Erin and the Container Hearts

I've put considerable thought into what matching tattoos on Seb and I would look like. Currently I'm lobbying for bookends. Not like the sad ones from that Simon and Garfunkel song but pretty much the sad ones from the Simon and Garfunkel song forty years before it's relevant enough to evoke sadness.
Anyway, he's not the tattoo sort--but he will be if he ever falls into a coma.

My birthday has come and gone in a flash and a flurry of other people's kindness. Seb and I went into the city and partied last Saturday night. We tried to go to this American restaurant called Charlies Kitchen, but it was not to be.  Mingtian as a suggested reservation time is the last thing you want to hear when you haven't had a burger in 4 months.
We still had a goodly amount of fun. Our friends gave me a succulent and we ate copious portions of succulent meat at a German restaurant. We were there with a German exchange student who was a good sport about the whole thing. Plus I learned three new drinking games, including two played in Chinese.
I also palled around with a pair of puppies. Total success as evenings go.

My birthday wasn't technically until Tuesday and Sebastien woke me up before my 9 o'clock class with coffee in bed and a cake and cream puffs on the table. He likes to hide my presents. It's really cute because I usually forget until my pillow is suddenly lumpy.  The pinnacle came attached to the card which read, "Something to celebrate your father by and complete quests left unfinished." The box he handed me was playing the Legend of Zelda opening theme for NES and turned out to be my kindle on to which he had installed NES and SNES emulators. He had including not only my personal favorite titles, but all the games I used to watch my dad play and am super nostalgic for as well. Upon unboxing I hit start onceand tapped Fred into the account of the first character bank, because as I reminded Sebastien for at least the fourth time, my dad named his saved game after me. For dinner that night we made pizza from [post Universe invention] scratch and my student gifted me with a scarf she describes as being China red.

Sebastien's parents sent a second package to make up for the one we all assumed  was lost in the mail back in September and they both showed up on the same day. We now have 4 pounds of coffee and something like 27 chocolate bars. Best of all, the oatmeal cookies from the September box were still edible. Or they were until we consumed them all.

I finished Infinite Jest two Fridays ago and read the Magician King and The Book Thief in quick succession. I love the idea of books that have books of their own. It lends such a richness to that universe. Midterms went smoothly for us and this weekend we're heading back into the city to do a Thanksgiving approximation with the other Laowai we know.
It's hard to remember a time in my life where I didn't hate Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. They were never the best of times. Lots of yelling and stress, kids table ranking--plus whose idea was it to start mashing up carrots and turnips? Why is that even a thing??

 I sometimes think that if I could just have my own little family in a far flung corner of the world I could enjoy these sorts of events. But the duty of family is always scraping at my knees trying to get me to cry a lot and eat food I don't enjoy. If it weren't for novels or the X-Files marathons of yore, I'd have never have made it this far.
I'm sure we'll make the best out of this gathering. I'm really looking forward to seeing faces of people who I haven't talked to offline with since this summer.

For our contribution we made chocolate chip cookies, three kinds of crepes, roasted red peppers in an olive oil, rosemary and garlic marinade, and we'll share our last terrine that we smuggled into China from France.
Speaking of France, Sebastien's colleague, Jerome, went recently to Beijing and brought us back a Camembert....
These aren't exactly what you would describe as lean times.

There is snow on the ground and there are slippers on my feet. There's a scarf around my neck and hot cider in my cup. I'm wearing flannel in a tidy living room, and as I sit here upon my couch dipping an "extra" chocolate chip cookie just deep enough to leave morsels only slightly cold on the inside. I am relaxed and warm and I can't help thinking of something a Chinese American friend once told me, "White people smell like butter."

Sometimes you have to take a deep breath and embrace who you are.

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The Water Castle Gang

I live close to a metro in Paris who's given nomen translates to the metro, "Water Castle." Sounds rather more magnanimous than it English equivalent:  water tower, if you ask me. But even though it's not the most high brow arrondissement,  living near the metro Water Castle totally makes me feel like, on my commute home from work a bar, I might be in for a little gate-sieging.  I mention this only as a means to mention the reoccurring parties we've been throwing at our colocation.

We've had some turnover here at our
flat but we're back up to 9, and as soon as we were, we had a monster party to commemorate it. That's right friends, I am reporting to you live from the aftermath of the third installment of the water castle party. And this one was our biggest yet. We had over 10 nationalities represented and 40 guests all told.

A few highlights: As some of you already know that blond blogger babe from Sweeney Says has recently moved to Paris and thanks to the magics of facebook and twitter, showed up with some new friends from her grad program to our house party!!!1!1!!!!111!!!ONE. So that was awesome. You've all doubtlessly met people from the internet before so you may be expecting that our encounter would be awkward, but really the only thing that was weird for me was the hello. And not because, "oh hi--you're from the internet please don't dump my body in the river," but because we're in Paris...and I'm used to giving cheek kisses...and it's always a really weird with Americans...especially recent Parisian converts.
Worse comes to worse you just hug it out...
I heard somewhere that you can tell a person our age is American IF they know the Fresh Prince of Bell Air theme song...and boy did we ever...

And so I guess that's how I kicked off my day of never-forgetting. Now I've ranted plenty on other people's blogs and I promised myself I wouldn't do a september 11th post but I have to say I am fed up and ashamed of the way the occidental world is framing this event. Somebody's mother compared it to the holocaust on Facebook, called me a "fucking idiot" and said that she had to leave the thread because she was becoming too emotionally involved. I told her she should leave the thread to do a numbers check. But before you think I'm a total unpatrotic asshat I ask you to consider two things:

1. I know all the words to the fresh prince of bell air theme song
2. I still consider 9/11 a tragedy.

However, from a more global perspective it's not the first event of it's kind nor will it be the last. And it's just the sort of arrogance that the media coverage perpetuated which has allowed and even fostered an environment where America's enemies feel justified taking such extreme actions. We do not exist in a vacuums and they didn't attack us because they hate freedom. /Rant

                                                

Game on.

Here are a few images from the night's festivities...

Damn, I kinda feel like these are food pictures...you know what I mean? Like when someone posts a meal they've made and they're extra proud but you look at it and go---that's just piles of stuff on a plate, what's the BFD? Well my first thought is to crame more images of my culinary masterpieces down your throat. Here comes the plane.........mmmmmmmrrrrrrwaaaaaaarrhw!

I'll also bring up the fact that Sebastien had to get up for work at seven and it our flat wasn't at a sleeping volume until around 5:30. But if that doesn't work, I'll focus on the aftermath. All of our dishes were dirty or broken. The kitchen floor looked like someone gave it a creative bath in Wiskey, wine and beer and there were plates of cheese residue everywhere.

Really? who puts their cigarettes out in a measuring cup?!  What, do you hate cookies or something?

I am a drunk fuck and I violently oppose the birth of new cookies

Sometimes after a really killer party you might be tempted to say "I'm never going to drink again"--in-between bouts of throwing up small amounts of water and wishing you were dead, that is. But after a party like this, I walked to the kitchen to make Seba his breakfast and as I was clearing a spot of him so he could he sit down to eat, I heard myself thinking--  I never wanted to host a party again. Now, much like the I-never-want to-drink-again pledge, I really meant-- ok, this is the last big blast for awhile. But hours later when I and a friend started collecting the trash and finding countertops and tables secreted beneath, one of my new coloc came awoke to the sound of glass on glass and joined us in the kitchen. Not only did he help us get things squared away, he then cooked us brunch, with fresh squeezed orange juice and everything! 

And so in conclusion: I'll remind myself and others, as with any territorial beast, at times tribal living offends my senses and sensibilities. 

But then you have a party like this, that ends in a clean up like that--and not only is my sense of community revitalized but my faith in my fellow flatmates is restored. It's a roller coaster; we can't always have good days, but in the end, it's all love.

Well, love, panna cotta and rock and roll, atanyrate. 

You have read this article coloc / Game on / Paris / party / Sweeney Says / Water Castle / Waynes World with the title party. You can bookmark this page URL https://trendcelebrity2014.blogspot.com/2011/09/the-water-castle-gang.html. Thanks!

Boring Wedding Videos

I made a second v blog, but it was pretty terrible. Instead, I submit for the approval of the midnight society: a short vignette concerning the planing of
our then upcoming wedding.

You have read this article Erin and Sebastien / lets all get wasted. / party / the post modern talko / vignette / Washington DC / wedding with the title party. You can bookmark this page URL https://trendcelebrity2014.blogspot.com/2010/09/boring-wedding-videos.html. Thanks!