London

Friends! We are only NINE days away from our vows! In honor of that, I thought I would share more details from when W and I first met. If you'll remember last time, I promised that I would share the details after he left Munich. 

Looking back on how I met W, my actions were very un-me. From going out all night dancing with these strangers (stranger danger!), to giving him my contact information, to meeting up with him again the next day, it was all very different behavior for me. So with these strange behaviors, it should come as no surprise that when we said our goodbyes in Munich, I invited W to meet me for my overnight layover in London a few days later. And the next day I had an email from him saying he'd meet me in London! 

When we met up at Heathrow, we hailed a cab to my hotel, and it was at the hotel that W surprised me with two bottles of wine. It was very sweet, and very indicative of who he is, and we stayed up all night drinking wine. 

Our London trip was very short, and once again, I thought I would never hear from him again. But, once again, I was wrong. I had an email from him when I touched down, and that exchange never stopped. 

Two months after London and hundreds of emails, texts and IMs later, W flew to Boston for one week, and that week sealed our future. After that week I realized that all those un-me things from Munich were because he was special, and because he brought out new things in me. 

So while our time in London was very brief, it does hold a special place in our hearts. We took a chance in London and took the next step in our lives.   

  

Thirty-Three

As I write this post we're a short 33 days away from getting married. 

WHAT?! When did that happen? Didn't we *just* get engaged? 

The answers are yes, in the blink of an eye, and yes - 3 months ago. 

The truth is that I couldn't be happier or more excited for what happens in 33 days. We met just over one year ago. We've had the craziest, fastest, whirlwind adventure since then. The journey we're going on now - planning a wedding in a few months - is crazy, fast-paced and whirlwind, hence the blink-of-an-eye timing. 

The reality is that even though it's only been one year that we've known each other, it feels like it's been forever. As I've been writing my vows, the one thing I can't shake is that I feel as if my life started the night we met in Munich. Yes, it's only been one year, but there were 33 years before that led me to this moment in time. 

It took 33 years to find my partner, and in 33 days I'm going to marry that man. We are partly stressed (planning a wedding around the world when you're half a world apart is hard!) but mainly eager - we are both ready to begin our lives together. This morning I received a letter from my stressed beloved, and it started like this: 

"I love you more than everything! You are the best wife-to-be and I am so happy to become your husband in 33 days. Je t'aime comme un fou (I love you crazily.)" 

When I wake up to notes like this, it's hard not to be excited for what lies ahead. And thankfully I only have 33 days left to find out. 

Captured by Kristen of The Boston Fashionista at the wedding of our beautiful friend Marissa

Finding Mr. Right Where You Least Expect it

In my last post I talked about my trip last year where I met W, aka soon-to-be Mr. Muses. Since this is a trip down memory lane, forgive the long post. A girlfriend and I opted for a girl's week in Paris, but since it was also Oktoberfest, I thought a second week in Germany would suit me well. My friend opted not to go to Munich, so it was just me. Alone. In a country whose language I don't speak one word of. Talk about getting out of your comfort zone! 

So, one week after arriving in Paris, I took the metro to Munich. On the train, as I was studying my German phrase book, a nice German couple struck up a conversation. That couple's kindness proved that I was going to be ok in Germany traveling alone. 

Sunday morning I headed to the science museum. On the train, I noticed all these Germans dressed in their traditional Oktoberfest garb. I thought it would be a good idea to take a quick detour and see where the Oktoberfest tents were, so I jumped off the train and followed everyone out. What awaited me up the stairs  was beyond my comprehension. 

I'll skip the boring details of what happened over the next few hours, and show you in pictures instead. Suffice to say, I ate and drank my way through Oktoberfest and never made it to the museum. 

The halls of Hacker-Pschorr, one of two of my fave beers. 

Sunny and bright, how can you resist?

The halls were packed at 11 am. 

Late into the night - well into too many pints

Too many pints, but still standing and still going strong

So here's where meeting Mr. Right comes in. When Oktoberfest shut down, the two German women I had spent the day with invited me to this "club" they had been at the night before where they met these two Frenchmen. Having nothing better to do, I joined them. And that's where I met him. We spent the next 6 hours chatting and dancing at a club, exchanged emails and promised to see each other the next day. The next day we met up, at the science museum (side note, it's not the spectactular - skip it if you're in Munich), and awkwardly spent what we refer to now as our first official date. That evening he hopped a plane back to Paris and I thought I'd never hear from him again. How wrong I was! But I'll save those details for another time. 

For now, I'll leave you with the first picture of us from the night we met in Munich. 

    

Notice the flower he gave me? So romantic, even having just met. 

Numbers

Holy wow, it's been so long since my last blog post!! It's not to say I missed blogging, because I did. I've had so much to say, and so much change has taken place since the last blog post. I have been writing this "welcome back" post in my head for MONTHS! I wanted to think about not just what I wanted to say, but how I want to say things. Since it's been so long, I thought it might be easier to look at the changes that have taken place by looking at numbers. Don't worry, no complicated math here. Read on for more. 

18 - the number of months since my last blog post (yikes!) 

5 - the number of years I devoted to a relationship that ultimately failed (after one brief attempt at reconciliation) 

2 - the number of weeks I spent on my first trip to Europe last year "to find myself" aver the failed relationship

2 - the countries I visited - France and Germany

1 - the incredible man I met in Germany (who's French)

 

34,460 - the number of miles we've traveled from Boston to Paris since December to see each other 

3 - the number of times I've been to Paris since my first trip last fall

1 - engagement

1 - upcoming wedding in Paris

1 - one half marathon run this year, and the next one being run on 10/13

7 - months I've been taking French lessons (and I'm barely speaking)

In my upcoming posts, I'll share more details about these past 18 months, and focus on the exciting adventures ahead. It's been one hell of a bumpy ride, but I've emerged happier, healthier, and far more excited about the future. 

So on that note, I'll leave you with a picture from my first trip to Paris last year - the trip that changed everything for me. 

 

Politics Goes Hip Hop

Remember when I confessed that I was hunting for a new adventure? Well, since then I've taken up leçons des français again, and I've taken up to reading all things about moving to France and what to expect as an expat. It's this research that led me to Americans in France, a great site that keeps me informed on happenings in France. And it's this site that showed me just how cool politics can be in a foreign country. 

This video posted last week, covered by The Local. It's a new campaign video showing Socialist candidate Francois Hollande hanging with youths in the French banlieues. That's nothing awesome, but check out the soundtrack to the campaign video.

One word - AMAZING. Can you imagine if our politicians would embrace this tactic?

Happy Spring – Let’s Celebrate with an ellasport Giveaway

Now that it’s officially spring I just have to ask: where did winter go? Not that I’m complaining because last year’s winter was a doozy good enough for the next few winters. Still… I am a little sad that I didn’t go snowboarding once, but there was no motivation to hit the slopes when every weekend was sunny and balmy (by Boston standards.)

So instead of snowboarding I’ve been hitting the pavement and the bar. And as I’ve been splitting my time between running and Bar Method (admit it, you thought it was the “other” bar, didn’t you?), I’ve been slowly building up my workout attire. It’s amazing. I have a closet overflowing with clothes, but owned only a few pieces of workout gear. As such, the fabulous ladies at ellasport agreed to let me try a pair of their Power Capris.  Ellasport was started by Pam Oelerich in 2006 because she wanted to make clothing that fit athletic women, and that is something I can fully throw my support behind (hello sprinter thighs!).

My initial thought when I opened the package was “holy hell those are small!” but, I figured I should at least try them on and I am so glad I did! These capris were perfect! The fit is compressed but not to the point where they dig into my skin. And they’re just so cute! I am not a fan of prints (I like my solids, thankyouverymuch!) but this has a cute design going down one of the legs that I really like as it gives it some flare (and I don’t look like every other person wearing lulu.) They also come with a zippered pocket in the back, which I used for my St. Patty’s day road race this past weekend, and it didn’t feel like I had anything in them. But what’s probably the most important thing is how they fit. I have a pair of Nike capris that are very similar but ride up in less than pleasurable areas, and it makes me not only physically uncomfortable but it makes me uncomfortably self conscious. That is NOT good when you’ve got to run 5 miles or plié at the barre, but I’ve never experienced that with my ellasport power capris.  And if I’m honest, they make my derriere look really good.  Needless to say, I’m a huge fan, and to prove it, here's a photo of me doing foldover at a recent bar class:

And now the BEST news: ellasport is giving YOU the chance to win a pair of their power capris! Want to win yourself a pair? Here’s how:

Twitter: Follow @ellasport on Twitter and leave a comment here letting me know you did

Facebook: Like ellasport on Facebook and leave me a comment here letting me know you did

BONUS entry:  I’ll give you a bonus entry each day you tweet the following: I want to win @ellasport workout gear #giveaway via @Michele_Moore http://bit.ly/GElHIZ

Contest runs for exactly one week, ending at 11:59 pm ET on Tuesday, March 27 and I'll announce the winner next Wednesday.  Good luck!!

Sh*t Fashion Girls Say... at NYFW

Happy Friday mes amis! I hope every one is gearing up for a great weekend. Now that NYFW is behind us, I've had a chance to digest the hundreds of posts from attendees on what's going to be hot this fall. While I loved looking at everyone's photos and perusing your thoughts, my favorite post was from The Trendy Dwarf, who shares his experience about the Transexual Jesus. I highly recommend reading the post - it's funny, and the video is totes amaze I imagine this is sort of how NYFW goes for some goers.

Enjoy your weekend!

Bises!