One Horned, Big Mouthed, Flying Purple People Person

Ok so you are too young to get the Sheb Wooley reference from 1958, a classic of it's time.

 It's been a while, a lot has happened since I signed in here, many things are swirling through my head.  You may know that I just got back from a fun filled, wedding attendance vacation in Seattle, where the weather is sublime for one month of the year: August.  There was the romantic wedding and friends and family who seem to adore me.  Of course, some of them had not seen me ever, or for a long time.  So I admit that I am confused, jet lagged, and in denial about the last three weeks and how it compares to my life here on the Cote d'Azur.

I also came back to lovely friends here,  and a most enticing turquoise sea with bathing still going on and crispy mornings just like you want your bacon and your September days. There is my dear monsieur, fine weather, a garden, my studio  and the good food,  and a job that is mostly satisfying.  So what's missing?

France is a difficult place for a displaced extrovert.  I will just say right now that it is not really about the language because I speak french pretty well now.

  On the plane home I sat next to a young french girl, Justine, from the west coast of France, a small town.  She was just back from her first trip to the states.   She was in a rapture about her trip and showed me the personal scrapbook she had hand drawn of all her memories in Seattle, something she wouldn't have shared had I been French.

  She said," I love that Americans are open and friendly, not like french."  She told me that the girl whose family she had visited had gone to her school in France for a year and had not been happy.  Her french had been superior to the level of the class (yes, I was astonished, not a usual senario) and no one had talked to her except Justine.  I believe it.

We lived here on and off seven years before anyone spoke to us in the neighborhood.   There are wonderful neighbors whom I adore and who speak to me regularly now. It just takes time, a long time.

I was told recently by a french girl acquaintance that I have known for around 5 years that I talk a lot. ...in fact I have a "big mouth".  After explaining to her what that meant she said, yes that's it, a big mouth!

  In America my big mouth is celebrated and even admired. "You are such a great people person" I hear all the time.  "I would hire you in a minute, for your great people skills" I heard this time.

So yeah, I am tucking in, revving down, and starting to put a lid on it because there is no right way to be, but flexible.  I won't hide myself completely, I'm an extrovert and proud of it.... but dammit I will not be giving up my blog anytime soon.  I'm back.