Oh Paris...

Another bad experience in Paris happened! Well, not to me personally, but I was there as a witness, and man, it sucked... This sounds bad no matter how I say it, but I do thank God that it wasn't me again. To have had it happen twice to me just seems a bit cruel, doesn't it?

Anyway, my friend and I were walking out of the Chanel Boutique on rue Cambon. Before you start imagining us with a dozen shopping bags and wasting all our money on Chanel stuff, we actually just had one bag each, and the items inside were small. I just bought like a pair of sunglasses, and my friend only rubber sandals. So, no, we didn't shop like crazy.

So as we walked out, a small group of 3 Italian girls (or so they say) asked us to help them find where rue Cambon was on their map because they were heading to Opera and said they didn't know where they were. Honestly, these three girls just looked like lost backpackers, so unsuspectingly, my friend helped them point out to the street name on the map to the two girls, while the third girl was talking to me and I just pointed to the direction. After all it was super easy, they just needed to walk straight up rue Cambon on to Boulevard des Capucines and turn left at rue Scribe.

A nice gesture on our part - really. But this nice gesture was then repaid by the fact that after we parted ways and turned to rue Duphot where the office entrance was (we left the office for like half an hour to go buy the stuff!), my friend noticed that her hundred euro bills went missing from her wallet! I swear to you, they were in her wallet when we left the Chanel Boutique, and they were gone ten minutes later!

The crazy thing was, the wallet was not taken, so it was purely only the cash. Someone we told this story to even said it wasn't a pick pocket, it was a magician! And to top it all off, when my friend went to the police station at Place du Marche (I think), they were very unhelpful, and even accused her of lying! I couldn't believe it! I mean, their city is full of crime left and right, the very least the police could do was be nice to tourists!!!! (I hope some of you out there reading this actually know some policemen/women in Paris so you could tell them to be niceer!)

At least when it happened to me, the guys at the police station were really nice about it and were really concerned about me. They kept asking if I was OK and if I needed anything, and they called the embassy for me... They were just really nice. After thinking about it however, it could be because they were suburban, not in the city centre. Maybe things are just a lot harsher in the city...

So anyway, long story short, please, please keep safe when traveling to Paris! And for Parisians that are reading, c'mon, do something about this. You get like (according to Wiki) nearly 15 billion visitors a year, and your economy could greatly benefit from them... Make us all feel welcomed so we don't think twice about coming back..!

Ok, that's my rant for the day.
On a happier note, I am leaving Paris today to go home and see my kids and husband. Miss them so much, and I can't wait to hug them! :)

Money

So, whoever said money is the source of all evil may just be right... And for some, the combination of love and money is just deadly.

I was recently shocked to my core when I found out this sweet, innocent young girl was stealing money from her company, which led her to being held in a jail cell for four days - and all because of what? Because her (stupid) boyfriend needed the money. So for the sake of "love" - or whatever it was they had between them, because I don't think real love would allow you to use and manipulate people - she stole from the company she worked for. When the company found out, of course the first thing they did was interogate her, then escort her down to the police station. She tried to play stupid in the beginning and say things like "I didn't know it was wrong", but at the end, she fessed up.

I couldn't get it out of my head. Why was this smart, sweet girl so easily convinced by her boyfriend to steal? She committed a crime, and didn't even get a single cent for herself! And why, oh why, did this jerk of a guy - who said he loved her by the way - even need money that badly, that he was willing to "sacrifice" his girlfriend? It wasn't a life or death situation at all.

There are somethings in this world that we can't really explain... even if they do come up with answers of why they did it, I don't think people would even get it. It might have made sense to them at the time, but it will never make sense to anyone else... Well, I don't think anyway.

On a recent twitter post, I said "It's insane how much a girl can be influenced by her boyfriend to do stupid things... :( C'mon girls, be smart!!" which got a heck of a lot of responses. So I guess it's not uncommon for girls to be influenced and used, and I don't know what their reasons are, but I'm pretty sure a lot of it has to do with money.

Yeah sure, I can't deny we all need money. We all need to buy food, clothes, to have roof over our heads and to once in awhile buy the things we want, not just the things we need. But we should only do it when we actually have the money. We can splurge when we can afford it; we definitely deserve to once in awhile. But when you don't have it, seriously, don't force yourself. Don't go do drastic things and commit crimes here and there just to get more money - it ain't worth it!

T.R.U.S.T

It's been nearly two weeks since I heard this news about someone at the office, and when I remember what I heard, I still shake my head in disbelief. Not that this hasn't happened before, just that it happened again and right under my nose.

I'm not going to go into the details of what actually happened - because that would just be cruel just in case she (OR he!) reads this. But what I am going to say is that I couldn't be more disappointed. You would think that after a person spends so much time and effort gaining trust from the people around her/him, they would at least try as much as possible or do whatever it took to keep that trust. Or is that just me?

I'd like to think that the human race in general sees trust as a treasure. To be able to gain trust from people, like your boss or your friend, is something not to be taken lightly. Someone wise once said the journey of friendship and love begins and ends with trust. You can only move forward with that relationship when trust has been established and once it's broken, the relationship stops -- or is at least damaged.

A single act of betrayal, no matter how small the person thinks it may be, can very well tarnish everything, and ruin the relationship for good. Take the person I was talking about earlier - let's call her Liz. She spent years fitting in and trying to get people around her (including me) to trust her and rely on her for help. Then, out of the blue, she does this one thing, and now no one believes her anymore. Regardless of the fact that we can all decide to just forgive her the way we were all taught to do in Sunday School, but as human beings, we will all now think twice before entrusting her with anything again.

What I keep wondering is: was it worth it? Whatever the reason was that led Liz to do what she did - was it worth losing all her friends and ruining the relationships she had worked so hard on building?

I think this should be the ultimate question anyone asks just before they do that one thing that could ruin it all. Seriously, is it really worth it?