Nil by Mouth

So i’m waffling on going

So i’m waffling on going to this hip-hop club tonight. Through my pauvre perusing of listings, it seems to be the closest and handiest place for me to shake what my momma gave me. But of course it’s Sunday night and i’m a bit fearful of waking up for work in the morning. And that’s not even accounting for how hard it is to get out of bed considering my apt is fweezing. My aunt gave me a portable radiator which has helped a lot. It’s even broken through 60F in the bedroom today – woo hoo. (BTW, i am not kidding about being happy – 60 is bliss at this moment).

I’ve cleaned for probably a total of 12 hours this weekend and my apartment is immaculate. Immaculate. Uh-huh. Last night i wandered around the right bank in search of lone fun-sters that i’ve definitely seen there before. They weren’t there but i could chalk that up to the below freezing temperature that seems to have infected Paris in the past few days. I ended up (after a very long walk) at the dutch bar, nursing a pint of Grolsch and chatting with another regular in painfully broken English. I kept telling him to speak French but he pretty much refused. And i think in this case oddly enough, my French was probably better than his English.

Also i have slept for 11-12 hours a night for the last three nights in a row. [shrug] Sometime’s a girl’s just tired i guess.

So, i bought a plant today. For someone reason, to me buying a plant is to a place what leaving a toothbrush at a lover’s house is to a relationship. It’s kind of like that “Ok we’re gonna be together for awhile now. Right? Right???” I went through this same back and forth about buying plants for my last place. Sure enough i got laid off the week after the roots told hold. Thing is, i love plants, i mean i loooove ‘em. So i have a hard time leaving them. So i have a hard time buying them. As an act of self-defiance i bought a plant on my first day to work here in Paris. It actually was barely alive when i came back from Istanbul because no one thought to water him (his name’s Pepe le Plant and no one gets it). When i quizzed my coworkers on this (all male french engineers) they said, “Oh you know vee are men, vee don’t vater zee plants”. This past time i left for New York i gave them clear instructions. And they were very good about it. Funny thing is i would get an e-mail or an ICQ every other day or so from one of them proudly declaring that he watered him, awaiting effusive praise i suppose. Ohh zee men…

— In the meantime plans for hip-hop tonight have been thwarted but plans for hip-hop on Wednesday have been tentatively made —

So anyway, she’s a cute lil thing with lil red flowers. I’ve already decided she’s a she but haven’t come up with a name yet. Go ahead and make a suggestion on the comments box. This either means i’ll be here for awhile or get sent packing next week. Who’s taking bets?

• Nov 11