Day20: work, break, ideas and sorbet

This is already my 3rd weekend in Paris. I spent the day tweaking the one remaining track, a piece for violin and interactive piano, on my upcoming album which I tried to finish mastering back in NYC two days before I left. There was something wrong with the synthesized parts so I had to redo it, and of course there was my computer problem, so I didn't get to it until now. It's finished but took me staying indoors for the most of the day. The problem about Paris for me, is that it is too beautiful. How can one stay inside and not enjoy the city. It is easier in NYC I feel, and not to say city isn't beautiful but it is more functional in a way. I love NYC, as I can just remain anonymous as I please and do what I do, without feeling guilty not visiting. Here I feel guilty not visiting Paris, almost feeling I'm being insulting for not paying homage to the beautiful city. And yes, I'm a visitor--probably different if you live here permanently.

I did take a break, meeting with a friend Atau Tanaka and his son at the playground next to Cités des Arts. Our kids are from 'their country', the mix of Japanese-French and they look alike! We spent time taking pictures of each other. We will try to get our kids together later in the summer. I think my kids' French, which is already soaring astronomically thanks to the grandparents, will be even better by then.

Husband came back from Picardie, so in the evening we met Ken Perlin again with my host Norbert from IRCAM for dinner at another vegetarian restaurant called Le Grenier de Notre-Dame, a delightful little place just across from Notre-Dame. Again I was hungry so forgot to take the picture. I think my project with Norbert is taking the most difficult but exciting path, one of what I call the "Holy Grail" (in fact, it's my husband who named it). This morning I just pulled out another 'Grail', feeling encouraged by what Ken said yesterday, "You should just go for it and make fun things with what you have". A simple, but very positive and dynamic advice. I didn't do so before assuming it won't possibly be done. This one of my "ultimate" Holy Grail caught the attention of Norbert and to my surprise I think he is going to go for it. More on this later.


We took a late-night stroll by Notre-Dame, then the guys said, "Oh so you haven't? then you must!" so we went to get the 'obligatoire' Glace Berthillon, famous ice cream and sorbet place. I guess the excuse or the reason I didn't have it for 3 weeks into being in Paris, is that the first 2 1/2 weeks have been quite cold, so much so that I had to buy a coat. This sorbet place has a huge line in front of it, and we were there at 11:30PM. I had kept quite a strict regimen of eating less since April 2009, losing about 28lbs total in one year and half. I married a Frenchman, lived almost 2 years in Côte d'Azur, then had two babies. I would think blowing up quite a bit was almost a natural course :) I finally took action to get back into my own self last year to feel better about myself, and now I do fit into my old clothes pre-marriage. The golden rule was to eat very little in the evening. I'm quite afraid I'm going to gain all back in short 3 months, especially eating something like this late at night! Will watch from now on.... I hope.... :)