2003-07-11 - 6:57 a.m. ex pat dreams I started reading On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking in a French Town yesterday, and am about halfway through already. The book is a chronicle of the author (a food lover and cookbook author) and her love affair with France, including her family's restoration of a dilapidated monastary in the countryside. In addition to fueling my typical wanderlust (though who knows how I'd actually travel through the countryside w/out driving), it reminds me of my own unrequited love affair with France. Thanks to Anais Nin and her diaries, plus Jean Cocteau, and Henry Miller, and all the art I loved chronicling a moment in time in Paris, I had always dreamed of packing up and spending some serious time there. More years of French classes and my French Civilization course in college only solidified my francophile leanings. Most unfortuantely, neither high school nor colege resulted in any unexpected windfall of cash to pay for a transatlantic plane ticket or a year of study abroad. I was stuck in beautiful California, working my way through school...student loans have to start being repaid within 6 months of graduating, and I graduated during the last worst job market for college grads, so taking off for a Summer in Europe, even if I'd had the cash, didn't make sense. Instead, I saved up, found a job and an apartment and moved myself and my cat to SF. So, yes, while I read this book, many possible scenarios run through my head of how life could've been different if I'd had a chance to follow my dreams to France when I was younger. But if I spend any serious time pondering that, I naturally segue into the imagining how life would've been different if I hadn't spent the bulk of my 20s married or involved w/my ex boy. It's simply not a good or useful path to follow. But it is nice to be reading something that makes me dream...and there's always the possibility of being laid off w/a nice fat severance package which *could* finance a few months at cooking school in France...ah, what a nice daydream for a Friday morning. Off to work now. any comments? (1 so far) previous - next recently on almostgoldsf... in defense of an email box I came to do battle with SPAM - 2008-05-17 hello 2006 - 2005-12-31 Happy Thanksgiving - 2005-11-14 bon voyage - 2005-11-05 October already? - 2005-10-09