Money changes everything

These oranges pretty much represent my mental state of late.

I've been keeping it pretty quiet, but last week my Toyota broke down on the side of the road and she may be a complete loss. It needs a new engine and it isn't worth the amount it will cost to repair it. Isn't it funny that what should be a super simple, cut and dry decision has me majorly pouting and dragging my feet? Add insult to injury that I still owe money on the note I used to buy her in the first place.

I've been grieving the loss of my gas guzzling SUV. Man, I loved that truck. I used and abused the hell out of it, and the idea of going back into something smaller feels so inconvenient and so claustrophobic.

I'm an ungrateful bitch. I'm a lucky girl, because I have a lot of loving friends willing to chip in and help me get around using various extra vehicles.

Paris trip means major cash, car repairs mean major cash, I already am behind the financial eightball because of my random and checkered job history for the past couple of years.

Universe teaching me a lesson about money? Again? Picture me on the floor having a full blown temper tantrum right now.

Crabby pouting crabby pout crab.

Paris trip evolution

So, if you're a best friend of mine who lives in Chicago and can't remember stories I tell her about my life, here's a refresher:
About four years ago, after a particularly awful birthday fete which further confirmed her superstitions that birthdays ending in "0" and "5" are doomed, my cousin (and BFF) Amy was bemoaning her bad birthday fate, her lack of an awesome life, her singledom, whathaveyou, when I threw out the suggestion that we needed to lift her out of her slump by having a Really Big Life Event to look forward to. Now those of you that know me well know I am a big believer of the RBLE theory and my RBLEs have always skewed towards the kickass trip side of the spectrum. Thus a plan to lift a glass of wine in Paris on her---very important here---39th birthday was hatched.
Now here we are, four years later and the date approaches.
So plans are to be out of the country from May 17th through May 31st.

If anyone knows Amy, you will understand when I say to you that this may be one of the nicer trips I've ever taken with a friend regarding accomodations. Girl will NOT settle for uncomfortable. Rock on!

First few days will be spent here adjusting to the time change and getting our tourist on:
Paris Marriott Rive Gauche hotel

Then we're going to London for a few days. This part hasn't been entirely fleshed out yet.

Then, and this is the part that excites me the most, we're staying in a Parisian flat for an entire week.
Paris Attitude Apartment

So there we have it! A trip to Paris and London, a RBLE, and a friend's 39th birthday party all rolled into one!

Now if I can just decide which is a more important item to purchase while I'm there--a pair of shoes or a handbag....

Random blog of the day

Arby's has these new chocolate turnover things.
Oh, jeebus. Do we really need to tempt the fat girl with more ways to just drive through somewhere and add more calories to her daily intake?

Paris trip is really starting to take shape! I'll have to dedicate my next post to the plans that are in the works.

...but before I was sick...

Wendy, Jade, Danielle and CB bag in the snapshot shanty

Wendy was here for a visit! Ahhh, it was so nice to spend some quality time with my girl, W.


We went to see the Art Shanty project on Medicine Lake before the bout on Saturday afternoon. What a beautiful day for it! I had been reading reviews about this little DIY, renegade art project for years now, and was so excited to finally make it out and take it all in. I LOVED it.

I think my favorites were the ice shanty where you were asked to leave something behind that was in your pockets, or purse, or whathaveyou, and they would catalogue it. The shanty was meant to be a commentary on the entire rooms full of junk that scientists will leave abandoned on the ice in Antartica with no thought to ever coming back to clean up the mess.

But several shanties were just hilarious. There was one on a bicycle-like contraption that took about seven people to peddle around a shovelled out course on the ice. It towed a person on a tobaggon behind it. One was meant to be a downed airplane with "survivors"--a bunch of guys, standing around, drinking Icehouse. There was a karaoke shanty. There was an artist who took three random words from passers-by and generated fun drawings for participants based on those words...(Wendy's was totally awesome). I guess NPR had been out doing interviews the week prior, and I have a feeling that this little "fringe" festival may be on the verge of blowing up into an Uptown Art Fair spectacle...and that would be too bad. Part of the charm is the very nature of these vagabond artists just creating their own little world out there on the ice.

One of the shanties was entitled "Snap Shot Shanty" and Wendy, Jade, and I got our picture taken there and found that they had a blog they were posting photos on.

http://thesnapshotshanty.blogspot.com

Such creative, weird, and fun people were out there and we really enjoyed ourselves.
I snapped a few pictures as well, and I'll post them in the next day or so.

If you want to check out the website for this funky little festival, I'll link it below.

http://artshantyprojects.org

Sick

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...went to Target clinic and left with a diagnosis of Bronchitis and an Albuterol inhaler. Second bout with this funk in as many months. They said if I'm not feeling better by Monday, I have to go and have my lungs x-rayed for Pneumonia.

Been stuck in the house with the animals since Wednesday night. Jade is about to kill herself from boredom and Elvis is about to kill himself from Jade barking at him. Me, well all I want to do is sleep, soak in a hot tub, and repeat.

I'm sweaty, coughy, and phlegmy. Good times.

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