Mon amour, known by some as “tonton Boston”, is currently enjoying the comforts (haha) of economy class on an American airline. Sadly, he’s not coming to visit me. Happily, he is making his way to the city of lights to show the project he and a few colleagues have worked on non-stop for several months, the RATP-commissioned “bus stop of the future”. They are showing the fruit of their slavery at Parc de la Vilette as part of RATP’s celebration of “Les 100 ans du bus”. Exciting, n’est-ce pas?

If you’re a design and/or architecture nerd, you’ll appreciate that this project was headed up by William J. Mitchell. The actual bus stop was principally designed and carried out by unpaid MIT Media Lab graduate students. Materials were purchased with RATP-funds channeled through the MIT Design Lab.

Even though I probably did more to derail progress by distracting Dave during my visit to Beantown a few weeks ago, I did do a little technical building stuff with the boys. Not-so-great photos are here. Once the design team gets their documentation together, I will send you to prettier pictures and attendant technical blahblah. 😀

For now, you just have me whining about the fact that my man is going to Paris for 10 days without me. Boo!

If you survived the first few paragraphs, you’ll notice that I am back. Yes, I know, I’m prone to long absences. Somehow, sometime, I fell of the blogging bandwagon. I know, I know, that’s no surprise to you (if there are any of “you” out there left.) Anyway, I’m hoping that this entry marks a comeback of sorts. That’s rather noncommittal language, but I’m being cautious because I don’t want to come back with as much flair as before. I mean, I want to write with pizzazz, but I don’t want to spend too much time plopped in front of my glowing laptop screen reading and writing journal entries instead of keeping up with all my real world joys.

Real world joys have included meeting this guy
while he was in Toronto being slowly driven by his parents. ;P He was kind enough to wait for me while I fought evil suburban rush hour traffic to get to Pacific Mall and treat me to damn good Peking duck and family favourite, Chung King Garden. I do hope that he chooses to defect to Canadia-land soon so we can partake in more good food and conversation!

That fabulously fun meeting with Gino is testament to how un-creepy the Internet can be. Okay, so the Internet can be really creepy, but let me tell you that I have met many a wonderful person online. Even back in high school, I hung out with many hype folk whom I met on mIRC and ICQ, yo.

In short, I can’t unglue myself from the big bad blogosphere, especially when it allows me to connect with the lovelies so near and dear to my heart who are scattered around the world. So yes, I’m back. Hi! ^_^

I also participated in a scavenger hunt that my team won. As feminist law geeks, for the superhero challenge, we dressed up as the “Famous Five.” Our prize included $20 restaurant gift certificates and 100-levels tickets to a Yankees-Jays game at the Rogers Centre (more commonly know as the Sky Dome). I don’t usually like baseball, but it was fun to be at the Dome with friends at a relatively packed game. We did the wave and sang the Jays song. I was 10 all over again. Ha. Only when I was 10, the Jays were winning World Series Championships. 😛

I also managed to travel to Montreal to see my honey and visit his family. Here are some photos for proof (‘cuz that’s all you care about anyway, right? ;)):

The Royal York Hotel in Toronto, taken before I hopped on the train to Montreal.

Un québécois et sa poutine. First meal in Montreal at Resto du Village.

Family Photos

We stayed at my belle-soeur’s house, which was more than a little stressant for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love Lydia, her hubby Jöel, Jöel’s kids C and Z, and new addition Arno le coco to bits; but I have problems dealing with all the pet dander in a house crammed with 3 cats and 1 dog. *Achooo!* And to think I lived with our beloved Buddy and Lucio before Hayden so graciously adopted them. Gah, the things you do for love.

In addition to the animals, there were the usual political discussions that grated on my nerves. This time things were worsened by “l’affaire Wong”. This blogger has hit some of the issues bang on the head. That Le Devoir cartoon says it all, dudes. Frick. Anyway, I held my tongue quite a bit until I read this horrible article in the latest French edition of Châtelaine that made my blood boil. It was called “Le Petit Chinois” and started off with the lyrics of a horrifically offensive song that called, “Si j’étais chinois”. You know something like, “If I were Chinese, I’d have slanty eyes like this (pull eyes into slits) and wear a conical hat like this (make triangle with hands over head) etc. The author, a Radio-Canada journalist doesn’t even problematize the song and only remarks that her child’s kindergarten teacher taught the song to the class before launching into a ridiculously patronizing story about a Chinese immigrant who made his way to Canada in life-threatening circumstances. I think the article is supposed to make you feel good, especially after she ends saying, “If I were Chinese, I’d want to be like him [immigrant dude she Others].”

God, I started flipping out and bitching to Dave, “Yeah, only if she were CHINESE would she want to be like this guy. This racist song is being taught TODAY in Quebec classrooms? WTF? And people wonder why Jan Wong said what she did in the Globe. This would NEVER be allowed in the English-language Chatelaine.”

Lydia read the article and didn’t fully understand why I was fuming, saying that the journalist, “didn’t mean it in a bad way.”

Dave and I turned to her and could just weakly say, “It’s not just the intention that counts.”

I’ll leave it at that since I’ve simmered down quite a bit after the weekend. I’ve had enough of talking about all this…for now. Believe me, Dave’s already heard enough about this as have other friend’s in the know. Darling Ewa, who met me at the incredible ArtJava on Mont Royal last Friday, shared my sentiments on the issue(s).

Our little nephew Arno is getting bigger and his mama has gotten quite a bit smaller (see photos above!) Lydia is down to her dancer’s figure once again, proving once again that simple science–eat less, move more–really works so long as you are the picture of discipline. The artiste could have been featured in one of those trashy tabloid features about post-pregnancy weight loss. The girl’s not famous enough to be the subject of such an article, but I do sometimes wonder if she’ll suddenly fall into a bunch of big fame (at least locally) with her many talents and picture perfect face.

Here she is with hubby, photographed in rehearsal in the Joe Dassin musical show in which they star. They are the main couple in the front of the shot, second couple from the right. Scroll down the newspaper article to see the photo. This is not the greatest scan and the shot is particularly unflattering of both, making them look way heavier than they are, but it is publicity!

As sad as it is, I know I’m going to have trouble falling asleep tonight because I won’t get to talk to Dave. Here’s hoping that he lands safely in Paris and knows that I’m thinking about him! 😀

This entry was posted on Friday, September 29th, 2006 at 9:37 pm and is filed under Love, The Sacred and Mundane, Travel, Wheee!.
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