Paris Angels

Girls' fight is over!

As I was having dinner with an ol' friend from prepa LLG yesterday night at a terrible Thaï restaurant by les Champs Elysées, she and I've had a very interesting conversation about the balance or should i say unbalance between women and men in some job areas. We particularly focused in Finance where she exposed to me the following facts:

- Most banks regret not having more women on the trading floor and curiously enough many banks admit that their most successful traders are actually women!

- In all other branches and in other job areas, surveys show that if very few women climb all the way to the top of the corporate ladder, they don't unfortunately help other women do the same. On the contrary, competition and rivalry tend to be even fiercer between women than between a man and a woman.

- As a consequence, areas where you already have few females like Finance or Consulting won't get any better despite the firms' striving to hire and promote more female employees. Indeed, haven't you notice that if you take the ratio female/male at  entry level positions, that ratio would just worsen at senior level positions (even if we take out those retiring for family purposes)?

- So I'm asking y'all women or girls out there: If we can't stop staring at each other (sometimes with envy) in the subway, If we can't stop taking the other girl (other than friend or family) as a rival, If we can't stop fighting over a handbag sale or even over a Karl Lagerfeld piece at H&M, at LEAST can we stop holding ourselves down !?!?!?

Time when we would ask for more male colleagues' recognition is over. Now, Time has come for us women to help each other. Because after all, even if neither men, nor L'Oréal tell us loud enough, "We are worth it!"

Cheers,

-Sam

When is it "Time to grow"?

When is the right time to accept to move on, turn the pages when a relationship is over? How long should we mourn and then move to another relationship?

Is it normal to feel as disturbed as Carrie Bradshaw when she bumps into Aydan who eventually got married and has one kid?  Is it normal to keep your ex's pictures in your wallet? on your walls?

Why does it hurt when an ex long term relationship calls you (if ever you still keep in touch) and tells you he/she's found a new person in his/her life, tells you how great that person is and hopes to introduce you to her/him soon? Is it normal to be upset about that if you have found a new someone else too? Would it explain why we keep complaining and bugging poor Jenifer Aniston about the Brad /Angelina thingie?

Breaking up and moving on was part of my mood of the day as I listened to Lemar and Justine's song "time to grow". So I'm asking you guys to tell me:  "When is it time to grow?"

Yours truly,

-Sam

Enfin le printemps!

  yep...Spring time is eventually coming!!

Skirts are going shorter while scarfs and big sweater are almost over; Perfume smelling everywhere around me, rays of sun caressing me, flowers on the trees and colors on everyone's clothes make me think of Ray Charles' "What a Wonderful World",

Aaah that feels good! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. But I can't help to envy those who as soon as they are back from skying trips in les Alpes, they are already going to spring breaks in some exotic places: Cancun, Mejiico, San Cabo, Santo Domingo or even to Reijavick! the latest trendy spot. Has anyone been there? We've heard of wonderful lakes where the water is amazingly hot while the out door temperature is around 12 degrees, a kind of natural hammam. Already daydreaming...I need a break

[sigh]

-Sam

Le mariage? Un peu... Beaucoup... Passionément... Pas du tout ?

Le mariage..... Parlons en un peu!
Cette semaine j'ai assisté au mariage d'une très bonne amie dont je connaissais aussi très bien le copain... enfin le mari, maintenant!
C'était vraiment un mariage magnifique, comme dans les films, un mariage comme on en rêve toutes! Mais comment après ne pas y penser!.... Ca y est, ma copine n'est plus une mademoiselle, mais une vraie de vraie Madame!!!!! Ca fait quand même un choc....

Mais comment on en arrive la?? Vous allez me dire : il faut déjà un copain! Je vous réponds : d'accord, mais après???? C'est un tel engagement, que ca ne suffit pas, non? Il faut surement avoir une petite voix au fond de vous qui vous dit : allez, c'est le bon! Mais comment être sure de cette petite voix? Comme être sure qu'elle ne se trompe pas, ou qu'elle s'emballe un peu trop vite? Comment être sure que ce n'est pas trop tôt, que c'est le bon moment, que c'est la bonne personne?..... Vous me répondrez alors (parce que vous êtes très bavarde, et tout simplement aussi parce que j'ai besoin que vous me répondiez ça...) : Il ne faut pas trop réfléchir, il faut parfois faire le grand saut sans trop se poser se poser de questions! D'accord, mais kan même!!!! Ce n'est pas rien!
Alors j'en suis venue à penser à un autre élément que l'on a tendance à oublier : le destin! Et si tout ça était déjà écrit quelque part? Alors certaines me diront (si, si, vous me direz) : mais dans ce cas, c'est trop facile! Autant ne plus rien faire puisque tout est écrit! Où est la capacité de faire changer les choses????? D'accord, d'accord! Alors il n'y a peut être pas que le destin! Mais peut être qu'il y a aussi la chance, tout simplement! Pourquoi certains couples vont vivre heureux jusqu'à la fin de leurs jours, alors que d'autres vont se séparer au bout de quelques années????
Il y tellement de questions qui se bousculent! Et comment expliquer que certains couplent pas encore mariés se séparent au bout de 5 ou 6 ans, alors qu'eux aussi parlaient mariage, pour tout de suite après trouver l'âme soeur et se marier?
Bref, ca me parait bien trop compliqué tout ça.... Ce qui est sure, c'est que ma copine a fait le grand  pas, et que je suis très contente pour elle! Maintenant je lui souhaite tout le bonheur possible avec son petit mari!

Caro

From SWEET to SOUR...

Et pourtant tout avait si bien commencé; Ah... l'idée de la surprise lui plaisait bien; Une fois les retrouvailles à la gare passées; Découvrir la voiture et l'hotel réservés; Ah...cette fois il n'y manquait rien!

Partir loin de Paris, de l'air, enfin presque...; Au moins jusqu'au Chateau de Windsor dans le Plorec; Sur Arguenon, ajouta-t-il direction St Brieuc...; Escale obligée au Mont Saint Michel; De loin la mer se faisait belle; Accompagnant galettes et larmes de cidres; Ah qu'on est bien...murmuraient-ils...

Regards complices, sourires échangés; Sur la route les uns les enviaient; Amoureux pensaient les autres, qui sait? Enfin très vite noir le soir tomba; Au chateau non sans mal on arriva; Qu'il était beau le grand lit de princesse; Et son immense miroir aussi ornant la pièce; Puis le mot délicieux s'empara de la conversation; Normal puisque dans leurs bouches tout était fait maison; Et dire qu'au matin le réveil fut tout aussi miel...

Mais que s'est -il alors passé? pour qu'en l'espace d'un rien tout se soit envolé... Dans l'escalier, elle manqua de tomber et ils en rirent; Après elle lui en a voulu qu'il la laisse conduire; c'est pour son bien qu'elle s'entraine confessa t-il! A nouveau, petit stop au port de Lancouest, la mer coquine les a eus; le vent glacial de l'Ouest, les retenant toujours un peu plus. Puis du léger retard qu'on accusa, il ne resta plus que ça:

Il reprit la route à 170km/h le coeur et les yeux de sa belle serrés, avec personne sur l'autoroute au moins ils ont tout tenté! Mais d'un mauvais oeil Paris l'autre belle les guettait...

Périphérique bouché et gestes énnervés, le silence prit le dessus; Eurostar raté, sans essence la voiture louée fut rendue; Un billet aïe....non échangeable au guichet leur dit-elle; Un nouveau billet...aïe doublement plus cher (les) acheva t-elle. Au final, un aurevoir à peine prononcé et il courut pour son train; Elle resta là bouche bée puis marcha lentement vers le sien; Dans le métro pris à la Gare du Nord bondé; Elle revivait encore et encore le weekend passé; Puis les larmes durement retenues laissèrent un gout amer ; Et même le "Vous êtes charmante" inconnu ne put rien y faire...

Que restera t-il de tout ça le lendemain au réveil...

-Sam

La Star Attitude

Hey  guys,

Guess who I met today? Well I'd rather say guess who I saw today? hummm... No it's not Angelina and Brad kissing in the supermarket in the 15th district of Paris( [sigh] I know you all wish you were working there as supermarket cashiers...).

All right for those who still haven't figured it out with the picture, it's actually the less known but yet famous singer Corneille!!!  you know... that Rwanda/Germany/Canada/French (whatever!) singer. He was just walking peacefully around Hotel de Ville&Marais and as I recognized him, he smiled to me. May I admit that for that very short moment, I kinda felt very special... Unfortunately I didn't have a camera with me to strike a pose and show it to you but as some people would say, memory is the best camera a man could ever have.

Anyways, as this fortunate "encuentra" lightened up my day, I couldn't help to think about all the stars I have met or bumped into in my life. I came up with this list:

- Singer Tina Arena: at the Galeries Lafayette, Paris. Trust me that woman is so cute but also SOOOOO short!!!

- Actress Catherine Deneuve around Denfert Rochereau, Paris. She was hiding behind huge shades and an ugly shawl, definitely not looking "still young" like what we would see on TV.

- Soul songtress/ Poem writer Alicia Keys: at her poem book signing at a Barnes & Nobles in Harlem, New York. This girl is so cool and nice. She actually hugged me and I indeed took a pic of her.

- Boxer Evander Holyfield :you know the one who lost his ear fighting with Mike Tyson. I met him on my way to Central Park, NY. He was running with a hell of a group of even more terrifying men. I mean that guy is huge...

- Star Academy winner Elodie ( the blonde one) shopping in Naf naf at Saint-Michel, Paris. It was so funny cause there, nobody even asked her for an autograph, not even the sales girls!

- Actor Kevin Kline who had just finished shooting the movie Pink Panther with Beyonce. I met him the very first day I flew to NY, right there in the Air France bus that takes us from CDG terminal to the plane. I DO have a picture of him.

- Other stars I met include: Very rude actor Alan Rickman (Harry Potter, Love Actually) in a cafe in Marais, Paris . I was there with my teammates Anne Claire and Maarten when he walked in- So that for the doubtful in you, they can actually confirm! but also actor Danny Glover (Arme Fatale) on the plane to Miami, top model Karolina Kurkova in Aer Lounge in NY and many other Cameroonian football players...

So what do you think? "Pas mal hein"? And what about you? I'm waiting for you guys to tell me!!! I'm sure that if you tell us which star/celebrity you once came accross, we'll come out with a very interesting list. But if you haven't met any, you can still let us know who you'd LOVE to bump into.

In the meantime, don't you ever forget that the real star is... YOU.

Cheers,

-Sam [BCN fan]

Hate it or Love it but...

That's it I said it!!! And even though some would reply:

* "You may be alone that day but at least you're not at church" ,

Well I still hated :

- Not being with the man I would have loved to be with (c'mon I'm not that demanding: it's Jude Law and no one else!!!)

- Being asked by a guy in the subway whether the ring he would give to her was fine...(of course it was FINE especially if it's the latest DIOR "Oui" ring !!!) :-/. I mean has that guy ever thought that maybe I was depressing or something? Picture this news headline:

"A young girl kills herself jumping on the parisian subway rail after being showed a ring by a cute guy on Valentine's day. The witnesses are still under shock and do not understand"

- Having to watch what I ate and drank cause I still hadn't recovered from a "mysterious" stomachache that started last weekend when everyone around was smiling and enjoying chocolates and champaign

- Not actually receiving any "REAL" gift. I mean, to whom it may concern: All those virtual email/ sms/gifts/e-flowers(!?!?) that are part of the supposedly cool "Let's-not-do-anything-special" program DO NOT count.

- And last but not least I hated it because ...well because... can't say it...and I guess HE knows already...

I hope you on the other hand have enjoyed it so that now you'll be able to share with us your great romantic experiences [sigh]. You can either leave a comment or hit us at parisangels_mnt@yahoo.fr

Sincerely yours,

-Sam

Pour toi Caro !

Bon, allez Caro, puisque personne ne veut réagir sur la Saint Valentin, ceci est pour toi :
http://www.toutelabeautedumonde.com/?u=286a9900-ab44-4eb4-a706-57732c74ef4d

Quel plus beau cadeau que Marc Lavoine ? :D

- Kim -

ps : special thx to R. for this idea

Dr Carter - épisode 2

Pour ceux ou celles qui auraient raté le premier épisode, il est indispensable de le lire pour bien comprendre ce qui va suivre. Vous le trouverez à l'adresse suivante : http://parisangels.typepad.com/paris_angels_/2006/01/dr_carter_.html

Le jour J arrive. Autant la dernière fois, j'y allais à reculons, autant, cette fois, on peut dire que j'y ai été en rampant, et sur le dos s'il vous plaît ! Et malgré cela, j'arrive saine et sauve à l'hôpital et à l'heure. Je monte donc dans l'ascenceur pour me rendre à l'étage des ambulatoires, les portes se ferment tout doucement, et là, hop, une main se glisse pour les retenir ! Exactement comme dans les films, ou votre sauveur empêche les portes de se fermer au dernier moment, et se glisse dans l'ascenceur avec vous (sauf que là c'était un peu facile, j'ai appuyé sur le bouton d'ouverture des portes pour l'aider). Et qui rentre dans l'ascenceur ??? Je vous le donne dans le mille !Eh oui, c'est bien lui, le fameux Dr, celui qui ne doit pas avoir les yeux en face des trous puisque deux semaines avant il m'avait confondu avec une femme enceinte de 7 mois... Mais on lui pardonnerait tout...

Ô joie, il me reconnait, et commence à demander des nouvelles, comme si on était en train de prendre un café, alors que 2h plus tard, il me manquerait 3 dents et 10L de sang... Bien entendu, tout comme la dernière fois, des milliards d'idées me sont passées par la tête : alors, sachant que je me fais opérer aujourd'hui, je n'aurai dégonflé des joues que dans une semaine, mais ca nous fait tomber sur le we où je pars à Londres, donc je pourrais éventuellement me libérer pour le voir la semaine suivante, si tant est qu'il n'est pas de garde, sinon on peut juste prendre un café... bon on va voir selon ce qu'il me propose...

L'ascenceur s'arrête brusquement, me tirant de mes pensées (note : il y a toujours un évènement des plus communs qui vous ramène à la réalité), et le jeune et charmant docteur me lance : "eh bien bon courage mademoiselle (et pas madame ;-) - note pour les réguliers du blog), surtout mettez beaucoup de glace et on se reverra sûrement quand vous serez enceinte !" Pom pom pom... Heureusement que je fais une anestéhsie générale, avec un peu de chance ca me fera tout oublier :)

-Kim-
(hamster mode)

When the table turns...

Hi there!

Just wanted to share with you a very good evidence that in Life "Nobody knows what tomorrow holds" ( as some religious people would say, I should add "Only God knows!" )

Anyways, the whole thing started when yesterday I bumped into someone I hadn't met for 6 years. We had known each other since secondary school and then we hadn't gone 'sideways' after high school. I guess at this point I need to add that it was even more surprising to meet him here in Paris as we used to be in the same school in a very remote country very far away from France. But still we managed to meet here, in a subway train in the middle of Paris. I was indeed very happy to meet him and we talked and laughed about old times at school, all the foolish things we would do and stuff.

Then we moved on and I candidly asked him to give me some news of the people we would both know and of course I later asked him what he was now doing and stuff. And there comes what follows:

First he reminded me that back then I used to be a very good student, you know, always at the head of the class, whereas he was a little bit above the average student. [Why did he have to tell me that???? ] Then he proudly added that after high school just about when we had lost contact with each other, he also came to France. Here he studied finance and management at university where after 3 years he was accepted at one of the top 3 nationwide business schools in Paris, France and has now been offered a job in NY,USA as an IB*!!!

First I was stuck, shocked, blocked, couldn't say anything as the words were still reaching my mind. Indeed in less than 4 minutes he had basically told me that although I used to have better marks and ranks than him in high school (does it really matter?) he had managed to get that job of my dreams(well I haven't told him that of course). Needless to mention that as of today not only am I still desperately hunting after the same kind of job but I believe that I could hardly find any better.

Therefore, as I was reviving the past 5 years of my existence and what I'd done so far - prepa, school, one year internship in NY, back to school, now job hunt- I could really see behind his mischievious eyes a defying question in his mind he was burning to ask me "Can you do better than this now?"  When I saw his mouth opening and his lips pronouncing the irreversible "And you?", as a common human being, the panic and jealousy suddenly invaded me. What could I answer back? I was sweating, firing hot, why? I don't know, but I just couldn't help avoiding the answer as I said:

"Wow I am very happy for you, I was in NY myself last year, I'm sure you'll love it!!"

And there I started telling him about how great NY was. Trust me I was and still am actually happy for him but there was still that voice in my mind whispering "Who would have thought? Why him? Why not you? Has he really done better than you? Why is it bothering you that much?" And right there when the train stopped, I rushed out of the door after we exchanged email addresses. As I walked away, a song by Tracy Chapman was resounding bitterly in my head "Suddenly the tables, have started to turn..."

Later, I couldn't help to wonder whether it was a sign or whether the series of unfortunate events I had lately been trough (too long to tell) was only the beginning of a longer bad karma period. I sighed heavily and hoped for better days. After all, who knows what God has in store for me....?  Nobody...not even you, not even him, not even me...Yeah nobody knows...

Sorry for the long note but I had to exhale. Feelin so much better now...lol

Yours sincerely,

-Sam

ps: I obviously had to alterate some elements of the story, I am sure some experts and acquaintance will be able to find out though...