Halloween, American-Style

I haven't been in the US for a long time during the lead-up to Halloween. Perhaps it's been eight or nine years. This year, I noticed quite a few scary things going up before October 1.

We are/were in the US in October. What a surprise. Everyone's front yard looks like a graveyard. Porches, lawns and trees in my neighborhood are filled with pirates, zombies, ghosts and pumpkins. I haven't seen many witches for some reason, but I've spotted Frankenstein, the Headless Horseman and many scary things that I don't have a name for.



All these authentic looking decorations put my silly flashing jack-o-lantern to shame.

When the wind blows at night, the ghosts on one street blow with their sheets flapping. It is pretty realistic. That is, if you believe in ghosts.

The nursery is alive with decorations. They have a pumpkin patch for children (of any age) to select their pumpkins. They also have a giant (maybe 15 foot high) inflatable Frankenstein, an icky witch display and many other large, scary things.

A Dad was there with his two small girls for a Dad-daughter Saturday afternoon activity to pick pumpkins. He happily got a cart to put the pumpkins on as they went through the patch. But, the little girls would have nothing to do with this. Tears and shrieks erupted when they saw all the scary stuff. He had to immediately distract them and tell them that it's all for fun. They weren't buying any of it.

I haven't seen one decoration in France so far. I've seen a couple of pumpkins in the local health food store, but I think they're meant to be food. I have a few things left over from previous years and have added the flameless LED candles. I'm doing my best to celebrate in my own small way.

Haircut

The woman who's done my hair for years went "south" on me recently. She didn't return phone calls and texts for days, then when she did, she told me to give her more "lead" time when requesting an appointment. After two separate go-arounds of this nature, I decided it was time to move on.

This all happened several months ago. At first, even though my hair was getting longer and longer, I was OK. It was summer, long is OK. But, in the last couple of weeks it started to get downright "witchy" looking, just in time for Halloween.

I asked around and settled on a new hair stylist. I called and made the appointment with plenty of lead time just so I wouldn't start off on the wrong foot. It only hit me this morning that today is the day for the new salon, a place I've never seen before.

Be brave, be calm, I repeated over and over to myself.

I tend to get in a rut, going to the same people, who know what to do, so I don't have to work very hard to define what I need.

I arrived and met a nice woman, about my age. Good start. She's been at the same place for 33 years she told me. Another good piece of news. I started to relax a bit.

We discussed my hair type, what I need. It has to be able to fit into a pony tail for two reasons. One, I work out and need it off my face and two (I didn't tell her this one) is that if the cut is really awful I'll wear it in a pony tail until I can find someone to fix it.

The cutting started and it seemed that a lot more hair was being chopped off than I had expected. Pieces of hair were flying everywhere. I felt my lip start to quiver. We talked a bit but she was intently cutting away. As I saw it completed but wet I was very unsure about the finished product. It didn't look at all right, not like me at all. Lip continues to quiver and now my left eye is twitching. Be brave, be calm....

She dried my hair, while I tried not to look too much. When finished, she handed me a mirror and spun me around. I looked and was astonished. It looks great, better than the old place. I paid, gave her a compliment and made another appointment (with plenty of lead time).

Black Bra in the Suitcase

I have duplicates of many items of clothing -- one in the US and one in France. It makes sense. I never have to figure out where "it" is, and I always have "it" when I need "it".

One duplicate is my favorite black bra. I wear it all the time.

I recently noticed twin black bras, side-by-side in my drawer. This means that I didn't leave it. Maybe I wore it on the plane. In any case, it will have to go back with me.

In the interim, I've been wearing it.

I just took a short trip and threw one in the suitcase. It's not a suitcase that I use very often. When I returned, I put the suitcase away and forgot about it. Then, I went looking for the black bra. I only found one. The twin was missing. Where could it be? After a few days, I realized that it must be in the suitcase. Why do they make the lining in most suitcases black? I leave things in my suitcases all the time, I just don't see them when I'm unpacking, blind and half-dead after a long flight.

A quick search of the suitcase revealed black bra #2. Soon it will be returned to its home and hopefully it will stay there for awhile.

What's a French Franc Worth?

I just found this in my desk drawer. I don't have a clue how it got there. I wasn't searching the bottom of the unruly stack of Post-Its, pens, erasers and paperclips, it just popped up. A little gift.

I guess I'm stuck with it, as I can't exchange it for Euros. But, if I could, it would be worth approximately 7.6 euro cents. Since euro coins in France come in 1,2 and 5 cent denominations, it's worth a little something.

I have a plastic cup in my kitchen drawer filled to the brim with 1, 2 and 5 centime coins. They are like US pennies, a bother. Once in awhile, I will pull out a bunch of these coins and use them to buy a baguette. There's one boulangerie in our neighborhood that always gives me the 1's and 2's as change and I'm sure it's because of my accent. So, back they go! I put them in a baggie and pour them into the little wooden container that they have on the counter so that the clerk doesn't touch the customer when they pass the change. The clerk has to count them before handing over the bread. After five plus years of visiting this shop, you'd think they'd trust me.

Not all European countries have the small euro coins. I noticed in Holland, that the smallest denomination coin is the 5 centime. If the purchase is 83 centimes, they round up, and give you 15 centimes change for a Euro. I guess if it is 82 centimes, they give you 20 centimes? I don't remember, maybe they always round up, in favor of the store.

Just for the record, the French franc was valued before the Euro was introduced at 6.55957 francs per Euro. For many years, a popular gadget was a thing that looked like a calculator that translated Euros to Francs and vice-versa so people could figure out how much things cost. Price inflation when the Euro took effect is another blog post.

Kinda Disappointed -- IPHONE 4S?

I've been limping along with my original iPHONE 3, waiting for the fabulous new iPHONE 5 to roll out. I can only upgrade my phone every two years and get a good deal. I'm at least a year, maybe more overdue.

I guess, like everyone else that was waiting, I'll dutifully go out and get the iPHONE 4S when it is available and then wait for two more years. By then it will be the iPHONE 6 probably.

With two phones, one for each country, my "other" iPHONE contract will come due in April. Any hopes of a better phone by then, I wonder?