S P R I N G !!!!

It's here! My second favorite time of the year. Spring heralds summer (my favorite time) and in my mind it is all about beginnings. Everything and anything seems possible in Spring. The flowers come back and you can smell them often times before you see them. On my walk yesterday the jasmine and the honeysuckle were wafting and enticing me. The weather is kinder, gentler. The summer birds start to come back and their laughter and chatter can be heard from sunup to sundown. We get cabin fever and decide to clean our homes and organize our closets. We get to switch out clothes and hang our winter coats up and out of the way! Here in the South of France the change in seasons is not as noticeable as home in Rhode Island but a bit more than Florida. Here, the sun gets warmer, the flowers blossom and the color of the sea changes to a deep and inviting blue. And the summer restaurants along the beach re-open!

I wonder why there aren't Spring resolutions like there are New Year's? I think we should start some.

My resolutions for Spring 2012 (a wonderful excuse to use bullet points!):

• Lose 10 more pounds before summer. 
• Drastically cut my hair and get a summer ready style. (suggestions please!)
• Visit the gym while I'm in Florida during April and May regularly and tone up!
• Set time aside every day to work on my book.
• Work on finding a way to sell my crazy crochet animals.
• And come up with a name for my crochet business. (help with this one would be great too!)

Well, I have a ton more resolutions I could add but enough is enough. I want to actually reach these, so let's leave the list there.

How about you? Leave me a comment about your Spring 2012 resolutions!!

Almost time to pack for Florida!

"I'm leaving on a Jet plane"

It's that time again for us. We have been staying here in France caring for my mother-in-law since the  beginning of January and come April 2nd we will be flying home for a long visit. In fact, for quite a while. The other siblings in the family, my husband's brother and two sisters, will be coming to take turns looking after their mother and visiting with her. So Dennis and I will be returning to his family in Florida for the month of April, May and a little bit of June! I already have plans to fly up to RI to see my family as well. I am really excited to be home again with everyone. I can't wait to drive our car again! It sounds small but believe me, once you are cut off from being independent you really enjoy the simplicity of getting in your car and just going.

I do worry about Miss Anna when we leave. Sadly, she cannot come home with us because there is no where for her to stay in FL. My step-son-in-law (that is probably not the proper way to write that) is very allergic so Mistress Anna must stay behind, soaking up the sun here in the South of France and keeping Denise and her visitors company. I wonder what Anna's journal entries will be like during the time we are gone?

                                                                                                                              April 2

Well...they left for the airport today. They seemed sad to leave me but I think they did it on purpose. All this talk about allergies and difficulty with my travel papers. It all sounds suspicious to me! Well, at least I can con everyone here to give me tons of treats and overfeed me while Sarah is gone! I'll be living the high life here in France while they sweat it out in Fl :) Hahahahahaha

At least that is what her eyes say when I pull my suitcase down and start selecting things to take with me. Anna sits in the hallway outside our room, head on her paws, with this look of absolute abandonment mixed with a "how could you?" look of betrayal. Its gonna be so hard leaving her!

Happy Anniversary!

Today marks the 3rd wedding anniversary of my step-daughter Denise and her husband David.

Dennis and I are not able to join in celebrating this happy day in person because thousands of miles separate us but our thoughts are with Denise and David and we wish them a happy happy day full of love and good memories and a lifetime more of happy anniversaries!!!

Things I've lost, Things I've gained

So here is a silly list I have compiled of the things I miss about the USA when I am in France: (in no particular order)

Free parking almost everywhere I need to go

Microwave popcorn

Chocolate chips

Roads that don't make me carsick when we drive 

My car

My king sized bed

Iced coffee (no, making it at home is NOT the same)

Privacy

My family and friends

Mint frozen yogurt from Publics

A bath tub

Screens on the windows

Air conditioning 

A bathroom and a kitchen I can actually fit in without bruising some part of my body

Speaking the language easily (but still not well)

A dishwasher

A garbage disposal

And on the flip side, this is my missing things about France list that I notice most when I'm stateside:

The views from everywhere you look

The pastry, bread and food available

The sea outside my window

Afternoon naps

The wine 

The cheese (its ridiculous how much is so readily available)

The frozen yogurt (only in the summer, down in Menton)

Anna (since she is here in France now)

Walking by the olive tree garden 

The Roman ruin next door

Walking along the sea with Dennis and Anna

Sunday drives into the mountains and eating out

Bernard cooking for us on Saturdays

The sounds of the sirens here (yes, I like them)

Waking up in the middle of the night to the moon shinning in our bedroom window

The quiet pace of our life here

The constant state of adventure (even going grocery shopping can be an adventure)

A year from now

I am that type of person. The kind who takes things like moments, dates, anniversaries seriously. I stop, reflect...feel sad about the passage of time and wonder about the coming year. The next thing.


Paris.  All I ever wanted was to see Paris.  I would dream of learning French and walking through the streets unconcerned and at home, like a native. I would wander in my mind along cobble stones streets and across bridges, listening to the history of a world I've never know, getting lost in the immensity of it all. 


I've never been to Paris.


I can't speak French 


And yet, in less than a month, I am moving to Roquebrune Cap-Martin, France. 


600 miles south of Paris.


A year and half ago I was living in a room off my parents' kitchen. Not even a bedroom but a living room off my parents' kitchen. With all of my possessions in a 5 x 10 foot storage unit, except for my dog and my shoes and my many many clothes. And my TV.


And now I am married and living in Florida, with my dog and some of the shoes and more and more clothes.  I am trying to pack three months worth of clothes into 2 suitcases that will weigh less than 50 pounds a piece.  Sounds like a math problem that requires paper and a number 2 pencil to figure out. 


Life is wild, if you let it be. If you live without fear or at least without letting fear rule you. I was afraid for years. After dreaming of Paris....I forgot how to dream and I boxed myself in with fear as my only companion. 


I still feel fear. And regret. I still worry about what could have been, or should have been or what I didn't do. And yet, even with all of that, I am moving to France. I am going to learn French. I am going to write more every day. This is what I promise myself, today, June 18. The 34th anniversary of my beginning. I will reach that goal I dreamt of when I was young and poetic and a wanderer of wooded places. In the years when I would sit on the rocks under the trees in the woods behind where we lived and dream of what could be. I will learn French and not be afraid of new places and new things because that girl, that young dreamer reading poetry out loud to the babbling brook at her feet and the chickadees in the branches over head, because she believes in me. http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&pwst=1&q=roquebrune+cap+martin+france&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1276&bih=595&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x12cde999c102ce85:0x23682a842cf14aa0,Roquebrune-Cap-Martin,+France&gl=us&ei=ok79Te6tKYnBtgf58u28Dg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCIQ8gEwAA