A girl should be two things: who and what she wants.

As of recent, nothing of consequence, that is actually worth writing about, has happened in my life. It’s the normal thing. I watch kids. I run. I eat cheese. I eat chocolate. I read. I go to Paris. I drink too much. This is really my life as of current. I wish I had something extremely exciting to write about, but I don’t really. I have not written about my time in London yet, and I will soon, I think. Or at least I will try. I have a really ridiculous idea for a blog that I hopefully will be able to write after this weekend or next.

Kids are funny; and kind of irritating. If I have learned anything in this experience thus far it is that I love and miss my dogs and my idea of having children is still leaning way towards the side of no. Sorry mom and dad. Cross your fingers that your other kids give you grandchildren. My mom and my friend told me things would be different with my own, but I am thinking that’s not true. I base this on not only my own experience, but thinking about how much of a pain in the ass I still am to my parents. And I am old. Whoops…

Everyone once and a while cute things happen. Finally my little guy, E, started calling me Sarah. But, he doesn’t pronounce the A’s or the S. So it sounds kinda like he is saying R in French, which is really complicated and UH at the end. But, at least I am only “Wash” sometimes. I bought a scarf that I finally got in the mail and I tried it on and the older kid, G, said…”oh, you look great” It is kind of funny coming from a little kid to hear that. Like I said, every once and while they do cute things.

The older kid turned 6 this past weekend and had a science themed party. It was one of the cutest things I have ever witnessed in my life. If hell freezes over and I do have a kid, I will 100% do a science theme party. Or maybe one day someone will actually pay me to do parties and I could do a science theme one. I wish I could include pictures of him because they wore little white lab coats and name tags, but I still believe I shouldn’t put their pictures up. I was thinking if I get a picture of my entire family after my half marathon, I will put that up with permission. I did, however, include a really cute pic of some of the decorations the mom had. It looked so good.

Speaking of parties, I am currently in planner mode all the way from France. My friend is having a baby and she is also getting a shower from yours truly. I tell you, planning from France is an experience and I want more than anything to run out to my go-to stores and shop but…I can’t. So, I have to improvise. It definitely is interesting to try and get creative.

I am also taking a class from Stanford on Surveillance Law. The material so far is…dry. Very lawyer-y. But the professor, who is a lawyer is kinda awesome and he tries to make his lectures interesting and it is nice to have someone love their topic. He is also really young which I personally think makes a difference. We will see how long this lasts for me given the fact that I am a shit student.

I included a really ridiculous picture of a sandwich below. France has all these sandwich places and you literally get like a French baguette with things in it. Normally, the classic French sandwich is a freaking butter and ham sandwich. I found a place that tries more exotic things and I get this curry chicken sandwich and it is literally amazing. When I was in Paris today, I of course ate breakfast, but then I bought the sandwich for the ride on the train home. It costs 4 euros which is also a really ridiculous price in Paris. The picture of the coke is a new coke that so far is only over here. I asked someone in America if they had seen it and they hadn’t. It apparently has less sugar in it and only uses natural sugar. Kinda tasted like diet coke to me…but it was still good and it is less calories.

I included just some other pics from France, I put the captions in there. Like I said things have been boring-ish lately. I got a really great package from my mom which included some Christmas gifts that were left over or didn’t make it home before my mom came here and some great running things and pants! I have no pants that fit. Well two pair, then what my mom sent, which sadly don’t fit. Please do not be concerned and some other friends were, France sells pants, but when you are poor as shit like me and would rather spend money on drinking, traveling and food…pants fall really low on the list.

Music and books. I found this French rapper who, for some reason, I love. I can’t really understand everything he says…but I still kinda love it. Check him out HERE. I also have been reading the Stephanie Plum series of books, there are 21 (check it HERE), I have gone through about a book a day. It’s getting expensive…specially since I am poor…but the series is overall okay. A bit repetitive and could add some things, but it makes me want to keep reading. I guess that's good. I am really interested in seeing how it ends. I want it to end one way, but I am thinking it is not going to happen for me...

This is it on the French front for now. I also want to say thank you to the Davies family for the incredibly generous gift they gave me today, which will help with my book addiction. And by help I mean make it way worse.

I almost forgot this one small piece of info. It snowed once! Well twice. But once it didn't stick. And the other time it did. I did not even notice until late morning when it started to melt away. Below are some pics that I was able to get. 

Trails and tribulations of a fat food lover trying to run…I think that’s the title I gave this section. I have no idea to be perfectly honest. Anyway. Running. Its so hit and miss. And I know I need more drive to drag my fat ass out of bed and into the cold and rain to do it. I had my longest week ever recently and ran 16 miles. I also ran all the way to a McDonalds and I didn’t even get anything, I turned and ran my fat ass home. One of the worst things about running in this country is the cars. I have almost been hit by MANY cars. Not only that, but the sidewalks are so narrow AND French people drive on the sidewalks because the roads are too narrow to fit two cars. It is so scary. Not only that but I am a smidgeon worried because I am training on so many hills and constant change in elevation and the route I am running is totally flat. I looked at the route the other day and it starts out at a castle. A flipping castle. HELLOOO. I love France. Like so much. Anyway, I am still running. I still love food. And I still am fat. BUT on a brighter note, my coach is doing a silent auction via the internet with some AMAZING items. Like for real. And before you freak and think she’s trying to make a buck…which I guess she is…but it is so she can fund a scholarship to take one of her students with her to a foreign country. I never studied abroad but I have now lived in a foreign country and I have to say, the experience is priceless and I will never ever forget it. Check out her auction information HERE and try and help!!! You can also donate by her GoFundMe page HERE in case you aren’t into sweet exercise things.

I still love and miss most everyone, especially my dogs Kahlua and Martini. I will throw a pic of them below too just for shits and gigs.

Title quote: Coco Chanel. She has some amazing quotes. She knew her shit. 

Sunset from my bedroom window

SNOW!!!

SNOW!!! on my bedroom window

Super cute science party decor

Paris

Metro Map at the Chatelet Station

Paris Street

50 Shades of Grey en France

Badass curry chicken sandwich

Coke Life...

Care Package!

Martini Girl keeping warm...

Kahlua Girl, guarding avocados...

Kahlua and Martini Chillin

If your dreams don't scare you, they aren't big enough.

So I haven’t written in a long time and I apologize. Like I’ve said before writing about all the experiences after they happen are hard. I do still have to write about me and my mom’s second half of our trip in England. It was great. And I will get to that soon, I hope to promise. Maybe this weekend, I think I have some free time.

Currently it is late in France, 11pm and I am waiting up to make a phone call at 12:30am my time. The time change really creates issue when trying to communicate with people back home. I never would have thought it would make that big of a difference, six hours, but goodness. It’s exhausting. I wake up with 1000 notifications and texts and I get calls at 3am my time, which is normal back in the US.

Everything is going good here except I keep getting sick. I have no idea why but its starting to really take a toll on me. Constantly being sick and chasing around kids and walking in the cold rain is awful. None the less I recently got over my most recent sickness and I’ll be going out this weekend, some with my family and some with friends.

I know I bring this up often but music. Music is life. I can’t say it enough. Lately I have been listening to three albums constantly…check em…(the Hozier album is incomplete)

Maroon 5-V

Corey Smith-Maysville in the Meantime

Hozier-Hozier

I kinda wanted to write a quick post about two things I don’t normally talk a lot about; terrorism and running. I absolutely hate what happened in Paris. It was senseless and stupid. People don’t need to die for the reasons they did, ever. Innocent people carrying on with their daily lives; honestly it’s complete bullshit. I don’t make political statements like ever because it’s no one’s business what I think or believe and I don’t need to justify anything in the public. I just don’t. But I have to say being here when this occurred and seeing what happened is amazing. The French people are interesting and people have plenty of stereotypes and beliefs whether they have been around French people or not. Some of them are totally true, I admit it but some are not. The French people are a proud people. It was amazing to me that IMMEDIATELY after what happened people were in the streets showing their support and showing their disagreement with what happened. People were in the streets the very night the shooting occurred at Charlie Hebdo. Honestly, the only demonstrations I have heard about in the US recently have been destructive and disgusting. This was something totally different. I watched so much news and was able to see what was happening so close to me. (the US news was giving crazy reports and stuff) I was lucky to be able to be here and witness something amazing from the human race especially in the face of tragedy. I read an article that an old high school classmate posted on Facebook and it was essentially addressing that the US was so supportive of what happened here in France and the US people were all for free speech and were saying “Je suis Charlie” ( I am Charlie) along with everyone else in the world yet in America things aren’t exactly like that. It isn’t PC to say certain things and people would have been angered over the things that were displayed in the paper and really, who knows if it would have even been published. It made me thing. I really pride myself on being an open minded person and listening to other people because how can I expect to get through life on my own accord. I don’t know everything and yes I have my beliefs and my thoughts and my morals but it doesn’t mean I am always right and it doesn’t mean there isn’t more than one way to get from point A to point B. Think about it. Remember what happened here in France and remember how the people came together. I am glad my experiences here aren’t just black and white and one dimension.

The trials and tribs of a fat food lover running. Let me just tell you. Lately during my runs I have been thinking a lot about running and who I am as a runner and how I got to this point. My blog isn’t about running because it’s just a hobby and you can find 150,000,000 other blogs on running. But I felt that I had to say this. I am not a skinny person. When I started running I wasn’t in shape. I was an angry person and I needed to get my shit together. That’s why I started. That and it was a way to connect with people and friends. When I started running I could only run a mile and in the 4 mile circuit that I was running, it was a 15 minute mile on a good day. It took forever. I had to walk most of it. I threw up countless times. I started running last July. Seven months ago. I do not run as consistently as I should, I don’t eat right or “clean” I mean come on, I live in France. I eat bread, cheese, drink too much wine and almost all our meals have some sort of cheese or cream based sauce. But I have lost a stupid amount of weight. I can run 8.5 miles without stopping. I have shaved minutes…MINUTES…off my average per mile, my resting heart rate is so slow that the doctor questioned me for a long time about what I did for exercise and my diet and all the other things he could think of. The point of what I am saying is it doesn’t take much. I can’t imagine what would happen if I started eating better, laid off the damn wine…and cider…and beer. It doesn’t take a lot to get healthy. It really doesn’t. It might sound cliché and it seems that exercise is like a new fad specially with yoga, and plio, and pilates and crossfit but it doesn’t have to be any of that. Walking. Walking is exercise. Take one shitty thing out of your diet. Motivate yourself to do something just three times a week. Youtube is a blessing. They have millions of exercise videos, stretching videos, yoga videos. Everything. Try it out. I wouldn’t believe it myself if I wasn’t shocked by what my body is currently capable of. And like I said, I am still not skinny and I eat like shit. But the human body has amazed me in so many ways. Get off your ass and do something!!!!

I will get to writing more later. I am trying to promise. Here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure for now! 

Title quote: pinterest of course. have dreams. go after them. life is too fucking short. 

St Paul' Cathedral-Paris

From the top of the Eiffel Tower

Kensington Palace-London

St Paul's Cathedral-London

The London Eye

It's not what we have in life but who we have in our life that matters

So I promised to write more often, and I kinda sorta kept to that. I wrote a post back on December 9 but for some reason half of it was erased. Awesome. So I never posted. Cause I suck. Instead, I am going to write about what me and my mom have been doing as well as trying to incorporate what wasn’t lost from my December 9 writings.

There are two songs I have been in love with lately. One, a new Corey Smith song called Moving Pictures. Listen to it here. And the other is Paramore Last Hope. Listen here. I believe in music and art. It can change the world. These songs have treated me amazingly as of recent, seriously listen to them.

I also wanted to give a quick shout out to my friend, running coach, and cousin. I mentioned her blog in one of my last posts but I should have made a bigger deal out of it and even included a link. Read Psyched2run here. It is a great blog, she’s an amazing woman and friend and go exercise!!

I am pretty sure my family is curious about what my mom and I are up to. So I will give you the breakdown thus far. On Monday, I went to get her at the airport via train. I swear. So much complicated. Not only is the airport an hour from Paris, but I live about 50 minutes from Paris. This was my first time doing this train hopping situation. I am pretty good at the trains and metros now but good lord. I had to take my train, to the metro to another train. Because I was kind of pooping my pants and because I woke up at 5am that day I got on a second train that wasn’t exactly right. There is a non-stop train from Chatlet (which means nothing to you all) to the airport…well of course I did not get on that one. 150 million stops later I got to the airport. Then I got stuck. Apparently I needed a separate ticket from Paris to the airport. I am not sure why because its within the 5 zones (I won’t try to explain the crazy that is the French transit system) so I figured I needed the special ticket I had. Well, that’s not true. SO ANNOYING. And honestly, how the hell was I supposed to know?! Then I had to get through the airport, which is a nightmare. Ps, this sounds like a lot of complaining and it kind of is, but at 6am having only ingested a banana and already had 60 issues, this wasn’t exactly fun. C’est dommage.

I got my mom!!! Then we had the bullshit of getting back home which was just that. I actually literally shit my pants on the train because we were running late (more train/ticket issues) and I was standing in line to get a ticket for my mom for the train when they blew the whistle. Well, me, my mom and her THREE suit cases ran to the train and threw the bags on, while one tumbled off the train, so we could catch it. This means I did not have a ticket. Well of course for the first time ever!!! They say they are going to check tickets, and I knew I was going to French jail. I never necessarily ever wanted to spend time in jail, much less a French one… but!!! Christmas miracle, they didn’t get check them? Anyway. Three suitcases. Yes my mother traveled to Europe for three weeks with as much luggage as I brought to live for a year. She is an amazing woman and I ordered about 3,000 things for Christmas for my French family and my mom brought as many of my gifts as humanly possible. Which apparently it is, in three suitcases. Haha.

The first day we spent with my French family. Hanging out eating (because, france) We had a French meal for lunch which is like some sausage and bean thing. My French mom doesn’t know the name, but it’s good. And salad of course. My mom and I went through her suitcases and I started wrapping some of my gifts while she took a nap. That evening we had another French dinner, the name I forget. But it is like a bunch of appetizers, essentially. My mom ate fois gras for the first time and got drunk on wine. Classic France. I am really glad she got to eat this stuff and have the experience with my family here because honestly they are the best.

The next day I spent doing some babysitting because my family was leaving for the Czech Republic. We had quiche for lunch, which I effing love and just spent time with them. They left about 3pm and just hung out. I made a dinner of leftovers and other things cause that’s what we do and we watched a movie. Rather uneventful.

Christmas eve we went to Paris. My mom kept (and keeps) saying how she can’t believe she is in Paris and in Europe. It is funny because I realize I am maybe taking it for granted. I use to feel the same way and now I just feel normal. Like this is my home and although clearly this is a dramatization, I don’t remember not living here. It’s just normal. We went to the American breakfast place because there is nothing like a fake American breakfast when you’re in France!

We were supposed to be staying in the flat that night but ended up not. We packed a bag and that morning dropped it off before breakfast and holy guacamole awkward. I, for whatever reason, am not smart enough to open the door to this place and this is not the first time. Last time was 4am and me and my friend were drunk while my French family were all sleeping inside. Anyway. Well I of course couldn’t open the door and that family was in the south of France for Christmas. Well, all of the sudden someone said hello from the otherwise of the door. Well answered it was a boy I did not recognize. I had no idea what to do and I couldn’t communicate exactly what I wanted to I was luckily connected to their internet having stayed their previously and I used my translator app to tell this kid what’s up. He asked us to wait in the dinning room and he was hastily cleaning the living room where he apparently just slept. Well I texted my French mom asking what the hell was up. She calls me in a panic and tells me to get out of the house now and call the police because no one was supposed to be there. All hell ensues, I am shitting myself, my French mom is panicking until 5 minutes later when we find out this kid is legit. The whole thing was so crazy and ridiculous.

So we eat and head to Notre Dame. It was so far a really nice day out. The church is an amazing site to see and my mom wasn’t let down. After, we walked around some streets and shops and then saw my favorite building, Hotel de Ville. We watched the ice skaters We did some shopping at a few different stores. After that we had an appointment at the Eiffel Tower. I had just recently done this with a friend but I was excited to go again. Before that, we had a hot dog in a baguette. Let me tell you. Ridiculous. Anyway. My mom was so excited to go to the Eiffel Tower and to go the top. It is kind of nice to see someone so excited about something and it was really awesome to share in that with my mom. It was so cold, of course, and raining. The fog rolled in and you could barely freaking see anything which was extremely irritating!!! We had dinner reservations so after that we headed to another area of Paris.

We were early so we walked around in the rain and checked out some of the things nearby. Dinner was amazing. (see pics) I did like a red wine tasting with our waitress when I couldn’t decide what I wanted. It was so awesome. I had a skirt steak with a blue cheese sauce, fries and oxtail macaroni. My new motto is when in France, eat all the weird shit you can that you would have never eaten before. Oxtail as it turns out kind of tastes like short ribs. My mother had filet, with ratatouille and pan fried mushrooms. The mushrooms were out of this world. Fried would not be the term I would use to describe these. They were like seared maybe and in garlic and spices and other good things. I had crème brulee for desert, because if you know me well this is my most favorite thing ever. My mom had an apple pie with ice cream. After we gorged ourselves we waddled to the train station and went home for the night.

Christmas day we wore our jammies, which I bought us cause they were matching but mine were blue and moms were pink. (see pic below) We had a breakfast of weird things and then we planned on hanging out and watching hallmark Christmas movies all day. Well…that apparently meant us falling asleep and not waking up until it was time to open gifts with my family. Skype is an amazing thing. We skyped Christmas with my dad, sister, brother and brother in law. We still had our traditions and ways we did things but it was just far away this time. It was weird and sad and I missed being around everyone. Again, oh well. Oh! Our Christmas dinner was a pizza. Haha. France has these really good pizzas in the cold section not frozen with all types of toppings we don’t really use…ie amazing cheese and veggies and hams. Anyway, that’s what we ate. I also drank like three sodas and ate chocolate for lunch. No wonder I wanted to pass out in a coma for hours. I am not sure that was the best diet, but hey, it was Christmas! And I am on vacation damn it! The rest of the evening we watched a movie and hung out. Also because I am awesome, I made some drawings of gifts for my mom and wrapped them for her. I have included them for your viewing pleasure below. I am a fucking artist. YOU CANNOT DENY IT!

The day after Christmas we were back in Paris. My mom again was still so excited about being in Paris. We ate lunch/breakfast at a bagel joint I have seen several times. It was okay. I probably won’t go back. France has not perfected the bagel. Again, C’est dommage. We then went to a park that has this relaly big large statute that I don’t know what it is. I mean I know that at some point every few years a group meets at it and travels to Jerusalem. Ps I suck at history. Seriously. I need to practice that. We wanted to hit up some museums yesterday so we made our first stop at the Louvre. What an overwhelming place. It was kind of too much especially when compared to other places. Yea, there is some great art in there but it’s so massive and there is so much and it’s so crowded. It’s just so. My mom saw the Mona Lisa which is what she wanted and I saw the Venus de Milo. You can’t come to France and not go to this place but I have to say it was too too much. Also, as a traveling tip, GET YOUR TICKETS IN ADVANCE. That is all.

We also went to this Christmas market my mother had been talking about for days. It was a letdown. Sadly. They put up a ferris wheel at the end of the Tuileries garden. The market was just behind there. She bought a magnet there and we had a nice time. My mom also, for whatever reason, is obsessed with the French military who are always everywhere so I had to take a picture of them for her. And now I refer to them as her friends every time I see them, which again is always.

We had dinner at a café we found and ate some quiche, spaghetti and a crepe. After, it started raining, which was awful because it was also so cold. We went to the Champs Elysees and saw the Arc de Triomphe. I wrote about this before but it is completely lit up at night for the holidays and it is totally amazing. You can’t put it into words and the pictures never ever do it justice.

I think this is all I will write for now. It is so much. We went to Paris again today but I will try to write again in like three days. We leave for England on Monday and I am so excited. Hopefully anyone reading this had a great Christmas or Hanukah or whatever holiday you celebrate at this period of time. Also!!! Thank you to my friends and family who sent me Christmas cards and a special thank you to my Aunt for an amazing package! I LOVE getting mail! 

trials and tribulations of a fat food lover trying to run: as it turns out my latest issue is running at all. For about two weeks I was really sick and running a fever. I was actually getting really scared I was going to have to go see my semi-pleasant French doctor who only speaks French. It wasn’t until about two days ago that I could actually breathe above like 10%. What a nightmare. So. I have to start running again. Luckily I got some really great warm running stuff for Christmas because it is only getting colder here. I am super loving this RBX brand of clothes. I honestly don’t even know if this is a good brand or where you can buy it because I get it at like Marshalls and TJ max but I LOVE it. My sister got me some AMAZING gloves (ps running with cold hands sucks so much ween) and she also got me a running water bottle. Let me tell you how awful running in 30 degree weather for 9 miles is on your mouth and throat and stomach. It is the pits. I can’t wait to try these out and actually run again. I have like two months…kind of because February is like three quarters of a month and in that time I have three weeks of vacation…ahhh. Semi Paris please do not murder me. Merci.

Title quote: pinterest. cause. duh.

From atop the Eiffel Tower

From atop the Eiffel Tower

From atop the Eiffel Tower

Selfies from atop the Eiffel Tower

Christmas Dinner

The Louvre

The Louvre

The Louvre

The Louvre

Church

Arc Selfies

Christmas a Paris

Rainy Eiffel Tower Selfies

The Louvre

Christmas Eve Dinner

Selfies

Christmas Eve Dinner

Tiffany's! 

Mom's best friends

Christmas Eve Dessert

Christmas Market

Venus de Milo

My girl Mona

I AM A FUCKING ARTIST

I AM A FUCKING ARTIST

I AM A FUCKING ARTIST

I AM A FUCKING ARTIST

I AM A FUCKING ARTIST