Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

This and That

                

 

 

I am spontaneous to a fault. Most things fall in my lap. Which I do not take for granted. Often I can sense things before they happen. I do not need to measure to know if something will fit. When telling a story I mispronounce words and mix up facts. School was beyond me, I bloomed late.

 

 

                

 

 

I love cleaning up a mess. I do not follow instructions well. The numbers 53 or 35 speak to me, they usually appear when I least expect it, often pointing me in the good direction. I like peanut-butter, jam (Wild blueberry, black cherry or blackberry jams are my favorite. Though I rarely eat them without cheese.) and cheddar cheese sandwiches. In the 29 years I have lived in France I probably have served sandwiches for lunch less than five times.

 

 

                 

 

Did you ever wonder where my blog banner came from?

An old, large engraving of a woman with a pearl earring. A spoonful of miniature vintage Mercier champagne dice. An antique dealer told me that years ago when a person bought a glass of Mercier champagne at a bar, it was served with two dice. Whether that is true or not I do not know. 

Oh I do not know why I use that image and dice for my banner, I just like it that is all.

Though I am considering taking off Tongue in Cheek, is that okay?

 

Tagging you to list any weird skeletons in your closet. 

Comments

25 responses to “This and That”

  1. Taste of France

    I love the backstory about your banner. I will have to find out about the champagne dice.
    Many decades ago, I taught high school math in Africa. One day the lesson was probability, and I explained using the typical example of tossing dice. I asked whether my students (70 per class, three students squeezed on two chairs at one desk with one book, no electric lights, no glass in the windows) had any questions. One raised his hand and asked, “Madame, what is dice?” That taught me a lot about assumptions.
    My weird skeletons are: my massages have healing powers; I love/hate cooking; I prefer economics to home economics; I feel a personal duty to right the wrongs in the world at least as in some small way (hence teaching in Africa); I have no rhythm but am a good tango dancer.

    Reply
  2. lanmangina@me.com

    Hi Corey,
    If you take off “Tongue in Cheek” you will have a blank space in the layout. Maybe room for invention? Why do you want to take it off? Are you going to abandon the name and/or use just your name? Or??? People might be lost if they go to find your blog and it is gone. Maybe search engines will still be able to find it if you have some reference to the name.

    Reply
  3. Anne

    I vote that you put up the banner you had before the dice. The one with Yann in profile. I can’t remember exactly what it was – only that my heart beat a bit faster whenever I saw it.

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  4. Jan D-M

    I love the banner with the dice, but knowing you, it will be replaced with something as wonderful OR something even better. Hmm, my skeletons? I am creative to a fault (self-professed The Queen of Keep It Complicated), my sense of justice and a big mouth frequently get me into trouble, it’s a rare bird that truly “gets” me, I will talk with anyone (and that can be disconcerting to them), I’m a Big Picture person, but details bring me grief, somewhere in a drawer I have the little scab from my son’s baby bellybutton, and I once met Katherine Hepburn (is that a skeleton?). <3

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  5. Robin Williams

    Your title is what caught my eye. DO NOT CHANGE IT. It has brought you luck, lots of bloggers, visitors (including my son), and other temptations. However, should you choose to change it, be aware that “someone” may take it as her own! Wink, wink.
    Please find more brocante items. They are so enticing, engaging, and make great story-starters. You should hear the one I tell about the medal I got from you. I wore it to my son’s wedding, and it surely opened a lot of conversations. R

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  6. WR

    You are a creative soul and your soul is nudging you to change your banner. I will go with what your soul is telling you.
    I am a girl who thinks too much. Over-thinking I think it’s called.
    I keep my Mom’s old wallet and hairbrush in a box.

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  7. g

    I like this!

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  8. g

    I have always been left of right-in through the out door-ALWAYS-I have had many odd things happen to me like meeting people before actually meeting them-in odd places-just for a split second-then the real meeting months later-I can tell things are going to happen before they happen even in young adulthood-my mom told me do not talk about your “feelings”-not emotions- but like feeling something is going to happen-I tell people write it down put it in an envelope and wait and see-I am 99 percent on- mostly with people I know-although sometimes with strangers-My dreams have meaning-not all of them I can tell the difference-I like the 3 times tables except for 24 18 I hold a hand of cards upside down and in the wrong direction-I never knew that until someone couldn’t see my hand to cheat and asked me about it had no idea what they were talking about-I get a homesick feeling in my stomach when I eat certain foods -like of childhood-I do not watch television – I have been to a grateful dead concert and the symphony in the same week I LOVE music- I like quiet I get scared when I look at the night sky in pitch blackness with no artificial light-it is so dark…immense-same with the ocean I would not go in any body of water at night except a pool it is so scary-I talk to myself- I flew down to mexico and told my mom I was going to the jersey shore I wasn’t even 20 years old-as soon as someone says DON’T I want TO DO-always I like taking chances/risks -well that is enough from me….maybe too much ……

    Reply
  9. Marilyn

    Didn’t you change the headers some years ago? I thought it was something else when I first started reading your blog. You were my first adventure into reading blogs and inspired me to write one too when I retired. Sending you love!

    Reply
  10. Ann

    The banner is perfect but not sure of removing the name. It’s kind of your brand name and describes your whimsical side.
    I can’t think of any skeletons but idiosyncrasies. Lately I purchased several journals so I could write down my creative ideas. Then I misplaced them so I bought more. Then those disappeared and I bought a couple bought more. I have yet to write down a creative idea because I can never find any of my journals. I bought a new journal today.
    Work is driving my crazy. Maybe I should go to happy hour and write down my ideas on a cocktail napkin.

    Reply
  11. pc Brown

    Skeletons? I ditched school a certain time (which is to say I ditched a LOT!) with a friend my mother loathed and who I lived vicariously through. She was everything I was not and I was drawn to her! (I ditched, but I never really did anything “wrong”, straight “A”s, goody good — she on the other hand smoked, had a lot of sex, did drugs, and drank as if she was 56 and laughed, often and loudly) So we became fast friends and she talked me in to ditching this day during our 7th grade. (she also was in 7th grade- you can see why my mother hated her) We ate lunch at a Sambo’s and she left without paying, I paid my share but didn’t have enough to cover hers so I ran like I was on fire to get out of there before they could find out. We went back to the apartment she shared with her mother, who was a hooker (seriously!) and we watched the Price Is Right then went outside to do some other odd thing, but instead, found a dead man lying outside his front door, as if he was going out to pick up the paper and just dropped dead. We saw him there, checked him out and figured he was dead (I was freaking out and she acted like this was something that happened to her at least 4 times a week), so she went back to her place and called the cops. They came, then an ambulance, the fire department, the coroner, with each additional official my anxiety was escalating. My fear of being “bad” and all the guilt that came with it superseded the fact that they were dealing with a dead man, and couldn’t have cared less about a 7th grade girl who actually paid her lunch bill.
    Guilt is a weird, odd, and completely egotistical emotion that, unless it motivates you to repent, is utterly useless!
    Moral of the (true) story: If it’s not illegal, go ahead and do it and don’t feel guilty. If it *is* illegal and you do it, well, repent quickly and get on with your life. DON’T FEEL GUILTY (in this case, for changing -or not- the header on your blog. : )

    Reply
  12. You KNOW me–T

    Hi, Corey!
    Loved the story about your banner, but not so sure you should drop the blog name!! It’s kind of your brand…but at the same time you should follow your heart….
    Skeletons? WAAAAY too MANY! Ok–I have an uncanny sense of just knowing things…all kinds of things, but particularly “matchmaker” types of things! Those really close to me call it my “Hoodoo Voodoo…” I also run into celebrities–OFTEN. To the point that I’m starting to think it’s rather freakish! Random meetings include: Natalie Portman, Harrison Ford, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z (in an ELEVATOR of all places!!), and a cousin of Emily Dickinson, most recently. I have a catch-phrase that attracts them–I promise.
    Delving deeper, I work in healthcare in a large, inner-city environment. I’m SURE there are better ways of taking care of people. I see SO
    MUCH suffering and am exposed to terrible situations nearly daily. Here’s my big skeleton: I
    Love to cook & I love to bake–I think food has many curative and, perhaps, mystical powers. I’d love to have a bakery or a B&B & take care of
    people in a DIFFERENT way…
    Whew! Thanks, Corey, for giving us all a platform
    to voice such things!!!
    Cheers!!!

    Reply
  13. Julie W.

    Corey,
    I hope you don’t change your blog name or header. The dice and spoon is so unique–so YOU.
    Skeletons? A few. Can you tell I am not fond of change? One change I do embrace is winter changing to spring.

    Reply
  14. Kiki

    You asked us before and I said before: Don’t change a winning horse…. Apart from being unique, funny, beautiful, it’s also, by now, totally known as YOUR brand!
    skeletons? How many days have you got?
    It is a gr8 story too. Didn’t know about the Champagne dices….. another great find!

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  15. Diogenes

    This reader will be faithful, change or no change. 😉

    Reply
  16. Jackie

    I told you everyone has a story! I could sit with every person who responded and listen to more! P C Brown-what ever became of your 7th grade friend? “G” Please let me
    Know what my future holds!

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  17. Carolyn

    I love, love polishing silver. I am addicted to china, crystal, good quality table linens–prefersbly vintage. I love a beautiful table setting. My husband and two sons humor me and probably roll their eyes…alot.

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  18. Debra

    Oh, please don’t change the name as it is what caught my attention. It is so easy to remember.

    Reply
  19. Kathie

    “In the 29 years I have lived in France I probably have served sandwiches for lunch less than five times.”
    Not even meatless Croque Monsieur? Yikes, we have grilled cheese sandwiches (with sharp cheddar) at least 2-3 times a week — and not for lunch, but dinner!!! (Does that count as a skeleton?)

    Reply
  20. g

    ME TOO!! and to be really honest I see myself in most of the comments similar experiences etc-I wish we could sit and listen to others tales -love this comment!

    Reply
  21. pc Brown

    hehehe, well, first, my mother never found out that we ditched that day. She and I stayed friends through jr. high and during our freshman year of high school she and her mother moved out to Palm Springs. She once told me she felt like she was “meant to burn out hot and quick, like a fire cracker, one big burst and a loud BANG! -and then I’ll be gone.” (she also told me her life goal was “to lay Jim Morrison, then die on his bed.”) I tell you, I LOVED that girl. She was SO crazy, so on fire, and brave; nothing stopped her from what she wanted to do or say or feel. As an adult I can see she was running from things rather than to them, but she sparked things in me, made me think about things *I* wanted, which to be honest, at that time in my life I wasn’t allowed to dream or think selfishly at all.
    So, what happened to my Silly Sally Dunbar? I never heard of her once she left for Palm Springs. I hope she made love with Jim Morrison, I hope she found a way to be more like the stars than a firecracker, always sparkling and constant, and I hope she managed to always remain so happy and free.

    Reply
  22. Christine Harris

    Please keep Tongue in Cheek! It’s you. I would be sad to not see it in my inbox every night before going to bed. Either way, I will stay tuned.
    xoxo

    Reply
  23. Kathie

    By far the biggest skeleton in my family’s closet was their concealment for many decades of their — HORRORS! — Portugueseness. Well, I really blew the lid off that one, didn’t I!!!!! Those who weren’t cremated must be spinning in their graves (and I assume miniature ash cyclones can be spotted throughout NorCal for the rest).

    Reply
  24. Kathie

    (…except for those whose ashes were dumped in the Pacific outside the Golden Gate, of course).

    Reply
  25. Papaya

    Whatever you want as a banner or whatever you want to call your blog, I’ll follow you. My biggest skeleton in the closet? I’m saving that for my Memoir 😉

    Reply

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