gift idea

[araby]

My friend is leaving for Toulouse, France in about seven days. I have no idea what to get her. I really suck at gift ideas for bday, christmas, etc, and in this case I'm really lost. It's not a permanent move, though she'd love to tell us all it is. She has moved to Austria and Italy already in the last couple of years but she always comes back =)

short background:
we hated each other's guts for the last five years, she was my ex's old girlfriend. she used to do really horrible things to me back in the days of his old band. earlier this year, she came up to me with tears in her eyes and apologized for it all and said, "I really like you, I love what you write and I read your blogs" and I told her to "stop crying and let's take a shot". some might say I'm too forgiving, but I've been accused of holding grudges so I decided to give her a chance. I'm glad I did because we've become very close. in fact she sent me an email recently that was so heartfelt and sweet that it made me cry. she was feeling sentimental knowing she's leaving and felt as though she'd not been as open and honest with me about how she values my friendship. it's very interesting, hehe.

she is a very talented singer, piano player, artist, she loves to read (everything French lately) and she loves good food and good wine. she is obsessed with music from the 60's.

I tend to like to give gifts that are sentimental but I also like to give gifts to people that might be something they want, but would never buy for themselves. she pretty much buys everything she wants, though. anyway if anyone has an ideas just throw them out there, cause I've got nothing.

[leah]

when i went to italy (and it was just a short trip, so maybe this won't work for this situation), two of my friends who had spent substantial time abroad both gave me blank journals so i'd have someplace to write down experiences and tape interesting beer labels and ticket stubs and whatnot. maybe do something like that?

also i am jealous of this friend. i want to live in italy! heck, or france (though i'm not too well-versed in anything french). just overseas for a while, you know? but i *will* go back to italy someday, if only for another vacation.

[araby]

I thought of that, a blank journal. I guess I wanted to do something more, thinking that maybe someone did that for her already, but she knows I love to write so maybe if I personalize the notebook, it might be cool =)

You shouldn't be jealous, it's actually not very hard to do what she's done. In Europe you can make a lot of money as an au pair, you don't pay for housing (they always live in the home) and depending on the family, your free time is pretty reasonable. She actually didn't find a very good family in Austria but the country was so beautiful that she felt it was okay, especially since it was her first time doing it. Since realizing she had a little more flexibility in the family she was working with, she was a little more selective when she went to Italy.

She is going to be an au pair in France as well, but only part-time, because the other part of the time she's going to school there (for a short time) in order to teach English. The process is actually not difficult at all, with the exception of getting your Visa. Here in the states you basically go take a test. Once you're over there you have a short amount of school and then you're allowed to teach.

I asked her how she was able to afford the plane tickets and such, and basically she's worked at the diner for about a year, saving every penny she can possibly save, sacrificing stuff here and there, but it also helps that she is living with her parents so there is no rent each month.

Anyway she really wanted me to go with her to France, and of course, if it weren't for my son I would go. I plan to do something like this when he's off to college in five years. Not as an au pair, no thanks-haha...but teaching English to kids in Europe.

[leah]

omg your son will be in college in five years?! isn't that terrifying for you? kids grow up so fast.

[Tossica]

Get her a vibrator.

[Arlos]

Maybe a musical one that plays La Marseillaise?

-Arlos

[Tuggan]

http://americanflagpatch.com/

[ClakarEQ]

http://americanflagpatch.com/

I think there friends, why paint a target on her back LOL

[araby]

ha! that's funny, I wish had time to get that and sew it onto a jean jacket for her. maybe I'll look around online for a place that sells them here. the more I think about that the more I laugh.

yah he's 7th grade this year...haha. he's pretty huge already, too. almost looking me in the eye and I'm 5'8". it's a little weird, yes, I guess that is normal though. I considered it might be especially weird for me since I'm 31 but I have heard other moms are that older than I am freak out about the age of their kids. Mostly I'm glad he's still a good boy...so far =)

[Drem]

http://americanflagpatch.com/

haha that reminds me of all those weird little kids in high school that listened to Cannibal Corpse and only liked art class and had a army jacket with a german flag sewn on the sleeve (i don't get it either)

[Harrison]

as good a musician as their guitarist is, I still find Cannibal Corpse to be a huge joke...like people only listened to it BECAUSE it was Cannibal Corpse.

[araby]

so I liked the patch idea and considered it'd be neat to sew it onto a jean jacket (not necessarily for wearing, just something for her to have) and she could collect other patches to sew on throughout her travels.

but, I couldn't find a jean jacket anywhere that was cool enough. then I considered I could use that idea in some other form of art, but all of the ideas would take too much time and I don't have much time. she leaves Tuesday...

today I found a beautiful and stylish necklace at one my favorite gift shops. a lady here uses antique trinkets to make jewelry and she's very talented, I have another piece of my own by her.

it's a gold chain with white pearls in between each link. the pendant is a winged bird, really gorgeous, and old. inside that chain, is another gold chain, a little shorter, and the pendant is a round gold circle that has "Oui" inscribed in cursive.

I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first, but when I tried it on I couldn't believe how gorgeous it was. She is very beautiful, with great style and she'd look very attractive wearing it. I hope she loves it.

I also got her a card that has a plane on the front with the words "Bon Voyage" on it. I want to write her card in French...ha. Thank goodness for the internet translators.

[Evermore]

get her a white flag so she fits in

[Kramer]

i would maybe try to find a way to purchase a tube/subway/underground pass online for her, or maybe go to a large bank and exchange a small amount of money into euros for her, practical and thoughtful

[araby]

She loved the necklace. We had the most amazing 24 hours (she leaves tonight) over the weekend. Friday night we met for a beer at one of our favorite dive bars. Then we came to our friend's house and made a movie set to recreate a scene from the awful movie, "The Room". If you've never heard of it, believe me, the only thing you're missing is the amount of laughter from how ridiculously awful it is. One of the actors in the film is the best friend/roommate of our filmmaker/editor friend here in town, it's how we came to know of the film.

This man (Tommy Wiseau) has delusions of grandeur, created, starred and directed this film about himself and the acting, the set, the dialogue, all of it...is truly the worst I've ever seen. He paid a million dollars to keep a billboard up on Sunset Blvd for the movie.

At the premiere, five minutes into the movie, the audience began to laugh hysterically and threw forks at the screen. His assistant actually turned to him and said, "They are acting that way because it's so good." Tommy Wiseau believed him. (haha) NPR did a commentary on how bad it was, so we listened that, then we watched some of the scenes and transcribed the lines...and recreated one of the scenes while our friend filmed it. I can't wait to see the finished project, it was the most hysterical time we've ever had together.

The next day, hungover and feeling pretty awful, we all had brunch at a really great, expensive place where we looked and felt completely out of place. It was fantastic! After that we went to Waterfront Park (Brinstar has been there) and ran through the fountain fully clothed while our friend took photos of us girls. We walked over to the pineapple fountain and climbed it, rescued a fairy princess that someone buried inside and took her with us everywhere we went after that. Which was to a pool where we swam with our clothes on. Once it began to rain, we kept swimming but then all walked home in the pouring rain, something none of us had ever done before.

Then we had a fashion show while getting dressed to meet our work folks (she and I work together) and Kit (the one leaving for Toulouse) dressed up like a fairy princess. She looked fabulous, with a yellow dress on, a blue sequined sash around her waste, my necklace, red shoes, and a pink ribbon in her hair. Her eye shadow was a blue as the sequins on her sash...it was the tackiest, most hysterical outfit I've ever seen. She looked beautiful as a fairy princess!

We met folks from work, and had drinks and some food...I know she felt great because so many people showed up. Because she spilled some red wine down the front of her dress, our manager said, "You can kiss that dress goodbye!" and then realized she'd come up with the best idea, ever. Everyone had to put on the lipstick she had and "kiss kit's dress goodbye" since she's leaving. By the time we were done, she had at least thirty lipstick kisses on her dress, some from strangers off the street! Our manager is pretty outrageous.

We left there and went to Mellow Mushroom for trivia, where we won second place! (and a $35 bar tab!)

Then we went to the dive for karaoke. None of the people who work with me and Kit have any idea that Kit can sing. She's so quiet and doesn't really talk to any of our coworkers...so when she starts wailing "Rock You Like A Hurricane" and climbing the tables and walls...everyone's wide eyes and open jaws were priceless.

We came back home and for about an hour had a dance party in the living room and a photo shoot of me, kit and our other friend. What a fantastic 24 hours, and we're all still paying for it...but I can't say I've ever had a better time in Charleston and I'm glad we could do it before she leaves. I'm really gonna miss her.

In her card, I wrote that I will remember the *second* time we met and that I could have said, "No" but I said, "Yes." I told her that water would not separate what we've learned from each other. Then I said, "Keep love in your heart and your wings open."

It was all sweet, because inscribed on the necklace pendant is the french word for yes (Oui) and the bird has its wings spread.

[vonkaar]

Why is it that when a woman describes an evening of drinking, dancing and fountain-frolicky, do men immediately think of hot lesbian sex? Why is that? Men can be such pigs.

[araby]

no, it's okay. we were showing the love in our photo shoot =)

no really, it was sexy and fun but we were on good behavior. it's funny though, she's not an affectionate friend. we've never hugged before and I have wondered for the last few days how I'm going to approach hugging her when she goes. I didn't have to, because she actually took me very much by surprise during our karaoke dancing/singing and just...grabbed me and hugged me, out of the blue. was nice.

[araby]

[brinstar]

whiskey tango foxtrot

[Diekan]

How long till she leaves?

Get her a copy of Rosetta Stone (French).

[araby]

She's wearing the necklace that I bought her in that video. She loved it.

She's already gone, that weekend and these pictures are from our weekend before she left. Also, she took four months of French lessons before she left, so she's actually speaking the language pretty well, with that, and her previous experience from high school/college.

She sent me a message on Skype the other day saying that Philippe, the Father of the child of whom she is an au pair, kept getting annoyed with her because she spoke too much English, so she stopped forever.

[Diekan]

I'd hit it!

[Tikker]

perhaps you could post smaller pics?

[leah]

rofl what in the hell was going on in that video and why was there absolutely no continuity with the hair . . . and why did you pop in for two seconds? hilarious, if only because i do NOT get it lol

[Diekan]

That clip reminds me of the start of a BangBros production

Three hot women sitting on a couch drinking and "confiding" in each other.

I want to see more petting and hugging in the next installment... please.