And now a word from my dear friend Jones, who is spending time in a southern French ville for several months with her dear bonny boys so that they become even more fluent in French than they already are. I visited her in October, and didn’t we have fun??!! We did, and we also got a chance to talk about so many things, including growing older with all its little surprises, as well as dealing with irritations such as the gaseous burbles of impatience and self-righteousness… In a recent email she says:
“I write this because I want to remember it! One – two – of my failings being impatience and a sharp tongue..this morning I was in the supermarket, not really in a hurry but going through the line often seems to generate a sense of self-importance as in, “I have better things to do!” …the person in front seemed to be taking her sweet time and the cashier did not present a very appealing picture: appeared sullen, no smiles, and with her triple chin, severe hair style and hairy upper lip, not quite the picture of a model “hotesse de caisse”.
When (at last!) it was my turn, she oddly began rifling through papers in the trash can, quite persistently until she found a slip of paper which she then began carefully to unfold and unwrinkle. All without saying a word. And LUCKILY I kept my mouth shut and didn’t voice my thoughts which were, roughly “what the f+** are you doing now?!” or more accurately, “Que fichez-vous maintenant?!” LUCKILY BECAUSE…she had dug up a 5 euro coupon for me and used it to reduce my bill! “We’ll just see if it goes through,” she murmured conspiratorily…
ps i have a hairy upper lip too!”
The Total Femme 