Bonjour d'Aix!

Bonjour from Aix-en-provence!

It's been four days and I can't decide if it's flown by or feels like forever. Aix is a very small city, which is of course great for someone as directionally challenged as I am. Surprisingly I have actually pretty much figured out my way around. No mean feat for someone who manages to get lost in the city in which I've lived for twenty years, oops. I definitely think walking around makes it easier to find places. The city is gorgeous, of course, and has a very unique vibe. Apparently it's the second most expensive city in France after Paris. Sorry bank account.

Another interesting thing is that everyone here drinks Rose wine, it's apparently the it summer drink and it's too hot for white. Learning so much already!!

Class starts in two days and runs for four hours a day, five days a week. Not quite looking forward to that, but that's what it takes.

The food is amazing, one of my favorite things about France. I honestly could write a whole post just about the sandwiches I've eaten. Even the coke seems to taste better here. I haven't had a whole lot of time to wander around the city just on my own because we've been so busy with orientation and everything, so I am looking forward to getting out of class and being able to explore a bit.

As the French say: A tout a l'heure!

Confessions of a Sales Associate pt. 2

Kids Say the Darndest Things....Really Loudly:

Just another day at good ol' Learning Express was upon me and, as often happens, I was pleasantly surprised by a parent who not only had rules for her children (one toy only and no whining or you get nothin') but whose child also obeyed this rule.

I've always wanted to have all boys when I have kids; maybe it's from always wanting a brother growing up or maybe I just don't want to deal with a miniature version of me between the ages of eight and fifteen (not a pretty sight). Either way, I find that little boys are more likely to approach me than girls for the most part.

Example number two: while the previously mentioned mother was purchasing the loot, her son informed her that he was going to go play.

The conversation went a little something like this:

"Mommy, I'm going to go play."

"Ok, that's fine."

"Don't leave without me."

"I'm not going to leave without you. You can go play."

"But are we leaving soon?"

"I'll come and get you when it's time to leave."

"Promise? Don't leave me."

"I'm not going to leave you!"

The kid goes to play in the corner, out of eyesight but continues verbal connection with his mother, like sonar.

"Is it time to go yet!?" (this is right after he has disappeared from sight)

"No, David, I'll come and get you when it's time to leave."

"Ok, don't leave me!?" (at this point he is yelling to his mom through the store)

"David, I will never leave you."

"Mommy, do you love me!?"

"Of course I love you!"

"Ok, please don't leave me!"

while this is all taking place, I'm behind the register struggling to keep a straight face. "David's" mom sounded completely calm throughout the entire exchange, although I think she was amused by him asking if she loved him. As she finally told him it was, in fact, time to leave, he began shouting through the store to his sibling, telling him/her that it was time to leave as well. I don't know whether this kid has been left somewhere before or whether he just has severe separation anxiety, but the whole thing was pretty funny. Having been left a few places in my childhood, I sympathized with him even though there are worse places you can be left than a toy store.

Most kids are drug out kicking and screaming (literally) but this kid was determined for his mother not to lose him, despite the fact that our store is not very large; as he was keeping up a very loud dialogue with his mother there was little chance she could forget him even had she wanted to.

I originally wrote this post a while back, so that it would be fresh in my mind, but as I re-read it today, I had a mini epiphany.

I believe I have the ability to see God's hand in day to day things, but I'll admit it isn't always my first reaction. I would never be one of those preachers who had a great anecdote to go with every sermon. However, as I re-read this, I was struck by the similarity between this dialogue and that between us and God.

Firstly, it made me think of the way I often think about God's love-- in the scope of human and/or conditional love. There's always the fear that people you love might leave which can often carry over into our relationship with our Heavenly Father. How many times do we think to ourselves, "God, don't leave me"? How many Psalms did King David compose crying out for the feel of God's presence? Yet, God responds with, "No one will be able to stand against you for all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with You; I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Joshua 1:5). Unfortunately, we humans have some issues with trusting someone to take the reins of life out of our hands, but if we can find the courage to surrender, God has promised to never abandon us.

The little boy asking his mother if he loved him also reminded me of when Jesus and Peter and some of the other disciples are on the beach after Jesus was resurrected. Jesus asks Peter, the man upon whom the church was founded, "Peter, do you love me?" The creator of the earth, Peter's creator, looked him square in the face and asked, "Do you love me?" Now, Jesus, being the creator of the world, is kind of a big deal, as it were. Yet, creator turned to his creation and asked "do you love me?" While we all know the "right" answer is yes, much of the time (most of the time) our day to day lives fail to reflect this love. Even the disciples, who lived and walked alongside our savior were far from perfect. But He never asked for perfection; he did, however, ask for our love.

Confessions Of A Sales Associate pt. 1

How a Girl Who is Not the Biggest Fan of Kids Started Working in a Toy Store:

I've had four jobs over the past five years and two of them were as sales associates, one in the Mecca of tweens everywhere--Hollister--dim lighting, overpowering perfumes, and overly priced, poorly made clothes. Now I have to admit, much to my chagrin, that I did in fact own my fair share of Hollister items, emblazoned with little sea gulls and inane quotes, luckily that phase passed sometime in middle school. As a high school senior, I was not tempted by the rows of mini skirts and jeans sized from 00-2 or the skin tight graphic tees with their noxious quotes. Other than learning far too much about my co-workers' and managers' personal lives over the course of the five or so months I worked there, few exciting events ever happened; or if they did, none stuck with me.

In December of 2010, I began working at a toy store called Learning Express, which caters to a very different clientele than Hollister. Most people that know me well are privy to the knowledge that I am not the fondest of children. Now, I need to qualify this statement; I have not had copious experience with children, being the youngest in my family. My few stints at babysitting involved very well-behaved children and my parents raised me in a very structured environment. I do NOT hate kids; I just strongly dislike ill-behaved children.

So what am I doing working in a toy store you ask? They pay REALLY well. (just kidding)

Over the course of my time in the store (I work whenever I have breaks from school and am home in Houston), I have had some interesting experiences with children.

Despite my afore-mentioned attitude, I do like kids and hope to have some of my own someday, but I have never been the person to which kids flock, especially not random kids. Maybe it is just the adrenaline rush of toys going to their tiny brains, but I have had more children come up to me in the six or so months I have worked at Learning Express than probably the rest of my life combined. It's even starting to rub off, apparently, because now kids in Target and bookstores are starting to approach me.

I began working during Christmas, the busiest time of the year in a toy store (Santa's got nothing on us, in fact I think he buys most of his gifts from us). As such, I was mainly hired simply to wrap presents and keep the store from being completely demolished by harried parents and grandparents. As I was tidying some things during a momentary lull, a small boy came up to me holding his shoes in his hands. Completely nonplussed, I merely stared at him, after looking over my shoulder of course, assuming he was looking at someone else. For some reason, this little boy decided I looked friendly enough to assist him with his shoes. Being a new employee, I was highly uncertain of what boundaries were laid out for me as far as actual interaction with the gremlins...er....children. Luckily, his mother reappeared and told her son that "he shouldn't bother the nice lady" and that she would help him put on his shoes. I also witnessed this same mother instruct her son to put back the boxes of toys he knocked on the ground, which he did.

Maybe he could sense my warm feelings for his mother that parents today aren't completely useless. Whatever the case, as the family was leaving, his mother instructed him to "thank the nice lady" which he did by running behind the counter and wrapping his arms around my knees.

You know that moment in the Grinch when his heart starts growing because of the Whos singing? Yeah, similar effect. I think I might have patted him on the head or something, too taken aback to do anything else.

Of course I ran home and informed my entire family that a random little boy had hugged me without being threatened OR bribed.

Working in retail always gives ample opportunity for people watching/eavesdropping and while this retelling wasn't funny at the time, since then there have been many other hilarious episodes that you must pretend to ignore at the time and laugh about later.

Post Valentine's Day...Post

I told some people to expect a snarky post on Valentine's Day, so I'm sorry that this is a) late and b) snarkless (kind of like Sue Sylvester in this season of Glee).

I got in a slight debate about Valentine's Day with someone on monday, as I was doing my single duty of proclaiming its existence as a way for greeting card companies and candy companies to make bank. Ya know, the man and all that. Well, since I know this isn't true but I don't know the real story behind it, I decided to check out every college kid's go-to research site. Wikipedia, of course! Weirdly enough, I have had quite a few professors encourage the use of said search engine, what is the world coming to!? Anyway, in the shortened version of how Valentine's day came to be, there was a fertility festival called Lupercalia that the crazy Romans came up with and since it was a pretty raunchy holiday, the Pope abolished it in the 400s and left us St. Valentine's Day. Don't quote me on this, because, despite popular belief, Wikipedia doesn't know EVERYTHING (see: my french review sheet). Now, since I have stolidly maintained the tradition of being single for 20 years (no applause, please) I have had my fair share of Valentines hate (mah b). But this year, whether it was because I'm so busy with school I don't have time to think about anything else or some other reason, I didn't have any time to spend being cynical about February 14th. If you think about it, it is rather ridiculous that Valentine's Day has turned into some sort of "Couples Only" holiday. While that tradition may date back to the middle ages and chivalry and courtly love, it doesn't have to be that way. One of my beloved friends left me a box of GIANT chocolate covered strawberries and an adorable balloon and my wonderful parents sent me cards. Instead of feeling bitter that you don't have a "valentine" to share the day with, or turning the day into some huge competition to see who can spend the most on flowers, chocolate, and jewelry or have the most romantic candle-lit, fireworks exploding, cupids fluttering night, we should remember that, since this is a holiday we seem to be stuck with, we should use the opportunity to cherish all of those that we love. (the english major in me hates that that is a huge run-on sentence, but the blogger in me fails to care.) Love comes in many different forms and without these different types, our lives would be flat and meaningless. While this is something that should apply to our everyday lives, it is nice that we get to take a day to be extravagant with our love; I think that's the way it should always be.

Now, instead of quoting 1 corinthians 13 at you (and yes, I will be rebelling at my wedding and refuse to read it then too, sorry), I will give you a little dose of culture and William Shakespeare. I know, you just cringed and you're trying to control your gag reflex at the thought of high school and Romeo + Juliette, just push through your prejudices and humor me. This is, after all, MY blog.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

admit impediment. Love is not love,

which alters when it alteration finds,

or bends with the remover to remove.

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark,

which looks on tempests and is never shaken.

It is the star to every wandering bark,

whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

within his bending sickle's compass come.

Love alters not, with his brief hours and weeks,

but bears it out, even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Now, if that was not your cup of tea, let me 2011-ize it for you:

Love never changes, even if the object of its love does and true love cannot be taken away. Not even Hurricane Ike can shake it and it is a guiding star. Love is not subject to time, youth, or beauty and true love will last through even the fires of Mordor (LOTR reference, whoops).

Now, maybe it's just the english major in me, but something in that sonnet resonates with me just as much as 1 Corinthians 13.

So, even though it's a day late, Happy Valentine's Day! Don't forget to tell those you love that you love them, not just today but every day.

"And Say 'Here' for Me at Muster When My Time Comes To"

I feel like it is far too soon to be writing about the death of another young man, but this is the world in which we live. Many in the aggie family already know, or will soon know about a senior Corps of Cadets Commander named Taylor Gillespie. He passed away in a car accident a few days ago on his way back to College Station. I first met Taylor the fall semester of my freshman year. We were in the same creative writing class which was made up of only around 20 kids. I didn't know him very well besides sitting next to him every Tuesday and Thursday for class. I was nervous about the class and about college in general, but our crazy teacher prompted me to make snarky remarks under my breath. The junior Corps guy I sat next to (Taylor) began to laugh at my comments and add a few of his own. We shared a mutual love of writing and dislike of our professor. He was always very kind and cheerful and I really enjoyed his writing. The fact that he was down to earth and nice enough to talk to a scared little freshman girl two days a week shows what a genuine guy he was. He even asked me to midnight yell of Halloween weekend. I couldn't go and part of me wishes I would have gone and maybe gotten to know him a little better. He was never embarrassed to read his poems or stories and he always seemed to have a great attitude. I know I can't pretend to be an expert on him and I probably can't truly call myself his friend, but news of his death touched me. As I've said not long ago, I know far too many who died too young. I don't have any deep thoughts about mortality or eternity at this moment, just a deep sadness that a young man who was kind, committed, and a true aggie was taken from this earth when his life was just about to begin.

I know that God has a plan and that he takes people away from this world for reasons that are his own. I cannot pretend to understand them, and I cannot say that it is wrong to mourn the death of those that are no longer with us. We must take comfort in the fact that nothing in this world happens by chance and that God does not make mistakes. As hard as that may be to swallow sometimes, it is comforting to know that instead of living in a world ruled by chaos and chance, we live cupped in the palms of an all-powerful God who knows all things.

News Story

Taylor Gillespie

R.I.P January 9, 2011