I love my Zebra F-402 ballpoint pen. I probably bought two of them like 5 or more years ago, and they’re refillable and reliable. I am about done with this tube of ink, and it’s just barely writing with a little dryer effort, but I know it will write until it is OUT! I have a million refills (literally maybe 20… they’ll probably dry out before I even get to all of them whoops) and Zebra makes all kinds of refillable stuff, and it’s great to reduce waste and always have a pen that I know works well. I do feel like I used to have two and don’t any more, which I suppose is why two is one and one is none!
Hot take: learning to weightlift in public is good for you for many reasons, more mental than physical imo, because learning in public, being visibly imperfect and putting effort in publicly toward improvement, is extremely good for you. Yes of course I want a squat rack at home, at some point. But I’m taking this lesson as it is too.
This post brought to you by my huge accomplishment today in finally learning how to use lifting straps for front squats, and recording a series of photos that will help me get there next time!
Hey runners. Hey. Hi. We gotta stop calling ourselves slow. I think the most egregious example of this I’ve experienced was when I was looking stuff up about carbon plate shoes and saw some comment on reddit like “if you’re a slower runner, like 8-9 minutes miles, then these probably won’t do anything for you.” Looking back on this, I’m thinking this must just be like.. someone in high school or their 20s, with people running 6 minute miles around them, track runners, whatever. Not applicable to the over 40 set who are working on getting within striking distance of a small community race podium.
Also that’s bunk – plate shoes (I have nylon plate shoes rather than carbon – not quite as good, a little cheaper) are tremendously helpful. Don’t wear them for anything but races, and I think they really help me go about 1-1:30 minutes per mile faster. They break down faster, and I’ve heard they can hurt your body if you wear them all the time. I can’t corroborate any of that, I do not know the science, but I love love them as race shoes.
Yesterday we took the train from Angers into Paris, and I learned I’d been saying Angers wrong! It’s just “an-zhay,” like every other -er word in French! I had been pronouncing it like “angerre” and that is not it, and I wonder why I thought that! The train was EXCEEDINGLY pleasant and I read quietly the entire time, putting 100 pages behind me before we arrived 1h40m later. We were in a row with no fewer than three children under five and the quietness was still totally persistent, even with a slight delay as we pulled out of Massey.
Paris is huge, it’s aware of itself, it breathes. I think it’s good to contextualize it with other big cities, not necessarily – or at least not exclusively – as just The Big French Place, romantic and etc. I haven’t been back here in 25 years, about a month before 9/11. And just walking around yesterday, it was so familiar and yet, ugh, sorry, so much more American feeling. Jeans and leggings and sports gear, that’s all everywhere now. Oh and vapes. Oh my god there’s just vape everywhere. People hold their vapes like people hold their phones, just absolutely constantly, and I kinda hate it! Every time I see, or more likely, smell the saccharineness of vape exhale, I’m glad I quit smoking before that became de rigueur, before I might have been inclined to try it. God, I guess it’s better for you than tobacco.
But so much of Paris, of course, is the same. The sidewalk cafes – which is virtually all of them, because it’s what Paris does, and it’s what people expect, and that ouroboroses back into itself. That’s true of so much of any structurally reinforced set of a city’s expectations – what comes easiest is what will please people most easily. And it is pleasing! The cafe we sat in yesterday reports that they’re open until FIVE AM, and it was best beef tartare I think I’ve had since Boke Bowl closed in Portland, which you might not understand, was incredible. We’re covered from the gloomy, romantic rain, enjoying our world-class food and beverage, watching the water come down and the world go by in this very cool, very close-in arrondissement.
Though, I’m still sick. I can’t believe I’ve been dealing with this cold basically the entire time we’ve been here. It’s so mild! But it will get worse if I don’t actually take care of it. What I really would like to do is just casually drink a little too much for the remaining couple days we’re here but I really can’t, I’m just too busy! We’re walking around so much today, museums and shopping, so uh, I guess I’ll try to go slowly?? Bah
The cold was much less of an issue than I was worried it might be. This happens to me, you see, I have enough days in a row of poor sleep and a cold just finds its way in through my immune system. And there’s nothing like travel and jet lag and being away from my wife to make that a perfect cocktail.
Mais comme resultat, I took it quite easy yesterday and the day before, sippies off Matt’s wine (no fear of god cold symptoms, that one) but otherwise a lot of water and ginger tea and a lot of downtime, more than I’d really prefer for vacation. Angers is a pretty small town
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And all of the above has been waylaid because in this train station while we wait for the TGV to pull in to get back to Paris, the pianist in this beautiful, airy train terminal just started playing the main theme from Outer Wilds, and I fully started weeping in the middle of this terminal, memories of my friend who passed away, who I played this game with, washing over me.
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Back to it! Whew. Monday we walked around a garden and then found our way to a really sweet little beer bar, and then to a really spectacular wine bar where Matt was losing his mind (complimentary) over the wine and the truly world class charcuterie we got with little side tureens of homemade ajvar and tapenade, and then to bed quite early.
Then yesterday was a sculpture exhibit at a decommissioned church (itself a very interesting venue) and then an incredible fine-dining lunch, a four course meal for €45. Afterward, I navigated some bra shopping with the nicest woman who was happy to speak French and let me understand what I could, we switched to English and then back again, I asked what various terms were and so did she, and it was lovely.
PUIS, EUROVISION!!!! The first semi-final was last night, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen it live, though I’ve watched them after the fact. I got Matt to watch with me, and predictably and yet not, he got very into a few of the songs, because they’re great!! I am so so very excited to watch the second semi final somewhere live at a bar, when I’ve fully kicked this cold!
Now, to Paris on the TGV!
I have been inflicted with a cold, made worse by not having slept much last night. I thought I was past the jet lag and had done all the right things, and indeed yesterday was great, rested, but I got overconfident! Last night’s dinner ended with an espresso, and while that works at home, it did NOT here and I was up all night. And today was just feeling pretty crummy. I have a hurty spot on my quad, and I’m just the runniest nose haver in the world right now. Hoping I can sleep/hydrate/vitC it away.
So today was quite chill. I did wind up getting out and about, we went to a garden and two really impressive bars, Matt was just dyin’ over the wine selection, telling me all about the buying he does for his restaurant and how he’s been looking for something like this wine, etc etc. Everything is available by the glass, and CHEAP – even at Very Nice places no glass of wine has been more than like $10, and plenty are like $7 or $8, for what he is saying are world-class wines. I’m trying them too but know much less, but am an eager student!
Little travelogue, maybe, of my friend Matthew’s and mine trip to France! Travel “day” was really quite rough – in quotes because Friday and Saturday were basically contiguous. Up until the point of getting the airport it was all lovely, and then it was 7.5h in a huge tin can where I couldn’t really move forward or back, and still managed to fidget my way into not being able to sleep for basically the entire time – maybe 2h, generously, across a dozen concerted attempts. We landed at noon local time, navigated customs which was all pretty automatic, and then needed to gtfo. I had planned out the route from CDG to the train station to get our TGV to our destination, and that bus just wasn’t running. Not knowing much but trusting, they said we needed to get on this other bus for €14.
That bus dropped us in the middle of like, suburban commercial newness/nothingness, and we then schlepped all our bags (no rollers, thank god) probably 1.5mi to what I thought was “m13 bus,” but of course the M means Metro!!! And that’s great, we love the Paris light rail!!! And while we were able to take it all the way to the huge central train station, getting through the turnstile was massively difficult, my ticket continued to be rejected, no one was around, until finally there was, and he checked that I’d bought fares (like 3 lmao) on the non working ticket and waved me through.
As we descended through the station, the perfect train rose up to meet us and though it was like 15 stops, it was easy and direct and quite pleasant. After some mid food and coffee and a sit, we got onto the TGV where I did whatever I could to stay awake, which oddly meant no video games, and a really lovely hour and a half later landed us to the little town we’re staying in. It was such a relief, stepping off the train and having theeee breeziest, nicest-weather walk to the place we’re staying, on the 4th floor of an unobtrusive place on the main drag, loft vibes, so nice.
I’m back in France and fighting the urge to write this blog post in bad French! I’ve conducted a few conversations in English but a few en français too. While it’s been a VERY logistically challenging day, I’m so eager to use my French, which honestly is decent. I just want to keep being kinda bad at it so I can maybe get a little better at it!
Hey, remember Autostraddle, the lesbian mag? Online? Good essays? It’s still around and it, is GREAT. They’ve recently started publishing physical issues. This recent one is like, Harper’s Bazaar length at like 250pp, thick paper, & no ads, I think? I can’t imagine the monumental work involved in putting this very very very stylized magazine together, so youuuuuuu should buy a copy and/or subscribe.
Issue #2 is food writing, all naturally quite queer, and this very brief, incredibly real and emotional essay on caesar salad deserves to be read in paper. And it features Melissa King on the cover and in a loving photographic editorial!
Get ye some: https://forthem.com/collections/print-issues-1/products/autostraddle-print-issue-02
I was chatting with my Dad yesterday and he asked what devices I have, and finally I have figured out the way to convey my feelings on google/apple/microsoft/etc. I don’t like lock-in! So I have a personal desktop PC, a mac for work, a linux laptop, a work iphone, a personal android, and various other things. I give different login credentials to basically all of these, because I can make an infinity* of addresses from my domain. I really despair the monopolization/colonization of smaller companies and solutions.
