I'm back!

Well, I must apologize for the absence of the past week. There are a few reasons for it:

First, we went to Strasbourg, France for several days and had no internet.

Second, while in Strasbourg, I got sick again.

Third, we were in the midst of yet another trip-related meltdown.

Let me say right off the bat that Strasbourg is beautiful. It is a small-ish, kind of sleepy town with a river running through it. It is a bit like a mini-mini Paris with quite a bit of Tudor thrown in. As you can see from these photos, these buildings would not be remotely out-of-place in Stratford-upon-Avon in England.

The people in Strasbourg are also very nice, and genuinely happy to try out their English on you.

Part of the problem when we were there was that it was in the 90's and very humid, which made walking around town more laborious than it otherwise would have been.

I am not sure if it was the heat combined with not drinking enough water, or if I ate something that, due to heat and dubious French refrigeration, was not in the bacteriological state it should have been, but either way, I got sick.

I woke up Thursday morning with a very upset stomach and it just went downhill from there. Now I don't want to disgust you with too many details, but let me just share that I have not thrown up in 24 years. That's right. I just don't do it. Ever.

The last time I threw up was when I was 14 and I was about to start my first rehearsal for A Midsummer Night's Dream. That weekend, I had babysat for three young children, and during the course of the evening, the kids decided that it would be fun to put one of their wastebaskets on my head. I immediately removed it only to have them inform me that the girl had just the day before been sick in it. I earned my $10 that night, I can tell you.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a major fear of vomit. It had actually grown into quite a big phobia over the years, to the point that I actually went for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to see if I could get over it.

This was in Charlotte, NC, and the therapist, in addition to doing some odd thing with vibrating orbs in my hands (maybe she confused therapy with massage therapy), told me to rent all the movies I could think of that had scenes with vomit in them and watch those moments over and over until I was no longer upset by them.

This therapy didn't really cure my phobia, to be honest. I am, however, very familiar with The Exorcist now.

Anyway, long story short, after 24 years, I got sick again, and I did actually think as it was happening "You know, this really isn't so terrible, why have I been so frightened of it all these years?"

So maybe there will be a positive long-term outcome of getting sick; maybe I just won't worry about it so much anymore.

In the short-term, however, it triggered a pretty major bout of anxiety, because not only had I gotten sick, but I also had to get on a train for Paris the next day because we were meeting our friends Paul and Christen there.

Suffice it to say, the Paris weekend was not all I'd hoped it would be, as it took me a while to feel better again.

I can pass along information about the terrific hotel we stayed at in Paris, however. It was called the Hotel le Petit Paris, and it is in the 5th Arrondissement around the corner from my favorite Luxembourg Gardens.

The hotel opened in September 2009, so everything is very new and clean. The decoration is pretty great, I don't know exactly what you'd call it, but I would describe it as contemporary, modern but with some old-fashioned touches thrown in.

Not only was it modern, clean, and centrally located, it was also super quiet, and the beds were amazingly comfortable. The bathrooms are pretty cool looking too. All this, and the staff were incredibly nice and helpful, and the rooms are air-conditioned.

I'll include the website in the column to the left so you can check it out.

This post is getting too long, so I will continue in another one.