Blog #5: I love my flat mates

I just absolutely love my flatmates. And I absolutely love replacing roommate with flatmate- never liked the look of that word anyway. On Saturday the 15th of January we had a party to celebrate not one but two birthdays of very dear friends of the house, Nelly and Adrian. The whole week before the party I was sick -have I mentioned that I've been sick more in the past 3 months I've lived in France than the past 3 years I've lived in Seattle? - and I was worried I wouldn't be well enough to attend. Not that that would really matter, as we all know I would be there with bells on anyway, sick or not. On the Wednesday before, I was shooting the shit with Mika and Baptiste about what  I was going to wear. "Dress like Britney Spears!", they tell me. "Haha, very funny," I respond, thinking they're just being typical guys trying to get me in some short/sexy/slutty outfit for the evening. Well Friday Marlène comes home, and she shows me her costume. "Why do you have a costume?", I inquire. "Uh, hello? Because it's a costume party- Musique Star!. Je suis Madonna!" Great. Just great. The party is in less than 24 hours, I'm totally broke because, well, I'm always broke, and now I've got to find an outfit for our Musique Star party theme. Well, a combination of creativity on my part mixed with the complete lack of knowledge in the French world who the slain Mexican singer Selena is (make that most of the world outside of Mexico) made for one hot Musique Star Costume. I wasn't the only one who didn't have a costume, and around 2pm the day of (of course) the flatmates and friends of 122 Rue Sainte Cecile went en ville looking for something to dress up in for the evening. I found a red fan and red tights. I had a black dress, a big red flower and some red lipstick. You all know my adoration for Mexican food (salsa), and even when I'm not eating chips 'n salsa I can play off the look that I am of Mexican desent fairly well. "Hmmm....Who the hell is famous from Mexico??" I wonder. I know of no rising star at the moment, but Selena came to mind. I'm thinking, "no one is going to know who Selina is....and I'm pretty sure her outfits were more of the  90s flashy, a la Mexicaine style rather than my sleek, Nanette Lepore LBD, so......parfait!" I purchased the red fan and tights, and Sonia and I continued the search for her outfit, plus the goods to make some hor oeuvres for the party. We didn't get home til almost 7, and had to prepare the goods we bought for the evening. It was requested of Sonia to make a birthday cheesecake (which doesn't take just a few minutes, and she definitely regretted accepting this request), and I was making my go-to stuffed mushroom recipe. I'm very proud to say I went from Rachel to Selena in 37minutes, WITH a shower (hair washing not included) to boot! And as I anticipated, everyone asked, "Who are you?" With a shocked and somewhat snobby look on my face: " I'm Selena! You don't know who Selena is??!". With an an appropriate American eye-roll I would explain that she was the "Latin Madonna", very, very talented and famous in the Latin world, and what the horrible scandal it was that the president of her fan club shot and killed her. "Ahhhhhh, bon, " my Frenchy friends responded with a nod of approval. **Ding!** Point for Rachel.

The party was FANtastic. Great music. Great people. Tons of drinks, dancing, laughing. It went into the wee hours of the morning. Baptiste had starting making Saturday evening a traditional dish from his neck of the woods in Lille, which was marinated beef in beer with other delicious secret ingredients. The party was cleaned up - my god was the floor a mess!- and a new party started. I probably shouldn't have continued on, but given I didn't have to work on Monday, I kept on keepin' on. Again, not such a good idea. Monday I was  completely worthless, Tuesday was worse, and by Wednesday had another full on nasty head cold. Breathing through the nose not possible. Here I am 10 days later and it sill hasn't gone away, but rather moved into my lungs with a not-so-sexy raspy voice accompanied with an even less appealing constant cough. After trying numerous over the counter meds that just aren't doing the trick, I finally went to the doctor this morning for something more powerful. The Doc said I have an allergy, "it's going around", and prescribed me something I have to take once a day for a month. In my sniffling, sneezing, achy, stuffy-head, I just need some rest so give me some medicine mental state, I forgot to ask what exactly the allergy was. But now I've got the meds to take once a day for 30days so you know what that means: no drinking for a month. Well that's what got me into this mess I suppose, so I'm just going to bite the bullet if I want to get my health back. Luckily the French are super understanding when it comes to illness, super understanding meaning they are crazy about not getting sick, and if you are sick, you need a week to recover, with lots of meds. Next time you're at a social gathering at someone's house in France, check out the medicine cabinet. I can guarantee it will be full with meds for every ailment possible to the imagination. And these meds are super easy to find at any given pharmacy you may stumble upon the street every 20 meters or so. France has pharmacies like Seattle has Starbucks. They're everywhere. Everywhere.

So this weekend I'm keeping it low key. Going to dinner Friday with someone new. We're going for Thai. Yay! Here's something I really miss from Seattle: good Asian food. Sushi here is ridiculously expensive, and not the quality I'm used to, or that's worth paying for. Kelly and I found a Thai place on Rue Corniche, but it was more 'Asian inspired' than a true Thai restaurant, for they didn't even have phad thai on the menu!! How can you say your establishment is Thai without phad thai on the menu?? hmmmph! The rest of the weekend I'll be laying low, planning my trip with Russ who's coming in March where we'll be renting a car and doing our own little Tour de France, writing my blog, and trying more French recipes. So until next time......