Confessions of a Brat- Paris Edition

Yesterday was Valentines Day,

and I was in Paris, France
with my dear love.

Everything about that sentence is perfect.

I have always loved Valentines Day.

Even though I never spent it with a boy

{until the first year I was married},

I've always reveled in the idea of one day

being all about love.

My parents always pampered us

with a card, some candy

& my mom's yearly dinner

of heart shaped meatloaf.

After I returned from teaching my off-site class

with an armful of flowers & a enormous macaron cake....

{Editor's Note: If you ever teach in Paris, assign your students

to take you on a "date" around Paris on Valentines Day.

Maybe one of my finest moments in lesson planning.}

Tyler had arrived from a quick trip to London

and was waiting for me to start our day together.

He wanted to take me back to Guerlain

and pick out a perfume for myself.

How sweet,

but unfortunately, it was late & the store was closed.

Optimistically and feeling all lovey dovey,
we opted to head towards the Opera

and visit Galleries Lafayette instead.

In case you haven't heard of Galeries Lafayette,
just image Harrods gone French.

It's gorgeous, massive and the ceiling looks like this...

We happily strolled through the main floor
and upon visiting the Guerlain display,
were disappointed to not find the perfume
we had originally fell in love with a few weeks back.

We can find something else,
we said in agreement
and continued on through the store.

As I found replacement treasure
after replacement treasure,
Tyler repeatedly shook his head no....

I was picking things that he thought were too expensive,

and I was getting frustrated with the guidelines of

"Pick whatever you want..." except for anything that I actually picked.

Our carefree attitudes soon melted away
and all that was left an annoyed brat
weaving through displays and plush designer displays
and her dismayed husband trailed behind.

image

We didn't end up getting anything.

We headed straight on to dinner
via of the metro in silence
feeling completely annoyed at the other.

{Why is he so cheap?}

{Why can't she be thankful for a gift?}

We both eventually got over it
with a distraction of amazing food
& fun night talking to just each other.

The gift expedition was a fail...
and as I thought about it today,
I realized how ridiculous it was
for me to get so annoyed.

For goodness sake,
I used to get giddy over this holiday
because of grocery-store confetti and
heart-shaped meatloaf with ketchup arrows drawn on them...

How could I not have a good attitude now?

I guess when so many things are going well,
it's easy to start picking at some of the smaller things...
which as luxurious as it may sound, isn't something I strive for.

Yes, I think I've adjusted my attitude back to "non-crazy,"
but I don't think any of these items I found last night
are out of the question for being completely awesome.

Maybe if I can't call them my own,
we can at least enjoy them here on my blog.