Valentine's Post Will Have to Wait

Cause my birthday is just way more important!

So, this year I turned the big 25! WhootWhoot! Now I can officially rent a car on my own and can no longer piggy back off my parent's insurance! Yaaaayy!! For those of you who know me, you know that I always celebrate with a crazy partay....but being that I am lacking in the friends department here in France, I thought it would be a better idea to play it low key this year....but I didn't skimp out on the fun!!
To begin it all, my parents threw me a WEBCAM Birthday Party at midnight my time (5o'clock US time)! They had my Dad's yummy famous BBQ and french champagne (there is no other kind) and drank some Malbec. I stood up with them until 5am and watched them go from sober to wasted! It was the first time I wasn't part of the drunken debauchery! Well, I was sipping on my fair share of wine here in France, but ambiance and company can add to the buzz. Anywho, I woke up feeling like I had a real life party and they woke up with real life hangovers. I had a blast and felt super great to have been able to virtually party with my family and friends. So anywho, upon waking up on my real birthday, Stephane made me a yummy breakfast!, then we took Miss Dolce and went for a walk at a nearby lake and had a picnic of Quiches, went back to apartment, talked to my sister on webcam, then off we went to have tapas and wine at a spanish restaurant, and then Stephane took me to a jazz concert tribute to Billy Holiday here in Dijon to top off my night. I will post pictures from my birthday in another post, cause something is all funky with the picture posting options (it only shows up in HTML and that would take me 5 hours to place them between text) sooo for now....I leave you with 3 interesting videos from my birthday night. The 2 are Stephane and I dancing to a song at the spanish restaurant and the last is us singing 'happy birthday' to me!!





This is Veronique, the American formerly known as Ceci ... signing out

Attack of the Killer Squirrel While Moving to Dijon

Well.....we were 'en route' to Dijon with a "big" van and all of our worldly belongings in tow....

When............ A Killer Squirrel tried to take over the van!!!

First he went for the guard dog!!!

But she was not in the mood.....so he turned his sights on the driver!!

In one giant leap he threw himself back on the dog!!

Stephane was mortified!!

So was I !!!

He then turned towards me and with an evil laugh went straight for my throat!!

Please don't hurt me Mr. Squirrel!!!

"You have no power over me!! I take your van now!" yelled the killer squirrel

We were lucky he couldn't see enough to drive.....

He then instructed Stephane to follow his commands

Towards the Center of Town!!

Stop! i want to see the topless girl on the billboard ad!!

Now go left!!

Make a RIGHT!! (actually our real street that we live on ..our apt is the 4th floor around the 4th tree back on the left side of the pic)

And before the killer squirrel told us to make a left into a building....

I picked him up in one swoop and made him my lunch!!!

With the Killer Squirrel out of the way, we were able to proceed with the moving in!!

Our "big" van....

We had to show off our muscles!!

Lost in the jackets!!

Our future dining room!

The kitchen!

Our future living room!

The future bedroom!

Stephane really wanted one of the rooms in the apt to be his office.....so I told him the closet room was plenty enough!

All in all.....we unpacked in record time and now all the rooms are up an running. To date, we only have about 5 little boxes that need unpacking....In a few blog entries I will post our apartment with everything all setup! Dijon has turned out to be a great little city and I am excited to make a post about Dijon for all ya'll fans of mine!! Stay tuned for the next entry...our Valentine's Extravaganza Weekend!!

This is Veronique, the American formerly known as Ceci . . . signing out!

Whoever said packing is not fun....

Obviously hasn't packed the Ceci way!!
Its last minute, its chaotic, its has absolutely no rhyme or reason ... but its miraculously efficient and gosh-darnit ~ a ton o' fun! Its like the clean up scene in Mary Poppins, only cooler.

Well, the day came to pack (most people take a couple weeks to do it) but I do it in a day! It is really not as easy to find cardboard boxes here in France. They are all shiesty with their boxes here. In the good ole US of A, all you have to do is ask your local store for their leftover boxes...here they look at you, spit on your foot and tell you that the government requires them to fill out a form to give you the boxes which must be accompanied by a form that has not yet been created that you, the needer of the box, must fill out.

No, but for real, you have to buy boxes here....and they are freakin 'spensive...like most everything else here in France. But there is a God and he is goo-ood, and at least the wine, cheese and foie gras are cheaper here.

Anywho...we bought some boxes....and began to pack

*The ubiquity that is Stephane

Stephane is one of those "planning" kinda people, does stuff in advance so as to be finished 2 days before it is necessary. He started packing his stuff like two weeks in advance and was secretly festering cause Ceci/Veronique is one of those people who does everything at the last second....Don't get me wrong, I always deliver - And its amazing quality & done 113% but it is done at the last possible second. And besides, every relationship needs to balance. And Stephane and I stood the test of all relationships....the moving test.....we did it without one fight.....well just one minor one cause I realllllllllly wanted to drive the moving van.....but Stephane won cause I didn't have a french driver's license. Boo. Sad face.

The living room....

The bedroom...

The bed....Don't know why I felt the need to take a picture of the bed....its not like you can pack it or anything...?

The "office"/ my shoe room ...

The hallway...

Dolce helping us clean up....

Packing is hardwork, one tends to fall asleep on the job....

or the stove....

or the john...(not the first time I have passed out on the john, *cough* college *cough* really drunk *cough* passed out in dorm bathroom *cough* pants still in the 'taking-crap-position' *cough* found by my roomate Meaghan *cough*)

Im not narcoleptic, just friggin packed in one day!

So we said our final goodbye or Au Revoir, as it were!

Made one last pose for the camera....

Walked out into the cold snow .... and headed off to Dijon!!

*View from the front door of our old apartment building

Stay tuned for the next entry...the journey to Dijon and the attack of the killer squirrel.

This is Veronique, the American formerly known as Ceci...signing out!