road trip

Lebanese Cuisine: A Love Story

April 1, 2010November 23, 2020 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

"There is no love sincerer than the love of food." -George Bernard Shaw *In the winter of 2004, I had the brilliant idea to take a trip to France. I thought to myself, "Sure... this'll be great. I'll go out there all alone. I've been talking to that French guy on the Internet for the past few months... yeah, this is a good idea."Ok... so it was a little wacky. But, my gut said that it was a good idea, even though my head was making fun of me constantly, using words like "careless" & "daft".But, hell... since when do cautious & rational have all of the fun?It was November. The plan was set for me to spend 2 weeks in France during April of 2005.Fast forward to April in Paris.Skip ahead to me & him, in his apartment in Montmartre."I rented a car," he said. "I thought that next week, we'd take...

Copenhagen, Part 2: Nothing is Rotten in the State of Denmark

August 7, 2009December 2, 2020 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

“Traveling expands the mind rarely” -Hans Christian Andersen “My life is a lovely story, happy and full of incident.” -Hans Christian Andersen “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” -Marcellus, Hamlet scene iv * * * It only took one day for me to decide that Copenhagen was my new favorite place in the world and that absolutely nothing was rotten in the state of Denmark as far as I could tell. The second day there only assured me that I was right.Of course, I didn't need that assurance, but you get the point.Since we were there as tourists, we were obligated to make a trip to see The Little Mermaid statue at the harbor at Langelinie. No, this was not Disney shit - what I'm talking about here is a statue based on the original Hans Christian Andersen story.First, we had to make a trip near the Royal Theater opera house to catch the boat that would take us to the...

The Cats, Cannonballs & Demon Babies of Lille

June 17, 2009December 18, 2018 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

Wow. How long has it been since I've written something on this damn site?Eh... who cares.Here's the thing: since I've spent the past month on vacation, all of my writing - until today - has been done with paper and pen. Sometimes in rented rooms, in a tent, or in a moving car through varying degrees of inebriation, exhaustion or sickness.It's been a long, strange and tiring trip. It's also been a very cool trip. Olivier and I are still living in a bit of disarray what with all of the packing and unpacking and the bit of neglect that our house has endured while we were off running amok.We're exercising again every day, which we didn't do for a month. No, instead, we were eating everything that we normally wouldn't, on top of everything that we normally would. We're now fattened up and greasy. Exercise has once again become painful.The suffering is worth it.Like any journey, ours started at...

The Minutiae of Carniverous Plants & Road Trips

May 17, 2009November 23, 2020 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

"I think writers need windows on a view to remind them that a whole world is out there, not the minutiae with which they might be dealing on a close scale." - Anne McCaffrey.It just occurred to me that it has been a little while since I've posted anything here.Of course, that isn't because I've run out of things to say - I've actually got a list of topics sitting next to me that I'll be bitching about in the future, but the thing is... I just don't feel like it right now.I don't read many other blogs. The reason being, I can't stand to read about the minutiae of other people's lives. I admit, I just don't fucking care. Blogs written by new mothers about each time their brand new larvae shits, blogs supposedly written by someone's fucking cat or anything written by someone who has absolutely nothing to say, but just needs attention from strangers on...

Landing on The Big Mound

August 10, 2007December 1, 2020 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

Okay... so, after the feline vomit, bovine ass-slides and canine crap, we made our way down south to the coast until we reached the resort of La Grande Motte, which I learned means "The Big Mound." Big mound of what, I have no idea. All three of us were so happy to arrive, that we all took part in a raucous dance of joy.After all of that nonsense, we decided to head out to a pizza place nearby to stuff ourselves with pizza, rosé wine, sangria, fried calamari and shrimp. We decided to work off a few calories after our display of gluttony, so we stopped to shoot a few zombies.After the long car ride from Parensol to La Grande Motte, the dancing jackasses, the gluttonous feast and zombie killing, everyone had pretty much had their asses kicked for the day and had rendered themselves useless for the rest of the evening....

Puking Peril on the Way to Parensol

August 6, 2007December 1, 2020 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

The first day of our vacation, Olivier and I were riding in the stuffed rental car with our yowling cat in the backseat on our way to Parensol in central France to spend the weekend with Olivier's parents. Cat was safely snuggled in her little traveling bag. About 30 minutes into the trip, we were on the Périphérique heading away from Paris when she began her signature "I'm about to blow chunks" wail. No hot, meaty smell wafted from behind, so we assumed that all was well. That was fucking stupid.We stopped a couple of hours later at a rest stop to eat. I held Cat's bag in my lap while trying to feed her bites of turkey through a wee hole near her head. She didn't seem to interested. We walked to the building to grab some coffee and have a pee, taking turns holding Cat's bag as we went inside. When I came outside, Olivier announced that he had discovered...