7 quick takes Friday- road trip edition

I haven't done a 7QT in at least a month! Here is the story of our moving trip.
1- New York City. Not too sad to leave. I do miss the sisters. It was so nice to go there for mass in the morning, sometimes I would have a coffee with them, or just show Sr Rita some tips for her computer.. Anyway, we left at 7 am on a beautiful morning, we put some music on ("Sweet home Chicago") and we took our first stop in Cracker Barrel for a big filling breakfast.
Did I mention how much I love Cracker Barrel?
2- After a few more hours on the road we arrived at the Canadian border around 2 PM. The border guards were very nice. I don't know if my speaking French helped. Mr L was a little more stressed than me. The guard was not thrilled that we decided to take a trip to Canada with a truck full of card boxes. But they didn't bother us too much. We waited a few minutes for tehm to check our paperwork, and off we went! Our first night on the road was in Montreal. We visited a little, and then went for diner at "le pied de cochon" a famous foie gras restaurant. I had foie gras poutine which was delicious! I asked what the sauce was made of, (please sit): pork and duck fat, reduced with cream!!!! LOL! Oh well it's a once in a lifetime experience..
3- The following morning I woke up very early and went to the hotel swimming pool. It felt great! My wonderful husband looked for hotels with swimming pools, so we could get some moving around for our legs. I enjoyed every minute of it! We originally planed on staying in Montreal for most of the day and drive in the afternoon, but we couldn't get a subway ticket (they won't accept american or european cards, so no ATM, so no canadian money, so no subway! not super tourist friendly IMO). Bref we left early again and drove to Toronto. I think we stopped in a small fries schack. My stomach had had enough with fries (with just one day!).. In Toronto we had some fun and interesting discussion looking for the hotel. The main debate was over using the iphone or following street directions. The old way won in Canada. No way to find your way with iphone GPS...

4- We left Toronto early again, and got to... The Niagara Falls. This was AWESOME. Literally. Probably my favorite part of the trip.
We did a short but oh so beautiful walk in the Niagara State Park.

The rapids...

5- After Niagara we went to Buffalo, which is not too far. Very cool city. I would love to go back. We went to a Jesuit church and then to sandwiches in a big brewery. It was very laid back. Buffalo is definetly on my list of good surprises. I like it more than Canada (no offense if you're Canadian)
the big sculpture on the left is " The lake effect man" he is protecting from the wind (and I guess ready to enjoy a good sandwich and beer at the brewery).From Buffalo we went to Cleveland where we spend the night. They had a NICE swimming pool in the Cleveland (m/h?)otel.

6- After all that road we were just tired of driving.. So the driver decided to go as close to CHicago as possible. We did the last part of the road listening to the audio book of Lewis and CLarck, how wonderful to listen to this on the road!! I loved it! I hope I can finish it someday (it's an 18 hours audio book)
I could imagin the bears ready to jump on us! Well it doesn't look this wild on the side of the road, but the idea of how much forest and wild land there is gives me chills. In Europe every square inch of forest is controlled by forest guardians. Not that they hang out in every corner, what I mean is they control the growth and death of trees, they regulate wild life and hunting areas... Big wide and wild spaces are just unbelievable to me!

7- We went back to Cracker Barrel in the morning, before our very short drive home. :) We also stopped by ikea to get a couple things for the house. And by 1pm we were there. Ready to unpack!
Thank you chauffeur :)
(yes I don't have a driver licence, I don't even know how to start an automatic car... He did the 2000 miles all by himself!)

Douce France...

I going to France this Friday! YEAHOOOOOOOOO! Our plane departs on Friday night and arrives on Saturday afternoon. Just on time to make it for the Easter Vigile. :)
I'm so happy and excited!
First of all I get time off work. Which is relaxing. On top of that we go together, so that means 12 days with Mr. L. and no weird working hours to separate us..
Then of course I get to see my family. We'll re-celebrate our marriage on the 18th so everyone comes to visit us and celebrate with us! Cousins, uncles and families are coming from every where in France, sometimes as much as from a 6 hours road trip!

I was talking with other non-american co-worker and we all noticed this funny double standard: if we are in the US, going on a road trip for just one or two states across is fine. It's just one or two days on the road.
But if we're in our home country a 2 hours drive is SO FAR..
I guess because we see distances with a differente scale.. Also I think the trains are for something in there. If I visit my family in the Alps, I love taking a train. Some can go as fast as 250mph. Or there is the over night train, much slower but I always get a good night of sleep in those. They have cars for lone-women (meaning only women will sleep there, much less snoring, and probably more "security" but all cars seem very secure to me...) Anyway I miss good trains. It would be so useful here: with a TGV you could be from NYC to Boston in just 2h30 etc.. and there are so many "important" cities on the East coast..

Anyway I was talking about going to France. I need that!
I've been so stressed out lately that my body got lost in Phase II (dear NFP friends empathy with me: it's been a month-long phase II already, a shy temp raise showing up, but still very very mucusy).
I don't have expectations over there. Just visiting my parents. I so thankful I can still call it home :) I'll cook with my dad, I bring him some smoke in a bottle, he's gonna love bbq food! And going for a walk with all women and kids. It's a tacite tradition, after big family meals (basically every Sunday lunch if we have guests) the guys fall asleep for their naps, and all ladies gather strollers and toddlers and we go for a walk, with some hard bread to feed the ducks :) I like those little family special times :)

While in Franc eI'll try to post at least a few pictures, but we still have dial up connection so I can't garantee anything..

Cheer me up :)- MTA pictures

not having a great day.. for some reason I feel very empty and worthless today.
I didn't go to dance. Now I feel bad because I didn't go. Ever happened to you? One of those days when whatever you do is going to make you feel worse?
So I listen to Debout sur le Zinc. It cheers me up. :)
Also I look at pictures.
So here are some great pics in NYC subway :)
















This is at 3rdav-138th on the 6th train.

Sarah Bernhard's hat at 23th street, on the orange line. (the whole station is decorated with hats...
like these...
silly, but funny!! Pick your own favorite! Wear a different hat... I was looking for Mary Poppins hat.. this it the closest I found:

or maybe this one...




The most beautiful of all, (IMO) has to be the museum of natural history station (86th? on the red line)

it's like diving in the ocean!!

I'd say, if you visit NYC with kids and are on a budget, don't bother with the zoo, bring the kids to the subway. They'll enjoy the ride (kids do most of the time) and they'll have blast looking at the mosaics!!
the biggest hit for little boys?
you can even TOUCH the shark!!! and it's so smooth and cold, you'd say it's real!! :) Grrrrrrrrr bewarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre!!

if it's not a human being, what is it?

This friday I went to Boston (YOUHOU) it was fun and everything but I'd like to share a conversation I had on the way back.

I was reading an article in Newsweek called "Abortion wars gets technical..." (p39 if you want to see it)
Someone bent over me and says "@#$%@#&*%#$" showing me that quote:
" The [new] law requires physicians[..] to read [to the patient] that she is about to "terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being".
I was surprised by this reaction, I ask him which part of the quote he disagrees with and we come to the interesting point where I have to ask this amazed question:
" But if IT is not human, what is it?"

Yep, I had to ask that question, obviously I missed the part where we are not human before we are born, some magical DNA transformation must occur between day 1 and week 30 something,
or maybe it's the woman's vigina who clothes you with humanity...
Hold on, then how about C-section babies?
I don't know I must have missed something in biology class...

So how do you define a human being?

What makes us biologically human, if it's not DNA?
Anonymous: " I think human life starts when the heart beats, it's been this definition for a thousand years in many cultures"
Me: "... (surprised that for once this person totally ignores the DNA discoveries of this past decade, I mean century...) ok let's say human life begins when there is a heart beat (week 3?) then what is it before?
- I don't know.. it's animal.."

It's animal.

Well let me hope that my future foetuses won't get stuck in the doggy stage, I get really scared when they bark..

Ok this answer was slightly upset. But why should he be upset about that discussion?
My problem is that people who usually quote scientific research 5 times a day suddently ignore science facts when it comes to abortion questions, like an unborn embryo has a separate, unique set of DNA and only needs time and nutrients to develop.
Because it would imply too much to just admit that embryo are human lifes.
That would mean abortion terminates a human life.
That might even be wrong.


I'm fed up with the religious war (and I've been here only a year!). This has nothing to do with religion. It's science!
A baby is human, it doesn't become human with his first take of oxygene through lungs, it was human in the womb. It doesn't become human the day the mother says " I will keep IT". I'm sorry but this is not how it works. It's disturbing, I know, I've been there. Where you realize abortion is killing someone in the process of sending a woman "back to her life, just like before". Well no, now she is the mother of a dead foetus, and he died on her choice.

Some part of the above-quoted conversation was about me being biased because I'm catholic and I believe there is a soul for the baby before he exists.
Well even if you want to argue in theological field, there is no soul before there is a body. Human being are so precious because they have a body to express their person. We are no angel, every body knows it ;)

I mean this is so important whenever you have to ask the question: " what makes us human?" in front of a situation, that usually means something is wrong.

Well maybe there is some catholicism in thinking that human beings are worth giving it a try. They should all get a chance to live in decent condition.
Well hold on, if I ever become american I won't need to be catholic to agree with that, it's the first lines of your constitution!!
But there is no catholicism involve in the definition of a human being. It's a fact.

Nativities

I have thousands of things to say about today, but I need to spend more time with someone dear... So I'll be fast and post pictures. I've seen a couple Crazy Friday pictures going on, I decided I would do it too... Only not every week.. :)
So here the pictures of our nativity scene.
It's our first Christmas as a family :)
Last year and the year before, as a poor single away from home (first with roommates then alone) I had those adorable tiny ones, presents from dear friends:














This year we received a present from his dad. He sent the nativity set of Phil's childhood :)
I'm so pleased to see how beautiful it is. Does "splendid" exist in English?














And my favorite is this one:














See how the Magi have to go all the way from the end of the table, to get to the Nativity scene? around the Advent wreath.. Past the bottle of Whiskey....
:) Well I guess it's how you know a real Scotsman..

I haven't finish the Advent wreath because I ran out of glue for the glue gun (hence the pile of fake leaves on the right)

escaping virtual world

what a great title... for a blog!! haha!
Today I'm off :) I'll be working Saturday and Sunday so I decided to take today off.
I could have worked, but I'm not supposed to do too many hours and I already did too many this week...
So anyway here I start my day and all in a sudden I feel like going home and cuddling up in the comforter, and it's so cold so I take two comforters and start watching tv shows and reading blogs. And the more time passes, the more tired and cold I feel..
Then my boyfriend send me an IM: "come over for lunch break! we'll have burritos!" (he works downtown Manhattan, that's 30 min on my subway line)

Ah this man knows how to steal my heart :)

So I get up, start shaking my lazy pants and off I go. On the way I treat myself with a coffee from the cart (75cts is A LOT of money for a coffee so I rarely do that).
I had a great lunch with my dear boyfriend. I was so happy he dragged me out :)
I forgot my cross stitch so I read a little bit in the subway.
That was nice as a vacation.
And now the sun is up and bright, an other beautiful day.

This reminds me that I spend too much time on the web: I work on a computer a third of the time, and I systematically connect internet to check emails, facebook, blogs...


It's becoming crazy! Thanks God I don't have an Iphone.
This stuff is just sucking the life out of you... During lunch my boyfriend checked it twice. There was some kind of alert for an epidemic of tuberculosis. Do I really need to know about it right away? Is it goign to make a difference if I get that email instantly or tonight when I come home?
So I decided to limit myself to two intakes of internet a day: once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Well except for work-related emails... And maybe a movie every week :)
I have one main reason for that:
I don't have atv, and I love it that way :) Because I have more time to read and talk, write a real letter, or just go to bed earlier...
Also October is month of the rosary, I received a friendly message yesterday to remind me of that. Funny how virtual friends finally interact to bring me back to reality :)

I'm really happy with my resolution, probably also because I went to the library tuesday and I got a few great books:



- Jesus made in America (a study of the image of Jesus-Christ in America, from Puritans to tv evangelist)

-Doing time, by Dennis Burke. (A jail chapelain tells about life in San Quentin prison, CA)

- The portable Atheist, collection of atheist texts. Because I'm interested in people who "believe" there is no God, and prove it... and it ends up as its own religion...

- quick escape NYC, to dream of the day when I get 2 days off in a row :)

-Plain water by Anne Carson. Because it was the saddest book on the saddest bookshelve and I thought it actually might be good
and

- poets of the civil war. This one is for my boyfriend when he visits. I like to pick books and see if he likes them... :)

anyone with reading suggestions?

appreciating waiting time

I'm lucky.
Two things greatly contributed to make my life wonderful: my mom and the SNCF.
SNCF is the company of train in France.

















They have two striking seasons: may and november. Sometimes for a little more than a month. Even on non-striking season there are "surprises" and trains get stuck: for example sometimes there are leaves during fall, or snow in winter. Yes seriously. They don't expect that to happen...
SNCF taught me to be patient. Taught me to think about cell phones: is it really useful to call and say: " my train is stuck(/cancelled/delayed/on strike) I don't know when is the next one, if there is a next one...
I learned the kind of selfish patience: deal with it, take enough in your back pack to survive 2 days without coming home: some change in case you're stuck in Paris, water, apples and chocolate.
And cross stitch.

Cross stitch is great :)


A book is fun, but it comes to an end before the train starts moving again. If you take 2 or 3 then it's a better bet, but then it's heavy (especially when your bag already handle 2 bottles of water, 2 apples, a full load of cards and pens for christmas greetings, etc.)
Cross stitch is light: fabric and thread. If you're very fancy you can add cisors. Taking a plane taught me to deal without, but that's an other story.
Cross stitch is wonderful because you're in for hours and hours of stitching, you're mind is free, but you look busy, so nobody bothers you.
You look busy but you're doing something nice, so people are nice to you. Often I have someone talking to me : "beautiful work!" or " oh I learned to stitch when I was 10!" or (expert) " where did you get that cute design"...
I garantee it makes me feel better.. I don't care if the train is an hour late, I need at least 12 more hours to finish that birth present!
Oh yes becaus ethe best part is you an actually give the stuff away after!
Baby stuff are always very appreciated :)
All that to say: I'm very thankful about the trains strikes in France, they made me stitch a lot more than I would have otherwise.
Now I use it all the time: subway trips, social security line, night supervision, boyfriend late on a date... ;)

So yeah I love cross stitch! design above is ellen maurer stroh

An other thing mentioned above is my mom, I'll keep it for another time...