New Jobs and TV and DECORA!!!!

I think most of you know already, but on my last day at Vanier, I interviewed at John Abbott College. They were doing their interviews on Thursday, but I had to go in on Monday because I was going to be in Louisiana on Thursday. They were sooooooo nice to work everything out so that they could do the interview on Monday, especially since I was giving a final that night, and my Monday wasn't exactly flexible.

So then I went to Louisiana, and on Friday morning, I got an e-mail saying that they had picked me for the job and that I was their unanimous first choice!! I thought the interview went well, but still, I was surprised that they picked me (for a daytime position!!!!), when I have so little experience. Anyway, the atmosphere at the interview was super nice, and everyone seemed incredibly friendly. They all seem to really like each other (unlike at Vanier), so, even though it's a suuuuper long commute (an hour and a half - though I guess Vanier was 50 minutes, so it's really not THAT big of a difference), I'm incredibly excited about the new job!

It will be my first time with an actual salary since I was living in France (and doing the worst job ever with the worst boss ever). I am SUPER EXCITED!!!! It doesn't start until the 20th, but I have meetings all week next week. And I am SUPER NERVOUS about it! What if I end up being an awful, awful teacher, and it was just a fluke that I felt like I did okay this past term and that my students seemed to like me.

G and I are celebrating Christmas tomorrow (!!!!), so this past week, I have been pretending it's still Christmas. (pretending, pshaw, it IS still Christmas!!!!). As such, I have been watching lots and lots of Christmas movies! :-) And I think I have a new favorite, that I will definitely be adding to the roster of movies that I must watch every year - A Very Merry Mix-Up. It was a Hallmark movie, and it was literally too adorable for words!

I loved it so much that I've been thinking I might want to start some Hallmark TV. I was thinking of maybe trying When Calls the Heart, even though it looks tooooootally cheesy! But I love cheesy! :-) I've also been thinking of maybe trying to watch Ravenswood, to try to rekindle my romance with abc Family, which has sort of gone sour since the end of Make it or Break It (BEST SHOW EVER). I've got soooo much TV to watch, though (Japanese TV shows, Sherlock, House of Cards, Downton Abbey), I really don't need to be adding any new shows to the mix. I just FEEL like I do since I have had the past week off. I am sure that once I start work again, I won't have time to watch anything.

In other news, I have been OBSESSED lately with Mimi Petit Deco. Yaaaaayyyyy for Decoden! And yyyaaaaayyyyy for Decora Style!!!! (though, I admit, I could do without all the hairpieces) Anyhow, the Mimi Petit Deco cell phone cases are sooooo cute, and I want to get one soooooo badly! I want one all pink and turquoise with an adorable unicorn on it. Maybe it will be my "I got a new job" present to myself once I have started, if I feel like it goes well.

Anyhow, that's all I have to say today, folks! Tomorrow is (fake) Christmas, and I'm psyched!

After Christmas is over tomorrow, perhaps I will post about Christmas in Louisiana then Christmas here. YayyyyyyY! I can't wait to wake up super early and open presents. ::happiness::

以上です。

Things to Come

So a LOT has happened since I last wrote (as usual, I'm pretty awful at the regular updates - this time it's exceptionally awful, though, as it's been over 3 months. Sorry!).

The biggest piece of news, which those of you that know me in life pretty much all already know, is that I have left Japan (I assure you, it was NOT easy) and moved back to Montreal.

It's cold here. And snowy. I don't remember there ever having been this much snow when I lived here before. For serious, there are places where it's literally piled up taller than I am. And, though it's a little bit warmer today (9 degrees fahrenheit, -13 celsius), it was a whopping -10 F (that's -23 C, for serious) when I first got back. I had to venture outside to do some grocery shopping and pick something up from the post office, and I am totally serious when I say that my nose hairs actually froze. Yeah, it was awesome.

I have been tutoring part-time (in math, French, English, etc...) while looking for a job here, but I don't really know what I want to do yet (maybe teach math, if someone will hire me to do so), so the job hunt isn't really going so fabulously. If anyone reading this has something they would like to pay me to do, don't hesitate to send an e-mail my way!!!! :-) (That may sound like a joke, but I'm actually serious)

Other than that, I have lots of things to write about:
-the rest of my vacation with Guillaume in Japan
-the end of my time in Japan
-Thanksgiving in Louisiana
-Christmas in Louisiana
-all the cooking I've been doing in Montreal

And that's what you can expect in soon to come updates in Brizmus Around the World. Yeah!

以上です。

Christmas chez mon pere

Do you wonder what I am doing? Yeah, so do I!

So, after we finished everything up at my Mom's house, we headed out to my Dad's house!!!!


Dad and Tina with the beautiful tree!
Unfortunately, David was with his Dad, so he didn't get to be there to celebrate with us. Still, we had an absolutely FABULOUS time!!!!



Kristen and I got some fun purses with sunglasses and scarves!


Aren't we cool?!!?

We had a fabulous time laughing and listening to Christmas music and opening presents! Amoung other thing, Kristen and Shawn are going to be treated to a 5 star hotel in the country of their choice when they are on their honeymoon voyage and I am being treated to a plane ticket to Japan along with my first semester of classes there. I'm psyched!
I think Russell, though, had to be the happiest about his gift!


They gave him a world cup soccer ball and are helping him plan his trip to the World Cup in South Africa, along with paying for quite a bit of it.
I am SURE that he won't want me posting this in my blog, but he was so happy he almost cried.

Tina got tons of awesome clothes!


I am pretty sure she is NOT modeling any of them here, but she and Kristen are modeling something, so I thought this picture could be appropriate.

Dad got a new Bad Boy Buggy!


I'm not entirely sure what makes it different from the old one - I guess it's more high tech or something. Whatever the case, it's cool!

As usual, we had a GREAT time, and Dad filmed us being ridiculous! Even Tyrone had fun - I gave him a chew soccer ball! :-) And the cats of course all tried (and failed, because my Dad was there) to come in and play with the discarded bows and wrapping paper.

The very last present, that we all opened at the same time, was a t-shirt. With a fleur de lys on it. With the t-shirt, there was a note that said "Wear this to watch the Saints win the superbowl." Dad had decided that, if the Saints made it to the superbowl, we would all go watch them win as a family. They did make it to the superbowl, so we went. Be expecting a post about that soon!

Afterwards, we hopped in a car and drove down to Lafayette to see my Mom's side of the family. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Diane, and Uncle Greg had all already been by Mom's house, but it was good to get to see them all on Christmas day. Grandma made some DELICIOUS vegan food for Christmas dinner!!


It was cool as well to get to see Aunt Debbie, Blake, and Brittni. I hadn't seen my cousin Blake in AGES!!!!

And that was my Christmas! YAY! I love going home for Christmas!! :-)

Christmas Eve and Christmas chez ma mere!!

Not to be forgotten is the reason for which I went home. CHRISTMAS!!!!

A few days before Christmas, we celebrated Russell's birthday, and since we were in the opening presents kind of mood, we opened our Christmas pajamas that our mother gives us every year!

This year, she gave us LSU pajama bottoms. And even though I'm not the hugest LSU fan, I was psyched. Unfortunately, they ended up being just a little bit too small.

This year, we had a fairly atypical Christmas Eve. Usually, we put out luminaries right before it starts getting dark. Unfortunately, our neighborhood committee decided to put an end to the luminaries a year or two ago. My sister and I are seriously devastated about this. So, this year, instead, we had our HUGE Christmas dinner instead. Tina made up the most DELICIOUS meal with sweet potatoes and brocolli and stuffed squash and, really, everything you could dream of in a Christmas dinner. By the time it was time for dessert, we were all too stuffed to even think about it.

After our delicious dinner, we headed over to our Aunt Betty's house for her annual Christmas party. As usual, it was fantastic! Parker, my cousin Monica's son, saw Santa Clause approaching right when we got there, so they had to leave IMMEDIATELY. After all, they needed to get home before Santa arrived. It was very cute, watching him run back and forth between Monica and the door, screaming "Santa, momma, Santa! We have to leave now!!"
When we left, Aunt Betty gave us clementines picked from her trees. They were delicious!

After Aunt Betty's, we headed out to our Mom's house, where she was still busy wrapping up a storm. It was very late, and we had to sleep in her room, which meant we had to forgo our annual Christmas movie, the Magic Snowman. For those of you that have not heard of it, it is THE best Christmas movie ever, and I absolutely highly recommend it to EVERYONE! Go watch it! Now! Even though it's not Christmas.

The next morning, IT WAS CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



As usual, Kristen and I woke up extraordinarily early and exchanged presents just between us before making everyone else get up and celebrate!


I got some fabulous presents from here:
-a really cool pen that her friend made that apparently took her several hours to make!
-a bee t-shirt
-bee pajama pants
-some awesome rain boots
-some earrings she made herself
-an A American Eagle t-shirt that was "made just for me"
-some Melt shaving cream that I love!
-wonderfully delicious smelling Melt fizzy bath balls

I think that's it. I absolutely love them all, and I hope she loves hers as well.

The the whole gang came out, and Kristen and I exchanged presents with Russell, Shawn, and Miranda before the opening of the stocking began.
I got the coolest Labyrinth shirt from Shawn, and from Russell and Miranda, I got this cool bag that fed a child in Africa for a year. In the bag, there were three really awesome books on Japan that I absolutely can't WAIT to read. Along with that, there was the coolest present of Christmas.



Yes, that's it, right there around my neck. It's a smoke detector decorated by Russell and Miranda and turned into an anti-smoking necklace. The theoretically will go off if ever anyone is smoking around me. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!?


Should I be offended that Kristen gets bunny ears, and I don't? Or do we think mine are just hidden?

So then we opened our stockings and our Mom/Santa presents, and Mom opened her presents, and good times were had all around. Kristen and I gave mom and ipod Nano with a docking station, and I think she loved it. We also both separately gave her lots of fun presents that she seemed to love!

As for me, I got the awesomest presents of all!

I got this super cool new jacket, that I am wearing in the picture with Kristen and Russell up above. I got a new pink Dell Studio laptop, which I absolutely NEEDED! My old laptop is in the process of dying a slow and painful death.
Kristen and I got matching outfits that we were supposed to wear for New Year's Eve. Only my flight was canceled, so I unfortunately ended up being in an airplane on New Year's Eve. So I wore mine to celebrate Christmas with Guillaume.


How cute are we?


I also got the coolest Juicy Couture towel.
Can you tell that this was an awesome Christmas for me?



Or rather, can you tell that this was an awesome Christmas for everyone?

Afterwards, we had a delicious Christmas breakfast that Mom had made before heading out to our Dad's house to celebrate Christmas there.
And since this post is already RIDICULOUSLY long, THAT will be a post for next time.
Until then,. . .!!!!

All pictures stolen from my dear sister Kristen.

Rockin' It Out Louisiana Style

After my huge ordeal, I don't think I had EVER been happier in my life to be home. For serious.

The first thing I did upon waking up in the morning was to go through all of the books that had arrived at my mom's house that I had won in contests or that had been sent to me by publishers. If you're interested, you can check out the blog post about that in Brizmus Blogs Books.

Then I explored my Mom's new house, which was just BEAUTIFUL! Apparently, she had done a ton of work, and you could so tell as the house was just SO HER!


I got to spend several days lounging around reading, doing next to nothing. It was fantabulous! I also got all of the rest of my Christmas shopping done and presents wrapped and it was really just fantastic! :-) And my grandparents came in, and I got to beat them at Scrabble! Yay! I am TERRIBLE at Scrabble - I was therefore sort-of shocked about the whole winning thing. And I got to hang out with Russell and Miranda, who are both living in Pineville now, and it was SO great to get to spend time with my little bromeo (wow, haven't used that word in AGES, since we lived in Holiday Park).

Then Kristen finally arrived (YAY!!!! Always so much fun to see my sister!! :-) ), and with my Mom, we took a trip up to Natchitoches to see the Christmas lights (I almost just typed Kristen lights), which were absolutely beautifully amazing and wonderful!

I hadn't been to see the lights since high school, since I lived in Natchitoches, and I had these amazing memories about how awesome they are. Kristen was afraid that we were maybe going to be disappointed, but we absolutely weren't. They were just AMAZING!!!!


We met this very nice man who reminded us of Charles Martin (our uncle), who was so nice to take some pictures of the three of us. He was so professional about it that we thought he must be a photographer for a living or something. He informed us that he was, indeed a photographer by profession. A photographer of dead people. He was happy to have some living subjects, he said. :-P Interesting. . .


We found a sled, and Kristen and I just HAD to have a picture in it, as we have on of us when we were very little sitting in a very similar sled (if, I am not mistaken, also in Natchitoches at the lights). I wish I had the old picture to scan and put next to this one.

Anyhow, our trip to Natchitoches was a success - we had SO much fun all hanging out together - even if dinner was not a success. All of the restaurants were closed by the time we finally got around to looking for one. Luckily, I had some plain, cold (sauceless) spaghetti in a Ziploc bag, and we munched on it on the way home so that we weren't too hungry.

After Natchitoches, it was time for CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Be sure to check back soon! :-)

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

Okay, so it's a day late, but Happy Valentine's Day, anyway!

Before I write about mine, I'm going to try to update really quickly about everything else that has been happening. I feel like it's sort of all old news now, so it will be "tres vite fait."

Also, before anything, my photo program seems to be bugging. I've managed to add some pictures, but no albums for time being. Eventually, I will be adding a link to an album of New Kids on the Block pictures, at the very least. :-)

Our Stockings!

Guillaume and I had a GREAT (if very late) Christmas together - I got lots of fun presents, including a Nintendo DS with New Super Mario Brothers and a special thing for me to download games on. Guillaume is now wondering if it was a bad decision to offer me said DS, given that I haven't stopped playing since. I have finished Mystery Detective and recently become obsessed with Zelda, and I have decided that I absolutely MUST obtain Zelda for the Wii.
>
I gave Guillaume, amoung other things, a deep fryer that uses only one tablespoon of oil, because he had been talking about it for ages. It's a weird gift, I know, but I hope he liked it nonetheless.


Neil and I at Sacre Coeur
Somehow, this is the only picture I have of the two of us together

Then, a couple weekends ago, Neil came for a visit - he had been working with some guy in Rome, so he decided to come hang out here for the weekend. YAY! It was so good to get to hang out with him. We did lots of touristy things. We actually walked up the Eiffel Tower - it was the first time I had done that, and I enjoyed my experience at the top MUCH more than I did the other time I went up, when it was FREEZING! We also walked around EVERYWHERE - to City Hall, Notre Dame, St-Michel, l'Arc de Triomphe, les Champs Elysees. With Guillaume, we went to Sacre Coeur and then walked around Montmartre, where we had lunch in an adorable little vegetarian restaurant. Everything is so cutesy there. We also went over to Place de la Concorde and walked around Les Tuileries.

On Sunday, Margaret re arrived in France (she will be here on and off pretty much until July - I am super psyched!), while Neil was still here, so we made some delicious African peanut soup and a chocolate chip cake (to celebrate Neil's birthday, which had been just a couple of days before) and had a delicious dinner! YUM!



Getting ready for the New Kids on the Block!

Then the Wednesday after, Marybeth, Guillaume, and I went to see the New Kids on the Block!!!! YAY!!!! It was sooooo much fun! The show was a little bit different than the one I saw in NYC. They played mostly the same songs, but some of them were different, and it was set up a bit differently. I just don't know what I will do if I never get to see them again. Die of sadness, perhaps. I brought a New Kids on the Block shirt for Marybeth, and I wore my super old (and way too small for me) New Kids on the Block sweatshirt. I was interviewd by Les 20 Minutes, and they took lots of pictures of me. From what I gather, though, I didn't actually make it into the magazine. :-( I guess I didn't have the right stuff (credit to Guillaume).

Since the New Kids on the Block, things have been good. I actually got interviewed by another video show thing, Cap 24, the other day about the book I was reading on the metro ("Plum Wine" by Angela Davis-Gardner - my grandmother gave it to me as part of my Christmas gift, and I am loving it!) - once again, I didn't make the cut, and I'm sure it had something to do with how completely inarticulate I was because I was so nervous.

My mother, sister, and grandmother are also going to be visiting me at the end of March/beginning of April, and I am SUPER psyched about that!!!! We are probably going to go to Annecy to spend some time in the north of Provence for the first few days of their visit. YAY!!!!


An Cafe
Oh, and also, AN CAFE, my absolute favorite visual kei band from Japan is going to be playing here in Paris the week before they come. I am more than beyond psyched about this, because I love love LOVE them.

Okay, that's all for now, folks. Be tuned next time for pictures and Valentine's Day with Guillaume!

Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas!
(click me to see all of the Christmas pictures)

After Sarah's wedding, it was home for some last minute Christmas shopping and a mega wrapping frenzy - it was supposed to be a Kristen/Audrey wrapping frenzy, but last minute plans with Mom to see Four Christmases (just the three of us - yay!), which, by the way, was fantastic, combined with other weird things made it so that we were very rarely actually wrapping together.

Christmas Eve ended up being quite sad this year, because Uncle Paul had been having some health problems, and so, for the very first time in my entire life, the Christmas Eve party at Aunt Betty's was canceled. It was SO sad. So we decided to go see the family Christmas movie (we saw Yes, Man) on Christmas Eve, since it was looking like there somehow wouldn't be time on Christmas day.

After dinner chez Dad and Tina, we headed out to Deville. I gave the boys their birthday gifts:


farting gnomes that, for some reason, sadly, don't fart.

and we all (all = Kristen, Russell, Miranda, Donald, Missi, Anthony, Tyrone, and me) packed ourselves into an upstairs room and watched "the Magic Snowman." It was late, so I think I unfortunately slept through quite a bit of it. :-( Kristen actually remembered it this year, though. YAY!!!! I really think that it should be the Christmas movie every year.

Then we woke up the next morning, and it was CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The siblings and I all exchanged gifts!


Have you seen this Killer?

Bob Marley



Then we woke up Mom (we actually woke up kind of late, since Kristen and I had to sleep with Anthony, and he kept crying and waking us up, and so Mom was just getting up when we got up), and it was time for stockings!

We had a great time opening presents, and I think we all LOVED everything we got! Mom also loved all of her presents! YAY! And for afterwards, she had made us a delicious breakfast - a quiche for the people that eat that kind of thing and delicious grits with fruit salad for those that don't (me). It was quite funny, because there were blackberries in the fruit salad, and Anthony kept pointing and thinking he wanted some. So we would give him one, and he would put it in his mouth and go "ew" and spit it out. Over and over again. Cute.


Christmas chez Mom


When we left Mom's, we headed out to Aunt Betty's to meet up with Dad and Tina. It was good to at least get to see her. Especially with all she was going through with Uncle Paul. Then we headed out to Dad's where the Christmas celebrations chez him began!

Dad and Tina modeling their new shirts


As usual, Dad got out the video camera, and he filmed us all being goofy entering. Anthony had a great time playing in Kristen's new boots. We had a fantastic time opening presents, and yet again, I think we were all super psyched about all of our new things! YAY for Christmas!!!!
I'm sad, though, because my camera started acting up towards the end, and so the last pictures are blurry, and there aren't very many of them. :-( Perhaps SOMEONE would like to send me there pictures (since I am being so good about posting all of my pictures so quickly - hm hm!)

After the celebrations around the Christmas tree, Tina had prepared us the most DELICIOUS dinner of beets and brocolli and cauliflower and risotto and asparagus and stuffed mushrooms and I'm sure there were other things as well that I'm just not remembering because of how pleasantly STUFFED I was afterwards.
Food, food, delicious food!

Anyhow, so that was Christmas with the Baker kids this year.
If you didn't click on the picture up top to see all of the pictures, click on on of the trees below!

It's that time again. . .

What time, you may ask?
The time to pull out the Christmas pajamas and the "Santa Loves A Southern Girl" t-shirt. The time to fill with glee at the sight of Christmas lights and to spend every free second Christmas shopping. The time to download every Christmas movie you can think of (or, if you live in the United States, to watch the 25 days of Christmas marathon on ABC Family) and talk your boyfriend into watching them with you (much to his unfortunate dismay).

It's CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!
Note: This picture was taken last year since I am presently too lazy to attach the camera to the computer to put more recent Christmasy pictures.

I know it's been time for all of those things for a while now, but I have been so busy dealing with my boss (who has been trying to forbid me to go home for Christmas - heh, yeah right!) that I've barely had a second to myself lately.
Happily, dealing with boss time is coming to an end, and this coming Thursday I am heading back to Louisiana for Sarah's wedding and then CHRISTMAS!!!! I am so excited I can barely control myself!
I have been doing some mega Christmas shopping lately, and I really hope that everyone is going to love their presents!!!!


Also, I think I completely forgot to post about it, but I DID indeed manage to finish my 50,000 word novel on time. I managed to be at 50,000 words two days early, even. I ended up with a finished novel at 57,084 words, but there are still a few gaps that I have to go back and fill in.
Oh yes, be proud of me. I'm proud of myself, even if it probably isn't anything worth reading.