Our UPS package arrived today! Praise God! With some blessed help from our wonderful Landlord, who called UPS France to give them specific instructions on delivery, a time frame was provided and they came within that timeframe today. The box was well worn but everything was there. It's all now properly in its place and Jonathan and I can now retire the three outfits and one pair of PJs each we've been wearing for the past 2.5 weeks.
Most of the stuff in the box is for Jonathan - his clothes, shoes, coats, hat, scarves, underwear and t-shirts. It was my goal to bring the bare minimum for myself. I'll still be wearing quite a bit of the same stuff, but I'm grateful that we have any variety. The three outfits we kept interchanging weren't all that much of a hardship, really. I need to simply be grateful we had them as well as a change of underwear. Plus, the maintenance was extremely streamlined having so few things to wash. It pays to live simply.
Nevertheless, in all my anal retentiveness to get stuff stored away in its proper place and the apartment back in tidy shape BEFORE I went to the mairie, I ended up not having enough time to get there today, so we will go tomorrow and I am believing, believing that all will go as I hope and pray: Jonathan will get enrolled and he can start on Wednesday.
That also might mean I'm gonna have to find a way to get excused from orientation on Wednesday. I'm also believing that the Lord will work that out for me.
He did greatly bless me with the ability to watch the 1957 Henry Fonda flick, 12 Angry Men (its free to view on YouTube) for my first class, Executive Leadership, which starts on Thursday. I watched it last night (after first procrastinating through a few too many, but very funny, Jimmy Fallon Late Night skits). There are four essay questions to answer about the movie that I have to complete and upload before class. While we waited for UPS, I managed to complete my essay responses with Jonathan playing in his energetic way around me - and interrupting me to help him out or to play with him. I see now that it might be possible to actually do some work when he is around - that I've progressed somewhat from my earlier stints in school where I had to have ABSOLUTE quiet and no distractions to get anything done. To be honest, it's something that I still needed while at IBM and why I performed pretty well (well, maybe too a point of burn out well) by working at home. No idle chit chat, no conversations in the hallway, no people walking by to distract me. Heaven. That was one of the many perks of my last eight years with the company: Working from home. Nothing like it.
After I unpacked, Jonathan was famished and I promised him Mickey D's (yes, again). However, the one near us did not have chicken mcnuggets (all he will eat) and they directed me to another one they said was a five minute walk away. Well, it was more like 20 minutes, but what an incredilble walk! We found ourselves on one of the many canal walks in our enchanted 19th Arrondissement. My camera is officially dead now (it died last night; insurance replacement is on its way - first to NJ - and then from NJ (via my mom) to us here in Paris), so I couldn't take any pictures, but I'll be back. It seems to me that I could just explore the 19th for the 10 months we are here and never go anywhere else and still not see all that I can see. This arrondissement is HUGE and has so many surprises. Of course, we saw two more amazing playgrounds, which I'll have to take Jonathan to. I also need to get Jonathan a scooter, cause there are so many wide open places where he can have a ball using one.
Due to me not having a phone, I had to send a Facebook message to my nephew to relay info about the phone delivery to my mom. I rarely go out on Facebook or post stuff there, but I found myself perusing a lot of the recent posts by Facebook friends and started to feel a bit guilty that I haven't let anyone outside of a small circle of friends and family know that we are in Paris. I think that I've - even before all the issues we've faced - had this feeling I might not end up making it here and have to return. The fewer people who know I am here, the less embarressment I have to experience if I return early.
However, now, I have a firmer committment to live this thing out in its entirety. Even so, I still likely will not say anything on Facebook until possibly the start of the New Year. I sense that it will be about three months of living here and getting into a regular routine with me in school and Jonathan in school and getting familiar with the area, transportation, shopping, recreational activities, and other things before I have a true sense of comfort - or can finally exhale a bit. Right now, I'm just doing a lot of hyperventilating!
By the time I do post a pic of us here and say Bon Jour from Paris, this blog should be filled with interesting tid bits that I can just point people too - and hopefully the newer posts will simply be fun and informative pieces about life here - sans the anxiety and "Oh MY God, what am I gonna do??!!" craziness.
For those already with us - thanks so much for your patience with me and your support and prayers! Jonathan and I so appreciate and love you!!
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