Stay awake.

Mary Poppins sang those words to those two adorable children when they couldn't go to sleep. I've been having weird trouble sleeping lately as well, and so has Miss. T. So I wrote her an email. NOw, miss blythe is the gal who probs/definitely told me that I should blog, so in thanks and in laziness (which is almost like a double thanks, coming from me, espesh lately - i blame the moon for my lethargy) here's the email I sent her.
See you round the web browser soon!

I've been having "insomnia," too!

I think about all the college boys whose advances I refused. Its totally awesome. I watch house, but he doesn't help.

Insomnia is what people not in Roald Dahl books get when they don't use their brains enough, so you should learn another language/do something really stressful, like flamenco dancing. I could never get to sleep in high school, except when I was taking AP Chem. I worked my brain so hard, that my body could do nothing but sleep.

I was in London all day today, and it was soo cool! Portobello market, or however its spelled, is another thing from my journeys that I will be importing to St. Louis. StL just got a lot more fun as of June 12. I also plan on having metrolink parties. We'll ride it all the way to the airport and back and have a party on a car. I of course got this idea from i website. newmindspace.com i think. I only looked at it b/c the head girl's name si Lori, and I like to check out other Loris on the scene. SHe's cool and I REALLY like what her deal is about. I'd link to her on my blog (ed. oops, I just did), and the to guy whose blog let me to hers, but then they'll start reading my blog and my admiration of them might be all too public. I don't like people knowing i admire them until I think they have a few reasons to admire me. Which I suppose they would. I have traveled a good deal of the western world. THat reminds me! I'm going to be in dublin for easter, and I need to look up what the Easter Rising was.

I picked up a copy of Ulysses. I need to read joyce if I'm going to ireland. So far from the introduction i think Joyce kept it amazingly real, though it seems as though he's kept it that real in his books from like, describing how Leo Bloom (also a character in a Mel Brooks movie/musical...coincidence? Mel Brooks a multifaceted genius? Tcha?) poops. I guess I will find Joyce's violation of the cult of the body refreshingly refreshing. We'll see. Its all an excuse not to read Catch 22, a book that did not cure my insomnia, and makes me go a little crazy. I think that's the idea, to show you how the mind of a soldier is like, all a catch 22 and how its all so inside out and upside down. But geez.

I like VOnnegut's morality, or lack thereof (I'm an intellectual, ps, I use "lack thereof" --- though I did almost not put two L's in intellectual.) --- at least Mr. V's certain about it. THe catch 22 guy makes me crazy. I'm like, man, speak english!

Just checked out the easter rising wiki page. ITs long. IRish people had some troubles. THe introduction of Ulysses compared them to Jews. Correctly so, I suppose. Irish people, generally, seem to be less judgemental about ya. I read in my Rick Steve's travel book, i heart it, how rick met some irish dude in a bar where there's a smoking ban - its everywhere in ireland now -- and he was like, "what's next, no guiness? If we don't die, how can we go to heaven?"

I think you could agree!

Start using your brain more, dude. You'll sleep like a baby.

I might blog this letter, I'm feelin lazy, despite my having a real internet connection. My hostel tomorrow is in SW london. i have to take a light rail to get there! Good? Bad? We'll see. I'm struggling with the blog, b/c I want to get up-to-date with italy, and with march for that matter, but I just can't bring myself to -- I'm usually in too bad of a mood to really do the week of paradise in italy justice. It was just so magical, i should've done it hours within arriving. I don't know if I'll get to go to elenora's this time around...she takes about a month to get a hold of me, and I might want to go stay for free in london and get some shopping in before i head to the Dday beaches, and then home, hopefully to a job (to have metrolink parties!).

Anyway, what I was saying is that I can't seem to figure out if I should return to the italy pages, or re-visit italy (and march)(and belgium)(and holland)(oh, and germany...i'm so worldly) as I go. I think I might revisit b/c the pressure is killing me and the blog be sufferin'!

Ok dudette.
Peace out and goodnight.
Lori

SUPER BOWL in france

Ok kids, we all saw the superbowl, and we are all full of glee that Chicago got stomped. WHy didn't Prince sing more songs? Remember that time that Chicago scored way too early and we were all worried that chicago would win? Remember that one girl who yelled so loud you wanted to throw a chicken wing at her, but you resisted?
I do.
We're allglad that emilie and I wore coordinated outfits and we're all glad that the one annoying girl with the annoying chicago accent who kept yelling at the TV screen like a banshee (the one who almost got a chicken wing in the noggin'?) ended up crying as the Bears lost like the crap team they are. Remember how you don't like Chicago, just 'cuz? I don't know about football, but I heard their quarterback's sense of direction is so off he could jump out of a boat and miss the water.

Side note!
Before the superbowl Emilie and I had dinner with the Calderos (Best Family Ever) and we sang Grease, and David Bowie with their daughter and it was awesome. Emilie impressed everyone with her mad Pink Floyd skillz. Way to know Pink Floyd emilie, but I will always beat you with my Beatles knowledge. Together we are unstoppable.

The week I didn't sleep a lot

So it all began last tuesday, when I decided to go out until basically Monday.

So bullet points, as its getting late...promise to fill in the blanks ASAP/post vacay:
- friday, emilie arrives, we have a crazy night of Beer pong and flip cup, at one point I decide to wear my St. Louis flag (that I brought, b/c I represent). I also wore blue shoes that gave me blisters as we went to the gay, but not gay club with my french BFF Caro.
- Emilie and I slept on a half inflated airmattress in the cold, and it was so bad it was funny. We were v. hungover and angry the next day and didn't want to move, but we had to get bagels, and then there was more on our calendar....
-Saturday we met with Emilie's friend Meme (Aurelien, but I call him Meme, as do his country friends) and his super super sexy friend Alban (who has a super cute girlfriend, so hey). I was not expecting such cuteness. We ate dinner, talked about toys, it was cute. Not as cute as Alban (nothing is really), but it was a cute evening with french dudes fussing over the quality of the wine and taking charge as boys out to dinner with girls (even as friends) should. Did I mention that Alban was cute?
- We then went to the Voxx, a cool loungy place where they'll actually play soul music from time to time. Excellent! We hung out with Beck and her bf, and some other french couple.
- Then we go to the 42 which is a very very preppy night club/ski lodge moment where they played the FRENCHEST music ever. It was a cliche, and it was awesome.
- Catch the bus at 5:30am to home.
- Sunday we were not as hungover, so we watched Harold and Kumar, and then went to Phillipe and Agnes' to sing, have some tea, and eat a "green dinner" (it was all made of green stuff) and just talk about life, politics, life and america/france. Good times! The caldero's are awesome. Philippe introduced us to some lovely french classics, and Emilie sang pink floyd, and we all sang us some David Bowie Ground Control to Major Tom goodness.
- Then it was Superbowl time. Lots of screamy Chicago types, and we colts supporters kept our cool. It was fun! Football culture rules. I will be frequenting bars for suuperbowls of the future to be sure.
- We stayed up in Jen's apt for a bit, and caught the bus at 5am to home. Monday morning was hard, and it sortof gave me a cold for the whole week.

But it was worth it!
Peace out. See you in a couple weeks.

The Toasted Ravioli's

I'm starting a band.
I was inspired by many things, but the straws that broke the proverbial camel's back (actually it was 2 pieces of straw) were Sara Bareilles and Raining Jane.

So far...
Schaper: bongos, triangle, tambourine
Lori: acoustic and vocals
Wamble: ivories

We're still looking for an actual drummer, and a bass player -- but really any instrument will do (might even consider the kazoo or the spoons, or the "can filled with beans" as well).

Its exciting!

Also in exciting news, I begin my whirlwind vacation (its supposed to be the SKI vacation in france, but I forgot my skis in mountainous missouri --- man, I love skiing, but like, not gonna happen...I have to live!) beginning with a week under the Tuscan sun with Miss Blythe, of Duchek award (among others) fame.
I'm bringing my St. Louis flag, and we're gonna fly it.
One of my gal pals from Penn, with whom I was lucky enough to co-write and perform the Senior Performing Arts Night Medley, "Suddenly Senior" (to the tune of that ever present favorite, "Suddenly Seymour" from Little Shop of Horrors, naturally --- I choreographed)...well she's got friends in italian places who are researching their Art History PhD's in florence, and well, we're going to drop an StL bomb on her friends, and its going to be fun! It's times like these I relish being a 24 year old college graduate - I know people all over the world who in turn know other people, and we all want to party, essentially. Its great.

Old Man Harig sent me a lovely email of tuscan reccomendations, and we're going to check those out, and while away the hours in Siena, the less american Florence. Excellent. Cinqueterre should be neat, and well, you, loyal reader, will hear all about it's limoncello-fed craziness. I really hope we can meet the art historys, they should ad some local flava to our rambling.
Onto the next leg of the trip its time to chill with the Northern Europeans - Hamburg to see Aubrey, who I've known since Kirkwood Children's Chorale (we'll see if she remembers "We are the Young" - I know she will) and then off to amsterdam for some tourist seeing, bike watching, and eh. I'll end my sojurn in Belgium, where I will eat waffles, have some fries, and hopefully shop in antwerp and see Brussells (OK go is playing on the 23rd, why are they sold out, don't they remember how I was the first Missourian to like them probably?)

Let me know if you want to join my band - all are welcome, even if you're just passing by. Rehearsals start June 07.

The saints did none of that marching in stuff

Gotta bullet point this one, I'm too busy making my own Jackson Pollock paintings and watching old SNL clips to really give this one any literary flava.
- Spent an evening of fun and football with some Chicagoans visiting Lyon for a food convention. Lots of talking about bbq, and I some/most of my drinks are now on someone named Bob's expense account.
- Little danish/french dude fell hard core in love with me, but I told him to go away, b/c he lives in Chicago (where his girlfriend also lives)- he was cute, though. Boys in europe so far are too slutty for me.
- Jen and Karl were excellent football-watching buddies, and Jen is good at keeping me out of trouble
- Met a girl from Penn! She's studying abroad at Lyon II and she's into urban studies! Excellent.

Friday night I went out with some english ladies to see a couple english bands...they were really into cowbell. That joke never made it across the atlantic (the one about more cowbell) and needless to say, the cowbell player spazzing out all over the place and eventually breaking his drumstick on the cowbell was AMAZING. Blue oyster cult, I've gotta fever, and the only prescription is -- you know.

prescription filled.

We went to a party with a bunch of completely wasted americans chugging jager (classy) and the one guy from SLU was like, yo, and I was like, STL!?! but he was off to be bad at beer pong or something, and wear a weird/dumb baseball hat. My buddy Hols totally ignored this Idaho pretty boy b/c he was annoying and pretentious and pretty much dumb, and her efforts to ignore him were in vain, as ther ignoring him and rolling her eyes at him only made him want to talk to her/us more. That's the way it works!
Saturday we went to another party with a bunch of assistants - nothing too amazing, though I did meet a French guy who's just crazy for america, so it was nice hearing about the US from the perspective of someone else who hearts it, but not blindly. He was also living in Connecticut during 9-11 --- whoa. It was fun to hear how he joined in with everyone -- going shopping the week after, getting back into the city and life, that sort of thing that was really cool to experience if you were there, and I bet he's one of the better informed French people as far as the "when and when not to play the WTC card." Anyway, he was awesome, and I really think his name was Camel...maybe spelled differently, and pronounced Ca-mellllle, but that's an awesome name. Speaking of awesome names, I have a student named Swan. I asked him if it was like, Swan Lake, swan prince sortof thing and he was like, "yes." This french teenager is mad proud of being named Swan, and for that I salute him.

I'm bummed about the saints, but I think it will be ok. Salutes to Jen, who inspired me to watch football until 5 in the morning when I had to get up at 8, and also salutes to Jen for generously offering me a place to lay my head for those lovely 3 hours.

For those of you about to comment.

I salute you.

I know my blog just exploded with posts. Expect it to not be so manic in the future. Still, I wanted to shout out to my lovely commenting buddies! Its so fun to discover that someone commented on my blog. I know its just like 6 of us reading, but it's fun to see.

Props.

BAT flights over oceans

In breaking news, Blythe has booked a flight to come on over to the Big E for the beginning of my February vacay! Bitchin! We shall be renting a car to drive around Sienna, and then we will go gaze at the ocean, drink strong wine and eat fish in Cinqueterra. Miss Blythe has also done a nice job of embracing my attempt to use the wiki to do trip planning. Snaps to you for contributing to the wiki, Blythe! Blythe also writes me letters, and though she doesn’t describe awesome Methodist Halloween parties in them like my Grandma’s letters do, they are amazing in other ways….mega snaps.

Stamped envelope(Paper+pen+thoughts)/my address = letter!
Blythe and my grandma are brilliant mathematicians in this respect.

My grandma, however, probably still thinks a wiki is some weird drink her brother “Buckshot” liked to fix for the Christmas BBQ’s in Pasadena back in 1949.
She has IM’d me, though!

In other news, congratulations to Blythe on finishing her children's book! Bitchin!

Morteau - land of watches and cows

And Emilie!
We had a lovely time in foggy Morteau! I arrived late thursday night, after I left early from the class that drew me a lovely picture.



Needless to say, another 10 minutes with those hooligans - 10 minutes that might make me late for a cheese drenched weekend in the french/swiss/german/alscace countryside - was really not on my to do list. So i left! And I got to Morteau in the fog and we went to the Terminus bar --- its called the Term if you are in the know like Miss Emilie. We chilled in the smoke-laden air, but before my contacts began to feel like Morteauciean sausages on my eyeballs, we met some locals!
Score!

They were nice dudes, and very encouraging of my not so perfect french, and keen to listen to emilie's pretty much perfect french.

The one guy who introduced himself awkwardly apologized for being of arab descent, which was a little weird b-c at first me and Em had no clue why he was apologizing and when we realized why he was apologizing....well, we still had no clue why he was apologizing.

A beer later we went back to Emilie's dorm and I passed out while she had to get up for class in the morning...yuck. But it was worth it, as now we had some local homeys.

After delicious morteauacien specialties with her buddy Ruven - "Groovy Ruvy" in some circles - we went to play board games like taboo and Uno with Emilie's teacher friend/colleagues. This one french dude kept on cussing like all the time in french and for that, I loved him. He was funny. What was his name Emilie? I tried some Pastis, and it looked like slime and tasted a little bit like licorice soap, but its something that I am not ashamed to say, I could enjoy from time to time with very little grimace.

The next day, we went for a walk? Did we? I can't remember, but it was a totally awesome walk. Hills and little houses, and random fountains and the obligatory WW1 memorial statue. And chickens, too!