webrings

Ok, so random thought today. Shortly after I woke up this morning, and planning out my day and writing and all of that, I thought about webrings. Maybe because I was thinking about websites after a discussion with my sister yesterday.

Do you remember those?

I assume they're still around, but maybe it's because I can't remember the last time I came across one. The idea was a good one, and also very time consuming. Back in the mid-90s, when dial-up was still the new thing and was all the rage and I looked through all these sites through my Netscape, I used to spend so much time online! Granted, I still do, but in other aspects. Now it's checking emails, checking the social networking sites (playing Scrabble on Facebook), but then it was just...browsing.

I even once wondered what I used to do with all that time online. In junior high, it's not like there are a whole lot of options you can do in the evenings, or staying up late night, especially once the homework was finished (of course the homework would always be finished first). And sometimes it was just clicking through the webrings or even looking at a directory and seeing which ones sounded interesting.

Hmmm...the internet was a different place then. Although, you know what? I kind of like it now. If anything, it helps me boost my scrabble score when it comes to playing in real life.

You know what they say: Practice makes perfect!

paris

I started taking French freshman year of high school, and I fell absolutely and completely head over heels in love with the language, with the culture...the history...practically everything. I couldn't wait to go to France, particularly Paris, and experience all of that first hand.

Well...about 12 years later...I finally went.

And it was worth it. Yes, it was worth the wait, in a way. Then also when I was down walking along the Seine, I just thought that within the last few years, I could have managed another trip or two to Paris and already been here a few times. But that's pretty much besides the point. The point is that I loved Paris and I'm already trying to figure out when would be a good time to go back.

I wrote down some thoughts and what I did each day of the four days that I was there, and I'll come back and write those out a little more fully. Because you can't devote only a few sentences or even a paragraph to Versailles or to the Seine or to the little side streets and cafes with some of the most incredible coffee I've ever had.

I just can't believe it took me so long to get there. And yes, it was everything I had hoped it would be, and then some. Four days was a great introduction to Paris, but now it will be time to go back and go beyond that brief introduction to learn more about its history, and the way that some of the stairs sagged at the sides from centuries of use, and to sit outside the cafes with my latte and watch Paris life unfold.

"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."

-Ernest Hemingway