will WE play in Peoria?

                    A day at the lake in the summer. It’s not something I think I’ve ever done. But when you put the lake in the Alps, it’s more appealing.

                    We came to Lake Annecy for tonight’s big fireworks show. We decided to make an entire weekend of it because it seemed relaxing. And for our anniversary. Not exactly the romantic getaway I’d always imagined for our tenth, given that Kaitlyn was along, but that’s ok. And it’s the only “vacation” slated for this month. We couldn’t let a month go by without going somewhere! Annecy is only about an hour and a half from us (about 30 minutes from Mont Blanc), but we drove up last night. I’m so bad at getting up and getting going in the mornings, Bill figures we have a fighting chance of doing stuff if I start my day at our destination.

                    After breakfast, the plan was to rent bikes to ride around the lake (which I think sounds wonderfully scenic) and then go swimming. I figured we’d get the getting dirty part of being at the lake out of the way today, when we still have a hotel room and shower available for clean up.

                    Earlier this week I went online to find a bike rental place. There were at least half a dozen. So I figured they’d be all around the lake, easy to find… no need to make note of addresses. Lesson learned: write down addresses even if you think you won’t need them. We started by going to one of the rental places mentioned in my Rick Steves tour book. They had plenty of bikes and bike trailers for kids, but no tandem for a child that hooks onto the back of an adult bike. We thought that was what we wanted for Kaitlyn, so we figured we’d find another shop. There have to be plenty of them. I’d picked up a flier at the hotel for a shop we headed toward. It didn’t look super close on the map, but usually those tourist maps make everything look a little farther away than it is. Usually. Of course, not this time. We walked something just shy of forever way the heck around the lake until we found the place. (Oh, we passed another one on the way. I’m still not sure why we kept on going past that one) They didn’t have the hook-on bike either. But by then Kaitlyn was pooped from all the walking and all she wanted to do was to sit in the trailer. So that is what we rented. And where did the bike path around the lake go? Right past the first place we passed like an hour earlier.

                    The bike ride was scenic, although it didn’t go exactly along the bank of the lake like I’d expected. It did for a while then went a bit inland. Still, I enjoyed it. It reminded me that bike riding is an activity I actually enjoy and that I should figure out how to stuff my bike into my car and go to where it is flat in Grenoble to ride around on the paths along the river. I’m not biking on this mountain. Although after biking in Annecy, I can say I have biked in the Alps! We went for about an hour… or what would have taken an hour if we hadn’t stopped at some place with blow-up bouncy things for kids to jump on. After eating lunch at a little lake-side cafe, we got back on the path to return the bikes. Kaitlyn fell asleep in the trailer. Dozens of people we passed pointed and stared at her; it was starting to really annoy me until I realized they were amused at her napping.

                        We dropped off the bikes then had to find a public bathroom clean enough to use as a changing room to get into our swimsuits for the beach. It took a couple of tries and was still a rather frustrating experience.

                    The beach was pretty packed with people. Vendors were set up along the sidewalk with everything you’d need for the beach: sandwiches, drinks, beer, cotton candy. A guy in a sombrero walked around hollering about something called chi-chi’s… fried bread. Well, fried pain au chocolate… which is like a croissant with chocolate on the inside. I like chocolate, I like croissants and I like fried food but the combination did not sound good. The beach itself was half grass, half rocks. On the upside, there were lifeguards. The paddle boat rentals are in a different area, so we were off the hook for one of those. After peddling a couple of hours along the lake, I was done with anything resembling exercise for the day. I did go in the lake with Kaitlyn, but she was the one doing all the swimming. I was just trying not to freeze. I thought that after being in the sun the water would feel good, but it just felt cold. After a while I switched with Bill and he, too, thought the water was a little too chilly for any extended swimming.

                    On the way back to the hotel I made a very important discovery. The canvas bag I tossed our sunscreen, flip flops and the like into is way too small to haul all our lake or pool junk in. When you add three beach towels, it is just impossible to carry. Looks like a shopping trip is in my future!

                    I thought I’d treat myself to a little television during my lunch today, since I wouldn’t be forced to watch JoJo’s Circus or Sesame Street. Problem is, it seems that Disney, Sprout and CNN are about the only channels that program actual shows in the middle of the night. It may be lunch time here, but since I’m watching my brother’s tv in California, I’m watching choice 3am shows.

                    I picked CNN and sat down to eat. They were doing all-out coverage on the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis. It was interesting… until….

                    They said they’d finally been given permission to air an answering machine message left by a 10 year old on the school bus that nearly plunged with the bridge. That crossed the line. I do not need to hear the terror in the voice of a young child in the midst of a crisis. In tears, I rushed across the room and changed the channel. It may be a long time before I watch CNN again. That was not right. That was wrong. All wrong.

Do I look like I speak French? I must… until I get that “gads, I’ve no idea what you’re saying” look on my face that I think I’ve got nearly perfected.

                        This morning when I took Kaitlyn to her last day of summer “camp,” the director struck up a conversation with me. Mind you, she did this after greeting me in French then Kaitlyn in English. Then she turned back to me and just started carrying on and on in French. I think she told me something about practicing her English to go to Australia or England… and I’m most sure that she told me one time on her way back from Canada she had an 11 hour layover in England so she ate and found the food to be horrible. The food, apparently, is her only hesitation about going to England. At least, I think it is.

                        Once Kaitlyn was off playing, I figured I’d better tend to one more activity that is nearly impossible with Kaitlyn along. A haircut. I wandered into the hairdresser I’ve been to the last couple of times and asked for an appointment. Je voudrais prendre un rendez-vous, sil vous plait. Then I did my patented pointing to my gray hairs. She asked me when.. I said today. She asked me morning or afternoon. I don’t know how to say either. So I sort of shrugged and in English said it didn’t matter. Then I was fairly sure she told me to sit and wait while she cut some man’s hair, so I sat. She didn’t laugh or shoo me out so I must have understood.

                            While cutting my hair she tried to strike up a conversation. I guess she figured I’m now a regular-enough customer for her to recognize me so she might as well chip away at trying to talk to me. I managed to tell her we’ve lived here since October and will stay between 3 and 5 years. She repeated it back to me the way I should have said it… but it meant she got the idea. Which is how my end of conversations usually go anyway. At one point, she started asking me about le prochain fois cutting my hair plus court. (shorter) This time, my mis-translation allowed me to make a firm answer… and luckily so. I thought she’d asked if she’d cut my hair shorter last time I was in… she was proposing to do that next time. Fortunately, I had said no quickly. Then worrying that my “non” was too abrupt, I tried to explain that mon marie prefere comme ca… pointing below my shoulders to indicate how Bill would like me to wear my hair. I hope she understood that just above my shoulders is the compromise that’s kept us married for ten years now.

                        I finally escaped there.. after trying to ask if she’s open next week so that Kaitlyn can get her hair cut and finally see again. Then I wandered down to a little knick-knack store/ice cream shop/coffee place/restaurant (perhaps it’s spreading itself a wee bit too thin…) in hopes of finding a bag in which to carry my French books. There I managed to bludgeon the language once again when the shop keeper asked me if I was looking for something in particular (yes, something on sale) and I answered her with the wrong verb conjugation. It may not sound so horrible, but it felt really horrible. I hate feeling stupid. I didn’t find a bag the right size and tried to scrape up what was left of my pride to say au revoir, merci, madame on my way out.

                    Some days I really REALLY wish I hadn’t dropped French in college when it got too hard! Darn university, allowing us to take literature and films in translation to fill our foreign language requirement!

                A much-awaited e-mail hit my in-box today… the last thing we needed in place to give our planned Christmas vacation the real go-ahead. We’re putting together a ski trip with another family. They have twins a year older than Kaitlyn and the girls all get along great and the grown ups all get along great so we thought it would be, well, let’s say great, to take a trip together.

                Today’s e-mail let me know that the girls are now officially signed up for the special kids’ ski-school… all day every day of our vacation.

                I told Bill and said “can you believe it… we are going to spend Christmas in the Swiss Alps!”

                And he said “It’s cool. Of course, we do live in the French Alps”

                It’s still hard to believe.

This isn’t exactly how I thought I’d spend the day when I imagined it ten years ago… when Bill and I got married. That’s not to say this was a bad anniversary, not at all. Just an unexpected one, I guess.

                                Kaitlyn is spending her days this week at her little summer “camp” where she plays games and is immersed in French and is thrilled that the snacks don’t automatically involve chocolate. Especially good on a stormy day like today when at home we’d have ended up flopped down watching tv and wearing our pajamas until, well, let’s just say late.

                                So after my French lesson this morning, I called Bill to make an anniversary lunch date.

                            We headed downtown to a Chinese restaurant we like, then opted to try out a different one a couple of doors down. It had scallops on the menu and that lured us in. After the entree (appetizer in the US) and after our rice was delivered, the power went out.

                        My first reaction was to think “well, he was using the cappuccino maker and that probably put too much strain on the power supply.” The waiter/owner had the same first reaction that we’ve come to have at home: he ran to the fuse box. (we know this because the fuse box was, naturally, located in the midst of the dining room) We were both wrong. We just had to do what I used to consider normal: we had to wait.

                            I don’t know how long we sat there nibbling on our rice. Bill started to think he was going to have to call his boss and let him know he wouldn’t be back to the office at all this afternoon. Eventually, the power came back on… although a few switches still required flipping in the fuse box. Once the lights were back on I could hear the sizzle of food cooking and… voila!.. my scallops arrived. (They were fantastic, by the way. We have a new favorite Chinese restaurant.)

                            After returning Bill to the office, I headed to the mall. I don’t need anything… well what I need is some summer pants but I’m not going to find them here in the racks of slacks for tall, skinny women. But without Kaitlyn I figured I’d take advantage of the chance to just browse.

                        I’d finally found a store with a shirt I wanted and before I could buy it… the power went out. The best part of it was, several of us just continued to shop in the dark. I milled around the shop, re-checking out the selection I’d rejected on my first go-around. When the lights still weren’t on… but other stores in the mall were bright as could be… I put the shirt back and headed out. I don’t know if the power ever came back on in that section of the mall.

                            The last stop of the day was back at home. And the power was out here. Luckily I started carrying my house key on the same key ring as my car key so I can’t forget it. Kaitlyn and I went in the front door and she rushed to the refrigerator to check the food… then made the announcement that the light was out. I’ve wandered out to the fuse box twice tonight to restore our power.