Uno y uno

Asi que al final fuimos por una sola noche a Tofino, en la costa oeste de la isla de Vancouver. No dejo de repetir: que no es lo mismo que la *ciudad* de Vancouver, para que tomen apuntes los ...geografos...acento en la "o".

Estuvo bien. Igual caro por alla, aunque conseguimos el alojamiento con descuento por estar bien fuera de la temporada alta. Eso seria verano y aca es, como todos deben saber, invierno. De hecho, en esta zona, estamos al comienzo de lo que llaman la Temporada de Tormentas. Debe ser increible de ver desde uno de los lugares que visitamos hoy. Fuimos a pasear al Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, que es medio parque nacional, medio reserva indigena. O como se le llaman aca, los Primeros Pueblos. O Primeras Naciones. Algo parecido.

Habia un faro (to the lighthouse... "phare" en frances) pero flaite. Lo choro era que el que construyeron en 1906 fue totalmente destruido por olas. Te imaginas el pobre cuidador en esa epoca? Debe haber quedado sin casa un rato. "Lo choro"... yo soy muy brutal jeje.

Mi papa me conto que a veces llegan a estas costas del Pacifico unos globos de vidrio que los pescadores japoneses (a la vuelta de la esquina poh!) usan en sus mallas. No se para que ni por que son de vidrio pero se supone que caen en estas playas de olas tremendas (mas tremendas, no se, que Mar Brava en Zapallar). Hoy no encontramos, pero si un...cochayuyo... de como 14 pies de largo!

Todo el camino a Tofino es fuera de este mundo. Hay montanas y bahias y arroyos y cataratas y bosque, bosque, bosque, y nada mas. Y el pavimento es negro y nuevo y tiene curvas como de comercial de auto. Lo pase bacan manejando ayer.

Paramos en un bosque llamado Cathedral Grove, con arboles de 800 anyos! 800! En una isla cerca de Tofino hay arboles de 1500 anyos... esos pueden ser los seres vivientes mas antiguos que existan en la tierra. Alo!

Ok, y el bed & breakfast en que alojamos era (voz de abuelita de barbara mayer): fan-tas-tico! Ojala todos los hoteles fueran asi. Con canoa para los alojados, jacuzzi bajo las estrellas, estrellas!, todo de lujo, chef que trabajo en el Four Seasons..

Bueno, espero que esten recogiendo la baba. He sonado ene con gente de Chile ultimamente, debe ser que los echo de menos, snif! Asi que acuerdense de mi; mandenme un mail. Elvirita: quiero los detalles prometidos de la visita de Luke! Alguien que me mande el mail de la Paula O, y no olviden que esta de cumpleanos el viernes.

Vacation Watch

Isn't it great to be on vacation?

I've got two weeks off, and I'm spending them in bee-oo-ti-full Cowichan Bay, BC. That's on the east coast of Vancouver Island, between Victoria and Nanaimo. As soon as I get my pictures off my dad's camera, I'll upload them somewhere. Maybe I'll let you know where.

In the meantime, here's an artist's rendering I found on the Internet.

On Christmas day we had a double rainbow ending right on the water that meets the house's beach. Apparently rainbows are fairly common here, but since I've never been here before, I considered it a special xmas apparition. If you can't have snow, have rainbows!

Now it's on to planning a two-night stay in Tofino, on the west coast of the island. Gotta find a cute B&B with awesome views of the sea. Shouldn't be too hard. This place is like what the Japanese thought of their land and what G. Bush wishes: God's country.

Merry Christmas everyone!

La familia reunida

Todavía hay montañas de nieve en las calles de Montreal. Nevó... ¿nevaron?... 41 centímetros y con la temperatura a muy agradables 0 grados, nada se ha derretido. Aunque algunas personas crean que en Canadá estamos acostumbrados a esto, ha sido una nevada récord. Y sí, estamos un poco acostumbrados igual.

Este fin de semana me tocaron dos importantes visitas: la hermana de Tom con algunas de sus amigas, y su papá con la señora de éste.

Con la hermana, Becky, y su amiga Am, fuimos a bailar a Korova el viernes en la noche. Conocí no sé si el dueño o el administrador (uno nunca sabe muy bien estas cosas) de este bar de siempre para mí y mis amigos. Este miércoles tendré ahí una informal fiesta de navidad de la oficina. Nos cancelaron la fiesta oficial por falta de plata, así que algunas personas organizaron esta alternativa.

El sábado desayunamos en Bagels Etc, un local con una onda super rica, mezcla de neones ochenteros retro-50s, y lámparas como de burdel, butacas, etc.

En la noche nos juntamos todos con el papá de Tom y su señora. Ellos viven en Atlanta, pero como el señor está de cumpleaños hoy, aprovechó de venir a ver a sus hijos antes de continuar a Ottawa donde viven sus otros hijos, parece. Andaba chocho el señor con una foto de su nieto de 1 año. Nos invitaron a verlos a Atlanta, a ir donde la hija de la señora en Nueva York. Y, lo que dejó con la boca abierta, me tenían un pequeño regalo... aros dorados lindísimos de esa tienda tan elegant, Nordstrom. Imagínense. Y ni me conocían antes de anoche. Me cayeron super bien los dos en todo caso. Yo sé que Tom y su hermana tienen algunos rollos pendientes, en proceso de superación con el viejo y con la mujer, a quien conoció cuando aún estaba casado con la mamá de los niños. Pero yo no tengo los mismos rollos, así que los acepté tal cual se me presentaron. Igual te creo que la mujer podría perfectamente ser una mosquita muerta, sobre todo si uno cree las historias que Tom dice que su mamá cuenta de ella. Pero anoche: encantadora.

Ahora falta la mamá. Este jueves tomamos el avión a Vancouver a pasar 2 semanas con ella. Todo el mundo dice que es increíblemente lindo allá y las fotos que he visto lo demuestran. Tengo montones de ganas de ver este lugar yo misma. Me hace falta una cámara nueva para tomarle fotos.

Esta tarde voy al Cascanueces con mi papá. Tradición de niña ir con mi mamá a este ballet al "municipal" de Montreal: Place des Arts. Fue realmente un sorprendente y generoso regalo de mi papá esta invitación. ¿Qué me pongo?

snow up to my knees

Movie Tuesdays

I used to have a club called that, where I invited friends and their friends to come join me for a movie night out. Tuesday was the overall cheapest day to go; that's why I chose it.

I've seen my fair share of flicks lately. Last night I went to see King Kong. It was wicked! I highly recommend it. It was an old-school adventure/drama. Funny! Scary! Exciting! It seems like yesterday Naomi Watts was some unknown chick in Mulholland Drive... I kept superimposing her image in I *heart* Huckabees over her muddied gorilla loving face.

Adrien Brody was a hero :) So was Kong. I absolutely swoon for people who run *towards* danger.

On Tuesday I went to see The Squid & the Whale, which Sarah and I had been talking about seeing for weeks. It was so good! That was a funny movie. All of us -she, Jesse and I- are the kids of divorced parents and I guess we knew what they were talking about... I don't think I've ever been so exasperated in a light-hearted way before with a movie. Kind of like dealing with real life parents (roll of the eyes, "oh, go on then"). All of the actors were great, especially Kevin Kline's son Owen who sort of reminded me of Lu Ponce. Weird. Owen Kline was also in a great movie that's on DVD called The Anniversary Party. Please rent it.

***

Looking forward to a going-away party for Tristan and Amy at Grae's (you may know him from such hit postings as Groan). I could really use a little light-heartedness in my life right now. I keep remembering what Ricardo Alcoholado, the guy who read my birth chart in 2002, said to me about my relationships:

"You are too much on the light side, so you look for tormented souls to even you out. But it's dangerous and it doesn't work."

Since I *am* on the light side, I never take such dark advice seriously. "Something wrong? With my life? Nevah!"

Looking to reunite myself with the lighter side, where I am truly from...

Do you think happy people should join with other happy people or should they try to spread joy to sadder people? Charles, any ideas?

Zoobizarre

Checked out a new-ish place last night: Zoobizarre on St-Hubert and Beaubien. It's a undergroundish little place that looks like it's in a basement ("batcave") but it's really on a second floor.

It looked a lot smaller when we walked in, and then as we discovered additional coves, well, it got bigger. It also looked a gay bar when we first entered because right in front of us was the DJ, wearing a little sailor outfit??

Tom said we were going to hear some Polish DJs, which is hilarious enough.

The picture I had seen in The Mirror didn't do the place justice. In it, it looked like a cement basement, sort of like this smelly sweaty place in Chile called Bal-le-Duc. Pretty dank. But in real life, the cement is shpaed like stones, so it really looks like a wine cellar or a real dungeon. They just need to improve their lighting, like by setting up fake torches or something.

Anyway, the music was in fact bizarre. I got my dose of Pulp with Razzamatazz and Anorexic Beauty, wicked! Also heard some Tone Loc and a lot of electro-y, 80s-y songs in French.

The women's bathroom had the weirdest grafitti.

1) Neil Diamonds=fag
Neil Diamonds is the guy from The Unicorns and Islands. If I'd had a marker I would've gotten pretty mad at whoever wrote that. Neil Diamonds rules!

2) a big "I love CPC Gangbangs" etc.
That was pretty funny and unexpected. I guess you really *are* doing well with your new album, eh?

This afternoon: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Tonight: XMAS party at Button & Nick's, woohoo!
Tomorrow: brunch with Sarah

The snow is blowing like crazy from the rooftops in front of my window. Scary...

Photos of Dallas/The Bone

The big "D"

That's what people from Dallas think everyone calls their city. So cute... :S

So I got my luggage back! Yeehaw!

Check out this souvenir I saw today: a wooden cut-out of the state of Texas with a cast iron pistol glued to it and in black marker "We don't dial 911". Yikes!

On the personal front, I'm pretty mad that I will only get one day off after 7 on the road. Yes, of course, *this* is the way to keep and nurture your employees! Yes!

Where's my raise?

Texas rose

Ok, I guess I owe an update. Well, to “owe” an update to my own blog is a pretty ridiculous concept but what the hell.

I’m in Dallas, working at the People of Color Conference (yes, that’s what it’s really called). I’ve had baby’s first racist experiences on this trip. First something that I’m not too sure qualifies but it sure was weird.

While we were at the gate in Philadelphia, the airline staff asked if anyone spoke Spanish. I said I did, although I was quite surprised that no one else would. I mean, isn’t this the Estados Unidos de America, after all? Anyway… I just translated for a Puerto Rican mother of two who had lost her baby carriage on the flight. Later, as I was getting on the plane some gentleman said what I did was really nice. Mm, thanks? Later still, in Dallas, while I was standing in line to declare my luggage delayed (more on this later), some woman stopped me to say –get this- “you don’t look like you’re Spanish”. Plop. I just told her that my family is Chilean and that blond people speak Spanish too and then she remembered having gone to some “quinceanera” party with a bunch of blond, blue-eyed teenagers. “Is that where you (the fairer Spanish speakers) are from?” Confusion on my part. Huh? Where, what? Chile? What? Whatever, again. That was just weird. I don’t “look” Spanish? Look, first of all, I’m not SPANISH, and second of all, what does that even mean?

But I guess she was just trying to be friendly, in a really annoying Dallas kind of way. I don’t want to say Texan because I really enjoyed the friendliness in San Antonio but here I just find it grating. “Sure will!” Shove it. Please.

I did get a t-shirt that says Texas in baseball lettering and has a rose on it. Cute. But that was only because US Airways lost my luggage!

This had never happened to me before. People: please put your nametag on all your luggage and never trust customer service reps and don’t ever fly through Philadelphia if you can avoid it. Someone listed my bag as being black when it is really green-grey. Yes, green-grey, I said. Quite clearly. The marvelous woman who finally put my Anne Klein loafers to my name got it. “The file said it was black but this bag was green… or grey”. “Yes! Green-grey!” Anyway, I’m still waiting for it because it took so long for someone to figure it out (I arrived sans luggage on Monday) that she had already sent it to Pittsburgh (yes, Pittsburgh) to the giant dump of anonymous bags, before she caught me. Cross your fingers.

Oh, my other racist experience was me, confusing the older black ladies who are our temps. Is it “they all look alike syndrome”? Maybe. I won’t dwell on my OWN shortcomings though. Puh-leeze.

Today is World AIDS day. I had never even seen images of street kids in China until today. And did you know there’s 5 million people with AIDS in India? It’s always about Africa, I didn’t even think about these other countries…