What I've Been Up To

"Why are there so many songs about rainbows?
And what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions
And rainbows have nothing to hide
So we've been told and some choose to believe it
I know they're wrong, wait and see
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me."
--The Rainbow Connection, Kermit the Frog

I've been busy lately.

I'm still working at The Boys & Girls Club. My heart pretty much melted when I was greeted by a chorus of "MISS ALEX!!!" from all my second and third graders my first day back. I missed them, and I still love working there, even when they get out of control and drive me crazy.

I've also jumped back into my Couch to 5K project, and I really wish I could say it's been an easy transition. I went back a week in my program so I could ease my way back in, but I seem to have hit a wall. Maybe I'm just out of practice, maybe the chillier weather is affecting me, maybe my asthma decided to get back at me for making my lungs work double time, I don't know. I'm finding it hard to run more than 20 minutes without having to slow to a walk. But I'm not going to quit. Because I'm getting married next year. And I want to look damn good in those pictures.

Speaking of which, I'm going reception hall shopping this weekend with my mom, sister and sister-in-law. I've been looking forward to this. I feel like there's not much I can do until I find a hall and set a date. Then I can get a better idea of the theme and colors and whatnot.

It's kind of funny. I have been planning my wedding day since I was in the fifth grade. I still have all these clips and Word documents filled with wedding gowns and flower arrangements. But now that I have a ring on my finger, I'm not sure about ANYTHING. I've completely changed my mind about all of it. So I'm pretty much starting from scratch.

Anyway, I really wanted this post to be about the rest of my Europe trip, so here we go. Paris.

It. Was. Amazing.

And I'm not going to go into details about everything we saw, but I will say that we had a hell of a good time.

Our hotel was less than a five minute walk from Notre Dame, which was INCREDIBLE to see. I wanted to go up the tower to see the gargoyles, but a long line and a strike prevented that. Still, it was gorgeous. We saw it at night and in the daytime.

We also took a side trip to Versaille and toured the chateau. It was CRAZY crowded and kind of hard to move around on account of all the tour groups, but absolutely gorgeous. We toured some of the gardens, but did not walk the 40 minutes to Marie Antoinette's quarters. Check us out below at the Hall of Mirrors. OOooohh!


And we HAD to go to the Eiffel Tower. Even though it was really cloudy the day we went up, at least we can now say that we've been up the Eiffel Tower.
And yes, we went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. We went to the Rodin museum and saw The Thinker and The Kiss. We saw Napoleon's tomb and saw the stained glass windows at Sainte Chappelle (Oooh pretty). We went to Sacre Cour and Moulin Rouge and Pig Alley. We saw some amazing art at the Orsay museum, even though most of the Van Goghs and Monets were on loan. We went for a walk on Rue Cler, got the fixings for a nice picnic and ate it by the Eiffel Tower. And we went to the Orangerie museum and saw Monet's Waterlilies. Which, by the way, are ENORMOUS. Who knew!?


And of course, we ate a lot of French food. One night we decided to skip dinner altogether and just get dessert. A very smart and tasty plan. That crème brûlée was quite exquisite.


I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to see all these amazing places (and eat all the amazing food). We had a truly fantastic time, and I would love to go back. There's still so much to see!