back in belmont

we are settling back into our house in belmont, on the outskirts of boston.  jj has started school at the local high school.  she pushed her way into french AP - after they had assigned her into french 4, which she found much to easy.  she has her driving learners permit and so far has only driven around empty parking lots.  we had to get a car right away - this being america, so i have leased a honda crv.  lucky for her they only make them with automatic transmission - no shifting!  she is enrolled in an orchestra at New England Conservatory of Music and has found a new violin teacher there as well.

i have returned to working at my old real estate office, hammond, as a sales agent.  if you know anyone moving to the boston/cambridge area, please give them my contact info!  AND i have arranged to have painting space in a studio nearby, starting in october.  i am VERY excited about that.  i will be sharing 800 sq ft in a factory building with 3 other artists among studios housing 75 other artists.  this will be a game changer!  those of you whom i have promised a painting, i will be on it soon! 

p has finally achieved his goal of being unemployed (he was unsuccessful in paris with that).  though he is looking for work, and has had some good leads with some very cool video and web companies nearby.  he unpacked his beer making equipment and started a batch of brew yesterday.  i need to design labels. one idea is to call it "obama brew".  it should be ready for election day.

and lastly, maynard made the transatlantic journey with us.  we were very lucky with the weather and the day we traveled was the first that the temperature dropped in boston to an allowable 75 degrees.  i think that his air traveling days are done, though i do tell people he's been to more countries than most congressmen.  he is very happy with his outdoor space, wandering out freely to lie in the grass, basking in the sun.  squirrels are plentiful.

of COURSE, we miss paris, terribly.  was it just a dream?  i have decided to try to organize champagne tastings here to make me less sad. 

pisa, one year later

so we're back in pisa, a little more than a year after our last trip.  ryanair, relatively cheap tickets.  of course by the time i booked them with the dates i preferred, it was more than twice the price.  but still, 100 something euros roundtrip each is reasonable.  we are on our way to the cinque terre - along the coast - 5 small towns with foot paths between them and a railroad.  i booked it and THEN found out about the disastrous mudslides last fall.  they are repairing the damage.  many footpaths closed, don't even know if the railroad is totally working...  

this morning in paris, i went to conversation group in the form of a champagne party given by the russian lady who just got french citizenship, she cooked us all an authentic russian lunch including her own home made marinated salmon, piroskas and more.   i had to leave early to rush home to pick up my bag to head to meet the family and go to beauvais airport.  we arrived in pisa approx 6 hours door to door from paris.  within a half an hour after the plane touched the ground and after a quick 10 euro taxi ride,  we  were in our hotel room . same hotel as last year.  we went to the same recommended restaurant - the one with the campy large photocreations of the saints.  we had our well anticipated pasta, some of the same dishes as last year, like the excellent gnocchi.  and then gelato on the street. and a walk around that crazy leaning tower and the other church buildings next to it.

my art show;octopus

p helped me hang my art show this morning in a restaurant near eiffel tower.  was fun but we had to hurry.  we started at 11 and by 11:20 the staff were hurrying us to finish before the lunch clientelle came in.  i will have an "opening"  party on thursday.  have sent out at least 150 invitations (electronic and hard copy...)

went to talk to an art gallery on ile st louis - one that i had seen before with paintings in the same sort of style as mine.  they weren't interested...  but met a guy working there whose name i had run across before.  he runs an outdoor painting session in paris.  connected well with him and will talk further about art matters.

bought an octopus in the marche and am cooking it now.  never done it before.  want to make an octopus salad.  should be interesting...

first day of spring; french shopkeeper

i am behind in my blogging. but i HAD to put this in right away.

i know the french are accused of being terrible at being shopkeepers. i am usually quite forgiving of them. one of the guide books said you must understand and accept that they are doing you a favor in waiting on you.

today i went into a small office supply shop. i usually don’t go in the smaller shops because they are always more expensive. but at the same time, as p says, we need to support the small businesses. this shop is just around the corner from our apartment. i needed some printer paper and large envelopes. i went in, leaving maynard, the dog, obediently sitting outside. the lady was on the phone, behind the counter. i waited politely. several minutes passed and she made NO eye contact to let me know she was aware of my presence in the shop (standing, waiting in front of her). she made quiet “hmm, oui, hmm” noises on the phone and it did not seem to be a business call. it seemed to be a long friend discussion. she clicked her mouse on the computer. i figured she was doing some work at the same time, so very occupied. i waited some more. no eye contact, no acknowledgement of my presence. i waited some more and started to wonder whether she was doing this on purpose. i peeked over at her computer screen that held her attention. she was playing solitaire... so i took the hint and walked out. i have to admit i am shocked and shocked. totally rude! i won’t go back. in france, as p explains, it is not a “service” economy. in the US, the “customer is always right” and if you serve them well, they will come back and spend more money. here it is about the employees. the jobs are there to give them money to live. the world revolves around them and their hours, not around how well the job is done. i know this is not really true, but it certainly seems like that sometimes!

meanwhile, the first day of spring was lovely. flowers and trees are blooming. the weather was sunny with temperatures around 60. it promises to get warmer through the week. i taught an art lesson this morning in our apartment. we did pen and ink drawings (using felt tips) using cross hatching. trying to force the students to think in terms of light and dark tones. even though one could get more uptight about not being able to erase, i was hoping it would make them loosen up a bit instead. afterwards, we worked in color conte crayons, which are like pastels, but slightly harder. this is the first time we have used color. the still life was vegetables – eggplant, red pepper, carrots and zucchini, on a bright yellow/orange tablecloth, so the color exercise was appropriate. it all worked very well.

afterwards, i rushed off to my first french lesson at a school many of the expats use. i want to really try a last gasp effort in improving my french before we move back. the class was full of middle aged english speaking women... like me. the class was ok, but i’m not sure if i’ll go with it or not. there are only around 8 lessons because of the way the holidays and vacation fall and maybe i should get a tutor instead (for less money!). the schedule is a little tight with my art class.

art, food, leaks and spa

went to art gallery to an exhibit organized by a school mom, of photographs of egyptian rebels of the “arab spring”. the photographer lit the photos dramatically, like caravaggio; they were beautiful, but it was quite the aggressive sales pitch. she had said there would be a gallery talk of “contemporary art market”, but it was instead all about the quality of the photographs, how long they would last and why one should buy one.

afterwards went to the hammam with louise.  the hammam is a public steam bath in the mosque of paris. part of the muslim culture.  it was very “middle eastern” in its worn off paint. i hadn’t been in decades and wasn’t sure of the protocol. we used to go to the japanese spa in san francisco together. so we just got naked and put our clothes into the locker – which cost 1 euro to lock. we walked out into the room and saw that everyone was wearing bathing suit bottoms and some bathing suit tops. hmm. not sure if we’re making a faux pas here, being totally naked, but we weren’t going to spend an extra euro each to open up the lockers. so we just wrapped our towels on our bottom halves. we just went to the various steam rooms. i didn’t get a massage or gommage. the last time i had that, in morocco last year, they scrubbed and scrubbed my skin very hard, and it HURT! so i decided that i wasn’t into it this time. we just sat and sweat. afterwards, we had mint tea in the tea room. came home and painted.

got sick of the leak in the kitchen so went to the hardware store to find some pieces to hack a solution. want to run the water down to the sink. i ended up using tarp taped into a tube and guided the water straight down to the sink. it worked perfectly. now no more emptying plastic containers twice a day! made dinner – salmon teriyaki. bought more cheese for the appreciative maguires. got some st marcelin, brebis, edam with cumin seeds, and reblochon. we were talking and their oldest daughter c, turns 18 soon. so incredible. she was saying she wanted a big present for her big birthday. her parents said “present! what do you mean, present? you’re going to have to start paying rent!” i laughed and then said, “yes, that could be the present – first month free!”. it has been so much fun having them here. we hadn’t seen them in so long and we have laughed a lot.

more art and food

went with maguires to musee d’orsay, then popped over to the louvre food court for lunch – not too cheap. came home to paint

art and food

taught art class – worked on colored paper and conte crayons – still life. 

afterwards, i painted – working on horse. 

 for dinner we and the maguires had oysters and champagne, milanese veal prepared by the butcher, roast eggplant, red pepper, and feta pasta; good cheese plate – epoisse, camembert, comte, rocamadore chevre, st emilion wine . delicious and fun to share.

flea market

the maguires wanted to go to the giant flea market, at clignancourt.  unfortunately for them, we are having a cold wave.  it’s not normally this cold.  anyway, we wandered through the lanes of the flea market.  20 years ago, they had been here and found a dealer who specialized in devil things.  the kids told me that the devil candlesticks that she bought are her most cherished possession.  they actually recognized the area and said, they thought the devil man was nearby.  it turned out that we were right there at the precise spot, but he was closed.  the neighbor gave us all the info and i will contact him to see if he has a website.  afterwards, we walked to sacre coeur, then thru montmartre, then to see the moulin rouge.  they wanted to go to pere lachese, the famous cemetary, but we stopped in belleville to go to a chinese restaurant i knew.  “le president” has very cool decoration, but unfortunately it wasn’t fabulous.  we had dim sum. afterwards, they went on to pere lachese. i went home to paint.  they went out for dinner to see another old friend.

brunch, then more visitors

snowed last night. a thin layer of snow everywhere. not too cold. maynard and i went to the champs de mars this morning (as most mornings).

then made brunch for our friends who had commissioned a painting of their daughter in the style of modigliani. i finally finished that painting. it was very difficult. as i have already mentioned, some of modigliani’s portraits didn’t look like the subjects, so it was interesting to make a painting in his style and also make it LOOK like the subject. i tried several different directions and it took me around 3-4 months. i am pleased with the finished product. today i presented it to them. it seemed that they loved it.

we wanted to make an “american brunch”. the woman is french and a camerawoman (p met her on his trip to cuba 16 years ago). her husband is senegalese. their daughter is around 13 years old. we made pancakes served with maple syrup, blueberry sauce or fresh strawberries. they liked that enough to take the recipe. actually, jj made the pancakes. jj had also bought bacon from the new “marks and spencers” shop on the champs elysees. she says that they don’t have the right kind of bacon in france. i think it’s fine. but this bacon was really english “rashers” which i like better than american, since there is more meat and less fat. then, since it was really lunchtime, i made “tortilla soup”, an old favorite.  went well, though maybe a weird combination of foods.

that evening, our good friends, the maguires arrived. i knew g and l from my time working in ireland. we travelled much of ireland together. then they were in san francisco when we were there. our kids are like cousins. we were a tribe. we moved away and they moved back to northern ireland a few years ago. anyway, we wanted to bring them to our favorite local bistro, “au roi du cafe”, but when we arrive they were closed! so we had sushi instead. they seemed to be happy enough with that! we are all squished into our apartment, the 4 maguires sleeping in the living room.

movie “family with teenager” style

jj got up early on a saturday! why? to study, to practice, to work, to do her chores? of course not. she had a shopping opportunity, so she was motivated to get up. her friends discovered a “forever 21” shop (american very stylish and very inexpensive clothes) on the outskirts of paris, and one of the moms was going to drive them there. she was out the door by 9. then she went to lunch at a korean restaurant with one of her friends. i tell you. the life of a euroteen...

back home, she’s supposed to practice and vacuum. she of course, has loads of school work. but then a friend called and said she was going to a movie, the new “sherlock holmes” and jj needed to go with her. the friend was going with a guy and he was bringing his friends and she didn’t want to be the only girl, so it was necessary for jj to go. we wanted to see the movie too. we knew enough to ask her permission. can we go to the movie in the same theatre? of course, we won’t sit with you, or even show that we know you. the answer was “no”. so p and i had to go to a different theatre, on opposite side of paris from her. that’s what it’s like with a teen.

we really liked the film. very well done. of course, one should never be too critical of the less-than-believable events in any hollywood action fiction. nevertheless, i was slightly disappointed that the prime motivation of the villain, in the end, was money. it just didn’t seem evil enough. too banal. power would have seemed much more appropriate. however, p’s main complaints concerned the landmarks of paris. “unbelievable that the heros seemed to get from notre dame to the opera in 5 minutes! and that was BEFORE the metro was installed. and then the deduction of holmes that the villain was going to the gare du nord train station because it was the closest to the tuileries where he sat, whereas in fact, at that time, there was the gare d’orleans which was much closer!” spoken like a true geography geek!

of course, those facts would be of little concern to a story person. artistic license. though, there were definitely some other weaknesses in the story. they spoke at the end about “the twins”. what twins? there had been no discussion about twins that i had caught. the twins ended up being somewhat key to a holmes deduction. nevermind. i remember that at my last game job one of my colleagues, a 20 something woman, referred to robert downey jr as “the old, sexy guy”. i personally considered him neither old nor sexy. oh well, different perspectives to remind me of my advancing age.

my phone started ringing towards the end of the film. i knew it was jj since she had started her film 45 mins before we had. if i tried to turn off the loud ringer, it would’ve been 10 seconds of irritating noise during the climax of the film, so i figured out a new strategy. i sat on it and that silenced it very well! p had wondered how i had turned it off so quickly.

cosi lunch, indian dinner

i painted this morning. am working on a commission of an icelandic pony. i realized that this is a good direction to go. people with horses LOVE their horses and would love paintings of them. people with horses are often able to afford a painting of their horse. will pursue this. 

with the end of our time in paris in sight, i am trying to get out and about the city more. recently, i had passed by a special sandwich shop that i remembered from when i lived here 15 years ago. it’s called “cosi” and they make their own sandwich bread right there. i guess this doesn’t sound too special since all the bakeries in france make sandwiches from their own bread too, but this shop also makes really interesting sandwiches. they sold their concept to an american company, so there is a sandwich chain in the US also called “cosi” but i think this is better than the chain. anyway, i had been wanting to go back and try the food there again. i needed to pick up our malaria pills for india. these are going to be very expensive. i found a discount drug store in the same area, so i went to cosi for lunch. it was delicious! home baked thin foccacia and very interesting combinations.  a good place to know in the st. germain area. 

i passed by a bakery which is part of a chain called “paul”. they had written above their door “pain rustique et de fantasie”, literally “rustic bread and bread of fantasy”. i laughed. only in france would they have fantasies about bread. i also passed by a gelato store called “GROM” which is quite famous. need to come back and try that. 

found my discount pharmacy, “citypharma” which was PACKED with people, and bought 200 euros worth of malaria pills. saved 120 euros. decided to walk home. 

i was supposed to go to an indian restaurant with the conversation group for lunch, but most people dropped out and we had cancelled. so decided to try it out with p tonight. i feel that i’m in training for india. i am afraid of how i will handle the spicy food when we go there in 2 weeks, so i need to get used to it. for some reason the conversation group had used MY name for the reservation (i guess i’ve made my reputation as the food fanatic), so i was embarrassed to make another reservation in my name. so i used p’s name. he was first to arrive, and when he asked for the reservation in my name, they said, “no, no, she cancelled”. so HE was confused and THEY were confused. then i arrived and told them it was in p’s name – i had tried to NOT confuse them, but instead ended up confusing everyone. they even came back to confirm that p was p. the dinner was fine. p said he thought it was good. i came home and had tummy troubles. gosh!

continuing heater saga

the heater exhaust pipes in the kitchen have been dripping/leaking since mid december. i put assorted bowls and pans under the 3-4 different drip spots. the colder it is outside, the more the heater works, the more the pipes drip rust colored water. we need to empty the bowls at least once a day. once it poured outside and the bowls filled right up. we don’t know why that is. we went away at christmas, but were lucky to have friends there who could empty them. it’s been a drag. as soon as the owners of the apartment gave the ok to install a new heater/water heater, the plumbers ordered one. it would take 10 days to arrive. they called and said they could install it on the 2nd or if that day didn’t work, they couldn’t come until 2 weeks after that. it just happens that we are having an unprecedented cold wave with temperatures in the teens and 20’s. whatever. we want to get this done. the landlord has lent us a little electric radiator. we can all huddle in one room for 2 days. 

the young plumber and his younger assistant arrived promptly at 8. they dismantled the heater and exhaust pipes quickly. impressive. efficient. (i really want to believe in their expertise). they carried the bulky, heavy unit and numerous wide exhaust pipes down to their van and came back with the bulky heavy, but new, heater. i took maynard for a walk. when i came back, i asked “ca va?” (everything ok?). “non, ca va PAS” (no. everything is NOT ok). “oh, what’s wrong?”. the heater, which took 10 days to arrive after ordering, was the wrong width. they screwed up on something as basic as the SIZE of the heater! so they had to bring the new heater back down to the van and bring the old heater and all the pieces back up and REINSTALL them. ridiculous. but ok all the same since it is REALLY cold. by the time they come back with another heater, it will be warmer out.  plus, we have friends coming to stay with us this weekend, so having heat would be nice.

our friends are a family of 4, so we needed an extra bed. i went to “conforama” the french version of ikea, in town, to buy a foldable chair/mattress. it takes a while to know where to go to buy things. knowing these things makes life a little easier.

maynard pick up

went to meet maynard-mom2 to pick him up. went to meet in the “regular” cafe – where lots of the school mom’s meet. we had a nice coffee. she is also an artist and we talked about various art things. picked up some groceries and then went home and painted.

return to paris

returned to paris.  plane arrived at 6am.  i had had about 5 hours of sleep, so was in good shape.  got home by 7:15 and had breakfast with the family.  went to bed for my nap.  it’s cold in paris.  when i woke up and after dealing with some administrative stuff on computer, i wanted to have some soup.  so i went to one of my favorite chinese restaurants – more of a luncheonette – called “mirama” in the center of town.  it’s so easy to get there.  just 4 or 5 metro stops.  there’s a waiter there that looks like my father...   (have written about this restaurant before.  i used to come here 15 years ago, and the waiters are not only the same, and not only haven’t aged, but they seem to have gotten younger.  all that m.s.g....) anyway, had a nice wonton and noodle soup.  then went for a long walk across, along, and then back across the seine, and finally took a bike for the last part to get home. cold, but not too cold.  a nice brisk walk.

ma's facility

when my mother got to the facility she was considered highly “functional”.  she was MUCH more functional than many.  she was upset to be there.  but when she was not “lucid” she chatted happily and even played the piano.  now, after her accident (she fell and broke a hip and then had 2 strokes), she is more on the level of the lesser functional residents.  i remember in those first days watching someone being fed, and feeling that that was far away for her.  here we are 4 months later, and she is at that level.  she still recognizes us.  i figured that since her kids were so important to her, that there were lots and lots of neural connections created for that, so there are still back up ones, keeping those memories.

so what’s it really like, in a facility for the memory impaired?  i’m impressed with the staff who are so wonderful.  so kind and patient.  they constantly chat with residents.  they seem to be able to see them as the people they used to be, and to understand that they are all in the midst of an illness now.   they know their characters.  each patient is an individual.

my mother is fairly catatonic.  i say hello and sometimes she stares into space.  the most she can say clearly is “yes”, “no”, “i don’t know”.  so this caregiver comes out of her room at one point, chuckling saying “she is SO funny”.  “really?”, i say.  i mean, yes, she is.  she’s funny and kind and wise, but how could she tell? 

i sat with my mother at lunch, feeding her.  the stroke affected her right arm and her tongue. her right arm is locked, bent in.  she had problems swallowing so she is on pureed food.  she has regained a little ability with her tongue and so is eating much better, but still puree. 

 i watched the other residents.  there is one woman who is very functional, and very beautiful.  always dressed nicely, with a sweater and pearls. in september, when i first met her, i wanted my mom to be friends with her.   there is another woman, named r. who stares into space.  she is in a wheelchair and has a doll on her lap.  she has very blue eyes, slightly almond shaped.  she just stares and stares.  in september, i was watching her sitting there like this, and then she had a visitor, an older gentleman who may have been her husband.   she suddenly snapped out of it and jumped up to lead him by the arm to her room.  but today, she was staring into space, in the direction of another woman, called mary.  mary has long white hair, slightly wavy, and ragged.  she has a sharp intense, wrinkled face.  she was possibly beautiful in her youth, but looks more like an evil storybook character now.  she is very active and a bit aggressive.  my sister calls her “scary mary”.  she started yelling at r.  “hey, why don’t you just look out the window.  look over there!”.  but r. wasn’t really staring at her and wasn’t responding to her either.  then mary started cursing at her.  i sort of enjoyed watching and listening to it.  crazy curse words flying.  cursing and cursing and cursing.  the attendants tried to calm her down and stop her cursing.

later, at dinner, r. was more active.  a caregiver was sitting with her trying to get her to eat.  she was pushing her food around, talking about it, talking to it, talking as if in a dream.  talking nonsense.  “you see, if it’s here and then i want to do this.  then they would like it...”  i can’t remember exactly what she said.  it as if  the outer layer of rational thought, of logic, of things making sense has been stripped away revealing a chaos underneath.  a pile of information badly connected.  how are they different from people who are insane?  i guess there are all kinds of mental illnesses, each one with different symptoms.  it is a sort of insanity...

my mother has been watching movies with my sister, so we watched some together too.  she is engaged, and then asleep and then awake and engaged again.  hard to say, but she seems to like it.

i feel badly for my mother.  mostly, i don’t want her to suffer.  she is lucky that she can be in such a nice facility where there are caring people who want to work in a job taking care of her and people like her.  perhaps it is a blessing that she doesn’t really understand where she is.  they say that people with diminished mental capacity aren’t necessarily suffering.  they’re not necessarily aware of their state.  they’re just hanging out.

jj has party

jj wanted to have her friends over to our apartment for a party.  that was fine, but the rule was, there has to be a chaperone.  i’m away, so p was chaperone.   no alcohol allowed.  one of those subjects where each family has different rules.  we have a small apartment, but p stayed in the other room.  seems to have been fine.   in any case, i wasn’t there to witness it.

heading to nh

heading to new hampshire to visit my mother who is now in a facility for “memory impaired”.

truffle, continued

the fridge really stinks!  my new expensive truffle seems to be the real thing.  stinking up the fridge even though it is in a sealed tupperware with the raw eggs.  i guess you get what you pay for...