Taking this project in a new direction

It`s been quite awhile. Yes. There was an accident involving an adorable puppy, a plastic-post-surgical collar, a glass of water, and my laptop. Said accident resulted in a long hiatus from being active in the technological world. This hiatus was not unwelcome.

It’s been awhile, also, since I’ve actually wanted to blog about food. My lifestyle has changed dramatically over the last year and half. The change still involves wine drinking, restaurant trying, and frivolity, but it also involves green smoothies, long jogs, and a laser-like focus on my dream career. My dream career, unfortunately, is not wine drinking.

It all leads me to pontificate on why I was writing about food in the first place. Oh, yes, that’s it! This blog started out as that long email. You know, where your mom writes and says: “so and so is coming to Paris for two days and wants to know where you like to have lunch”. And you write an email back. And then by the 5th email, you think: “wouldn’t it be so much easier to write a blog about this.” yes, it would, sort of, maybe.

I never thought for a minute that people would actually want to read what I had to write, be it about food or otherwise. But encouragement from a dear high school friend, a long lost fake cousin, and others who were rediscovering my life through my blog led me to reconsider. When I returned home from a summer in Maine, I began thinking of ways I could go in a new direction. Travel? everyone does that. Paris? ditto. I don’t ever want to feel like I am writing an advertisement for someone. Unless that someone is me. (subsequently, would anyone like to hire me ? I’m pretty good at singing opera. I also know how to whistle like a bird, and can run a mile roughly faster than a small garden vole.) oh, goodness, that’s it! Me! no one writes about me ! I realize that I may have lost about 12 (i.e. all of) my loyal followers. But really, what unique thing do I have to offer to the blogosphere? me. short and simple. Then my dog knocked a glass of water on my laptop, and that all got shelved.

Anywho, my life is full to the brim these days with strange encounters with French people, stranger encounters with opera singers, food, wine, travel, puppies, exercise, visitors…but most importantly, my life is full to the brim with really awesome stories. A couple of weeks ago, a German shepherd bit me on the knee. His French owner looked at me, asked why I was swearing, said it couldn’t be that serious or I wouldn’t be able to walk (I couldn’t really walk), and resumed his regularly scheduled conversation about his dumb car. Wouldn’t that make a great blog post? Oh, oops.

Anyway, I think, if you’ve made it this far, you get my drift (why do people say that? is my train of thought a piece of driftwood? now it’s drifting out to sea…)

So welcome to Sweet Caroline 2.0. I’m still in Paris. I hate to disappoint you, but I don’t get invited to restaurant openings, or celebrity gatherings. I don’t enjoy active social networking, or self-promotion. The last time I saw the Eiffel Tower was by accident, and my charming French man is an awkward half-Polish, half-Algerian computer programmer. I forget words in English on a regular basis, but my French is neither accent-less nor particularly grammatically correct (I am, however, fluent in suburban slang). I refuse to use a thesaurus in order to write any of my blogposts, and I will never, ever, recommend anything on this blog that I have not tried, or personally approved of. Most importantly, I want to tell you stories. About Paris, maybe, about me, definitely. But good ‘ole stories. Too many blogs revolve around trying to garner the most views, or win bloggie blog awards. I want this blog to be 100% a reflection of me.

And so it has been said. And so it shall be. And now I’m off to listen to some bluegrass music and drink some bourbon. Because I forgot to mention that I am actually in Kentucky right now.

Happy New Year, kids! I hope it’s a doozie !

 

 

This message is Sweet Caroline approved.