Is this real life??

Shit's getting real here people. I'm taking 9 credits at PCC, which I absolutely love. Well, I like my in-person Econ 201 class b/c I love walking around campus feeling like a college student again! I catch myself grinning like an idiot in class all the time. But just missing a bus and waiting 20 minutes for the next one in the cold...hey, at least there are STREET LIGHTS here in Portland! Man, you don't realize how awesome/necessary those are 'til you live 2 years without 'em!

But Stats online is gonna be a bitch.

I also got a full-time job, which starts next week. So after next Tuesday, I will have no life until April 16th (receptionist at a tax office, you see). Which is fine by me, really. I got bills to pay! Money is meant to be spent, and I have been spending it. And on it goes. At least I'll die having lived.

I have not fully transmogrified into my true Portland self. Yet. Quasi-lesbian haircut, check. Public-transporting myself around town, check. Library card, check. Now I just need some hipster glasses and a bike, to find a yoga studio I like and I'll be set.

In the next couple of days apps to grad schools will be 100% submitted. The week after next I'm going to Washington D.C. to attend the inauguration and staff ball, tour the White House and potential grad schools, and best of all, reunite with my girl Sorry Zead!! SOOOOO excited!!! I can't believe it's been a year since I last saw her! Rude. We're gonna make memories that'll last a lifetime! ...not that we didn't in Malawi...

I'm pleased. 2013 seems to be starting out pretty darn well. Let's keep this up.

Bonheur

Have steady (and free!) internet access, will blog! Following, my thoughts on the good life-

"...il n'y a de bonheur que dans le ciel" -Madame Grandet, in Balzac's Eugénie Grandet
There is no happiness except in Heaven.

"la vie c'est du bonheur" -a bracelet I paid too much for and lost a few days later
Life is happiness/pleasure/good.

Glass half-empty or half-full? Is your glass Christian or not? Madame Grandet is a very religious character, who's had a rough family life, and my bracelet was awesome. When life is getting you down, circumstances suck and things aren't going your way, it's Christian (and easy) to say 'life sucks, whatever, things will be wicked cool in Heaven. I gotta get thru this!' But I say, make and be your own happiness. Embrace what comes along, learn from everything, good and bad, and create your own destiny. Don't blame other things or people for what happens, and don't take it lying down. Happiness is here, happiness is now, it's yours if you want it.

"Beaucoup du bonheur"

Lots of happiness -a traditional blessing you'd give to a newly married couple, especially if they're American and can appreciate the double entendre of 'bonheur,' as it sounds like something else you'd like to have a lot of in a marriage! ;)

The following passage has been lifted from my journal, originally written July 31st:

I know I will look back on this year as an incredible time, and also significant. I have some FABULOUS memories (Tunisia, Salou/Barcelona, Avignon, Geneva, meeting Robyn, teaching, meeting Kathleen Riley, Christmas in Hampshire, Ruth and her mom, Simon, Steve, Sarah, Zandra, trains, Alicia in Lyon, the Tour de France, hanging by the Sorgue, when my mom came to visit, hitchhiking, the Avignon theater festival, Whitney in Pertuis, Marseille, Paris with Daniel, &c.), and have read some good books, learned a few lessons (I hope! Though I still stupidly gave my phone number to a Chezch I never planned on seeing again in Geneva), made a few decisions, changed them, ammended them, changed them back, realized a few things (like I like France, I LOVE Europe, I won't know if the Foreign Service is the right thing for me until I do it but for right now it feels like a right and good and exciting direction), can cook a *little better, can travel a lot better, have weathered a few things, and am addicted to travel, wine, cheese, patatas bravas, Tabasco sauce, bastogne cookies, plain croissants (as opposed to pain au chocolats, which are nice, but not the same), trains, coffee, writing. I'm working on being more spontaneous and open to what the universe has to offer. I'm learning how to be an au-pair/nanny right now. At first I felt Seignosse (first nanny gig of the summer) was a failure. Now I see it was how it had to be.

***

Today I took a sailing class for 3 hours! I was sailing around on La Manche, learning hardly anything but I didn't mind because I had fun and perfect weather! Enough wind and lots of sun! Now that's what I call bonheur!

And I thought 20 months was young! Try 6 weeks! I'm currently babysitting a 6 week old, who I met 2 weeks ago, so I guess I've 'known' her for 1/3 of her life. Sort of. Anyways, WTF? Honestly, how do people do this parenting thing? And more importantly, why? Trying to get them both taken care of tonight was a handful...good thing the grandparents are next door to lend a hand! I have an even huger respect for anyone who dares have kids...especially when they're close together, or multiples.