11.21.2008     1h31

This morning, the mailman rang my doorbell shortly after 11am, and in his arms, he had a beautifully-wrapped box, straight from the good ole US of A.

You'll notice that Mom decorated the package with hearts (USA got hearts in the top left corner, and my full name, Erica Lee Johnson, also got the heart treatment).

Bypassing the customs form because I wanted to be surprised, I savoured the opening of the package. On the top was a lovely card from my parents, and then I started pulling out the goodies.

A bag of candy from one of mom's "meals on wheels" friends. Mmmm, American candy. Speaking of which, Mom and Dad threw in a bag of Reese's peanut butter cups. Yum.

There was an egg timer that I had asked for. I heard it can help with motivation. We'll see.

I also got a ceramic dish that has turkeys. A thanksgiving present! Plus it had a few packets of gravy for my upcoming thanksgiving celebration.

And hidden in the recesses of the turkey dish was a small black box. A jewelry box. I opened it and discovered this:



A ring that I had tried on last January when I was walking around the Natick Collection with my mom. Isn't it beautiful?

And aren't I SPOILED ROTTEN ?? Thanks Mom and Dad, your package made my day!

[categorized as   family   French Life   joie de vivre ]

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11.20.2008     8h10

I'm constantly thinking of new ways to enhance my blog.

For instance, I've been thinking about adding a Travel Tips section, where I (and you, if you wanted) could post bizarre/interesting/neat/amazing places to visit, including airports, hotels, bed & breakfasts, restaurants, etc. It's just that every time I think about it, I realize how much work it would be, and then I get discouraged.

After having been an insomniac for almost 2 weeks now, the fatigue finally caught up to me, and I was in bed, asleep, by 10pm last night. Which means that I have been awake since 630 this morning.

Instead of creating the travel tips section, I decided to add a "Song of the Month" feature, on the righthand side, where every month I'll share a song that you can listen to.

This month's song (and inspiration for the header) is from an Australian singer/songwriter called Ben Lee. I discovered him a few weeks ago and have been listening to a lot of his songs non-stop ever since. If you like this song, check out his album Ripe, and more specifically, the song by the same name.

[categorized as   music   random thoughts ]

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11.19.2008     21h32

Today, November 19, is apparently World Toilet Day.

(found on Neatorama)

Today is World Toilet Day! The World Toilet Organization invites you to become informed and get involved to promote global water issues and sanitation. 2.5 billion people do not have access to proper toilets. The international charity WaterAid has ways you can help, and some fun stuff like potty games and printable posters.

[categorized as   humorous   links   random thoughts ]

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11.19.2008     15h27

A poem I came across on a blog today that really touched me. I feel so blessed at the moment, but at the same time, I keep worrying that it's all going to slip away. As we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving next week, let's remember to be thankful for all that we have.

Sometimes when day after day we have cloudless blue skies,
warm temperatures, colorful trees and brilliant sun, when
it seems like all this will go on forever,

when I harvest vegetables from the garden all day,
then drink tea and doze in the late afternoon sun,
and in the evening one night make pickled beets
and green tomato chutney, the next red tomato chutney,
and the day after that pick the fruits of my arbor
and make grape jam,

when we walk in the woods every evening over fallen leaves,
through yellow light, when nights are cool, and days warm,

when I am so happy I am afraid I might explode or disappear
or somehow be taken away from all this,

at those times when I feel so happy, so good, so alive, so in love
with the world, with my own sensuous, beautiful life, suddenly

I think about all the suffering and pain in the world, the agony
and dying. I think about all those people being tortured, right now,
in my name. But I still feel happy and good, alive and in love with
the world and with my lucky, guilty, sensuous, beautiful life because,

I know in the next minute or tomorrow all this may be
taken from me, and therefore I've got to say, right now,
what I feel and know and see, I've got to say, right now,
how beautiful and sweet this world can be.

"Sometimes" by David Budbill

[categorized as   joie de vivre   philosophical ]

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11.18.2008     10h09

I came across the following blog post thanks to a friend's facebook status, and it was so bizarre that I had to post about it here.

(the full blogpost can be found here)

Now that we're settled in from our respective vacations, and enjoying the fall weather- Summer and I are getting back down to business. I was over at her place this morning photographing some tasty treats that will hopefully show up here later today, and she suddenly remembered this crazy broccoli package in her freezer she wanted to show me. She handed me the box and I studied it carefully, squinting, even allowing my eyes to blur, to try and see what I was missing. She pointed- "Do you see?" See what? I didn't see anything. Just broccoli. Her finger tapped on a certain part of the box and she urged me to look closer. "There- right there. Do you see it? I'm not going to tell you what it is if you don't see it." And then, it suddenly became clear to me. WHAT THE HELL?

It shouldn't be too hard to see here:



But if you're still not quite getting it, perhaps these macro shots will help:





LITTLE TERRIFYING ECSTATIC FACES, HIDING IN THE TEENY TINY BROCCOLI BITS.

In the macro shots, if you look closely enough, you can see many little faces on the ends of the broccoli. I don't know about you, but that's kind of creepy. I wonder if it's some weird marketing technique?

[categorized as   food   humorous ]

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11.13.2008     19h01

Matt Nathanson's song "Come on get higher" has been at the top of my playlist recently.

"just pull me down hard and drown me in love." Let's just say that I've never felt more loved, by both friends and family, than I have these past few weeks.

[categorized as   family   friends   joie de vivre   music   relationships   video ]

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11.12.2008     15h33

ok, so i'm not sure of the exact date of its creation, but in 1968, Doug Englebart presented "the mouse" to a conference. While the product has evolved greatly over the past 40 years, the name has stuck. This year, the mouse is celebrating its 40th birthday!

Here's a video of Englebart presenting a pointing device, which he called "a mouse", to the conference in 1968:

[categorized as   blogging/thesis   joie de vivre   video ]

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11.12.2008     0h43

So i left Clermont on friday, and I was 26. I got back this evening, and I'm 27. Weird!

But seriously, i couldn't have asked for a better birthday. birthday weekend. Birthday LONG weekend, in fact. From the time i showed up on Damien and Marie-Laure's doorstep friday afternoon to when Damien dropped me off at the train station this afternoon, I had a great time.

Saturday night, we met up with a group of friends and had dinner at the fondue restaurant, as planned. Pics are posted, and as you can see, we had a FABULOUS time.

Thank you to everyone who emailed me / texted me / called me to wish me a happy birthday. Your attention is duly noted !!

I don't want to get back to work tomorrow ...

[categorized as   food   friends   joie de vivre   relationships ]

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11.10.2008     15h22

how come Grey's Anatomy always makes me cry? It's just a tv show, right?

[categorized as   television ]

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11.07.2008     17h22

So I'm back in "gai Paris" for a five-day weekend to celebrate my 27th birthday. I'll be celebrating with my Clermont friends next friday, but given that next Tuesday is a holiday, I wanted to come to Paris this weekend.

Tomorrow night, I've organized drinks and dinner with a group of friends. We're heading to Le Reguge des Fondues, a hole-in-the-wall fondue restaurant near Sacre Coeur, where they serve wine in baby bottles. I've never been there but have heard lots about it (back in 2002, my toulouse gang was in Paris and went, but I had already left for England). It will be an interesting evening !!!

Pics and recap to follow, of course. Bon appetit & joyeux anniversaire a moi !!

[categorized as   food   friends   joie de vivre   relationships   traveling ]

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