#3 -- Visit a real Boulangerie

So, first I must apologize for probable mistakes in capitalization for the next few...well, for a long time more than likely. I do most of my blogging from my new laptop. Because it's new, all of my kids like to play with it; including my one year old. Unfortunately, the only thing that she really does with it is rip the keys off of the keyboard. Her little fingers fit just perfectly between the adjacent edges of each of the keys, and POP! off they come. Currently, her record for getting keys off of the board before her mother notices her doing it is five. Anyhow, as luck would have it her enjoyment has cost me my shift keys. Yes, both of them. None of the others have broken yet; just those two. Ah, the life of a parent.

Now, on to the goodies. Back in high school, I had a few teachers that really impacted me in a positive way. One of these few was Mrs. Boulanger. For all you non-frenchies out there that's "boo-lawn-zjay". She was my Sophomore English teacher, and was probably the best English teacher that I ever had. I remember that she used to use some of the most interesting ways of getting us to learn. Most of them included group acitivities and tended to not focus so much on individual reports and such. Our big project that year was to put on a play of Julius Caesar. Everyone in the class had lots of fun, and really learned a lot, I think, about the play itself as we did everything. My most memorable moment of the play was the truly horrifying moment when, while we were watching the recorded version of our play (post-processed and edited by one of the kids in the class), it came to the time of Caesar's death, and I--playing one of the death dealers--grabbed my cardboard sword and plunged it into Caesar while my tongue waggled from an open mouth. In fact, it was much worse than that, because as part of the editing, that classmate of mine ran a slow-motion triple-plus repetition of that tongue waggling event. But we all had a good laugh. Probably the thing I remember most about Mrs. Boulanger was her tact and simple encouragement for me when, after stuggling to write the first lines of a poem (as an assignment) I came up with a Haiku about zits. Despite the stupidity of the topic I had chosen, she helped me along and gently pointed me in the right direction. And despite this, the school board tried to fire her that year for not following cirriculum. Shame on them.

I've thought about her and the help she has given me a number of times since leaving her class. Most of them have come while I was writing something and having a dfficult go of it; not sure where to go or not confident in how things were coming out. So, when I finally decided to go into the new local Boulangerie, I couldn't help but think about her again. I've been wanting to for some time, had heard about it from a few friends of mine, and only today decided to make a visit. I had my two oldest with me, so it wasn't exactly what I'd call a relaxing visit, but I do have to say that I was incredibly impressed with it. Loaves and baguettes of bread lined one wall. Glass display cases were filled with croissants and pastries, cheesecake and other delicasies. I only ended up buying an "apple croissant" and a "pain du chocolate" (chocolate croissant-looking thing), that both tasted great. And the people behind the counters even looked/talked like they were French. It's legit. With the plethora of businesses that pop up and fizzle out in our city, I really hope that this one is able to keep its head above water and will stick around for a while. Not only will it allow me the chance to endulge in some fine French pastry every once in a while, but it'll also help me to remember more often that one English teacher of mine that made such a significant impact on me. Granted, I'll never forget her, but it sure is nice to be reminded occasionally that there are people like her out there ready to help, ready to teach, ready to share. I can only hope that when my kids get into high school, that they can have someone as good as Mrs. Boulanger be there to help them along the way.