Tuesday, September 28, 2010

La vie est une farce

That's the graffiti I saw painted on an electric breaker box on my way to work a couple of weeks ago. "Life is a farce." What a perfect message, and I immediately took it to heart. Typically, at the first sign of tension, I have the tendency to take that tension and multiply it by ten and turn into a stressed out mess. "La vie est une farce" is my new mantra. Everything is ridiculous. Let it slide, man, let it slide.

So when some tension popped up at work, I managed to slip into Let it Slide mode. Remember Little Miss Sunshine from my last post? She's not so bad, really, but there is some tension between co-workers, and I'm determined to stay out of it and be friends with everybody. But I really need to remember it when I speak French. I'm fine talking to Stéphane and his mom now in French, but at work I get nervous and seize up and I sound like an idiot. Let it Slide, man, let it slide.

I'm still really liking my job, but I still have one last hurdle ahead of me: I will eventually have to give a tour of the foundation's facilities in French. There is no official tour script and everyone (from the director down to my colleague that works even less than I do) has their own style and touches on different things, so I'm really on my own coming up with what to say for an hour and fifteen minutes. In French. Heh. I still have a few weeks to prepare but I've been studiously scribbling out notes and typing them out in my free time because it's one thing to have an idea of what I want to say, but I desperately have to practice it in French. Very soon you'll find me talking to myself in my living room, recalling my theatre days memorizing lines.

We've had to engage a new nounou for Fry, as his last one is expecting a baby in a couple of months. Poor thing will have his third nounou and very much likely a fourth before it's over, as this one is only available until April. I'm super annoyed with the situation, but at least he has a place to go with a couple of two year olds to play with once a week, with a nounou with 30 years experience, so I'm still trying to Let it Slide when I can. He starts this afternoon and then goes all day on Fridays starting this week. I think he desperately needs to spend more time around little people his age and I hate that it's only once a week, but once we move back into high season next April that will increase. Oh Tiny Town, I sincerely hope that you'll see the back of us one day!!

2 comments:

Lesley said...

There's a series of books that I read a while ago to Z about Mr Gum. (Fry might like them when he's a bit older) Anyway, a character in the books frequently shouts out "Life is a lemon meringue!" which I think is a pretty good philosophy for life too!

Teresa Ewart said...

i'm new to this - really completely new - but laughing out loud at your blog - it's so refreshing to find someone who isn't positive about EVERYTHING... I hope the inspiration i've found here stays with me. thanks for (unknown to you) the encouragement to continue
teresa
http://upstixtofrance.blogspot.com/