Happy Father's Day

If any of you know me well, you know that I am my father's daughter, minus the bad jokes.


This is what I got from my dad:
work ethic
razor sharp wit
contemplativeness
the ability to feel equally happy alone as with a bunch of people (but maybe slightly more happy alone)
hidden intelligence

Thank you for all of the things that make me me. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy Father's Day!

saturday

I hope that everyone is enjoying the pictures and posts about France. It has been fun writing about that trip. The next post will be my last France post and then it is back to Los Angeles.

Speaking of Los Angeles, we are in the midst of June gloom. This is really the only other season in LA that is not hot and sunny. It is raining more than usual this year. This is the season where it is hard to get out of bed, and the passage of time seems slower because it looks the same at 6:am as it does at 6:pm

I just switched departments at work. It is going to be a lot of work since I am support 7 departments by myself, but I am excited for the adventure.

I just finished celebrating my birthday for the 3rd time this month last night. It was back to the Palihouse for drinks.

Back to Nice....

I am sorry, but I only eat gelato in Italy

After Cannes we decided to do a little exploring of the south of France and Italy, as long as we were so close.

First stop La Turibe, a village high above Monaco. A website describes it as a medieval village, it clearly looks it, but before that it was a Roman settlement after the defeat of 35 tribes of Alps people.

Pictured is the Trophy of the Alps, or the Trophy of Augustus , the reason we trekked to Turibe in the first place. It is a quiet place, surrounded by poplar trees and native plants, with a spectacular view of the Mediterranean Sea, Monaco and Beausoliel. You can get a better idea of the scale of the place on wikipedia, linked above.

It is hard to describe being in a place that is that old. (built in 6 or 7 BC) It kind of makes you speechless. Normally I am a person who is afraid of heights, but I squelched it, because how often are you able to climb an over 2,000 year old monument. If your answer was hardly ever, you are right.

This also my first experience using a Turkish Toilet. Let's just say that I wished that it had directions.

Our visit at the Trophy was quick, because we still had to hit Italy. So it was off tho Sanremo, for Gelato. Not really just for Gelato.

Mainly in Sanremo we did a lot of exploring. Walking up and down skinny streets eating Gelato, checking out architecture, churches, and random Roman monuments speckled throughout the city. (I will post pictures on Flickr)

Angels and Demons was playing there and I saw no protestors.



Here is a picture of Asher and I enjoying a drink at a seaside restaurant. I think that I am so concerned with keeping my eyes open that I look a little miffed.

Then it was of to Monaco. This was the same day as the Gran Prix, you may say to yourself, you are crazy for going the same day as the Gran Prix. My answer is yes we are. If you only have one chance to do one thing, you have to be uncomfortable sometimes.

We drove the Gran Prix track at about 5 miles per hour, dodging the crowds of techno-loving Europeans. I saw a lot of Finnish flags.

The highlight of this trip was seeing the Casino Monte Carlo. You might remember this casino from quite a few James Bond movies. I didn't go inside, you have to have at least half a mil to walk through the front door. Which I didn't, but stayed outside and watched all of the Ferraris cruise the casino loop.

So, three countries in a day, not bad. The rest of the trip was much more leisurely.

Next up, more exploring in Nice.

2nd day

This is me.
This is me after thinking we would go back to Nice on Friday night, to be properly ready for my red carpet debut.
This is me in front of the Gran Palais, no deodorant, no brush, hair not cleaned in 2 days, going into a premier of a film called "The Map of the Sounds of Tokyo"
This is me on the Red Carpet in Cannes!

I felt a tad bit uncomfortable, but to be honest I was one of the most dressed up people there. There were a lot of jean wearers, t-shirts and birks w/ socks. I think maybe people thought they were going to Euro-Disney not Cannes which I thought was a bit disrespectful to the Cannes experience, but hey, it looked like I combed my hair with a porkchop.

What was I wearing?
I was wearing a borrowed dress from Martinique. Thank you Mandu!

The film was okay, but had one of the best movie soundtracks I have heard in a long time. (I thought the movie failed at doing a Wong Kar Wai impression, but he is my favorite director, so I am extra critical. And I am a movie snob)

It is still hard to believe I was there. On flickr there will be more photos of the inside of the theater.

This marks the end of my days at the 62 Annual Cannes Film Festival. I wish that I would have had the chance to see Asher's film in Cannes. I wish there would have been a way to sneak inside of the Short Film Corner, just to watch it. He got a lot of great response from his film and made some contacts. Keep your fingers crossed.

(This is him after the movie in front of the golden laurel)

We spent the rest of the day exploring the streets of Cannes. We had a great dinner at a cafe with this flamboyant rock and roll mama dressed owner who really knew how to hustle. The place was full and she was the only server, but no one cared. By the end of our dinner, they had dragged all of the inside tables outside, people who didn't know eachother were packed together at tables like sardines. Our dinner was two hours long and we were sat at the same table as a man from Detroit, who we talked to the whole time like we had been friends for years. That is what traveling does.

After, we packed up our teenie apartment and headed back to Nice.

To be continued.....

Technical difficulties

It seems as though blogger has had some technical difficulties. My Cannes part 2 post was lost and I will need to recreate it.

I hope to have what I can remember up as soon as I can.

check out Cannes part one photos on flickr.

avions, tranes et autos

To get to Cannes, you must have a brilliant filmmaker boyfriend, you must fly 17 hours, enlist the help of a local village woman, travel an hour and a half by local public transportation with a screaming teething baby and get out and walk due to a traffic jam.

First let me say that going to the Cannes Film Festival has always been a dream of mine. Never in a million years did I ever think that I would be able to go. (Let alone see a movie in the Gran Palais, which I will talk about later)

Being in Cannes was a very surreal experience,I don't think that I could have dreamed it, not to mention I was still suffering from jetlag. But I was a misty all the same.


We began Cannes day 1 strolling along La Croisette. It was packed with tourists, photographers snapping pictures of girls walking down the street, men in tuxes and tents as far as the eye can see. (Here is a picture of us in front of the Hotel Martinez, where we later saw Dita Von Teese. I would put a link to who she is, but many are not appropriate for younger viewers)

We were crossing our fingers to get to see the new Terry Gilliam film, but it wasn't meant to be. Getting tickets to movies for the festival is such a game of being in the right place at the right time. We did however get tickets for the next day.

We spent the rest of that day sitting at a cafe, resting and listening to an accordion duo playing an extended version of you guessed it....

"Besame, Besame mucho!"

We had the use of a friend of a friend's apartment in Cannes. It was very cozy, i.e. the size of a walk in closet, with a bathroom you couldn't close the door to use. It was above a row of cafes and it was great to look out and see everything.

We did go out to try to get into a party for the Short Film Corner people, but we never found it. We had a $25 drink at the Hotel Martinez, chatted with people about the movies they saw, ate pomme frites and called it a night because we had a movie to see the next day and no alarm clock to wake us up.

To be continued......

33

Sorry for the break in the action, but I needed some time to celebrate my 25th birthday.

(pictured is what Asher prepared for me when I came home. It is the new Starbuck's Gluten-Free Valencia Orange Cake. Please buy one or ask your local starbuck's to carry it. It is very tasty and it is nice to finally have something to snack on w/ my coffee)

It has been a week long celebration, starting with a work celebration where everyone brought in some gluten free goodies for me. I feel so loved.

I spend my last hours of being 32 at Lucy's El Adobe drinking margaritas.

Finally dinner at my favorite restaurant, the Hall, which I have mentioned before.

I am finally ready to get back to Cannes.