Hello, Graduation Present.

Last night, while avoiding homework and staying up way too late, I stumbled upon something truly, amazingly cool. Before you get too excited, I must say that this it is also truly, amazingly nerdy of me to be so happy about this. A little background...

Living in Paris, I use public transit and/or walk to get around. Having a car here would be pointless. But I digress. This being the case, I walk about a quarter mile to and from the grocery store. Having long since discovered that plastic bags are are useless as they are un-eco-friendly, I generally use a messenger bag and/or a reusable bag I picked up from Forever 21 (the only other thing, aside from headbands, that I condone getting there). 

When I stumbled upon the Trolley Dolly at zpm.com, I knew I had to have one. Just look at that thing! It attaches to your shopping cart via velcro, has a plastic pocket for easy shopping list viewing, and comes with sturdy polyester bags that are color coded, making for easy in-store separating of goods, and therefore easy in-home unloading!

It also comes in a variety of colors, and a messenger bag style, in case you want to send the guy out and he's embarrassed to be seen with the thing. 

Of course, this is not practical for me now. Like many "French" people, I go to the grocery store nearly every day, to buy goods fresh but also so I don't have to lug lots of stuff home. (Sidenote: more than two bags or so probably would make for a very uncomfortable ride in my truly tiny elevator).  These things are kinda pricey, £29.95, but I think I can definitely justify that in the long run in terms of convenience and the frequency of use. So mom, dad, or boyfriend, if you are reading this, DEF need one of these for (insertholidayhere). P.S. I like the messenger bag one.

What do you guys think? 

Keeping up with the Blogses.

I really admire people who can keep up with their blogs. I don't know how they find the time! Maybe I'll have a bit more once I am done with school and the summer job/possible career sets in. Maybe less. 

For the moment I'm:

• Finishing up an original feature length screenplay
• Working on two teleplays (one of which I'm collaborating with a classmate on)
• Finishing up my senior thesis for Global Communications 
• Doing final projects/papers for various other classes
• Working on a website about German Expressionist film to fulfill my IT requirement
• Trying to figure out how I'm going to pack up my life to ship back Stateside 
• Trying to fit some fun in there, somewhere, so I don't go legitimately crazy

On the last point, this past Saturday was my school's infamous "World's Fair" -- it's a party that starts at 1pm on campus. Called the World's Fair because Americans are a large minority at my school -- making up about 35%. Other than that, there are students that represent over seventy nationalities. So, in one of the campus buildings, students set up tables that represent their home countries, make ethnic foods, and generally dance and have a good time while learning about different cultures. Which is, in a word, awesome. I didn't make it to the on-campus part, but my flatmate Ted dragged me out to the Champs de Mars for the afterparty. Yeah, this is how we do it.

This picture is a bit misleading. It was quite sunny for the most part! 

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Entertaining Idea: Whose Line? Party

My favs are definitely Colin and Ryan.

If you're anything like me (and I know, you're hoping you're not) you like entertaining. Not in the stand up and do a song and dance sort of way (well, maybe that too), but more in the, invite people over, have a few cocktails, some good conversation, maybe play a few games. In this spirit, I've decided that hosting a Whose Line Is It Anyway? party would be great fun. Here are a few suggestions. 

1. Buy a DVD.

Unfortunately, not everyone attending your fiesta will be familiar with the amazing improv show that is Whose Line. To start off, while people are arriving, put in a DVD and watch a few episodes to get people accustomed to this particular brand of humor. 

2. Plan games in advance.

For this, I advocate blatant plagiarism. Watch the show, steal the game ideas, and maybe even topics. Examples:

Scenes from a Hat: In addition to having a hat and plenty of pieces of paper available for your guests to suggest funny scenes to act out, the Whose Line audience has come up with some great ones in the past. Here's some I picked up: 

- If actors were completely honest during their award acceptance speeches.

- Circus acts that didn't last long.

- Odd things for a lounge singer to sing about. 

- Unusual things for a neighbor to ask to borrow. 

- If you used stripper moves to perform mundane tasks. 

- Strange television shows for Mr. Rogers to make a guest appearance on. 

Props: hat, scraps of paper, pens 

Party Quirks: For this one, you give some (maybe three or four) guests sealed envelopes, and another guest is the "host" of the party. In the envelopes are characters that the guests must act out, and the host tries to discover their "identities." Here are some identities that performers on the show have acted out: 

- Family coming to blows on the Jerry Springer Show. 

- Synchronized swimming teammate of the others (he mimics their moves while "swimming"...absolutely hilarious). 

- Series of animals spotting and charging at cameras (or other objects in the room). 

- Gangster being riddled with bullets. 

- Bloodhound trained to sniff out complete idiots. 

- Various celebrities slowly getting steamrolled. 

- Suspects that people are not the sex they claim to be and is trying to find out for sure.

- Hunky model in a photo shoot for the covers of romance novels.

Props: Envelopes with some characteristics in them. 

Two Line Vocabulary: Three guests act out a scene. Two of the guests are limited to using only two (specific) lines each. For example: 

Guest One: "Is it always that big?" and "I don't think that's a good idea."

Guest Two: "Run that by me again." and "Who needs this." 

The guest who can say anything they want is performing a life or death operation on a mob boss. Guest One is the anesthesiologist, and Guest Two is the assisting nurse.

Props: Lines for performers to say, scenes to act out.  

Let's Make a Date: One guest is the contestant on a dating show. The other three guests are the possible dates who are given odd personalities or characters via envelopes. Following two rounds of questioning, the "contestant" must guess who the others are. (This is similar to Party Quirks). Possible guest characters/quirks include: 

- Roommates from "The Real World."

- Soap opera doctor desperate not to lose another patient. 

- Nervous old woman accidentally boarding a roller coaster.  

- Thinks contestant is absolutely repulsive. 

- Astronaut with alien inside him. 

- In a medieval dungeon being tortured for information. 

- Vulture looking for the ultimate feast. 

- Violently jealous woman who keeps catching people making eyes at her boyfriend, the guest next to her. 

- The severed head of an evil genius kept alive in a lab launching his plans for world domination.

- Castaway who washes up at the party and must use whatever he finds to survive. 

Props: Envelopes with some characteristics in them. 

Those are just some of my favorites, but there are plenty more! You can just google the games and see some. If you have some friends that are good singers, some of the games like Hoedown might be fun. 

Also, a lot of the games hinge on the audience knowing the guests' quirks or characters, but one or more of the performers being unaware. This can be achieved by making a powerpoint presentation that details the contents of the envelopes given to the performers, and making the computer screen visible to the audience but not those acting out the scene. 

3. Add refreshments.

Finally, you may want to think about a truly wonderful relationship: that of comedy and cocktails. Here's a cocktail that I often have at parties as my "signature" drink that people usually rave about: The Bellini. 

Ingredients:

• 2 oz peach nectar
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 oz peach schnapps
• 3 oz chilled, dry champagne

Mix the peach nectar, lemon juice, and schnapps in a chilled glass. Stir, and add champagne (serves 2). 

Usually I mix it up a bit, and instead of doing the peach nectar I add apricot juice. I call this variation a "Jillini." Ah, I'm so clever. Don't forget to add some finger foods to the mix!

One last tip: have a video camera handy. This would be great to capture and use as blackmail. Hope you like, let me know...I've got some more party ideas to post!

Let's talk about flatmates.

"My roommate says, I'm going to take a shower and shave, does anyone need to use the bathroom? It's like some weird quiz where he reveals the answer first." 

- Mitch Hedberg (Gotta love him). 

I have lived in the same flat in Paris for four years. It's big, close to school, and has a view of the Eiffel Tower from both my bedroom and living room windows. It's a boring area, mostly filled with rich old people, but the owners of the café downstairs know me and bring me my near-daily café crème before I even order. But that's not what this post is about. 

In the last four years, I've had twelve flatmates. Yes, twelve. My landlords often rent it out to visiting students who stay for a semester and then leave. There have been Americans, Frenchies, a Norwegian, Egyptian, Brit...the list goes on. 

In my final semester here, I am, for the first time ever, living with boys. Malcolm and Ted are both (essentially) from England. And they're younger than me. At first, I didn't notice any big changes from living with girls. But I've come up with a few. 

When I was living with girls, I never...

1. Went into the kitchen to find them doing a push-up contest because they were "bored."
2. Went into the kitchen to find my flatmate and his date eating dinner. 
3. Walked in on my flatmate topless. 
4. Had a topless flatmate wander around the flat. 
5. Heard stories from classmates about my flatmate getting into a fist fight at the party last weekend.
6. Consistently had beer in the house. 
7. Thought twice before playing "It's Raining Men" while getting ready to go out.

As you will see, none of these are generally negative. One thing about this, too, is I don't get woken up in the middle of the night to hear about my flatmate's boy troubles. For the past few months, I've slept like a baby.

Before I go grab a beer...here's some pics of the place. (Pic up top is the view from my living room window).

Work is either fun or drudgery.

It depends on your attitude. I like fun. (Courtesy of Colleen C. Barrett). 

As mentioned in my previous post, I spent two summers and a winter holiday working in the Cosmetics Department of a department store. The first summer, I perhaps took my orientation training a bit too seriously. I didn't converse with a lot of my colleagues and didn't get to know them very well. This made work the very definition of drudgery. 

I came back the next summer and changed that. I started building relationships with the people I worked with, and my morale improved exponentially. I'm convinced they are some of the coolest people I have met and ever will meet. Work became fun. 

Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that you ignore your duties and make work a party (though we did occasionally break out into song/dance in the middle of the day). But sometimes, it's a good idea to share a few laughs to break up the monotony. A fun way to do this is to share some inside jokes, or maybe watch videos on YouTube, force others to watch them, and quote them incessantly. We call this "homework." As in, "Here's the url, don't forget to watch your homework tonight and come to work tomorrow prepared to talk about/quote it."

Though I did this with many of my colleagues, Chanel James* and I had entire conversations made up of inside jokes and random quotes, probably to the great annoyance of others around us (sorry Ashley). 

Here's to you, James: HEPL M! Cheerleader, Whatsherface, Soandso, The Ugly One! That was different.

Left to right: Mandi, Viva, Pam, (Chanel) James

Ashley, Liz 

Second pic stolen from Liz! Sorry, it's a good one!

Aren't inside jokes fab? (Said in a Sarah Palin voice...that one's for you, Mandi). 

You guys have any good ones? Work stories? Jokes? 

*Use of prefix for Chanel James is to avoid confusion with my boyfriend, also named James. 

Hi, I'm Jillian, and I'm a makeup-aholic.

I suppose my cosmetics addiction can be traced back to when I started working at a higher-end department store in the Cosmetics department. Suddenly I was required to learn about application and technique and the various benefits of various products. I started wearing more than mineral powder and mascara and lipgloss. I started buying things. And then, I suppose, it all just got out of hand. 

This is my makeup case. It's fairly new, my boyfriend got it for me for Christmas when I was complaining about how my old one no longer accommodated the mass quantities of makeup I possess. He's so thoughtful that way.

As you can see, I own a lot of stuff. Probably in the vicinity of fifty eyeshadows, twenty lipsticks, countless lipglosses, eye and face primers, tinted moisturizers, mineral powders, foundations...the list goes on. However, believe it or not, none of this is superfluous. I actually use virtually everything in my case. Another hard-to-believe fact -- there is actually method to the madness in the organization of that thing.

And what good are cosmetics if you don't have solid skincare? 

My bathroom counter. My flatmate's (Ted's) counter has exactly one face wash, and I'm actually quite surprised he even has that. 

In the morning, I usually use a mild exfoliating wash followed by Laura Mercier's Purifying Water (Light), then LM Flawless Face moisturizer ($$, but amazing). At night, it gets a bit more complicated. Purity face wash by Philosophy (works as a makeup remover and toner too!), the LM Purifying water, Philosophy 3-6-9 oil, Lancome nighttime moisturizer, and a Lancome eye and lip cream (it's preventative!). It takes awhile, but gets pretty awesome results (the oil is something I especially recommend for people with dry skin like me). 

I'm not quite sure what step this is in the 12-step makeup-aholic process, but confession sure does feel good. How 'bout you guys? What do your makeup cases look like? Have any weird addictions like mine? 

À bientôt!

You Know You're a Military Brat If...

As being an American citizen born abroad often implies, I'm a military brat. My dad was a helicopter pilot (Vietnam Vet) in the Army and Air Force, and my mom was an Air Force recruiter. My maternal grandfather was a Marine and in the CIA. I grew up singing "The Marine Core Hymn", and one of my dad's favorites that goes something like, "Oh I wouldn't give a bean to be a fancy pants Marine..." And, being a soon-to-be college graduate, I am terrified about finding a job once I am Stateside (this economy!). How do these things relate? Coming where I come from, for better or worse... joining the military has always been in the back of my mind.

This pic is my dad when he was my age (20) in 1970.

I'm not too sure how serious I am about this notion. But, for the sake of argument, I've decided to make a pro/con list. This is something I do quite often, and a few more will inevitably pop up in the future. And away we go...

Pros

• Instant job, guarantee of that job, and paychecks
• Interesting career paths -- possibility of being a linguist (I am confident I would score high on the ASVAB and other aptitude tests that would make this feasible) 
• Subsidized higher education (BIG pro)
• With a college degree, I'd automatically be an officer

Cons

• To put it simply, boot camp. No, I'm not worried I won't survive it. My concerns are of an entirely different nature. Not to sound overly prissy or incredibly high-maintenance, but how would I live without my five different skincare treatments? Mascara? (Tales of my makeup addiction to come).
• Haven't I moved around enough recently?
• In a word, Texas.
• Maybe not productive in terms of my future career path? 

I'm sure there are many things to add to both lists, but I can't think of them right now. Something else I can't account for is how my parents will feel about this. Proud? They have a crazy daughter? A little sad? We'll see if it ever comes to that.

Cheers everyone!

The Story of my Life (Abridged)

This is not my first attempt at blogging. It will probably not be my last, though I do hope that I continue with this one more vigorously than the others. For those playing catch up, let us do a Brief History of Jillian's Time. 

I was born in Japan, where I spent the first two years of my life. I only know one phrase in Japanese, roughly translated as "hold on a minute, please." From there I moved to Papillion, Nebraska where I spent the next fourteen years and met some of the key cast members of my life, who will probably pop up in anecdotes now and then. I discovered my passion for film in high school, where I produced three projects I am particularly fond of, titled A Knight at the Roxbury, Dying to be on TV, and Summer 2005: The Movie. Despite this, I applied for spots at many universities intending to obtain a degree in International Relations. However, on a whim I decided that I would rather study film, and at age sixteen moved to Paris to do so. I am near the end of my four-year career here, and at the end will hold B.A.s in Film Studies and Global Communications. 

And you're up to speed. 

My current endeavors are: surviving until graduation, finishing scripts for two pilot episodes of television shows and a feature-length film, and contemplating how I am going to pack four years of my life into four suitcases in preparation for my imminent move back to the States. 

One of my favorite things to do, though, is to furnish the apartment I don't yet have. Of course, I have an apartment in Paris. But I rent it furnished, and see no reason to buy things that I will either have to throw out, lug home, or leave for the next tenant. (Exceptions: tupperware, muffin pan, the requisite cocktail shaker). So when I was home for spring break, I couldn't help it, and did a little shopping. My favorite purchase is undoubtedly two square dinnerware sets (making service for eight) that include dinner and salad plates, bowls, and mugs (the last of which I'm not too excited about...square mugs for square mouths?). I suppose this has to do with my intense appreciation for the aesthetic in everyday life, which is partially French-inspired. Just check that that out.

Honestly, isn't the presentation helped by the square-ness of the plate? I think so. 

My second favorite purchase is undoubtedly the "Couture" pictures that picked up from Z Gallerie. I bought three, and this one is definitely the most "edgy." I'm thinking of putting them along the wall in the entryway, putting coat hooks between them. 

I suppose that's all for now...je vous souhaite une très bonne journée! 

À plus,

Jillian