Goddess of.. Berlin, Marseille, Milan!

Three months in to the big move to Paris and life is good!

I've been working from home for the same company I was working for before, except that I'm now a freelancer (social media & web marketing consultant). It's been great and has allowed me the flexibility to work from anywhere.

Lolita came to visit, about 2 weeks after I moved, in early September. We went to Berlin together for 4 days and it was SO fun. We hadn't travelled together for a while, so it was really nice to do so.. especially to a city neither of us had visited before. I loved Berlin, the food, the sights and all the freedom (i.e. drinking in the streets ;) was fun).

About a month after we moved, Nick was assigned his first project and it was going to be out of town. In Marseille (south of France) to be exact. I was a little bummed at first, not for him obviously this is great.. but selfishly, I didn't know anybody in Paris yet and he'd be gone Monday-Thursday (or Friday) for the following 9 weeks.

Fast-forward to the end of November, and this week is his last week in Marseille. In retrospect, it was alright! I was mostly bummed in October but I did visit him twice.. once for a week in early October and then, for 2 weeks around his birthday in November. Compared to all the time we spent apart last year, this really wasn't bad.

Plus, the time I spent in Marseille was pretty fun. It was much warmer there and we were staying in a really nice hotel right by the beach. We haven't had a real routine of "life at home" but that'll come soon enough. Until then, we enjoyed the warm days & the sun!

Nick had his first long weekend off in November, and we jumped at the chance to travel a little bit. We set our heart on Milan (with a daytrip to nearby Bergamo), Italy. It really didn't disappoint. We're both food & wine lovers so Italy really feels like home. Plus, the whole "aperitivo" thing in Milan is genius.. it's happy hour but with a large buffet of italian appetizers. It was really fun to see how competitive the bars get about who has the best buffet... we tried several -- All yummy!

We took a tour around Milan one morning before I had to work, to see all the main sights and get the lay of the land. It was incredible, we visited the Scala Opera house, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the incredible Duomo (Cathedral), the Castello Sforzesco (Medival castle), & the painting of The Last Supper by Da Vinci. We also went back to the Duomo another day to climb up to the roof, what an amazing experience!

Our daytrip to Bergamo was equally amazing (except for le rain). We took a 45-minute train ride that brought us to the center of the Citta Bassa (Lower town) of Bergamo. It was easy enough from there to walk to the Funicolare that took us to the Citta Alta (Upper town). It's a really charming, lovely town.. with lots of bakeries, places to eat and beautiful duomos (churches). We also decided to hike it up (ALL the way up) to the San Vigilio castle. The castle itself wasn't the most impressive thing, but the view from the highest point in the city was worth the painful hike in the rain without an umbrella. My bad :/ I forgot the umbrella at the hotel that morning. Don't worry.. I paid for my sins with a nice cough & cold the following week.

And now we're back in beautiful Paris for the last few weeks before heading home for the Holidays. To be honest, I'm also looking forward to being with my mom & friends for almost a month. It'll be nice to catch up on all the things I've missed!

Take care bloggaroos, I'll update you soon!

XOXO,

Goddess of.. Heading to Greece!

It's so exciting: I'm leaving on Wednesday night! Headed to Paris and then, we're off to Mykonos.

It's Nick's graduation trip from his MBA, that will be taking us to Mykonos for a week of fun in the sun. I haven't seen Nick since my birthday, so about 2 months now! I can't wait to see him and hang out with him. We've promised to have fun by the beach and just party with his MBA friends. It'll be an amazing trip and I just can't wait to go.

We also have his graduation ceremony in early July (back in France) and hanging out with some of his family who will be flying to France as well for the event. It's exciting!

In other news, we'll also be visiting an apartment in Paris, as Nick got a job offer there starting this Fall. It may be earlier than we planned, but visas pending, we should be moving to France at the end of August. WOW, someone please provide me with a paper bag.. I'm hyperventilating.

Could this be happening?

Goddess of.. MBA Rugby World Cup!

Tomorrow's the day!

I'm headed to Washington, D.C. where I'll hang out during the afternoon and meet up with Nick at night when his flight comes in from Paris. Woohoo :)

We'll stay the night in Washington before driving down to Danville, VA on Friday where the rugby games and excessive drinking will begin!

Can't wait to turn my brain off, see my boyfriend, drink many beers and cheer on this rugby team for a weekend. Wahoo!

Catch you later bloggies,

Goddess of.. The White Dinner Event!

** Don't forget to enter my latest giveaway : CLICK HERE **

The Dîner en Blanc (White Dinner) is this incredible event that originally started in Paris and has been going on for many years now (since 1988). It's going to be the 3rd year in The City I believe.. and my first year participating. Another thing I can cross off my 30-before-30 list, yay!

It goes as follows:

• Dress in all white, prepare a picnic dinner and await notification at 6:00pm revealing the secret location for this glorious event bringing together a flash mob of 3,000 people all dressed in white.
  
  

Dreamy, right?

Okay, I leave you with just one more shot... my outfit-to-be for the big night!

It may look a little grandma-ish like that but the cardigan is optional and the dress is fitted.

I've got my picnic basket :) and cooked up a storm!

It's happening tonight, so excited!

Goddess of .. The Little Things !

I have been blessed with a lot of work recently: my new job (I'm over a month in now, YAY!), my freelance work and now, additionnal contractual writing work for my employer !

That makes for some busy weeks.. doing full-time during the week + freelance & contractual work on the weeknights and weekends. Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy about it, I love being busy and getting a little more money.. but it doesn't leave much room for other stuff (i.e. sports, friends, dating, sleeping in, etc.).

Thankfully, tonight I ordered in for dinner and took pleasure in the little things (i.e. sushi + heineken).

Sushi in the living room (because I was working on the kitchen table), 

with a little Diana Krall jazz music playing in the background 

and a cold Heineken..

.. and THIS is how I roll when I'm working from home on a Saturday night!

Exciting, uh ? Alright, I've procrastinated enough for one night :)

Ciao bloggies,

Goddess of .. Twenty-five candles !

On Saturday, May 8th 2010 .. I celebrated my long awaited (and kinda dreaded) 25th birthday.

Well, to be exact, I celebrated my very last day & night being 24 years old because my birthday is May 9th. Seriously, I wasn't going to just slip into my mid-twenties without mourning my early twenties an itsy bit. Except that it wasn't so much a "mourning" as it was a "celebration of life".. but I digress.

I definitely had a wonderful time on saturday and

I hope that my birthday celebrations are a reflection of

how much fun the next year is going to be

because I had a BLAST!

First, there were drinks and appetizers at my place. Lolita, Violet and the whole bunch of my girlfriends from high school were there.. about 10 of us crazies in all.

Mandatory rosé wine or sparkling pink lemonade for everyone.. alongside some delicious appetizers (arancinis, veggies & dip, all kinds of cheese, puff pastry hors d'oeuvres, etc.).

I was showered with gifts from my extremely generous friends (gift cards, beauty products, scarf, purse, chocolates, etc.).

By the way, I'm totally aware that posting pictures with stickers on everyone's face is pretty much pointless but I worry about anonymity.. so here goes. I hope it still gives you a vague notion of how much fun we had :o)

I was super happy that all the girls from the high school bunch made it .. because 3 of them weren't suppose to come until later.. but finally, they were able to make it !!!

It made all the difference in the world, I was so glad to have all of them over at my house because we rarely do this and mostly meet up in restaurants or at the movies.

I also got to spend some really fun times with Lolita & Violet. They hadn't seen each other since .. sometime in February or March.. when we went out to one of our favorite bars and ended up crashing attending a stranger's birthday party around 3-4 am.

It was fun to see them kind of catch up and mingle.

Afterwards, we headed to my favorite thai restaurant around 9pm, for a late dinner. I ordered one of my usuals .. the sweet & sour chicken (tomatoes, onions, red and green bell peppers & pineapple) with sticky rice. Lolita enjoyed my other favorite, the sauteed chicken with peanut sauce & crispy spinach .. so delicious !

I bought a delicious cake (tasted like Ferrero Rocher or Bacci chocolates) that I brought to the restaurant and they served it to us as dessert.

The staff was so nice and funny .. they were really young and friendly to us, they even switched my candles on the cake when they brought it out and it read : Happy 52nd birthday Aritza !!

They put them back in the right order when they served me my piece of cake thought, thank God.

I'm having a hard enough time dealing with being 25 .. there's no way I want to skip to 52 right away.

Once we were done with dinner, I said goodbye to my highschool friends .. who are not at all the type to go out to bars .. and Violet, Lolita & Myself headed to our home (the bar that Violet & I often go to on thursday nights). We've developped a sort of customer-friendship with the bartenders there .. so they were happy we stopped by for my birthday. I was offered a complimentary glass of bubbly from one bartender and another one offered us a celebratory round of shots (Jack Daniels topped with a slice of orange, the usual). All in all, a very good time !

We then met up with Ari and his friends, Frantz and David, at another bar nearby.

Violet, Lolita, Myself, Ari, Frantz and David had a really really fun time and all of them made it a birthday that I'll never forget. I had met Frantz before (super funny and super friendly guy) and I had heard a little bit about David (funny and sarcastic, self-proclaimed asshole) before through Lolita.

At the bar, David proceeded to yell at the barman to get me free shots for my birthday .. it was super rude and I thought he was a real asshole.. but it worked and I think he actually knew the barman or became friends with him afterwards .. so no real harm done there. Dr.Frantz spoon-fed me Jack Daniels & Coke as a cure to aging.. and it was hilarious.

Frantz, David and I talked and joked all night long and it was really cool.

Anywowzer, that's it my lovelies. Oh and Frantz wrote his phone number on a coaster and slipped it in my purse.. lol, I really cracked up when I got home and saw this. I sent him a little text message to thank him for the great evening and I added him on facebook. Such great people, I've really been blessed lately .. I've met such funny people, it's wonderful !

That was my birthday night, bloggies !

It certainly lived up to my standards of fun :o)

and I hope it lived up to your standards of an interesting blog post !!

Goddess of .. Charming Rebecca Giveaway Winner !

 Good morning, Bloggies ! How was your weekend ?

I hope it was as fun as mine :o)

  

I spent my friday night with a bunch of my girlfriends (and two of their boyfriends)
at a Brasilian restaurant we'd been wanting to try for a while !  

The food was wonderful : All-you-can-eat 10 sorts of meat grilled on charcoal (pork sausages, chicken , turkey wrapped in bacon, roast pork, top sirloin, strip sirloin, flat sirloin, contre-filet, rib of beef, rib steak, filet mignon, lamb, etc.), served with all-you-can-eat mixed greens salad, sweet potatoes, rice and sauteed mushrooms ! Delicious !! One after the other, the waiters came to our table with a different type of meat and they would slice it fresh in our plates, it was so fun and the meat was juicy !

And dessert : Grilled pineapple with cinnamon or vanilla ice cream, + coffee or tea !

Oh and we can't forget the entertainment : Samba dancers !

Then, on saturday night, I was expecting to start entering the data / entries for the Charming Rebecca giveaway in an Excel spreadsheet .. yes, those were my totally exciting typical saturday plans. However, around 11pm, my friend Violet called me and we decided to go out for drinks ! We had such a blast, good conversation, good drinks and we met some cool people :o)

And on sunday afternoon, I met up with Violet again : We walked around town for about an hour, fed peanuts to some squirrels and pigeons (Yes, we're totally aware that we are strange pigeon ladies, à la Home Alone, lol.) and then, we stopped for lunch (warm vegetable soup & swiss cheese burger).

On the walk back home, we stopped at the park and enjoyed the sun a little. It was laid-back, relaxing and very fun ! Who said crazy pigeon ladies can't have fun ?!

....................................................................................

You've been very patient, listening to me yap-yap-yap away about my weekend and my pigeons ! Unless you just skipped to this part, either way, I love you and I thank you for visiting my blog. But if you read the whole thing, I love you more. Also, I wanted say thanks for entering the giveaway .. I had WAY more entries than I ever thought possible and hopefully, you enjoyed discovering Charming Rebecca's items !! After spending hours on Excel, entering all your comments / entries to the giveaway, I have the results of the Charming Rebecca giveaway for you.. drumroll, please !

The lucky winner of one item of your choice
from Charming Rebecca's Etsy store is :

The wonderfully sweet and inspiring

Summer @ "B" is for... Brown, Breathe & Believe !

Congrats girl ! Now the fun begins, picking your new piece of jewelry :o)

Thank you all for participating !
Don't forget to enter this week's giveaway, there's more stuff to win..

Goddess of .. A simple math lesson with Aritza !

Lawyers are renowned for being great mathematicians ! Uhmmmmmmmmm.. NOT.

However, one thing we are good at is : Alcohol. This skill was developed through enduring several years of Law School. True Story. Click here for scientific proof.

For example, Lolita (who is also a lawyer) 's dad is a profesionnal wine-taster / specialist (remember his wine cellar?). He will be working at the "Wine & Spirits show" next weekend and asked his beloved daughter to give him a hand. Lolita will be pouring wine samples to strangers from noon to 9pm. And now, this is where it gets interesting, her dad asked her if she would like to be paid "in cash" or "in wine".

Her answer : "In wine, of course !"

Her logic : Rather than getting paid about 100$ in cash, they'll give her 100$ worth of wine at cost price. That could be roughly about 12 bottles. Plus, if she's ever short on cash .. 100$ wouldn't go a long way but wine, on the other hand, would totally help her forget she's short on cash. It's pure genius.

100% pure lawyer math & logic

I began doing some math of my own yesterday. You know, just to keep my brain active during my weeks months of unemployment.

I started off with things I'm familiar with :

Gin + tonic water + slice of lime = Gin & Tonic

Lychee liqueur + vodka + a few lychees = Lychee Martini

This boosted my morale and I figured it was time to try something new :

Sparkling wine (perhaps champagne) + peach purée = Bellini 

Now I've heard about Bellinis through many, many of you bloggies but I have yet to try one. I'm super excited and I've enlisted the help of my dear friend Violet (not a lawyer but she's in law enforcement / immigration so it's all good, lol) to get on this mission as quickly as possible. I will report to you as soon as we do !

Speaking of Violet.. she and I had a movie night last night. We bought lots of veggies, dip, chips and chocolate. Added a nice bottle of red wine. Watched "Brothers" and "Up in the Air".. both really good movies btw ! It was an awesome evening, filled with drinking, eating and drooling over hot men.

I'll leave you with one last math equation :

Red wine + an awesome friend + the hawtness of Jake Gyllenhaal =

 Best. Evening. Ever !

This guy doesn't even have to take off his shirt to be hot ..

.. but I never (ever) protest when he does.