Grinding my Gears

If you watch Family Guy -then you know this title is a reference to an episode in which Peter, the family's fearless leader, gets a job on a t.v. news show. His segment is called: "what really grinds my gears" He then proceeds to bitch about minor irritants in his life. It's so funny and Seb and I have taken this as a mantra of our own when we really want to bitch about something. Me being me, I do this often so I've decided to add my own Gear Grinding Segment to this blog.

The first thing that really grinds my gears is when the french get drunk and then decide to announce it to the world with shouting and singing. Now, I've experienced this often -particularly when vacationing in the south of France. It's extremely annoying to be woken up at 2 in the morning by drunk idiots, but since they are on vacation then it's all fun and good times. Ok, I don't really think this, I actually wish I had the balls to yell out my window to shut the f#**k up, but there you go. It's not like I've ever turned down a drink or four, but must you shout and yell while hanging out and annoy everyone? People show some decorum. I also thought that that the majority of these idiots were foreigners having traveled to the south of france for a nice vacation...WRONG.

It must be a French thing because every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night(and sometimes other nights as well) we have the pleasure of drunk idiots standing out in front of the apartment yelling, fighting, singing...I ask you, is this really necessary? Can't you be a drunk and not yell and announce to the world how hammered your are?? I should note that the difference between here and vacation is the length of time we have the pleasure ot the drunk's company. In the south, it's usually somewhat brief -10-15 minutes- because they are usually walking home from the bars to their camping ground or rental. Here it's longer because they like to hang out in the quad (see previous blog for apartment description) chilling. So that means they can be out there fore 30 minutes or more. Sweet.

You may ask, are there lots of bars or discos around your apartment that these loud mouth obnoxious drunks are leaving that they end up close to your home. NO! Isn't that the weirdest part? We have a grocery store, a florist, a pharmacy, a beauty salon, but NO BAR. The closest bars are two tram stops away. So I ask you, why do they come to our place? There are times when I wish I had a bb gun to shoot at them. Seb, the pacifist, doesn't really like this idea.

The oddest part of this situation is that this seems to be completely and socially acceptable. I would ask why the cops don't do something -like citations for public intoxication, creating a disturbance, but we've seen how effective the law enforcement are around here. But, you may ask, doesn't this annoy other people? Don't they complain? Good question. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer...it seems that people have accepted the rowdiness as part of life and ignore it. Either that or they spend a shitload of money on ear plugs (I know I do.)

There's another lovely aspect of these drunks...the pleasure of seeing their vomit the morning after. Oh, this is awesome. Getting up on a Saturday morning in order to walk to the market and seeing the vestiges of the previous evening. It is always a pleasurable way to start the day and always makes one eager to purchase food for the week. One Sunday morning Seb and I actually counted -gross I know, but I just had to know-the number of piles we would see in a 10 minute walk. We counted 5-yes 5 and these are generally next to garbage cans so I ask you, can't they at least lift the lid and puke in the can? Or maybe not drink to the point wher they are yakking their guts up on the street.

I feel like I should end with something positive for the French - since the majority of this blog will be me bitching about them. So the positive for the day is that the French know how to make decent "frozen dinners". Although here they aren't frozen, just vacuum packed =so they cook much faster. The variety offered is different than what i'm used to in the US so it's a nice change. Sure they have the typical lasagna but they also have things like Paella (!)...not too shabby. And for those of you wondering why I eat frozen dinners in France when I should be learning how to make coq au vin, well stay tuned. Who knows, by the end of this blogging year, I may just tell you how to do that... HAHAHAHA! yeah... right!