A Beauty Among Queens

A Beautuy Among Queens

One thing I have experienced since coming to France is being pestered by on-line scam artists.  mostly on Skype.  I get several requests a day from people I don't know--always men--who would like to add me to their contact lists.  When I send back a message asking who they are and why they want to add me to their lists, I usually get a reply from someone whose native tongue is obviously not English.  I then decline, block and sometimes report as abuse.  Most of these requests come from supposed military men; I think their accounts have been hacked.  I never add them to my contacts.  One guy sent me a request using some bogus name and--are you ready for this?--Ted Cruz's picture.  Sometimes I have to just laugh.

In November joined an ex-pat group with a chapter in Toulouse.  They are a legitimate organization, and often send me notifications of trips, happy hours, courses, lectures or outings that they are sponsoring for members in the area.  However, Toulouse is not particularly convenient for me.  A Friday night cocktail party starting at 8:00 would mean a hotel stay in addition to a round trip train ticket, so I always decline the invitation.

This morning, on my Internations account e-mail, I had an incoming message from a man telling me that he thought I was beautiful.  His exact words were "A beauty among Queens."  Okay, does that sound like a guy from Texas?  But it did start my day with a smile!