It Takes a Village

I read "It Takes a Village" by Hillary.

Kerry: "On purpose?"

Ha, ha. The madre got it when she saw Hill speak in Chi-town so I stole it and read it.

It didn't make me hate her. Its all about the importance of supporting and educating children. Its about half political, half uber-sentimental with splashes of science mixed in for effect.

I actually felt like I was learning, there was a lot of sciency studies about how babies and chilluns learn and how most parents (as you may have expected) are clueless about parenting. Mrs. Clinton put forth a lot of reasonable, realistic strategies for helping our youth and makes a good argument for the importance of this from political, moral, and economic standpoints.

The book also didn't make me want to vote Hillary into the White House. I
think she'd make an excellent Cabinet member, Secretary of Education or something.

So the book was enjoyable, I cried through the first four chapters because they were all heart-wrenching tales of Hil's orphaned mother and Bill's abusive step-father and what being a mother means to her. Its pretty much the kind of stuff that makes women of all ages go all to pieces. It settles down though and the last 2/3rds are less of a sob-fest.

One entertaining aspect was noticing how very dated it is. It was written while Hil was in the White House so its only like 12-yrs old, but all of her hope-filled-promise-of-a-better-tomorrow-things-are-already-improving plans are non-existant today and things have very obviously gotten worse. Also she used the word out-sourcing and put it in "quotes" and then defined it. Because its a new-fangled idea that no one understands. Hahahahahhahahah. Awesome.

So I rate this book readable, but Hil should update it or something. Do a part 2 thats angry and bitter. That would be fantastic.

**Note: I'm double posting this on Heartwarming Stories for the sake of consistency on the literature goals for the year.

Beware of Sharks!!!!

A few days ago I took myself out for a little walk around D-ville. After spending several hours exploring whats withing walking distance and doing some reading on various public benches I headed home. When I was only about 3 blocks away, on a street I've never been down I noticed something odd. A truck dragging a flat trailer was backing out of a driveway.

(That's not odd, the next bit is, stay with me.)

When he'd driven off I glanced up his driveway and saw a shark tank. Like one of those cages really brave stupid people on the Discovery Channel load themselves into after painting themselves in fish guts so that they can play with hungry sharks without being violently dismembered. I was somewhat confused and so like a retard I just stood there and stared for a few minutes trying to decide how I could be wrong, how my eyes could trick me. They couldn't.

Unless there is another purpose for a person-sized cage with 5-inch gaps between the bars and a giant crane hook at the top... It even had a cautionary sign on it.

It is now the strangest thing I've seen in Canada. So Far.

Lost in Translation?

I got lost today.

Frankie and I were supposed to go out to a factory to do some recon on their lighting systems. The place was between Frankie's and the office so we were to meet there. Here is the address I had:

1522 9E Rang Simpson

So I drive along until I come to a road marked "3 Rang Simpson" and I turn down it hoping the number at the front will increase as I drive. The first house I pass is number 220 so I have a ways to go. I drive and drive and eventually come to 1518 and the next place is 1602. Damnit! I circle back and drive slow and, no, there is nothing between 1518 and 1602. Luckily I left pretty early (knowing I am prone to getting lost.)

I get back to the main road and drive and drive and drive and pass a total of 3 streets that head off to the south, one of which is marked "6 Rang Cant-recall". This makes me hopeful that somewhere eventually there is a "9 Rang". And after about 10 miles there is!

So I turn down "9 Rang Simpson" and the first place is number 2248 so I drive and drive, and realize that I'm now going to be a minute or two late, so I call Frankie to let him know whats happening. He tells me that he's only just turned onto Simpson so he's actually behind me, no worries. Finally, 6 miles later I come to 1576 and then 1544 and then 1500.... Dammit! Not again!

Call Frankie- "Okay once again I am on the wrong road... It's 9E Rang Simpson?" "Oh, no. Sorry I should have checked your map, its 10 Rang Simpson." Hang up. Obscenities.

All the way back to the main road. The next street is Rue St-Someone and the next one is 10 Rang Simpson, and after I drove 6 miles down there actually was a 1522. So in the 14 miles encompassing my first wrong turn and my correct turn there were a total of 6 roads, half of which were called Rang Simpson!!!!!!!!!

Canadia is Stupid. That was so not my fault.

Francois

Yesterday I met Francois. He's like my boss. Or colleague. Anyway its just him and me on the project at work.

And readers (mom in particular) you are going to like Francois.

Firstly, within an hour of meeting him he mentioned that the only reason he and his wife are married is so she and their children could come to the states when he was working there. Terribly romantic. He also told me an elaborate story about these rings engineers in Quebec get when they graduate (which I've seen a lot of really old guys wearing) and then he immediately whispered to me that he thinks its really pretentious, he only wears his because his boss does too.

So I'm putting Frankie (yay nicknames!) at 39-42 he's got 2 chilluns (middle school age) and he's been working at AMETVS for 45 days. He may have been hired the same day as me. Before this week he wasn't sure his project would be funded past mid-July. I was a good sign. I'm a little concerned about this kind of thing.

Anyway, the very, very best thing about Frankie is this:

He's a bass player.

In a Band.

Like a Rock Band.

This will entertain me for years. Or at least the duration of the summer. Particularly if I get to go see them play. Apparently they have a regular gig somewhere. Oh yeah.

In Grey's news: I watched last weeks on TV links, saw through the opening credits of this week's at which point my housemate (in an obvious attempt to get me to kill him) refused to let me continue watching unless I cleaned the stove on the commercial break. "Fine. I'm going to bed. Good night."

Why do people want me to be angry?

CURSES!!!!!!!

i missed last week's grey's.

now this.

Canada Why?

Oh right. Not everyone understands the random "now I'm in Canada".

Well I've acquired a summer internship with AMETVS which is French for the Association of Transportation Equipment and Specialty Vehicle Manufacturers, which is based here, in Drummondville, Quebec.

Drummondville is located on the south side of the St. Lawrence River, about 40 miles north of Vermont. About 66,000 people live here, but I have not as yet figured out why. They all speak French.

My job is to work on an Energy Efficiency project with a man by the name of Francois. Yup.

So I'm here doing that and exploring Montreal and Quebec (each less than 2 hrs away, and allegedly fun) until mid-August.

And that's why I'm in Canada.

Vote Obama. I'm afraid the campaign will suffer while I'm away. Seriously. Vote Obama!

Bonjour Canada!

Welcome to my new blog, where I will attempt to recount how I inadvertantly learn about hockey, to speak french and other accidental Canadian experiences.

I've been in Drummondville, Quebec 4 days and here's what I've learned:

• almost no French
• Canadians love universal signs making the need for french minimal
• Canada loves Rod Stewart- I heard "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" 3 times on the radio in the last 24 hours.
• NBC, ABC, and FOX all come on in english (Dieu Merci! Heroes was awesome last night)
• based solely on my experience, it rains 60% of the time and is cold 80% of the time
• Cold in Celsius

So I'm here, I have plenty of space (more about the house later) and you must all come visit.

Au Revoir!

Vote Obama!