The Cat Came Back

My newest San Diego Reader piece is up.  Also available below. P.S.  One of my best friends from college has been visiting, so I've missed you, internet!  Quick story:  I took her to the excellent Moroccan restaurant, 404, Tuesday night, and we were seated next to...Steven Seagal avec entourage!  Action stars with your couscous and mint tea, it just doesn't get any better than that.   

Over quiche and strawberries at a recent Parisian blogger picnic, the questions fired at me reflect an eerie insight, considering that most of these people, I have never met (virtual relations notwithstanding). “Did you ever find that coat?”  “How did your sister like those macaroons?”  To any passerby at the Parc Buttes Chaumont we might sound like old friends, perhaps filling in the gaps where emails and postcards have left off. “So, tell me more about eating that cow's tongue,” a British weblogger asks.  Everyone is so nice, but who are they and how did they come to know so much about my life?

************
July is one of the biannual sale months here in France.  Today I visited a swanky department store, Le Bon Marché.  I love to shop more than anyone, but like most Americans, I was reduced to a panting slug, wandering in a fugue.  I can't get over crossing the threshold to a nice store, only to feel hotter than outdoors. There should be a blast of cold air.  It should shock the senses, like stepping from a dark theater into sunlight.  This heat stuff is fine if you're at the beach, but I don't want any part of it in my retail venues. 

I watched French women with their shiny faces enthusiastically examine bags on sale.  Sure they complain about the heat, “Oh, c'est terrible! Insupportable!” but later you see them down a piping hot espresso, tilting their heads to the midday sun with a tiny smile, secret and content.  Nope, I don't buy it.  They don't feel our pain.

*************
My apartment overlooks two separate courtyards making it very much like living on the movie set of Rear Window.  Especially at this time of year, when those windows are always open.  Washing dishes at my sink, my neighbor Marie and I hold conversations as she waters her flowers. On the other side of my apartment, the courtyard stretches a bit wider, but still, I could theoretically bless a person sneezing.  My sister Aimee is here for the summer and she got upset with a tidbit (about her) that appeared on my weblog the other night.  “You can't tell people that!”  Our voices escalate until she yanks away my laptop.  It is at that moment I look across the courtyard to see the glowing embers of our neighbors, lazily watching while they smoke cigarettes on their terrace.

As someone who constantly makes sweeping generalizations about a certain culture based on personal experience, I wonder, do they observe my doings and say, “Well, she's American, what do you expect?”

***************
Something funny has been happening lately--the normal summer din of TV's and clinking flatware is pierced by the relentless meowing of a small animal in heat, that is also, perhaps, being tortured. Yesterday, I realized what this sound is--Nicolas, the two-year-old son of my favorite downstairs neighbors, Frederic and Gabrielle.  He is adorable, Nicolas, but the shrieking, it has been endless. During a particularly long stint this morning, Gabrielle shut their windows.  It helped muffle the sound, but it also shut them into, I can only imagine, a sweltering inferno.  Nicolas is clearly ill. 

I bump into Frederic this afternoon.  We haven't spoken in several weeks but I feel a “How's things?” would be disingenuous, if not downright insulting, like greeting a friend after rehab with, “Whatcha been up to?”  I know exactly what he's been up to--death by baby.  What I opt for is the words, “Are you just so tired?”  (Note: Not a translation.  Frederic lived in the US for years; we always speak English.)

I meant to show sympathy, an understanding that, despite what I know to be his boundless love for the child, if he wanted to express a fleeting desire to throw it out the window, well, I would be the last to judge. But instead... “Are you just so tired?”  Because I sure am!  Why don't you put us out of our misery so we can have our lives back? I smile dumbly.  Neither defensive, nor apologetic, Frederic responds, “Oh, we're having some short nights,” then turns the conversation towards me. When we say au revoir, he smiles and holds the gate.  Graciousness (of others), in the face of idiocy (your own), can be brutal.    

I mope sweatily up the stairs. Are you just so tired? All day long, I can't get it out of my head.

***************
I sit at my computer, facing the window, ready to beam information about my life to the internet.  I look straight into the apartment across the courtyard where a brunette is pouting with her husband? Boyfriend?  I don't see a ring....A wet towel is coiled around her neck to keep cool.  Oh, she is good, Miss Pouty Pout.  Jessica Simpson could take notes.  To tell you the truth, I've been meaning to blog about this couple...

Comments

[Chester]

I, for one, feel very much cheated that we get no commentary on any potential style miscues by Monsieur Seagal. If no raucous tales of unfortunate Mandarin-collared jackets, then at least a brief anecdote about him destroying a squadron of ninjas with a tagine-turned-instrument-of-ass-kicking. Fictional, if need be.

[Coco]

Thank you for coming back!
I look forward to reading your posts!
My father, too, used to drink HOT coffee on HOT days!! I used think it was odd, but I now do it also- thinking of him : )
Will you be there on the Champs Elyses when the "tour" finishes?
My husband is fan(actic) of cyclism. We have the "tour" on TV ALL day long!! Yes, I'm "rooting" for Lance and the Discovery Team! : )

Take Care

[Flare]

I won't swap my Jon Bon Jovi sighting for that. Steven Segal? Wow. I have nothing to say to that. :)

Liked this random blog entry.

[Ana]

Whatever did happen with that coat...? If I dare ask

[Sierra]

It can be a slightly strange knowing stuff about you and other bloggers when meeting them in real life. On the other hand, it would have felt weird not to ask about the coat. Like I was pretending I knew absolutely nothing about you.

[bluepoppy]

so glad your back-- I wondered if you had gone off on a European holiday . ..

[bluepoppy]

p.s.-- did you get an email from my sister?

[Coquette]

Eeep! I should qualify that the post about Aimee (my sis) never did stay on my blog for more than a minute since she was umm, not okay with it. (I wasn't referring to the thing I wrote about her arrival in France; she liked that.) Don't worry, we kissed and made up...eventually!

Chester, my friend and I thought he was wearing a bathrobe at first. Turns out he was, indeed, rocking the Mandarin jacket...

Coco, maybe!

Ana, urrrg! I haven't heard any word lately from the stylist I assisted. I assume it's lost for good and the magazine will have to eat it, so to speak. (Unfortunately, they are being billed, and their insurance deductable is higher than the coat's cost.)

[Coquette]

Sierra, exactely. It would be more strange not to ask. But seriously, how do you know so much ;)

[juliana]

People always seem to spot celebrities in Paris. I wonder if I'll see any while I'm there.

[Amy Alkon]

Being a Godless Harlot, I always feel a tad uncomfortable when people say "bless you," as it's a reference to the notion that your spirit might leave your body when you sneeze. I do love the French sneeze lingo, though: "A Tes Amours" (to all your loves)...

and the sneezer responds: "Que les tiennes durent toujours"

That yours may last always, too.

Or something like that. My French is improving, yes, thanks to DishTV TV5 subscrip Aux Etats Unis...but not good by a long shot!

[Sarah]

I loved this entry especially your description of "rear window". I could see it, and feel it!Some of my favourite London apartments made me feel like Grace Kelly (if only) gazing down on the little world and big lives going on, oblivious to us, below.

[Miss_Pink]

A week that I had been waiting for your post, not disappointing I have to say...very high writing skills for as much as I can judge. One question though, haven't had time to read through the archives and I still can't figure out if you are usually speak french or not? Anyway, I am already addicted...

[Neil]

I came to you from 2blowhards, and I was instantly thrilled to learn that you were writing from Paris. Stuck here in ugly Los Angeles, where all anyone talks about is movies, I was ready to be taken away to the City of Lights and hear of your exotic adventures. And what's the first thing I read -- you're sitting next to Steven Seagal in a restaurant! Before I read any further, can you please change this post and make him into a famous French intellectual or at least Daniel Auteuil? Thanks.

[kassi]

Awesome...memoirs of a peeping tom. i look forward to your commentary on the couple across the way.

[Amaranta]

The soldes are amazing at the beginning but then trying on clothes when you are sweaty... is not so fun. But handbags at Le Bon Marche are worth it!

[sammy]

The worst is when you are trying on clothes from the soldes and then realize the coveted item is actually already carrying someone's else's body odor...

[Nathan]

Did you get an autograph of Steven Seagal ?

[DDJ]

Well, at least it was Steven Seagal and not Mr. "You don't know the history of psychiatry."

I really find the window conversations interesting, although I don't know if I could tolerate them day in and day out. I'd eventually prefer the hum of a window air conditioner.

[carolyn]

oooooooo this was a fun chatty entry! :) loved it

btw, would you be more likely to use "bavarder" or "papoter" for "chat"?

[Negrito]

so that is really what i thought, there must be one or two worlds to save around gritoland if even Steven Seagull is there !

[archana suri]

Hey! I love your blog and just wanted to post- drinking warm liquids on a hot day is said to actually refresh you and bring your internal body temperature down... hmmm...folks througout the warmer climates are said to do it- perhaps they are on to something and we should try...

[Anne]

Love your blog. Three weeks to go until I am moving to Paris, having just left Poland after two years. I linked to you on my blog so that I can get keep up to date on what is going on in Paris. Hope that is OK!

[lizardek]

Is your title really the title song of my favorite animated short of all time or am I just dreaming? I thought no one knew about that little gem but me and a handful of cool people! You're SO COOL and this just underlines it.

[generic viagra]

There must be one or two worlds to save around gritoland if even Steven Seagal is there.

[cheap computer]

Its exciting to meet blogger by face but the story that you know about that blogger and want to ask questions about it but don't have guts to do it. That's very true when you meet any celebrity same goes with them.
Thanks for sharing this information.

[Fire]

When I heard that the cat in the hat was back I was astounded.

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