Free!

Today is my last day with my (soon-to-be)-ex-employer.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours taking care of last-second details such as cleaning files and the few emails I had kept around. And my desk.

I had already talked to many of my colleagues in the previous weeks, letting them know I will be leaving, and saying goodbye in person. So when I sent a global farewell email yesterday, I didn't expect any replies. But they came anyway - people telling me they'll miss me and wishing me good luck - and I was ever so pleased to read them!

Surprisingly, other than these emails, I didn't have any other emotional moment. I told my husband that I'm not sure whether I should feel melancholic or elated, but I felt neither. Perhaps that's because I have an exciting new job ahead of me, and many of my former colleagues will be my new colleagues in the new place! I do feel a bit like a bird in a flock that's migrating to better grounds!

But in the meantime, I am free! (which sounds better than unemployed). I have four months of complete freedom ahead of me - and I was trying to remember the last time I had so much - and came up with, 'before I started kindergarden.' Maybe. I assume. Except I suspect that back then, I still had to go to bed when told, and eat when told, and make my bed in the morning, and all that.

I will not make my bed one single time during this vacation! Except if I feel like it. Or if I have to (can't leave a mess behind us when we travel).

Which reminds me: I also need to clean the house. And the fridge.

Maybe not as free as I thought.

But close!

Move dat body!

I've been considering ways to lose about 10 lbs. Not that 10 is all I need to lose, but I like to set realistic goals. Losing 50 lbs would be slightly unrealistic at this point. (I've actually done it once, when I was younger and had lots of willpower. But now I'm older and, frankly, not that driven.)

Idea nr. 1: eat nothing for a week. It worked pretty well for about 3 hours, and then I needed to find another approach.

Idea nr. 2: sign up for Dancing With The Stars. That's still on the table, but I need to figure out how to become (semi)-famous first.

I stumbled on idea nr. 3 without meaning to. I read The Pioneer Woman's blog now and again. I happened to read a post in which she was talking about her Fitbit, and how it's motivated her to exercise.

"The Whatbit?" I said to my husband, who promptly informed me that lots of his colleagues use it at work, and that it really works. Before I had time to look for idea nr. 4, he done went online and ordered it.

So here it is, the little bugger:

It even looks cool, like an ultra-sleek watch, or a slightly funky bracelet. And it's UN-IG-NOR-ABLE.

Once you put it on and it starts tracking your every step (the little busybody!), and sets your daily goals, and merrily informs you how short you're falling of its expectations - well, you just keep walking to make it happy! The sneaky little rubber butthead!

Do you know where I parked my car today at the office? In the boondocks, that's where! Any farther and it would have fallen off the map (of the parking lot). Not that I didn't find space. I didn't even look for space! I had to keep my little watchdog content. So I walked a quarter of a mile from the car to the office. And then, of course, back! And then I got home and my husband, the Great Friend of the Little Sneakazoid, said, "Let's go walking so you can reach your daily goals."

MY daily goals, ha! I had no such goals, until the Energizer Band came into my life and set them for me. So I walked. And my back hurts. And I'm still 1000 steps short of my overlord's orders.

But do you know what I figured out? You can fool it. Just wave your hand around as if you're walking. But you don't need to walk. You can stay in bed and watch TV and wave your hand. I figure that tomorrow my arm will get a mighty workout.

Gotta keep the Fitbit happy!

Happy Birthday to my Mom!

Today is the feast day of Saints Elena and Constantin. Several people in my family have one of these names as a middle name.

But for my Mom this is a very special day: it is both her birthday and her name day (first name in this case).

I called her early this morning (at least, it was early for me) to wish her a very happy birthday. Of course, since my local time is 7 hours behind hers, whereas my brother lives only a couple hundred miles away from my parents, I am rarely the first one to call. In this case, not only had he called, but he had sent her a photo with my two nieces holding up signs that say, 'Happy Birthday, Grandma Lenuta!' (Lenuta is a nickname for Elena).

I ask you, how can I possibly compete with that?!

But I am going to try, anyway: my Mom is going to visit us in France for 10 days and partake of the pleasures of Provence and Paris. It will be our birthday gift to her. Not as splendid as the two little nieces, but we will do our best.

Écrivez-vous français?

While looking for a rental house in Provence, we did a lot of emailing back and forth with owners/agents. The house we set our hearts on turned out to have a very nice French agent who does not speak English (she says she's been studying it, but does not feel confident enough to use it with us).

So what were we to do? My French - alas! - is not one of the two human languages I speak interchangeably. :-) I know just about enough to be tongue-tied, b/c I can't recall the proper noun genders or verb declinations. Have you noticed that, too, about your foreign language skills? With me, it goes like this:

When I know precious little about a language, I just throw disjointed words out there and gesture a lot. That's how I express myself in Spanish. And Italian. Really, my hands are quite good at Romance languages.

When I know a lot - well, I know a lot. I can happily talk your ears off.

But it's the dangerous middle that gets me tongue-tied. I know just enough French to feel self-conscious about how much I don't know. Luckily, writing in French is easier than speaking, since you can look things up. But it's also harder, what with those pesky accents and cedillas which you can only type on an English keyboard if you know their ASCII codes and how to use them. Which I don't. And writing correctly is doubly important when you negotiate a contract in French.

Enter Google Translate!

Type your English text on one side, and out comes the French on the other. (Or the Spanish. Or the Latin. Or even the Marathi - whatever that is). The French is pretty weird - some vocabulary choices are clearly off! - but the noun genders and verb declinations are perfect! And so is the spelling.

If you fiddle with the English, you can sometimes force Google Translate to give you more colloquial French. Usually, you have to be explicit with the English pronouns (it has trouble with things like 'we told you this and sent you that' - you have to say 'we told you this and we sent you that'; it also has trouble with 'it'). When nothing else works, I put in my two cents (which is what my French is worth) and replace the output with what I believe is right. Typically, Google does 80% of the job, and I do the rest - and hope for the best.

And so, it was with great pride and joy that I read this in the French agent's last email: "PS: je ne sais pas comment vous faites pour traduire en français vos textes car le français est parfait."

Maybe I should try my hand at Marathi next!

Provence, revisited

In two short weeks, we're off to France for the summer! We are still pinching ourselves about it (well, I'm pinching my darling; he does not dare reciprocate).

When first I thought about taking time off between jobs so I could finally write my book, it all seemed like a wild dream. Then the dream inched closer to reality, once I actually had the job offer in hand and could negotiate the starting date. And then my husband popped up with, 'I want to take a leave of absence! That way, we can spend the whole summer together!'

Of course, it snowballed from there. Err... sandballed? We weren't going to spend the whole summer cooped up in our rental apartment. I needed a different kind of space to write - a room with a view! (my current choice of views being between the railway and an auto body shop). My plan was to alternate between writing in a coffee shop and writing in a bookstore. But once my husband joined the chorus, the plans jumped all the way over the pond and into Europe. What can I say? My husband dreams big!

So now we're going to spend most of the summer in a tiny village in Provence. We visited the area in 2009 and fell in love with the landscape.

And the food.

Our favorite restaurant? Le Bonheur Suit Son Cours, which - I unblushingly say - we helped put on the (American tourists') map: we created its first entry on tripadvisor. I'm thrilled to see that it has satisfied plenty of North-American palates ever since. Fingers crossed they still make that sinful blast of pure chocolate called the Mont Ventoux cake. Five years ago, I had a transcendental experience devouring it. Once in a lifetime, I thought, as I licked my spoon clean, and wondered if I'd get kicked out of the place for doing the same with my plate. But you know what? Twice in a lifetime is even better! (I just heard my scale groan. My scale is a very poor winner.)

By the way, did you know that π is called a transcendental number? Clearly, when mathematicians started naming things, they listened to their taste-buds.

Taste-bud pampering was the decisive factor in our vacation plans. My husband wanted us to spend the summer in Italy - but I reminded him that one of us cannot stand the taste of pasta nor pizza! And that said person will therefore keep complaining about the total lack of eclairs in Italy, and is he comfortable with his selfishness? In the end, it was the Mont Ventoux cake that decided the issue. :-)

So we're renting a house in the Luberon. It has a view. In fact, it has several views (none of which includes a railway or auto body shop). It is one hour away from the best chocolate cake in the universe. And five minutes from freshly baked croissants. In other words, it is perfect!

So if you're interested in hearing about our Provencal /gastronomical vacation, or how my book progresses, or (later on) our Anglo-Scottish trip, check back often. I intend to update this blog frequently with lots of photos and stories.

Pi-Pie for now!