Cold, Snow, and Back to Paris

As many of you in the northeastern part of the US know already, its been incredibly cold the past week -- and to top it all off, the snow that we got right before Christmas has been generously replaced; the last batch coming just over this weekend. Sheesh. I thought Rhode Island was supposed to be warmed by the ocean, you know tempered by the water, that sort of thing.

Hardly.

But the big news for us right now is we are going back to Paris. And we're going this spring.

The plan is Susie will head off in mid-March, take two weeks of intensive French at Alliance Francaise and then do three weeks of continuing ed, professional development courses at Le Cordon Bleu. These will include work on chocolate and confectionery one week, then plated desserts and viennoiserie the second week finished off by entremets for the third week. (Apparently entremets is a fancy way of saying desserts. But then every time I try to say "deux baguette" I always get that puzzled look over my pronunciation of the word "deux," like I've said it in Turkish or something.)

We're still waiting to hear if she will be able to do a stage, an internship. If so, she'll stay for a few additional weeks after the courses.

As for me, I'll join her for the month of April. My exact plans are a bit tentative right now but I'm hoping to make progress on laying out a guidebook of the Big Three cemeteries in Paris: Père-Lachaise, Montmartre, and Montparnasse. I'm not sure yet but I am fairly certain it won't be typical. . . Anyway, Marie and, I hope, Philippe will help bring this project to something approaching a printed conclusion. I also want to spend hours roaming the Orsay Museum (or Musee d'Orsay for you purists).

Lest you think we are foolish to contemplate such a thing in these troubled financial times, I need not remind you that there is no time like the present to do what must be done. And we have to do this.

Have to? Absolutely. Susie needs the inspirational lift and I need the turn of my imagination, both lurking on every corner of Paris.

Look, we don't want to miss a moment in Paris if we can do it and right now we can -- now is the time before we wake up one day and find our primary preoccupation is with drooling.

Now is the time.

And I have my dad to thank for every step of this journey. His very last words to me -- words I have repeated here before and will do so again -- his last words were simply and clearly:

"Have a happy life Steve."

And so I shall. and I intend to take Susie with me.

Pop turns 99 this year.

Take care of yourselves, stay warm, keep calm and consider the historical watershed tomorrow, January 20. We inaugurate a black man as president of the United States. The cool thing is it seems so natural, so right.

Have a happy life.