So the hatch has now been opened. For those who have never watched “Lost” this basically means that I finished Season 1 and have swiftly moved into Season 2. I managed 25 episodes in the course of about 4 days. I’m not sure what this say’s about my life but I’m also not sure that I want to know.
So here’s a couple quick thoughts on the characters and the story so far.
- I think Charlie is my favorite so far (I know this will make Liz happy) for the mere fact that I kinda feel like him sometimes, minus all the heroin.
- I love the character of Locke so far, how he’s so sharp, focused, and yet mysterious. It always seems like he knows things that other people aren’t privy too.
- I loved seeing Greg Grunberg, Matt Parkman from “Heroes”, as the pilot who died in the first couple episodes.
- There seems to be some type of Hatch in everyone’s life that we try desperately to get open and then don’t know what will happen when it finally opens up. It’s a life changing type of ordeal.
- The character of Sayid is so interesting, especially when they are looking at the torture storyline.
- Evangeline Lilly is absolutely gorgeous.
And that’s just a couple thoughts on Season 1. Stay tuned as I continue this crazy journey through the world that is “Lost”.
Here’s the thing. I probably watch way too much television in the course of the week and I am kind of okay with that. Between the soccer matches, DVR, DirecTV, and Netflix, I have just about as much televised media consumption to last me a lifetime. So I don’t understand why I had to go and add one more thing to the equation.
That’s right, on Saturday January 30th I embarked on the adventure that is “Lost”.
It’s only been a couple of days and I’ve practically made it through Season One and let me tell you, it is magnificent. How I avoided the show for so long I will never know. If I had to pinpoint one reason I started watching it would have to be one of the churches that I go to. The pastor there happened to write a book entitled “The Gospel According to Lost” and then had a series of paintings hung up in the gallery part of the church that were inspired by the shows characters. After sitting week after week and looking at those paintings I was intrigued. I couldn’t stop looking at a couple of them and found myself adding every season to Instant View on Netflix.
So now I’ve started on this journey and there’s not really any going back. I’m DVR’ing all the new episodes so that I can just keep on going once I get through Season Five. It’s gonna be a long and crazy journey, kinda like the one the characters are on. I promise I’ll keep you updated on how things are going and my thoughts on things along the way. I kind of don’t want to get on a plane right now, at least till this is over.
This last week marked a year since I left for the beautiful city of Paris. I can still remember the feeling of waiting in the airport, my heart in my lap. I later found out that the girl sitting three seats away from me was in the same group as me, but we both had no clue at the time.
After looking back at some of the posts from the last couple of months I realized that I haven’t really talked about my time in Paris, and I really need to. So here goes my first retrospective on Paris, France in a long time.
10 Things I Miss Most About Paris
1. Early morning walks by Notre Dame – I can’t really describe the feeling that I would get in my chest as I walked past this monumental structure. The soft wind of the Seine slowly nipping at my scarf as I realized that, for the time being, this was my home.
2. Playing Open Mic night at The Highlander – Wednesday nights quickly became one of my favorites in Paris once we discovered this amazing little Scottish pub had an Open Mic night. Standing in front of a crowd of crazy people and belting out David Gray and John Mayer covers will never feel good again, unless Thomas Brun is introducing me.
3. Picnics down by the Seine – Whether it was a kebab underneath Pont des Arts or laying out with friends feebly working on our nonexistent tan’s on Pont Neuf, I’ll never forget the fun of just slowing down and being for a bit.
4. The Kebab stand at Port de Saint Cloud – I really don’t think I need to say more on this. Just know that it was really good and quite possibly changed my life.
5. VAT – For those of you who don’t know, this means “Value Added Tax” so when my Grande Mocha Blanc said 4.58, it really was 4.58. No weird tax calculations or anything to mess with my head. I know it’s simple and probably is different for those who had to pay taxes, but I didn’t so I loved it.
6. The Metro System – It was soo easy just walking down to Chardon Lagache and jumping on the Metro to get anywhere I wanted in the city. Sure it smelled like urine and wasn’t exactly clean, but man was it perfect. I really miss the time in the morning where I could just sit and listen to music and contemplate life on the ride into town. You just don’t get the same effect in a car.
7. Random Transit Strikes – Yeah that’s right, Viva la France. I was told that if there was one thing the French were good at, besides love and wine, was striking. Like clockwork, about once a week or so the Metro or RER just wasn’t running. There’s a part of me that finds this very respectable even with the inconvenience.
8. Fresh Baguette’s – I basically lived off of bread, and kebabs, when I was in Paris so this is pretty much a no brainer. Breakfast = baguette with Nutella. Lunch = baguette with ham and cheese. Dinner = baguette with whatever Francois had cooked up for us at night, probably fish.
9. The walk home over Pont du Garigliano – When coming from team meetings or the south side of town, the T3 line let us right off at this gorgeous bridge. It was here that I got my first pure look at the Eiffel Tower at night, lit up in all it’s splendor. That had to be the best nightly ritual I’ve ever had.
10. Random Nights that suddenly turned into days – This one doesn’t really need an explanation. There’s really too many stories to tell, but for those involved, I’ll never forget them.
So I’ll leave you with a song that my friend Trista recently turned me on to. I think it’s fitting and beautiful.
So yesterday was miserable. I spent just about the entire day in bed, flat on my back. The problem was that if I stood up, or turned suddenly, I lost all balance and equilibrium. Laying in bed felt like a full on boat ride on rough sea’s. After a short time I was throwing up just from motion sickness.
I don’t know what caused this or what made it go away but yesterday was one of the most miserable days of my life. the good news, I woke up this morning feeling completely fine and with no dizziness. So here I sit waiting for a concert to begin. O how much I love listening to live music.
I turned on the TV today and in between people yelling about the Massachusetts Senate race I caught a glimpse of something that horrified me.
Tucker Carlson wasn’t wearing a bow tie.
This is obviously unacceptable. I give Tucker the credit for single-handedly bringing back the bow tie. Whether in cool shades of plaid or even a little bit of polka dot for good measure, I could always count on Tucker to light up the stage with his killer collection of neck wear.
So where does that leave us? I honestly don’t know. I will choose to remember Tucker as that cuddly bow tie wearing guy that looked like he got pulled from some Harvard glee club or fraternity to a national talk show. This is the Tucker Carlson I will remember. The one who looked like he kinda knew what he was talking about because maybe his dad had told him about new developments at dinner that night. This is my Tucker Carlson.
Who by the way looks uncannily like the new 2010 model of Doctor Who, Matt Smith
So today I found a little piece of paper that my 19 year old self wrote to me, probably while sitting in a Political Science classroom. Why is this such a big deal? Well it happened to be a list of what I wanted to achieve in the next 10 years, a blueprint of goals and achievements. It contained 13 goals that I thought, and still are, attainable by the time 2013 hits. Well when the big ball dropped on New Years Eve I’m pretty sure it read 2010 on it which means I only have 3 years to go. The bad news is, I only have accomplished 3.66 of the 13 goals I listed. Yeah I know, there’s a decimal point. One of the goals was a three part one of which I managed to fulfill two.
So here’s where I have to buck up and figure out if I can finish what my skinny 19 years old self thought would be possible. None of the goals are drastically hard, but they will take some time and dedication. Maybe this wasn’t the week to find out all this stuff, but I did, and now I can’t really ignore it. Time to go find some coffee and figure out whats possible again.
First things first, I would be doing everybody a disservice if I didn’t talk about the recent tragedy in Haiti. I honestly can’t imagine what it’s like down there and I can only pray that aid and relief reaches those who need it in a quick and timely manner. My heart really goes out to all those involved and if you are out there and can give time or money, please do.
I also want to talk about the remarks of a certain Pat Robertson about the earthquake in Haiti. Being a blogger, sometimes I like to keep some information to myself, but the truth is that I’m a Christian and I couldn’t disagree with Mr. Robertson’s remarks more vehemently. That’s right, I said vehemently. This isn’t a time for judging, it’s a time to show the world how much Christian’s love and support our neighbors, no matter what race, religion, color, creed, or sexual orientation. I’m not gonna spend any more time on this for the mere fact that I think most people don’t really care what Robertson thinks anyway.
So I know it’s been a long time away for me and that’s okay. In the mean time I’ve watched a whole lot of “How I Met Your Mother”, “Doctor Who”, and playing way too much Xbox. I also managed to get hold of a Kindle and am absolutely in love with it. Who would have thought that I would ever replace my books with a little white iPod wanna-be?
Since my last post, we coasted safely into 2010 without some crazy nuclear apocalypse. Sure Tiger Woods kinda went crazy, and AWOL, but we as a planet managed to keep it together. I have pretty high hopes for the new year. I have a brand new batch of puppies that came pretty unexpectedly, pictures follow, and they are amazing. So here’s to a year full of possibilities. Let them come softly and swiftly.
I’ve been gone for a while, maybe too long. It was needed and I’m not even quite sure why. At this point I’d love to say that I accomplished some great things in the world since I last posted but mainly I’ve bolstered my skills in selling sweaters to mostly foreign customers in the mall. I also am not gonna apologize for neglecting those few out there who actually will still read this, even though I’m really happy you decided to stick around.
Anyway, things are changing. I can’t say life is totally on track but at least I feel like there’s a little more direction than before. The best way to describe it is using my favorite TV show, “How I Met Your Mother.”
In the first season, Ted finds an old shirt that he never wore but, magically, when he puts it on it fits perfect and looks amazing. This leads to him going back out with a girl whose heart he broke and ultimately leads to him doing the same thing again, all because of a shirt.
So here’s my disclaimer. No I didn’t start calling up all the girls I used to date just because I finally fit into this totally awesome shirt that never looked good before, its blue by the way. I did start trying some things that I used to not like very much though.
First example of many, sushi. My last big experience with sushi that was memorable was with my friend Anna. She was having a bad day and wanted company at the sushi bar. So there we sat in Nakato’s, me eating my bowl of rice after gagging on what I think was a fish that was just pulled out of some river and her enjoying those little rolls that always look so elegant in movies.
Fast forward to last night in a little sushi restaurant outside of downtown. I decided earlier that day that I was gonna be open to whatever came along and to throw out all my preconceived notions of food, life, and other things. Yes it was a date, and yes I agreed to try sushi again. I wasn’t in any way dragged there, I just needed a change. So the little plates started appearing in front of us and to my surprise, it was amazing. I really, honestly liked it. Salmon, Yellow Tail, Shrimp, I had them all and it was glorious. I must say the company didn’t hurt the situation at all.
So there’s my first example and I promise many more will come. In the words of Jean Paul Sarte “Au Revoir, Good Friend.”
I saw Paris in my dreams tonight. Little shadows colliding with bits of paper stuck underneath my feet. Visions of cemeteries and long steps down to the water. Cold days and warm nights. Walking through alleyways to nowhere just to say I did. I remember living with passion. Never missing a moment. Standing with my head up high, like a taller version of Napoleon with no hat. Gently cascading waterfalls and rooftop views. Having conversations with people who’ll never remember my name. The feel of the rain on my head walking down Rue de Versaille. Looking for the Tower light to know I’m not far from home. I’m so far from home.
