Posts from — October 2008

Sorry I haven’t written in a couple weeks. You see, I was just so busy preparing for my trip to the French Riviera, I couldn’t be bothered to write or even do any wedding-related items. It’s very stressful traveling to the Côte d’Azur– making sure I have the right clothes for the famously temperate climate and enough memory cards to capture the Mediterranean’s beauty effectively, not to mention brushing up on essential French phrases like “Je voudrais un autre pichet de vin rouge” and “Ne me touche pas– tu me fais chier!” Life is so hard sometimes.

The obligatory Mediterranean resort photo

Fine, I’ll stop being completely obnoxious, but I seriously got a chance to go to the French Riviera. For free! I think that merits a little insufferable gloating. I’m on a two-week trip in Antibes Juan-les-Pins (between Cannes and Nice) with a program through the French Consulate optimistically called “Jeunes Talents.” There are eight of us young talents going to four different French cities– Antibes, Lyon, Montpellier and Biarritz– to take photographs for an exhibition and some brochures. For some reason, Loyola is one of the schools sending recent grads and, thank the baby Jesus, I take pictures and speak French. It’s been awhile since I’ve been shooting on a regular basis, though, so I’m hoping it’s like riding a bike…

Esther, another Loyola grad who majored in visual arts, is in Antibes as well so I have a partner in crime to help me eat and drink my way through the city. And in an awesome turn of events, my love Kathleen decided to take a spontaneous vacation to France! She found a cheap fare to Paris and is taking the train to Antibes to meet me on Wednesday. We’ll hang out here for a few days, soak up the sun and stuff ourselves with mussels and escargot, then spend our last two days in Paris. Our conversations about the trip mostly consist of us going, “Eeeeee!” over and over and sometimes jumping up and down.

I had wanted to keep up a Flickr account with all my pictures while I’m traveling, but sadly, I don’t think it’s possible this time around. The gallery in L.A. where we’re having the exhibition in March doesn’t want us to publish our images on the Web until after the opening. Understandable, but a bummer nonetheless. I think I’ll be able to send around a Picasa album or two, so let me know if you’re interested in getting in on that action. I’ll also post a few photos to the blog that I don’t plan to submit. In other words, you can see my photographic rejects here! Who’s excited? I already paid for a pro Flickr account, though, so you can be damn sure I’ll use it for something– take a gander every now and then.

I’ll write more later, but here are a few pictures from my first days here… Gros bisous!

Restaurant in Old Antibes

My neverending quest for the perfect pétanque picture (a.k.a. me stalking old men)

Street in Old Antibes

Soccer game with an unexpected player

You have no idea how hard it’s been not to make incessant save-the-date/STD references. Really. Maturity is not my strongest suit. But I think I get one freebie: Brian and I are officially free of STDs! Yay! OK, I’m done now.

It may not sound like much, but getting those darn things off in the mail was a major accomplishment. I actually sobbed like Chris Crocker over envelopes last week. Twice.

All right, it wasn’t just over envelopes (I had a generally rough week), but still. Here’s a little timeline of the crazy.

Monday: I talk to the gentleman in charge at Sir Speedy downtown and determined we were go for launch. He has the design files, the Excel doc and font files for the mail merge on the envelopes and promises me a proof by the end of the day.

Wednesday: No proof yet. I’m now working with two new sales people, and somewhere in the transition the design files are deleted from the FTP. I let them know that Brian, my fiance who is fighting terror in Iraq has the design files and won’t be able to send them until later that night. I politely express my displeasure. Brian resends the files.

Thursday: There’s a problem with the Excel doc, and I end up having to make two separate spreadsheets. I have to approve a proof in person, so I drive downtown and spend 20 minutes cursing at businessmen and parallel parking like a mofo. I get back to work and see the envelope design file open on my screen. There’s a typo in the return address and I flip out like Jessica Stein. I call the printer and have them stop printing the envelopes (luckily they had only done 20). I have a breakdown on the phone with Brian… something along the lines of “Now they’re not going to finish the project by tomorrow and they won’t be done until next week and I’m terrible at wedding planning and I’m falling behind at work and I’m being a total bitch to everyone around me and I haven’t seen you in five months and I am failing at liiiiiiife.”

Friday: The project is done on time and turns out beautifully. I realize we left off our parents and my sister from the guest list and there are no extra envelopes, but I mostly shrug it off. I stop for gas on the way home and am verbally harassed by a charming young man who tells me, “Girl, you a white girl and you look like that? You got more booty than any black girl I know! My friend here’s a rapper. Wanna be in his video?” I try to make daggers literally come out of my eyes without success. I go home and spend 10 minutes examining my ass in the mirror. Later, I go to FedEx to ship the save-the-dates to Bri in Iraq (our plan was to have him send them out because he gets free shipping). I find out that sending the box to him will cost $156, twice as much as just mailing them from here. I have another sobfest on the phone with Brian, the most patient man in the world, this time mainly about the cost of postage and my fast-developing eating disorder. Poor Chuck makes the mistake of jokingly pointing out I got our own address wrong on his envelope. I don’t laugh.

Saturday: I mail the save-the-dates, go for a swim, get a pedicure and drink some wine. Someone please save me from myself.