Um, Hello?

Eiffel Tower

Remember that hair dying party I mentioned? Well, I won the trip to Paris that was part of the contest. Apparently my new red hair got the most votes out of all of the before and after shots so off I went to Paris.

I left for Paris last Thursday. I flew from Seattle to Los Angeles, then from Los Angeles to Houston and finally from Houston to Paris. It was a long and draining trip and it was made worse by my lack of sleep. Any time I take a trip, I can't sleep the night before so by the time I reach my destination, I'm exhausted. I went on this trip with 7 other people (who I met for the first time during the trip) and we stayed in these very cute apartments. Half of us stayed in this apartment then my half of the group stayed in this apartment.

The goal of the trip was to expose us as beauty bloggers to French beauty brands. With that as an objective, we explored Paris visting the Rene Furterer salon, the Lancome Institute, the Clarins Institute (I wasn't doing too well so I missed the first two stops) and the Beyond Beauty trade show. We also spent some time shopping and sightseeing. I didn't do a lot of shopping in the city. I picked up a Black Musk perfume oil from Colette that I read about in Lucky months ago and a green tea Roger & Gallet soap at a pharmacy. I did go a little crazy at the airport's and airline's duty free shops though, spent about $200 Euros on different makeup palettes from Guerlain, Lancome, Chanel and Bobbi Brown.

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The sights in Paris were amazing, as I expected them to be. What struck me was how I was walking around in a city that had so much history, a history much, much longer than our American one. I was drawn to all of the architecture and statues. Even Place de la Concorde with it's history has beauty in it. My only regret is not being able to see more of it. It reminded me a lot of growing up in Portugal.

This city was definitely hard on me though. We did so much walking around that I needed some time to recover. I missed a few dinners and even stayed in a whole day because I was sick... still am too. I'm convinced that Paris is not a very accessible city for the handicapped but I can see now why French women don't have a weight problem... it's all that walking! I made the mistake of bringing new walking shoes with me and as a result, the blisters were endless. My pinkie toes actually bled!

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I went to Paris dreaming of rich, brothy sauces. I've been obsessed with making the perfect white wine sauce lately and I have yet to create it... there's always something off about it. My first few meals in Paris were not culinary masterpieces. I had a mushroom omlette that was a little bland and a salad that had an odd dressing with boiled potatoes on it but the meals I had during my last 2 days were simply amazing. The meal we had on our last night in Paris at L'Ami Jean was the best meal of my entire life. This restaurant was a tiny place but everyone obsessed about the food they served us. They served a parmesean cheese soup that mindblowing. We sat there trying to analyze the flavors and figure out how the soup was made. I even tried scallops because everything was so good and I hate fish! The experience at this restaurant has definitely inspired me to learn how to cook.

We left Paris this past Wednesday and I took the same route in return. It was 2am when I got home on Thursday. I was so happy to be home and use my own bathroom and sleep in my own bed. Paris was beautiful but sometimes you just miss the comforts of being home. I will always have these pictures to look back on my trip though.

I've broken radio silence to say this...

Gmail finally has real IMAP support!

I just set this up and it works well. It brings all my labels into Outlook
and all of my changes are reflected when I check in on them in the browser.
This is perfect.

Ok, more later...

Don't ask me why but since I started the new job, I have bought and returned 4 handbags. With the first one, it wasn't what I expected when I received it. The other two just were not what I had in mind when I went to use them. With this most recent one, it was perfect except I wanted some larger handles so I could put it over my shoulder. It was a cheap handbag I bought at TJ Maxx for $15, nothing super fabulous.

Since the bag wasn't what I wass looking for, I decided to return it. I had the receipt and I had the tag I removed from the bag. I walked into the TJ Maxx near my house (not the one I bought the bag at) and asked to return the bag. The clerk looked inside and I noticed I hadn't emptied it out as well as I should have... some loose tobacco from my cigarettes was at the bottom. I had put all my stuff in the bag to try it out. I guess this raised some questions because the clerk goes to another woman for help and the both come back to talk to me. The other woman asks "where did you buy this bag?" It wasn't obvious? I told her what store I bought the bag at and mention the receipt and tag I brought. She says the tag doesn't match the department the bag should be in. Somehow this is my fault? She also tells me that the brand is a Target brand and that they don't take returns from Target.

The way she said this imply I was attempting to scam them so I told her one more time that I didn't buy the bag at Target. At this point, she calls the store and she's on hold while someone goes to look for more of the same bag. As luck would have it, there are no more. When she tells me this, her bitchface is turning into a smirk as if she caught me redhanded. That's when I started getting very flustered and pissed off. I told her to check with the store I bought the bag at to see if they ever carried this line. She wouldn't do it, instead she proposed giving me half of the price I paid or waiting for her loss prevention team to review the store's cameras to see if I bought the bag there. I guess she figured I'd take the money once she mentioned the cameras. I got louder at this point saying I wouldn't take less than what I paid for it and I asked her to review the cameras so she could apologize to me when she saw me on tape with the very same bag. At this point, it wasn't the money, it was the principle. That's when she caved in and gave me my money back. Not before I asked for every supervisor's name under the sun though.

I can't even tell you exactly everything that went down, my anger just had me in haze for the rest of the night. This is the condensed version. ;) I'm really thinking my size set off some kind of scammer alert i this woman and I'm going to complain to her boss and then that person's boss. I was so humiliated in that store and that woman just wouldn't reason with me.

This is the kind of stuff that happens to me, folks.

Last night I had dinner with the lovely Kate and Reb, who use to work with me in TypePad support, at The Ram in University Village. I usually look for reasons to back out of meeting bloggers. I just get all paranoid about how people will react to me in person. I would have backed out of meeting them if I could but it was work. I didn't wuss out this time and kept my word. I've always thought it's weird to meet bloggers in person because you know a little bit about them but you really don't know what they are like in person at all. Luckily Kate and Reb were awesome... before I knew it we had been chatting for over 3 hours. I hope this isn't the last time we meet. :)

Everyone needs a change of pace from time to time and for me, that time is now. I'm sad to say that today is my last day working with Six Apart. I've had an amazing experience working in TypePad Support, not everyone can say that they were fortunate enough to turn a hobby into a full time job... outside this company that is. I had the previledge of working with the best group of people ever for almost 2 years and I will miss them a lot.

As for my next move, I start my new job on Monday. I will be working for a company in downtown Seattle, helping with Accounts Receivable. It's what I did before moving to Six Apart so I'm excited to be getting back into this area. I'll be working right around the corner from Pike Place Market so it will be a colorful neighborhood. It also has a more regular schedule, the normal Monday through Friday type of schedule, which is something I'm really looking forward to even though this means actually getting dressed and waking up early on a regular basis. Pieces of me will live on though, through my contributions to the knowledge base and Everything TypePad.

This has been a great experience and I hope to keep in touch with everyone in the future...  I'll even get back to blogging about things other than beauty products.

How many discount cards do you carry in your wallet and where are they from? 
Submitted by danatmedog.

I only carry one discount card in my wallet and it's the most important one of all... the Sephora Beauty Insider card. It's guaranteed to give yield a return with each trip I make to Sephora. :)