Return ramblings

Yes, we are back from France, and I know I should be posting stories! and pictures! But we didn't really take any pictures, because it was France, you know? It was huge, and monumental, and whenever we had something keyed up in the tiny little frame of the digital camera, we'd look at each other and go, myeh. That really doesn't capture the experience at all.

Plus I was relying on Megan and TM's copious picture-taking, but they accidentally erased all of their photos midway through the trip.

As for the stories, the trip was fabulous. Really fabulous. We both came home with colds that, combined with jetlag, have left us minimally functional for the past few days. Happily vacationed, but very tired. Nelly greeted us with her usual overwhelmed relief, like her little heart was going to burst from it.

Megan did finish the marathon, and we had a lovely day darting around Paris to catch her at various locations. It was like a big scavenger hunt, setting and finding these meet-up points in corners of the city you might never otherwise visit. I want to give a big shout-out to the regular Paris citizens who form little musical bands and play along the race route for six hours straight. Especially that awesome bass brand near Place de la Bastille, where we spent over 2 hours dancing on park benches and waiting for Megan to come out of the Bois de Vincennes.

We also bought me a new wedding ring in Paris, which was very satisfying. Our hotel for marathon weekend was near the high-end jewelry district. Place Vendome in fact has nothing but jewelry stores, like it's some sort of bizarre zoning regulation. However, these are jewelry stores where every single item in the window could pay off my mortgage. Even if their wares were within my taste and budget, I suspected that inquiring whether their gemstones come from certified conflict-free sources would be like going to McDonald's and asking if the beef is organic free-range and the coffee fair trade? BUT just as I had given up, we found a lovely little boutique which, while not exactly cheap, was several orders of magnitude more reasonable and more artsy/funky in their designs. The sales woman was lovely and I have myself a new ring that is simple in a "someone with a lot of skill worked really hard to make this ring seem casually rustic" sort of way. Which suits me just fine.

Now I'm trying to get into a new routine, back into the work groove but NOT the groove I was in during the month of March, that desperate and unwavering drive to finish billable hours before turning into a French pumpkin. No, this is my opportunity to start fresh, with a routine that includes exercise, and meditation, and nutritious locally produced foods. We just finished our tax return under the deadline, and based on that Enrico is urging me to WORK LESS, WOMAN, because of course I pay a full third of my self-employment earnings to Uncle Sam, and didn't I go into business to have more freedom and flexibility in life? According to our bookkeeping software, our single largest expenditure so far this year - by a long shot - is taxes. But it is followed, in close second place, by "Vacation." For which I feel very fortunate.