Chez Moi

I'm here in Chicago. It's snowing. And the Chipotle is just as good-- no, better-- than I remembered. I got back, gave out my presents, and hit the road in the MINI to get some food with my sister. I forgot how fricking awesome my car is, how suburb-y things are here, and my bed was so comfortable, I felt like I was sleeping on a cloud.

My flight went really well-- I had been upgraded to business class by my dad's frequent miles. I'm not sure if anyone could complain about coming home on a business class, bulkhead, aisle seat. Seriously, it was ridiculous. I cried when I said goodbye to Madame, and then I cried in the taxi on the way to the airport. It was so tough, leaving that city.

I woke up early this morning and had a mini panic attack, because I didn't know where I was. My room was too bright, my window was in the wrong place, and the ceiling was too low. Welcome home, subconcious. It's been really, really hard to stop picturing what I'd be doing now, in Paris. My Sundays usually consisted of me getting a crêpe at noon, maybe walking around St Michel or Odéon, and then doing a museum and getting some picture-taking done.

Unfortunately, this whole thing has been made more difficult by the death of my granny two days ago. I only heard about it last night. She was sick with MS, and got pneumonia that was aggravated by 60 years of smoking. Every time I feel sad about leaving Paris, I also feel sad about Granny, so it's been kind of rough. Luckily, my mom and my sister listened to me ramble about my trip without telling me to shut up or get over it. And I got egg nog last night with my little sister, and then we watched Pirates 3, sprawled on the couch, with big plates of Chipotle. I'll be okay.

I'm making a Target list for this afternoon, and the sun has already come through the snow flurries. I'll keep myself busy until after Christmas and the funeral, and then around New Years I'll probably be a hot mess. No worries. I'm also frankly terrified about losing my French, or having my level of French go down a lot before next year's final round of classes at BU. Hopefully, I'll be able to find a conversation class or at least a native speaker I can chat with while in London, and then this summer.

The posting will also be extremely sporadic until I leave for London on the 12th. Hopefully I'll get motivated to change the look of the blog, so it's less Paris-y and more uh... London-ish.

A bientôt.