Letters From Montreal

Just a quick update before I head off to the reenactment of the fall of Saigon that is Dorval International Airport. I`m heading to Milwaukee for my 20th high school reunion. The prospect of leaving Canada for a visit to Milwaukee and then returning “home” to Canada has my head spinning a bit.

Yesterday sucked, making this an ideal time to leave town. Of course the temperature was in the 90s again, making our hellhole of an apartment characteristically unfit for human habitation. The heat finally wiped me out, and I woke up feeling seriously fatigued. Melissa reported that I had been flopping around all night, at one point taking up all but a tiny corner of the bed that she had to squeeze into. Which is funny, actually, but I wasn`t awake to enjoy it, and the fitful sleep did me no favors. For the first time all summer I felt incoherent in class; I jabbered on for an hour about . . . damn, I can`t even remember. Oh, government subsidized speech — two really interesting cases, one about religious fanatics in Virginia and another about batshit performance artists and the NEA. Great stuff, and yet I have no idea what I said. After that, at Melissa`s urging, I took a nap, which provided yet another spurt of inconsistent sleep.

Our big event of the day was dinner at L’Express. I had wanted to have at least one authentic French dinner in Montreal, and all the useful sources — Chowhound, guidebooks, a recent review in the Gazette — said this was the place to go. Alas, it sucked. The food was pedestrian and mediocre, the service was rotten, the atmosphere was nothing special. The obscenely overpriced pizza the other night, which cost us just about the same amount of money, was a bargain in comparison, and in general we`ve done much better frequenting hole-in-the-wall Middle Eastern places. Future visitors to Montreal, consider yourselves emphatically warned.

Oh, another thing that sucks is the orange line on the Metro. For some reason, the stations and cars are always hotter and more crowded than on any other line, and the trains frequently stop between stations for no apparent reason. Unfortunately, we`re situated in such a way that we have to take this glorified coal car when we want to go anywhere farther away than the Jean Talon market.

Okay, enough complaining. I must now go and try to explain U.S. campaign finance law in an hour — a task for which, come to think of it, this rant has primed me very appropriately. Speaking of which, one more thing: I haven`t had time to read the opinions yet, but believe me when I tell you that the Ten Commandments decisions were the very best we could have hoped for from this Court. Under present circumstances, wishy-washy is good in this area of the law. We really dodged a bullet last week in the eminent domain case, which I had feared would aid the cause of plutocrats and thieves whichever way it came out; Justice Stevens to the rescue once again. But Grokster — that`s a loss.

More later from across the border.

Skip this unless you are a serious West Wing geek.

I am in the process of making a WW music mix, a la Elizabeth’s amazing Sports Night mix. So I’ve got a ton of songs on my Shuffle and they come up at random and it is astounding to me how a song can put you right back in an episode.

I was walking along two days ago and suddenly Tori Amos’s I Don’t Like Mondays came on. That song is so connected to 20 Hours In America for me. It’s not even a terrific episode - as a Sorkin season opener, it’s the weakest - but that song hits at the most emotional part of the episode and suddenly I was right there in the hotel with Josh, Donna and Toby, watching them watch the TV report about the bomb going off at the swim meet.

And then it reminds me of this speech from Bartlet, written by Sam, so much better than the actual words we usually get from our actual politicians. I quoted this on a 9/11 anniversary, and I’ll quote it again now.

More than any time in recent history, America’s destiny is not of our own choosing. We did not seek nor did we provoke an assault on our freedom and our way of life. We did not expect nor did we invite a confrontation with evil. Yet the true measure of a people’s strength is how they rise to master that moment when it does arive. 44 people were killed a couple of hours ago at Kennison State University. Three swimmers from the men’s team were killed and two others are in critical condition. When, after having heard the explosion from their practice facility, they ran into the fire to help get people out. Ran into the fire. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels tonight. They’re our students and our teachers and our parents and our friends. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels, but every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we’re reminded that that capacity may well be limitless. This is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard. We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars. God bless their memory, God bless you and God bless the United State of America. Thank you.

Anyway. A little West Wing digression. I haven’t gotten to The Jackal yet.

Not only did the temperature drop to 82, which is positively balmy compared to yesterday, but this glorious country, my temporary home, has just become the third country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. The legislation is exactly right: anyone can now have a civic wedding at a public place, and no religious group has to marry anyone they don’t want to. I think this is the way it should be for everyone, whether heterosexual or homosexual - anyone can get a state-certified, civic marriage, and if the Methodist Church or the Quakers or whoever don’t want to marry me, they don’t have to. Separation of church and state. Everyone should have the same rights in the eyes of the government. Period. Let the churches decide for themselves how they want to handle things.

(If anyone wants to get all uppity about homosexuality being a sin in the Bible, why not check out this letter first? Want to give up your shrimp and football? The Bible says those are a sin as well.)

Anyway. Good day. Yay Canada!

I had a great dinner last night with Greg’s colleagues; we went to a Syrian/Armenian restaurant called Alep while Greg stayed home, watched the NBA Draft and ate burgers. We escaped some of the heat yesterday by going to the Museum of Archaeology, where we learned some of Montreal’s history and saw a really great temporary exhibit on ancient Rome. Tonight we’re off to L’Express, a quintessential Montreal restaurant, for a true French food experience. We’re very excited. Tomorrow we’re both off on our respective trips, and we both plan to try and update at least once while we’re gone.

Danie, I’m going to hook you up with my fantasy-loving friend Sarah who works with me at the bookstore - she is the fantasy expert. I have a couple of recs - Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising series, for one, and Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles, but you probably already have those.

Jilanna: that list is fantastic. I am going to print it out and start looking for some of those right away. You rock!

Patty: Indian food doesn’t agree with me, but Greg loves it - I will pass along that rec to him!

Kate S: That cupcake place is tops on my list! I cannot wait to try it and review it for the upcoming cupcake site.

Our apartment never cooled off last night. Greg and I had to sleep with bowls of ice water and washcloths on our mutual sides of the bed for frequent relief. Since there’s nothing else much to tell you today - I spent four hours in a mall yesterday because it is unbearably hot here; there is absolutely no breeze whatsoever - I shall tell you about books!

(I did get super-cute black cropped pants at the Gap. So comfortable and cheap - $34.99CDN - but a little too warm for today, which would be a good day for walking around naked to be legal.)

Okay, some of the books I’ve been reading. I read a couple of really crappy chick novels in a row:

1. Holly by Jude Devereaux. Now, I am not a devotee of Devereaux - I get my romance fix from Julia Quinn, Nora Roberts, and Judith McNaught, all of whom are more talented than Devereaux - but several years ago she wrote some very charming Christmas-themed romance short stories that I really enjoyed. So when I saw Holly - supposedly a Christmas-themed novella - at the remaindered store for $5CDN, I thought, why not? Why not, I asked? Well, because it’s crap. It’s not Christmas-themed. There’s a bit that takes place on Christmas Eve toward the end of the novel. What the book is is chock full of house restoration, murders, a crap mystery and a lot of overly gratuitous, difficult to believe sex scenes. I’m a grownup and the romances I read include sex scenes, but they’re not usually chucked in for effect. This book sucked.

2. Lost and Found by Jane Sigaloff. Confirming what I have believed about Red Dress Ink novels: many of them suck. This book was terrible. It’s about a British woman who leaves her diary in a hotel room in NYC and then it’s found by a TV producer. Non-hilarity ensues. Crap, crap, crap.

3. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. This was recently made into a TV movie starring Halle Berry. That is not why I read it, and I didn’t see the TV movie. I read the book because while taking a Toni Morrison seminar in grad school this past semester I realized that I had missed out on most of the African-American literary canon because I hadn’t taken a dedicated course in college, so I asked my professor to give me a summer reading list. I cannot believe I never got to read this book before, but somehow, as with To Kill A Mockingbird (which I didn’t read until about five years ago), I’m glad I discovered it as an adult. TEWWG is lush and luminous and inspiring and uplifting and lovely. It is a tough read in some places and it doesn’t precisely have a happy ending, but Janie’s story is a wonderful one of self-discovery. It was challenging to read because the dialogue is written phonetically, but the prose is just amazing. I forgot to bring the book with me to the office; I wanted to quote a couple of sections for you. I’ll try to remember to do that tomorrow. I just loved this book so much.

4. The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint. I love de Lint, despite being introduced to him by a particularly heinous ex. He writes urban fantasy. Many of his books (including this one) take place in a town called Newford where a lot of people have contact with the Otherworld, as they call Faerie (the place where fairies and other spirits are from). This is a young adult novel about two girls, Imogene and Maxine, and what happens to them when they encounter a ghost named Adrian and a fully-formed fairy version of Imogene’s imaginary childhood friend, Pelly. This is really a book only for people who like books with magic or fantastical elements. de Lint is easier to stomach for non-fantasy people because his books are rooted in reality, but I don’t know that I’d recommend starting with this one if you weren’t a fantasy lover and were interested in trying de Lint. If you are, leave a comment and I’ll recommend something else.

5. The Canada Trip by Charles Gordon. This is a travel narrative written by a Canadian who made a cross-Canada road trip with his wife back in the late 90s. I liked it at first; that may be because they began out in the Maritime Provinces where I have a real hungering to visit (Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island - the home of Anne of Green Gables, my favorite childhood literary character). It quickly grew kind of dull, though. They didn’t stay anywhere long enough to really get the flavor of it and it turned into a “and then we took this highway. and there was a great view. but I won’t describe it!” sort of book. It was a survey of Canada. I guess that was the point, but I’m much fonder of books that stay in one or two places and really give you an impression of what it’s like to be there. I loved Sara Wheeler’s Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica for just that reason. I am never going to go to Antarctica, obviously (can’t stand being horribly, horribly cold any more than I can stand being horribly, horribly hot, which should be apparent by now) but she lived there for several months and gave me a real impression of what it must be like. Charles Gordon, not so much.

I’m taking Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell on the long bus ride to Toronto, and possibly the Guy Gavriel Kay novel Joey loaned me. (I keep wanting to call it Sailing To Byzantium, but that’s a Yeats poem. It’s actually Sailing to Sarantium.) I also want to try to track down the new Julia Quinn book, because it’s been out for about two days now and I still don’t own it. I don’t read much straight romance anymore, but Julia Quinn is fantastic. Her female characters are spunky and smart and the writing is really, really good. This new one is a Bridgerton book, one of a series about a bunch of brothers and sisters. The first one is The Duke and I, if you like some romance and want to read something really great. Nothing hokey about these books. The writing is really strong and the characterizations are excellent.

I’ve read other good stuff recently - pre-Montreal - so if anyone wants recs in other categories or the same categories or anything, please comment.

It is hot again. 91 today. 90 tomorrow.

Moving on.

On Thursday I get on a bus and ride about seven hours to Toronto where I get to spend four whole days with my Patti. Yay! I am so freaking excited I cannot tell you, and I promise I am more excited about seeing Patti than I am about her air conditioning. Not so excited about the seven hour bus ride, but Patti! Yay! I will have my Shuffle and my books and snacks and possibly a very small pillow and will not be surrounded by forty show choir members, so it will definitely be better than my last charter bus trip.

Greg is off to his twentieth high school reunion, which he is very excited about. I am not going with him mainly because the plane ticket was $450. $450!! For a connecting flight! From Montreal to Milwaukee. Which connects through PHILADELPHIA. $450! Because it’s a holiday weekend. Having it over the Fourth of July was a really, really stupid idea, reunion organizers. Sure, it may be all nice and convenient for anyone who never moved out of the neighborhood. Anyone who did, though, has to pay through the nose in airfare in order to get home. Plus, if they live far away and have a family? Probably not coming, because it’s way too expensive to fly the whole family out, or they have family plans, because it’s a holiday weekend.

While Greg saw the zombie eating movie, I saw Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which was really great. I was skeptical because I love the book but they did a very good job. Was it exactly like the book? Of course not. But I liked what they did with it and I thought they did a great job casting it. I don’t love Alexis Bledel - her voice gets on my nerves - but she was a good Lena anyway, and the rest of them were perfect. I need to see it again with a girlfriend, because seeing it alone wasn’t as much fun. I also loved The Penguin Movie, which is moving and beautiful and funny and scary and sad and well-paced and full of cuteness.

We had fantastic Tibetan food for dinner last night. It’s sort of similar to Chinese; a lot of the flavors are the same. With dinner I had a 1/4 litre of white wine for $6CDN (about two glasses). This is about $4.87 US. For two glasses of decent wine. Where in the US do you get that kind of deal? Dinner was sooooo good and so affordable; much better than our pizza dinner the other night. The pizza was good, but two slightly-bigger-than-individual pizzas, two glasses of sangria and two Diet Cokes was $67CDN including tax and tip. $67!! No pizza is that good. That was crazy. It was like the pizza dinner we had in London that was about $50US for two individual pizzas, garlic bread, a soda and a glass of wine. Crazy. For some reason it’s always pizza that makes us feel ripped off. Maybe because we have so much good cheap pizza at home? Who knows. The pizza was delicious, though; mine had goat cheese and sundried tomatoes and a very thin crust. I got enjoyment out of it. Not $67 worth of enjoyment, but enjoyment nonetheless.

We had a good time at the Musee des Beaux-Arts, even if we were there for less than an hour and didn’t figure out that the rest was across the street until we were in the gift shop and everything was closing. We are planning to go back and see the rest, possibly before we both go away this week. We have some other museum plans in the works; a lot of them are free on certain evenings so we’ll probably see a bunch of those next week. We also want to go out to the Botanical Gardens.

I am obviously never going back to the gym. I didn’t like it and shouldn’t have joined; that was silly and a waste of money. I wasted less than $40 but still - I have the wasting money guilts. We don’t have much time here and frankly I don’t want to spend it in the gym. We are walking a ton and my clothes fit fine so I’m just not going to stress about it. I do miss working out with my trainer at home, though, and I am sure I am losing the tiny bit of pathetic muscle tone I was starting to build - but all the weight machines are unfamiliar and I hated the cardio equipment and there was a definite language barrier with the employees and it just made me miserable so not going back is a no-brainer.

Some randomness to close with: Tom Cruise is a scary, scary freak, and just as I will not see any Mel Gibson movies because of his personal politics, I will no longer see Tom Cruise movies. The horrible things he said about poor Brooke Shields and her taking drugs to get through postpartum depression - he is so heinously awful. Ugh.

Also, what was the director of the 1998 London production of Oklahoma thinking when he/she cast Josafina Gabrielle as Laurey? She is really not very good, especially when she is singing with the marvelous Hugh Jackman. His voice is soaring through “People Will Say We’re In Love” and she is just there squealing. Ugh.

I’ll close with a little shout-out (shut up, Greg) to my fellow Princess Aimee. We won’t be climbing any mountains together, but we can totally go for pedicures. There’s nothing wrong with liking a little sparkle on your toes.

Hey, family, are Mom-Mom and Aunt Renee back from Bermuda yet?