someone please get me out of texas!!!!!!

living in austin, i've always been able make-believe i don't live in texas. austin is a very liberal, open minded city. however, the moment i step outside of austin...reality comes crashing in....

for the past year or so i've had an anti-war bumper sticker on my car. it says: "Attack Iraq? NO!" yesterday i left austin to drive home to denton for the weeked. about a half hour outside of austin a white corvette pulls up alongside me, the guy in the passenger seat was holding up a napkin w/ a message scribbled on it, it said: IRAQ SUCKS

well, i just happened to have some paper and a marker in my front seat (i'm a daycare teacher, so this isn't THAT unusual that i carry this stuff around with me). I write: KILLING FOR OIL SUCKS. i catch up with them and flash 'em my sign. a few minutes later, they retaliate with: TERRORIST LOVER :( (yes, they included the frownie face). ok, now i'm starting to get a little pissed off. I come back with: PEACE LOVER ≠ TERROIST LOVER. to this they reply: REMEMBER 9/11. at this point i just give up, obviously these guys are too ignorant to separate iraq and 9/11, i'm not going to waste anymore time on them. i keep driving and about five minutes later they pull up next to me, with one last sign:

SUPPORT U.S. TROOPS OR MOVE TO FRANCE

i couldn't stop laughing.....

Why I LOVE Hotmail!

I take back every mean thing I've ever said about Hotmail! So my hotmail account has been at maximum capacity for several months...and I mean MAXIMUM CAPACITY. I was hovering at 80% of my storage limit for the past few weeks. I was planning, LITTERALLY, to upgrade my account today. I figured $20/year wasn't that much for some extra space. But when I logged on this morning...it said I was at 2%! Hmmmmmm...perplexing. They just sent me an email saying they updated my accout to 100MB...FOR FREE! I don't know why they've decided to be so nice to their users...but i'm not going to question it!!!

Only 3 months left...

Sorry for taking so long to post...this week has been really busy! Between working a BUNCH this week and dentist appointments (ahhhhh...i have to get my wisdom tooth removed! Thank god i only have one...and a tiny, deformed one at that!) it seems like i've barely been home. The next few weeks will be just as nutty with 2 more dentist appointments and 3 doctors appointments (I'm desperately trying to cram all these in before i leave austin).
This weekend should be fun, I get to see No Doze* and The Dentist* this weekend in Dallas. No Doze has had a rough week, therefore a girl's night is in order. Hopefully we'll be hitting up Deep Ellum...or maybe we'll just stay in and paint eachothers toenails and have pillow fights....um, yeah.
It's seems like this summer is flying by. June is almost gone and, like the other assistants, i'm LITTERALLY counting the days until i arrive in France (3 months exactly!!!!). I guess it doesn't seem like summer because it's not really hot yet. Don't get me wrong, things are still pretty steamy here, but we've yet to break 100... Plus I haven't been to Barton Springs yet...so it DEFINATELY isn't summer yet!

*names changed to protect the guilty

Austin Assistants

So I just got back from Spiderhouse (damn i'm going to miss that place! It was absolutely packed tonight. It's by far my favorite place to go and people watch - sooooo many super cute indie boys....i digress...) where i met up with some fellow assistants from austin. Both of them are ging to be in the Académie de Rouen this fall, which is really close to Lille (in Normandy I believe). It was nice to chat with some other people about our anxieties about the adventure that awaits us. Unfortunately neither H. or S. have recieved their arrêtés yet, so my fingers are crossed for them!!!
I met a nice lady at aveda today (one of THREE trips i've made there this weekend...don't ask) who was from scotland. she gave me some great travel tips [1.) be sure to go to edinburgh and 2.) check out ryanair.com for CHEAP flights]. I love scottish accents, but thanks to mike myers I'll forever associate scotland with Fat Bastard.
Alas, this weekend has flown by without having gotten everything done...so i'm going to be a good little girl and try and write a letter to my lycée
A+, nat

The Arrêté has arrived

This week just keeps getting better and better! Not only is The Mountain Girl coming back from Brazil soon (I didn't think I'd get to see her before I left!!) but Lille sent me my arrêté yesterday, official stamp and all. This is incredible, concidering most people don't get their's until August or September. So now I can head down to Houston and get my visa.

I was supposed to babysit at 5:30 AM this morning, but luckily it was canceled. Damn, it's nice to sleep in for a change. Anyone who knows me, knows I am NOT a morning person. The recent work schedule change (i have to get there at 7:15am instead of noon!!!) has been a little rough, so sleeping in until 10:30 was absolutely heavenly.

After talking to The Dentist today, I'm so excited to be meeting up with my girls again. All through college i've had this great group of ladies that have totally been my lifeline. This past year we've all gone our separate ways (Dallas, Brazil, Spain, Nor-Cal...and lonely me still in Austin), but now everyone will be heading back to the states/texas for a bit. I'm really glad I'll be able to see everyone before I leave for France.

I must say I'm quite suprised by how many people have visited my little blog (over 120 in one week!). I'm glad eveyone is checking it out - feedback is always welcome, so leave some comments, people!
Lunch is calling...I hope everyone's saturday is as gorgeous as it is here in austin!

Bumper Sticker

I saw a great bumper sticker today:
BUSH CHENEY 1984

gotta love it...

Gondewhat?

Three cheers for the academie de lille for being on the ball. I got a letter today telling me at what school i'll be teaching (unfortunately it's not the "official" letter i need to get a visa, but they say it'll be along soon!). I'll be the english assistant for Lycée (lycée=highschool) Marguerite de Flandre in Gondecourt. Gondecourt is about 12 miles south of Lille so theres a very good chance I'll be living in Lille and commuting to work everyday! This is incredible news since I was really scared that I'd be placed in a small town out in the boonies...see, i told you the gods were smiling on me today!

"I could be a great star...."

I woke up this morning at 5:45 (15 minutes before i normally get up) with a headache and "shadows" by rufus wainwright stuck in my head (a song i hadn't heard in *at least* two years). Luckily, i woke up when i did. You see, i had completely forgotten to set my alarm clock. The gods are smiling on me today...

yes....yes it is.

Ok, so i'm testing out blogger bot-a service which lets me post pictures on my blog. D'ya like my shirt? I found it on buyolympia.com, via Bust magazine...Bust is one of my fav. magazines (2nd only to ReadyMade)...you should all read it...especially this issue's article on wimpsters...right E-Z??? Down with wimpsters!!! 

wait....i thought this was supposed to be funny?

ok...so when did commedians go from being funny to being inspirational speakers? I rented Notorious C.H.O (margaret cho stand up special) yesterday and the last 15 minutes of her stand up is devoted to this rant about how the media effects women's self esteem, and gay rights...etc... now, i agree 100% about what she's saying, but i rented this movie to laugh my ass off...not to listen to her preach. I noticed this on the last ellen degeneres special too... why can they just stick to making people laugh? ok, sorry...that was really bothering me...i feel better now...

so this weekend has been nice and mellow...with the exception of babysitting friday and saturday nights it's been two days of beautiful weather (yay!! the damn rain is FINALLY gone), reading (right now i'm reading atonement by ian mcewen...very good, i highly recommend it)...and watching movies...i'm halfway through sylvia right now and i watched shattered glass last night, in which hayden christansen actually gave a fairly decent performance (notice i used the word fairly)...while he wasn't stellar it was at least better than star wars 1 & 2...

so anyways...sylvia so far is pretty good...i've read the bell jar and i had heard about her suicide, so i knew going in that she wasn't the most stable minded person..but this movie portrays her as this jealous, anxiety-filled person, tortured by her writing and her husband...i just wonder how accurate the portrayal is...i guess it's just nice to see gwyneth paltrow using her american accent again...

Post #1

So this is the first post. As you can tell from the url, I'm going to france this fall (sept 23rd!!!). Preparations are underway...look out Lille...here I come...
Right now i'm still in austin, which at the moment is not on my good list. It's been raining non-stop for the past week. Flash flooding, 100% humididty. But I better get used to it, supposedly it rains even more in the north of france.
Well enjoy the blog and bear (thanks WSM - hehe!) with me while i figure out how to use this thing!