darling, im just that good)

now i must also mention that yesterday was the final game of the rugby world cup (england vs. south africa - i dont even know who won. does this really surprise you?) and also, that my friend ericka from madison who is studying in copenhagen came to paris yesterday. so alas, after my shopping extravaganza, i made my way to the eiffel tower and met up with her. oh, by the way, the metros were still a bit fucked up yesterday, so i legitimately thought that my own elbow was going to pierce my lung on the metro cuz i was so smooshed. it didnt, and i met ericka with no probs. it was so nice to see an old friend! the eiffel tower was pure madness, as they had a big screen set up on the champs de mars showing rugby highlights, and (im assuming) the game later on last night. i felt like i was in madison. there were drunk crazy englishmen and -women running around, dressed up in god only knows what. madison, right? it was pretty cool to see people throwing around a rugby ball in front of the eiffel tower.

ericka and i made our way past the madness and toward l'ecole militaire and onto place de la concorde. we stopped for a crepe for a very grumpy old lady - she said she didnt have nutella, but there clearly was a full jar in the window...display only? we passed over my favorite bridge in paris, pont alexandre III, the beautiful gilded bridge from russia. the sun was setting over paris and it was tres magnifique! i showed ericka the champs elysees, and being tourists, we ran our high-heeled feet to the middle of the champs and clung onto a stop sign for dear life so that she could get photos of l'arc de triomphe on the one side, and the beautiful ferris wheel on the other end. i pointed some things out in place de la concorde, and especially made not of the fountains where andi sacs throws her phone at the end of 'the devil wears prada.' we searched for an atm for me to get cash, were unsuccessful, but made our way back to concorde to see the eiffel tower twinkle at 8. beautiful. i had not seen it twinkle until last night. it was one of those pinch-me-im-in-paris moments. i wanted to show her sacre coeur at night, and even though i despise the montmartre area and the fucking steps that are necessary to climb to get from the metro to sacre coeur, we proceeded. funny how i forgot that the one still really fucked up metro line was the 12, which would take us directly to that area. it was packed, i again thought that i would puncture a lung with my elbow (or someone else's elbow), and i was more than happy to get off, even if it meant climbing stairs. christ, even getting out of the metro meant climbing stairs forever. then the real fun began. i will not elaborate on my bitching about the stairs, just know that they are severely hated, but also that we made it up successfully and sacre coeur was all lit up and just as beautiful as ever. there was a little open-mic sort of thing set up on the stairs in front of the basilica, and american songs were being sung. very fun. we watched the tower sparkle again at nine, and then made our down the stairs (halle-fucking-lujah) and back to my apartment. a bottle of wine was split, old memories were shared, and really just a good time was had. we had planned to go out for the rugby game, but my feet hated me from looking chic in heels all day, and after that wine was opened, i wasnt going anywhere.

and as for the rugby game? south africa won. thank you, google.