it's beginning to look a lot like christmas!

ah, you knew i was gonna title a blog like that sooner or later. anyway, it's beautiful. because the railway workers are still striking, i was forced to 1) wait 45 minutes for a dangerously full metro, 2) try to figure out that crazy bus system or 3) walk home. when i choose option number one and it doesn't work, i get real pissed that i have to walk home. but when i choose option 3 deliberately, it usually turns out to be a wonderful day. since it was sunny and warm(ish...california me would have been freezing), i decided to walk home.

instead of doing taking usual i-need-to-get-home-really-fast route, i decided to take the long, winding way home. not like i had anything to get back to, anyway (when facebook is your roommate, home isn't exactly a hoppin' place to be). i walked up to the champs elysees and wandered down the street with too much money. much to my delight, many of the stores had their christmas stuff up! trees, garlands and lights everywhere. i heard music softly coming out of one store. i was a little disappointed when i found out it wasn't christmas music, but got re-excited when i realized it was ucsb's own jack johnson!

i found a bus (helllll no, i'm not walking all the way home from the arc de triomphe...that's like a million kagillion miles) and rode to trocadero when i realized there was a cemetery there. i pressed that little "stop the bus now, please" button (which makes me feel really powerful) and hopped off. this cemetery (cemeterie passy, if you're curious) was a little bizarre...it was over crowded and not laid out in nice, neat lines like i'm used to in the states. one grave had a dog statue, too. i imagine dad would like something like that on his tombstone.

i started thinking about what i would want for my grave when i die. i decided that i really want a bust made of myself, because i freaking love a good bust and to have one made of my own face would be a dream come true. but i don't want my bust to be one of those regular, regal looking ones where i'm just smiling normally. i want it to be one where i'm laughing or lip biting or making some other funny face...something that will make people kind of laugh (but then feel bad for laughing at a dead person...for shame!).

i walked home from the cemetery (why do i always wanna spell that word "cemetary"?) and wandered down rue de passy, which is another huge shopping street. i can't wait to see more of the city decked out in christmas gear. as far as i'm concerned, i'm getting the best of both worlds here: christmas season in a gorgeous european city and christmas eve/day with the fam...so long as i don't get stuck in o'hare.