Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Friday, Jul. 21, 2006 - 2:34 p.m.

Well, my interview seemed to go well. I was older than I think the guy expected, though. He covered it well, but I'm pretty sure he was expecting a 25 year old hottie, because I had to send a picture with my app (which is standard French practice), and the only one I had access to was the headshot image from my webpage. At any rate, he seemed to like me well enough, but he said I'm the first person he's interviewed, so he wants to interview others and will be making a decision probably Friday. So please keep up the good job vibes. :)

I spent the remainder of my day shopping and exploring my neighborhood. By shopping, I mean I bought some bread and veggies for dinner stuff and looked for something cooler to sleep in, which was unproductive. But I did buy a map of Paris, which enabled me to find a WAY shorter route to my Metro station, which in this heat is more awesome than I can say. So I explored that whole area (between the two Metro stops), and it's way cooler and nicer than the way I was going to the Metro. The way I was going involved leaving my building to the right and walking about half a mile down to the corner with the phone booth (cabine) and turning right, walking about 3.5 tenths of a mile and turning right, walking another half mile, and voila - Lourmel Metro stop. The new way, I turn left instead of right, walk about half a block (.10 mile), turn left again, walk half a mile, and then turn left and go about 150 feet to Lourmel, or turn right and go 200 feet to Boucicaut. It's a much shorter, much prettier walk, though the first half is entirely in sun, which part is not so cool. Still, I will happily take it over the other route. It shaves the time in half, at least. There's also a nicer laundromat about the same distance away (maybe a little closer) on the new route.

After that, I called MP about seeing the Tour de France go thru Boulogne-Billancourt (where she lives) tomorrow, and then I came home and tried to do laundry in the sink, which did not work out so well. And now my right arm really hurts, from agitating the clothing. Which will still have to be washed in a machine. Alas.

It rained cats and kittens here last night, which was cool. Seriously insane thunder and lightning, though. Like the thunder is incredible. It's like a physical thing, it's so loud. It sounded like it was literally 5' over the top edge of my window. And the lightning was like a strobe light, blue-white and sharp, like a horror movie. It was seriously freaky. And then at one point, the thunder cracked and then did its long roll, and I started laughing and told God to 'fess up: he totally has a big sheet of tin up there that he makes the sound of thunder with, just like we had in the UTA theatre arts department, mainstage. It sounded exactly like that. :) First time in my life I've ever heard thunder actually sound like that tin.

Have I mentioned I miss cable? It went back out, and I know it's ludicrous you guys, but I am a child of television, and I need my tv to wind down after a long day of walking around dripping sweat in the heat and climbing millions of stairs. That was a glorious 24 hours, that was.

You know what, you guys? I'm a little lonely. I've spent most of the last 9 days alone. I really need tv. Or that job. Actually, the job would be heaven. And what a great experience. I can look back on my life when I am old and think wow, what a great time that was, leading tours in Paris. I hope that guy doesn't think I'm old and hires me. I hate getting older, you guys. It truly, truly sucks. For those of you still in your 20s, embrace your face and your body. Love them. Be comfortable in them. They will not always be in the prime condition they are now, and you will look back one day when you seem to have misplaced your waist and have this horrible jiggle to your upper arms that was never there before, or your chin has suddenly developed a totally unfair wattle you are way too young to have, or lines suddenly appear around your mouth and between your eyebrows and across your neck, and you will wish you had known what an awesome body and beautiful skin you had when you had it, because you would have loved it. I spent my 20s thinking I was this floppy puppy of a girl with too long legs, too small breasts, and too sharp a chin, and god, what I wouldn't give to have that body and my chin back again. And wear bikinis. I can't believe I felt like an idiot in a bikini. I was not an idiot. I was freaking HOT. If I had that body back again, I would stick it in bikinis and middy tops and low-rise jeans, and flaunt the ever-loving hell out of it. I miss that body. So love your body, my girls. It's beautiful. You are beautiful. Get that into your head now, and maybe when things aren't quite as tight as they used to be, you'll still feel that way about yourself. We spend so much time as a gender in this society feeling badly about ourselves, thinking we don't measure up. Fuck that. You are the only yardstick you need. Learn that now, so you won't be me later on, never having learned the lesson. And wishing I were something I am not.

Although, I'm feeling much better now, as I just got mail and it was from the housemate, letting me know I have a residual check there from an AFTRA show I did at least 3 years ago. How cool is that?! My first residual check. :) I feel all professional and stuff, now. :) And wishing I were still acting, though with the hoops Jonny-C's been jumping thru, I'm not sorry to be outta that part of the circus. No, I am not. I sure miss performing, though. It's painful how much I miss it. Most of the time I try not to think about it. And weirdly, this is the 2nd time I've had this "conversation" today, since interview guy asked me about acting and did I still want to do it. I told him yes, but I didn't miss all the auditions, but that something always happens to pull me back into it...and then I find out I got a
residual check today. Life is weird. And God likes to make points.

Somewhere over the building across my courtyard, there's a searchlight that waves across the sky periodically every night since I got here. When I see it out of my peripheral vision, it looks like someone walking past my window. Weird when one is on the 4th floor, and a little disconcerting at 12:37 at night when the only light is from my monitor and a little sort of dimmed reading light just over my right shoulder. I'm sitting on the loveseat that passes for my sofa, in a dim little pool of gold light. It's very overcast at the moment, and every so often, the pale blue of that spotlight cuts a narrow swath thru the sky. It always makes me wonder where it is and what it's for. And every so often I indulge myself in a flight of fancy and this is 1940s Paris and that's an air raid searchlight. I have to say, I'm glad that's just whimsy and nothing at all like the real thing, though Paris in the pre-war 40s was probably pretty cool.

Have I mentioned my eyes have gotten really horrible, btw? For some reason, they just refuse to adapt to contact lenses, so I had to buy a pair of reading glasses so that I can actually read stuff like the map and directions while I am wearing them. At least my reading glasses are rather stylish, in bright blue aluminum (sounds awful, but they're actually really cool), but it's a massive hassle trying to exchange sunglasses for glasses and vice versa like 20 times a day. But the sun here is like a frigging blowtorch and cuts right into the center of your forehead, so walking around without shades is just so not an option. As is, the ones I have aren't dark enough. They're good in LA, so I thought sure they'd be fine here, but they so are not.

I hope housemate remembers to mail my 5.75 lenses. I think part of the problem is that the 6's I brought are just too strong.

All righty, then. I got nothin' else.

Peace out,
Katie

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