please say "ici"

On my first day of French class in 1992, I learned how to speak French within the first five minutes. I had started 7th grade in a new school, in a new state, and so most of my classmates had taken French in 6th grade, too. Our teacher, who was skinny with tortoise shell glasses on a beaded chain, began to call our names for roll. Immediately, students started saying, with unwavering confidence, "Ici". I looked around the room at the aliens--how did they know how to say this and what exactly were they saying?? Panic ensued as my name approached. Mon dieu, I was glad not to be named "Adams". It sounded like "eee-cee" but then some students were saying "weeee". I was convinced that there was a conspiracy-some summer reading I had missed, when I heard her say "Sarah" and then, in my first leap into the language I would grow to love more than my own, I said "eee-ceeeee". And she was onto the next name without a moment's pause. I had fooled everyone into thinking that I knew what I was doing.

So, today, in honor of that first day of French class, I am taking roll. Having a much more extensive knowledge of French than I do of blogging, or counting, I am asking you to identify yourself in the comments section of my blog by first name, age, and location. If you're one of my many secret stalkers, and you don't wish to be identified by name, just make up a name, but please don't abstain from posting or I'll find out and my computer programmer boyfriend will track down your ip address and make you pay for not giving me an accurate count of my loyal readership.

Also, no matter when you're reading this-even if its a few weeks from today (September 23rd), please comply.

Merci Beaucoup! And just to inspire you, a shot of the creme brulee I made for one boy in particular about a year ago...ladies-let me tell you, give a man a torch, and he'll be willing to walk through fire for you...