11.17.11

Down and out with a sore throat (can I please be healthy for the holidays? Pretty please?) I am finding myself blogging tonight in an incredibly quiet house. Greg has taken Will out for a bit, and here I sit, computer, tea, and Snuggie. If Carrie Bradshaw were ever the suburban housewife, I envision this is how she'd write (as opposed to martini hangover in lingerie with city view, cigarette and recovery martini by her side).


There is something beautiful in silence, isn't there? 


It has gifted me the chance to read back through last night's comments, both here and on facebook. I found myself reading each one, nodding my head in agreement and figuring out what it is, exactly, I eventually came to not like about surprises.


Like Holly, I absolutely love surprising other people. A cup of tea for a sick co-worker; an unexpected greeting card, or flowers, or sweet treats for a friend, just because; heck, even throwing Will in his "Big Brother" shirt and waiting until people figured it out was super fun!


And Mindy said that it's the little unplanned givings of life that surprise us, help us out, change our paths, guide us to something we weren't expecting. Those surprises are good, too.


So where I've deduced my lack of enthusiasm for the "surprise," is in knowing one is coming. The impatient five-year-old girl meets the Type-A plan-ahead thirty-year-old and I literally. Can't. Stand. It. 


But I am completely okay with it.


I could, perhaps, through further meditation practice, train myself to just stay in the moment, to not anticipate so much, and yet it's a little quirk about myself that I think I rather like.


Maybe I even love. 


SURPRISE! to Holly--the winner of this sweet treat. And I have your address! Look for it soon.


So tonight is the last giveaway of the month, and I have to address my love of--what else?--France.


Some of my fondest college memories took place on French soil (and on trains to other amazing places), and I've been so lucky to go back and visit so many times since then. I love Paris; I love the Eiffel Tower when it twinkles; I love cheese and bread and wine and mousse au chocolat; and I love speaking the beautiful language--and sharing it with hundreds of teenaged brains. 


Tonight's giveaway is a France-loving package. You will win:

• bottle of Vouvray wine, your choice of color (the one vineyard I toured while in France)
• my favorite marzipan-filled chocolates
• Rosetta Stone for French, so that you learn some of this amazing language or brush up on it, and inspire yourself to take a trip (and make like Carrie Bradshaw in some fabulous hotel suite in Paris)

All you need to do is impress me with your French. :o) Go ahead; use Google translator. Leave a comment and tell me why you'd love some French flair in your life.