Pittsburgh

I found out over this break that a lot more people than i realized read my blog so im going to try to start posting on this and the lil cub and the giraffe more. I'm sure it wont be as exciting as my france trip but i'll see what i can do......

here's a little teaser from the burgh

boots of spanish leather

Oh, I'm sailin' away my own true love,I'm sailin' away in the morning.
Is there something I can send you from across the sea,
From the place that I'll be landing?

No, there's nothin' you can send me, my own true love,
There's nothin' I wish to be ownin'.
Just carry yourself back to me unspoiled,
From across that lonesome ocean.

Oh, but I just thought you might want something fine
Made of silver or of golden,
Either from the mountains of
MadridOr from the coast of Barcelona.

Oh, but if I had the stars from the darkest night
And the diamonds from the deepest ocean,
I'd forsake them all for your sweet kiss,
For that's all I'm wishin' to be ownin'.

That I might be gone a long time
And it's only that I'm askin',
Is there something I can send you to remember me by,
To make your time more easy passin'.

Oh, how can, how can you ask me again,
It only brings me sorrow.
The same thing I want from you today,
I would want again tomorrow.

I got a letter on a lonesome day,
It was from her ship a-sailin',
Saying I don't know when I'll be comin' back again,
It depends on how I'm a-feelin'.

Well, if you, my love, must think that-a-way,
I'm sure your mind is roamin'.
I'm sure your heart is not with me,
But with the country to where you're goin'.

So take heed, take heed of the western wind,
Take heed of the stormy weather.
And yes, there's something you can send back to me,
Spanish boots of Spanish leather.

I can really shake 'em down

Atlantic two nights in a row! wednesday night abby, bailey and i went to motown night, and last night we went to indie night.


sooooo much dancing!! soooo much fun!!

i'd like to thank the atlantic for providing a place where a rhythmically challenged white chick like me can awkwardly dance and only feel slightly embarrassed!

Some folks inherit star spangled eyes

sparkler pictures are soooo pretty.

aditya and i had a an epic wizard battle.




I kicked ass.

peace love america baby

follow the leader

saw these little cuties outside my apartment this morning when I was going for a run, i ran back inside real quick to grab my camera.





I just want to keep one in my pocket at all times! and of course stunt its growth so it doesnt grow up, and stays adorable forever!

love ya!

Dear jagged rock,


Two very amazing things happened to me this year, i saw the steelers win the super bowl and i went to france. neither of these things would have been possible without you. you work hard so my dreams come true, and for that you are the best dad a girl could ask for. i love you sooo much.

love you always and forever

soaring blue jay

my morning coffee

I drink good coffee every morning

Comes from a place that's far away

And when I'm done I feel like talking

Without you here there is less to say

Slow dancing in the dark on the beach

i love love love summer!




i love eating watermelon and hamburgers.
i love floating on my back in the pool.
i love air so humid you can almost taste it.
i love feeling warm all night after being in the sun all day.
i love listening to rain and watching lightning.

home

so, i've been putting off my now-that-i'm-home-reflection-post for a week because in order to make it i would have to admit im home. i'm home. ah i said it! the band aid has been ripped off and i'm ready to do some reflecting.


france was amazinggggg and i'm so thankful to have been given the opportunity to go. I've always had a bit by a travel bug itch to travel the world, but im pretty sure now im a bug bite covered crazy lady seeing feverish delusions of places i want to go flash before my eyes: barcelona, nice, italy, india, japan, eygpyt, thailand, i want to see em all! so even though im a little depressed to be home, i'm determined to travel again soon.

i also wanted to thank everyone who followed my blog. so many times i found myself wishing my friends and family were there to experience things with me, and i hope everyone felt they were, even just a little bit. to be honest, i thought no one would even read this, and i cant tell you how happy it made me to know this was actually something people looked forward to.

and don't despair if my blog was your main source of entertainment this month. i have a ton of pictures i didnt post that i can occasionally update with. plus, a charleston vaca with the ziesche crew is not far off. vacations past have made backstage at lenny kravitz look like a tea party. even though i had originally planned for this to be a blog about my travels i think i'll update it with someone of my everyday happenings as well. of course gainesville isnt as exciting as france, but i have an overactive imagination and a way with words, so im sure i can spice up my everyday adventures for you.

love you all! lee

a list of thing i will miss:

1.laying in the grass, looking up at the eiffel tower sparkling against the night sky
2.puppet shows on the metro
3. the saronne, the seine, the rhone, and the saône
4. oysters by the river
5. the pop tart* effect of opening a bottle of champagne
6.being greeted with a bonjour in every single store
7. seeing some of the craziest, still alive seafood of my life at markets
8.the wizard**
9.bread and cheese!
10.Pere Lachaise Cemetery
11.Dancing to music that's too lame to be played in the US but is somehow cool in france!
12.people with accents
13.cafe au lait
14. nutella crepes
15.being missed
16.éclairs
17. the BBC and CNN international
18.freshly made strawberry tarts
19. wine in the park
20.egg and cheese crepes
21.kabab flavored chips
22.Grimbergen bier
23.duck with baked fruits
24.conversations with people from different countries
25.awkward dance off competition with Australians
26. foreign sporting events
27. being cool enough to go backstage
28.bread and cheese
29.bread and cheese, bread and cheese
30.BREAD AND CHEESE AND WINE






Things i am glad to have back:
1. dunkin donuts
2.burritos, all mexican food really
3.the fam
4.the friends
5. nighttime, summer air



*the pop tart effect is term i have coined to describe when something is scarier because you know it's going to happen, but you don't know when, like when you are waiting for a pop tart, eagerly anticipating its warm gooeyness, but are still startled when it pops out of the toaster. the pop tart effect can easily be used to describe situations like playing perfection, or going to a hunted house and you know some creep and a ski mass will jump out but you don't know when.

**though i am fairly certain his magical presence will be a guiding force in my life along with the aid of my two previous guardian angels, karen carpenter and freddie mercury.

it's all happening

last night i was backstage at a lenny kravitz show. no really i was! i agree, up until this point in my life i have not been cool enough to be backstage at a rock show, but i'll tell you how it happened. if this was a movie the last 24 hours before the show would now be played backwards, and would show things like me jumping back on to a boat, oysters sliding back into shells, and perfume being sucked back into a bottle.

so from the beginning...

tuesday afternoon, simone and i were on a crusade through lyon for the perfect wedge shoe, not an easy mission let me tell you. on our journey we saw a cool looking little furniture store on the river. we went in not knowing our lives were about to change. the store had a lot of amazing indian and african pieces. the owner asked us if we'd like a spray of perfume they sell at the store. it was the best smelling perfume that has ever graced my nostrils. he then told us that the perfume scent is derived from absinthe and cannabis. im 100% serious.

so we left the store obsessed with the way our wrists smelled. all the stores were beginning to close so we decide to go to old lyon to get some oysters. we checked out the menus at tons of places, but no oysters could be found. so we decided to stop into an irish pub real quick to grab a beer, and then continue our hunt for oysters in a bit.

so about half way into our beers we began talking to a greek guy who was telling us all about how he was musician and he really wanted to play with lenny kravitz who was playing in lyon the next day. he went outside to answer a call and some random guy walks up to us and asks us if we speak american ( yes, american not english)

it turns out he's the musical engineer for lenny kravitz. we hung out with him all night and our one beer and then oysters plan went out the window. it was replaced with the lets take jager shots to memorial day plan. we exchanged numbers and he told us he'd call us so we could go to the show the next day.

so the next day we were still craving oysters, and we had decided that we had to buy the perfume because it had brought us so much luck. as we got into town all the restaurants were closing because french restaurants do this weird thing where they close around 2ish and dont open up again till 7ish. so heartbroken, simone went into one place and asked if we could get oysters to go.

and as if by magic the bartender, who just happened to be gorgeous(better looking in person than in the pciture i swear), said he could still give us oysters even though they were closed. we proceeded to have an oyster feast by the river. it was the best afternoon. I pretty much thought life couldn’t get much better.







after our oyster indulgence we went back to the furniture shop to pick up the perfume. the owner smiled like he had been expecting us to walk in any second. simone and i were instantly convinced he was a wizard and the perfume was magic





everything after we had left the store had been awesome. how often do you meet people who work for lenny kravitz and get oysters from a closed restaurant?

the magic seemed to be wearing off a little though when kevin, the musical engineer, didn’t return our call or texts. so we boarded the boat with the group for a dinner river cruise.





so we had an ok dinner on a semi-boring river boat cruise and never got to see lenny kravitz.

that would have happened, but we had just bought magic perfume from a wizard with connection to primordial magic from africa and india.

right before the boat is about to leave we get a call. it's kevin. he had given us his card that had his UK number which he hardly checks so he hadn't noticed our call. he said we could definitely still come if we could get there in about 30minutes.

we sprinted off the boat just as it was about to leave. we only had the name of the venue and the address, but we weren't sure where it was from the boat, so we franticly tired to get a taxi. lyon is nothing like nyc where there are taxis everywhere. they are not yellow and hard to find.

we began getting nervous we weren't going to make it in time because every taxi that stopped said they couldn’t take us there so we figured it was far away. luckily i had kept a taxi card from the other night in my purse. we stopped the first guy that walked by to see if he could translate for us. he magically spoke english and french, and a cab was secured



we got to the venue, which magically was right down the road in sight of our hotel, in time!



it was amazing!!! we got to sit on the side of the stage and watch the whole concert. we could see the entire venue of 10,000 people screaming.







i could feel the guitar in my heart beat, it was incredible. he played a pretty long set but it only felt like minutes we were so excited.





kevin even let simone fade in one of the guitar solos. we felt like rock royalty.



when he played american woman we jumped out of our chairs and started dancing like crazy. it was sooooo incredible.



we were talking to the drummer for a bit in between songs. i've never felt so cool in my life. im trying to think of other words for incredible but that’s exactly what it was. incredible incredible incredible.

simone and i are pretty much convinced that the perfume has changed our lives, and plan to now conquer the world, so be prepared.


and what about our crusade for wedges? was the promise land reached? of course it was! we have magic-makes-dreams-come-true perfume! we got amazing wedges today when we got back to paris!

i know this is an incredibly(i need a better vocab)long pos,t but i felt like if i left any of it out it would be hard to explain what an incredible day/night i had. i'm still so excited about life right now that i almost dont care, this amazing adventure will be coming to a close sunday. i love you all though and cant wait to see you (mostly so i can show you my backstage pass and brag)

swiss cheese

geneva is only a two hour train from lyon so a group of us took a little day trip on sunday.



it was so pretty it made disney world look like a slum.


there was a beautiful clear blue lake that was full of sailboats and swans. at one end there was a massive fountain that's either the tallest or second tallest in the world, i cant remember which.





we took a trolly ride after getting some breakfast.









then we took a cable car to the top of the mountain. amazing!

















everyone in geneva had kids



even the swans


we head back to paris tomorrow.