Fantastic Pharmacy Fun

Fantastic Pharmacy Fun

by Rasmenia Comment Closed
One thing that you can always find in Paris is a pharmacie. Any time that you're out walking around in the streets, just take a look around you & no doubt you will see the neon green cross that will guide your way toward the salvation that only prescription medicine, band aids & medicated ointments can provide.Naturally, once you get inside, it's a bit smaller than most American drug stores & it's all business in there.Perhaps you're thinking, "Well, of course it's all business...it's a damn pharmacy. What else would you do in there?"Well, here's the thing: at some American drug stores, say...like a Walgreen's, there is a lot more to do inside. You don't even have to need any prescription medication, band aids or medicated ointments to have a good time in there. Really, you don't even have to buy anything. Just peruse the aisles for something ridiculous - which you will have no problem finding - & have...
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13 Things to Do In Paris

by Rasmenia Comment Closed
  1.  Stand at your window & wait for an organ grinder or other street musician to appear on the street to entertain you.    2. Go look at shiny things.    3. Mingle among some of the locals.    4. Spend an afternoon loitering in front of Jim Morrison's old apartment building.     5. Or, you could just go see Jim.    6. You can visit some more old friends while you're there.    7. Go to a rugby game.     8. Or you could just go watch it on TV in a bar.     9. Enjoy the thick, pungent aroma & charm of the Paris sewers.    10. Go stand next to someone you don't know & have your picture taken with a stranger.    11. Approach people at help desks & attempt to communicate with them only by whistling.    12. Explore creepy basements.    13. Take lots of pictures.Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to...
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Bibles, Bikes, Chocolate & Wigs

Bibles, Bikes, Chocolate & Wigs

by Rasmenia Comment Closed
One day, Olivier & I were walking around here in Paris with some friends. We passed a shop that I had never seen before & which immediately struck me as being odd. The sign in front read "Vélo et Chocolat". In plain English, it said: "Bicycle & Chocolate".Evidently, you can get a bicycle here & some bars of chocolate. Interesting marketing idea. It's true that chocolate goes with anything, it's just that I had never been riding a bicycle while thinking to myself, "Hmm...yeah...a thick bar of chocolate sure would hit the spot right about now".Naturally, this one-stop shopping idea isn't unique to Paris, or even to Europe at all. Before I moved to France, when I was living in the small town of Loveland, Colorado, there in the downtown area was a fabulous mecca of one-stop shopping: Probasco's.Yep...that's right. Bibles & wigs all in one amazing shop.It looks like both countries like the bizarre two-in-one stores. So, we're not...
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Whatever. It Still Beats American Football.

Whatever. It Still Beats American Football.

by Rasmenia Comment Closed
Olivier & I arrived at the stadium & found our seats. Moments later, we were blinded by a pink flurry...a pink Cadillac did laps around the field, streaming pink feather boas. The shitty 80's disco music was deafening & asses were shaking it as far as the eye could see.No...it wasn't a gay pride rally. It was a rugby game. Yes, I'm serious.I was hypnotized. I stared in awe & wonder as I watched the pink Caddy filled with dancing girls. For a moment, I had forgotten that I was waiting for a rugby game to start.Of course, the game couldn't actually begin until a giant, golden rugby ball was wheeled onto the field. Try to imagine my sense of amazement as the gilded ball slowly opened to reveal another feather-clad Moulin Rouge girl hidden inside. Just try to imagine it - I bet you can't, though.After she had completely hatched, the...
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The IKEA Nesting Instinct

The IKEA Nesting Instinct

by Rasmenia Comment Closed
"And I wasn't the only slave to my nesting instinct. The people I know who used to sit in the bathroom with pornography, now they sit in the bathroom with their IKEA furniture catalogue." ~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 5"You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you." ~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 5~I feel as though I've committed some sort of blasphemy. I had done so well, selling, giving, and throwing away most of my material possessions - all the while, reminding myself that, "the things you own end up owning you."It was...
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Thankful for Pre-Packaged American Goodness

by Rasmenia Comment Closed
Last year, Olivier & I flew back to Colorado for Thanksgiving. This year, we decided that we would spend Christmas & New Year's in the U.S. & would spend Thanksgiving in France.What I always find amusing is the Americans who think that there is Thanksgiving in France. When someone asks me, "So...is there a Thanksgiving in France?" or, "What do they do for Thanksgiving in France?" I have the urge to throw books at them for being so ignorant of the history of their holidays.Yeah...American holiday. Look into it.But, I digress.Funny enough, there is Thanksgiving in Paris - among the community of Yanks that are living here. Several restaurants offer a Thanksgiving dinner as long as you've made reservations well in advance.But...I just can't do it. Really, I don't see anything wrong with eating a holiday dinner in a restaurant, but it's bad enough that my mother isn't cooking the food. I'd rather not be fed my holiday meal by...
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