Happy New Year!

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I can’t believe that my two weeks in Texas are down to just a few grains of sand slipping through the hourglass!  Amazing how fast time flies when all you are doing is eating, drinking, gabbing, reading, and watching Food Network.  No dog, no housework, and not even much cooking, particularly now that my stove has gone out and my friendly Sears repairman can’t seem to fit me onto his dance card for a week.  Of course, by then I will be in my Paris kitchen, wondering what the heck to make for dinner, and wishing my stove didn’t work.  

Oh how I have missed my good friend Margarita.

Raise your hand if you made New Year’s Resolutions.  Higher- I can’t see you.  I have never been a big fan of NYR, myself, being somewhat of  an underachiever and also usually pretty fine with my own habits . Every January when Mark asks me what my NYR was, I give him a smartass answer, like ” to stop doing needle drugs during the week” or “to stop trying to match up your socks when they come out of the dryer” .  You would think he would quit asking me.  It’s other people I always want to make NYR for, and that doesn’t ever go over very well.  Anyone else  noticed that?

This year I am thinking of setting some New Year’s Goals, because that is not nearly as intimidating as “Resolutions”.  If I fail to reach a goal, I just aimed too high, whereas if I fail to keep a Resolution, I am a slacker and probably much worse.  Here are a few goals I am considering.  I’m thinking if I share them here,  you all can help keep me accountable.  But no mean comments in the box, please.  I am fairly fragile.

1. Stop drinking wine during the week.  I know- this was a goal of late 2011, too, and I think it’s worthy of continuing.  Just because it’s cheap doesn’t mean it needs to be a food group.

2. Join a gym.  This one will not only have the obvious benefit of battling the deleterious effects of the (weekend) wine and cheese and butter, it will also force me to interact regularly in French , which will make my French teacher very happy.  And it will have the added benefit of providing a regular source of amusement for all the French people working out in the gym with me.  You’re welcome, Frenchies.

Get behind me, Satan!

3. Do at least one cultural activity a week.  I figure I owe it to you, my faithful readers, to come up with posts that talk about more than what I wasn’t able to make for dinner or what amazing dessert my sweet pastry chef brought home the night before.  I do reserve the right to define “cultural activity” very broadly, however.  I think that in a country where I don’t speak the language, even sitting in a cafe for a couple of hours and trying to figure out what the people at the next table are talking about qualifies as a cultural activity.

4. Spend more time reading and less time fooling around on the computer.  To that end, I am soliciting recommendations for good books.  Now that I am not working at my favorite little bookstore, I am feeling a tad out of the literary loop.  No crime fiction, dark fantasy, or chick lit need apply.  And I have probably already read anything out there with “Paris” in the title.  Thank you for your consideration.

HEB has new shopping baskets? What else has changed since I left???

OK- that’s probably enough for 2012.  I don’t want to tax myself.  Just living in Paris can be taxing enough, even while it’s fabulous.  Do you all get that?  And I suspect that it’s about to get more taxing, given what I have heard about winters.

It has been wonderful seeing so many good friends.  I am particularly grateful to the many of you who told me how much you enjoy this little blog.  Thank you all so much for your encouragement and support.  Please help me to keep improving Mais Oui Paris by commenting every now and then, and by suggesting topics or places that interest you.  Heartfelt thanks to all of you who are sharing this exciting journey with me.  Having you along helps me to stretch out of my comfort zone and to see Paris through new eyes every morning.

Next dispatch will be from the other side of the Atlantic!  Here’s hoping that my trick of Triple Tylenol PM and a bottle of wine (airplane size, of course) makes the flight go by quickly and yet doesn’t kill me.  It’s a fine line, you know.

Happy New Year!