-i believe i slept enough for two last night. woke up CHIPPER at 6:45 am and so strapped on my reds and hit the streets of paris. intro anastasia theme song....the one aout paris that is. i was jogging aimlessly around blocks until i glimpsed the tip of the eiffel tower. challenge accepted. this reminded me rather strongly of when rusty and i had become lost in what is now an unknown high-walled city in france, all we had was the church steeple to guide us through the labrynth of the streets, full pace, rounding corners unto flocks of agitated pigeons and amused street musicians, it had felt cinematic then; it felt cinematic now, only this time the theme music was exegetic.(thank you dr. pittman for that wonderful tidbit of vocabulary!)

-anyways, back to me weaving through the haphazaradly arranged streets of paris at 7am. i am sure bus tours and boat tours and hot-air-balloon-tours are all well and good, but there is nothing which in my opinion truly equates street/pedestrian level view. on par with the people, the thrillingly posh dialectic of sweating and bestowing lilting 'bonjour!'s to passerbyers. one gets a feel for the city condition, sees individual faces, makes eye contact, smells the corner urine stench, runs fingers across elaborately carved surfaces, and laughs at childishly profane graffiti. bicyclists come close and runners are second best, but it is truly the walkers who get the most from a city.

-passerbyers. the men in bright green vests collecting trash,women in horizontally nautical striped shirts taking their pug dogs out for the 'morning business', one korean man in a business suit and wearing glasses..., a few clean shaven frenchmen in the modern warrior apparal of deceptively casual business suits, a few students in leather jackets and rolled up jeans, the hotel front desk person.

-it was quite a moment, rounding the corner which brought the eiffel tower into full view, crossing the street still consumed by the sight above, then striding over the well kept grass of the park in front of the tower to meet witht the main path and running full tilt, unaware of my body, into its shadow. i stood underneath then, and walked to the very center of the underside and looked up; craning my neck and bending my back. the invisible limbo of sight-seeing. it was just myself and the aforementioned suited korean man with glasses standing in the large square under the iconic structure. just me and him. him and i. were he in a group of his counterparts many 'oooooooh's, and wide eyed exclamatories would have been exchanged. in his isolated condition however, the only accurate descriptory for his face would be stoic. he and i,sboth leaning back, bending our knees and craning our necks under the belly of the eiffel tower. during this time, the leaning back and infrequent glances at eachother with nods i was overcome by a desire to be on level with the man to my right, so i reigned in my joy and allowed my face no outward signs of being impressed or at all happy. indeed i believe i acheved the mildly-interested-because-i-have-nothing-better-to-do-this-morning-yet-slightly-critical-of-the-architecture-and-cleaning-service facial expression which he wore.

-i let the laugh out on the run home as i passed, well, i stopped counting because it was getting tiresome; an incredibly large number of winebottles nestled in bushes on the side of the path during the run back through the park.
-unto the rest of paris. it is wonderful when i stumble upon streets and sights which i visited 3 years ago with my highschool french class, enriched memories as they layer on top of eachother. the highschool mindset is positively flooding back.

-sitting by a window i just saw a petite frenchman running for all he is worth, bright backpack bouncing up and down as he races after the schoolbus. strange how it is the normal moments, small tidbits of life which really stick in the mind more than the monuments.

-the day was positively a blur. so many moments.all wonderful, so looking back its a bit like looking into kelidoscope with all the small memories shifting about to create an overall confusing and joyful image.

-luxemburg gardens. the place makes me want to pick up tennis. glorious consortment of refined, primped, and meticulously hedged greenery. orange trees. piles of what james would call 'crocodile people' smoking and reading or smoking and talking. about a fifty fifty split.

-later in the evening we found ourselves in front of the notre dame cathedral after emerging from the quartier de latin; a bustling little maze of sidestreets full of life, restaurants, and accents. emphasis on the restaurants. every sort of ethnic variety, even combinations nonexistant. lebanise was one of our personal adventures, which included a pastry desert seeped in rose water.

-approaching what was not near the not notradame cathadral we discovered a song service was underway and thus entered. the sound filled the interior and sort of wrapped you up in it. all lights were cut excepting that projecting from the saints' candles. may is devoted to marie. so much history and grandeur. huge stone pillars. large overhung paintings. intricate carvings. street lights coming through the stained glass. leaning against my dads chest i could feel his heartbeat and it pounded against my eardrum. it all culminated into a moment of real beauty. c'est la vie.

-street rollerbladers. 'this is what you do if youre not good at math.' -mom.