Thanksgiving done

First I just want to say how much I admire people who manage to post something every day. You know who you are. I just manage these summaries every few weeks!

Sacha and his other grandmother!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch yesterday at Anne's. Her oven, not to mention her kitchen, is too tiny for a turkey, so I stuffed and cooked the bird and kept it as warm as possible for delivery to her apartment. This was a perfect venue because Emma was leaving from the Gare de Lyons, just a couple of minutes from Anne's, right after lunch. And it's convenient enough for Louis and Gwen to bring Sacha via public transport rather than have to drive. Gwen prepared the vegetables, a tsimis (looks like I've got them hooked on that), much better than my own last attempt on that. Anne made cornbread and pumpkin pie. I thought I had cranberries in the freezer and was going to make a sauce, but they were no where to be found, so I was going to substitute with my neighbor's chutney made with gooseberries from our yard. But I forgot to put it in the bag with the turkey. Luckily, Anne had a jar of mango chutney, which was excellent with the turkey. Sacha ate before us: tsimis purée and chicken -- almost the same meal as ours! And he slept soundly while we ate. He's absolutely adorable. And last week, we had a family lunch with Gwen's parents (the photo is one of Anne's) after which we went for a digestive walk to the Jardin Tropical in the Bois de Vincennes. No one ever goes there; the entrance is along the Nogent border, so not really where people can find it easily if they are in the Bois. Such a shame; it's not taken care of and is in the process of disintegrating!

Last time I wrote it was just after the election in the States. I wrote about how frustrated I was, not so much with the process, but with the incorrect information. After reading the post, one of my kids wrote me that she hadn't sent in her write-in ballot because of the mis-information on the PA website. She was not happy about missing an election. 

It turns out the AARO had scheduled a meeting with Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, the president and CEO of Overseas Vote Foundation so I was even more determined to attend. I had filled out the post-election survey on the process and I had entered a report on the PA mis-informative website. It turns out that the report was bumped up and it was Susan, herself, who had replied to me. We didn't have the turn-out we had hoped for. Maybe because we were using a locale our attendees are not accustomed to, maybe because the meeting was a little later than usual, maybe because of election fatigue. I don't know. Because there were fewer people, the presentation served more as a backdrop for a large conversation with Susan and all the attendees. It was very interesting to note how Overseas Vote Foundation has grown and improved and is serving ever more voters, even if the exact number could not yet be announced. (The research team at the foundation has not released its numbers, yet, and OVF is not the only site overseas voters use to get their information or process their requests.) What was confirmed is that it's more than in the last presidential election cycle. There are a lot of young voters abroad and they are not neglecting to vote; that's wonderful. The overseas absentee registration and ballot request process is so much more efficient than what is going on in the country, it might become the model for voter reform. Still, not enough overseas voters vote. Many still do not know they can vote; many do not understand that the absentee ballot request is not the same as for local absentees, and there are quite a lot who just prefer to remain off the records, all records. Susan is remarkable; this is an exhausting job and she has a family and other work. I really enjoyed going to dinner with her after the meeting.

And that brings me to taxes. There's another meeting this week about end-of-year things to do regarding our US taxes. It looks like that meeting is drawing more people; it's at the Mona Bismarck American Center and a little earlier in the evening.

As I said, we did not celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday. It's a regular work day here. I went to painting. We're supposed to be working on the inspiration of one of two poems. We're not supposed to be using any photos as support. Well, I am not following instructions. A few weeks ago, Jon forwarded to me the link to some photos taken in Boston during a rowing competition Tobi was in. So, I'm using one of those photos as my inspiration. (I think it's one of those, but it could be from somewhere else, as I haven't really classed these photos.) There's a bridge spanning the river. There's the crew in their boat. And I'm adding a couple of airplane trails in the sky. I'm really trying to deal with the bridge structure and perspective.

And that brings me to the Hopper exhibit. I went back to see it on Wednesday with Rita. I love the geometry of the structures and shadows. There are also some pretty fabulous paintings and sketches by artists who influenced Hopper or who were influenced by him. I love the Degas, A Cotton Office in New Orleans:

Lots and Lots of Little Things

There's no order to my thoughts today. First thing that comes to my mind is that I'm sick of the US election. I can't imagine what it must be like in the States, with all the political ads. Here, it's just in the news and special reports. But then, it's also on facebook, in the comments and shared tidbits from friends. I haven't expressed myself very much publicly. A little, but not much. I have expressed myself concerning overseas voting by encouraging everyone to request their ballots and then to send them in. All that, and when I figured my ballot was a bit late in coming I called the Philadelphia Board of Elections to inquire and then to ask they send me another one. It arrived, but the address was nearly illegible and not to international standards, so I'm surprised it did arrive. I've been corresponding by email with the assistant commissioner with my Congressman's office and the founders of a group of overseas voters that worked hard to get people registered and get their ballot requests and then their ballots in. So, I just got more frustrated when I checked the PA voters services site to check the status of my ballot (had it been received?) and was notified that I am not registered! I am so! The board of elections people had no trouble identifying me, my address, or other information and never once suggested that I wasn't actually registered! So, imagine a voter who checked the site and was informed he or she was not registered. Why send in the ballot, then? Another person on the "Pennsylvanians Abroad" group on facebook has just reported being in the same confusion and frustration as me. I'm a militant voter, so I have made the phone calls, have corresponded with the board of elections, have alerted my Congressman, but many voters might just take the website's word for it and give up.

This week, you can't have ignored Superstorm Sandy! Wow! That's getting wide coverage here, too. There's been a mention here and there about Haiti being hit hard and it's a shame that so much time is being spent on the US damage. I don't know if there's been much mention in the States of the damage elsewhere. For us, this puts a real damper on our vacation plans. I had reserved a house belonging to the mother-in-law of a friend (http://ellenlebelle.blogspot.fr/2010/10/what-wonderful-weekend-thank-you-anita.html) for two weeks in August. The kids were trying to arrange their vacations to come; B&T were coming up for a weekend; J&T were planning to come.... Well, Anita has written that we should come up with a plan B. The news she has been able to glean is that the house, miraculously, is okay. However, the island's infrastructure is so damaged that they are estimating it will take many months to restore services. In the mean time her mother-in-law may just give up and sell.

Paul and I took a week-long break. We've already been home a week! We went to Avignon to see T, a friend of Paul's from the Pierwige before my time, probably 1969. She's been living in Avignon for a long, long time and has just retired. She's a physical therapist, but her real specialty is the Feldenkrais method and she has developed techniques for dancers and musicians. We'd been to see her a couple of years ago. This time we had dinner with her twice. The second one was at her parents'. They live in the same converted mansion, downstairs. They are delightful and dinner was pleasant. They miss living in Los Angeles, though. 

T was busy on Thursday, so Paul and I went for a drive. I took a look at a map and saw that one of my facebook friends (really the friend of a friend) was nearby, so we set that as our destination. Then Paul saw the sign for Ménerbes and wanted to go there because when he was a teenager, in the mid-60s, he had spent three summers with his aunt and uncle's helping to clear the land and rebuild the hillside terrace walls just outside the village. We found the house. The hillside is covered with trees. The village is well restored and much cleaner and richer than Paul remembered it of course. There used to be just one café tabac and now there are several restaurants. We had lunch -- excellent. But everything shuts down by mid-November. There's no doctor; the pharmacy is closed, no butcher or baker. 

Goult, the village near my facebook friend's, is just across the main road from Ménerbes, on the facing hill. It's a bigger village. The streets are wider, so there is more light. There is a very nice little tour of the town you can do on your own; there are little posts with tourist information along the way. They've restored the old flour mill and there's a panel explaining the restoration and the functioning of the mill. My friend had been out when I announced the possibility of our passage and our timing was off, so next time we'll plan better.

Paul wanted to go to Apt. Based on his memory, this was where we could get some good fruits confits (candied fruit). It was the big town where his aunt used to go to market. It is still a big town. There is a candied fruit processing plant just outside the town, but the main street only had a couple of shops with the specialty. It was time to return to Avignon and dinner with T and her parents.

The next morning we went to Montpellier for an afternoon and evening with the Bs, our former neighbors in Nogent. The twin girls are big girls now, going on 5, and the boy is a big boy for 7. Their house is finished and is very big and pleasant. M and R are, as ever, wonderful. R has taken up music seriously and has performed in a local club! They both have heavy teaching schedules this semester and are very, very busy. We spent the night at the Holiday Inn in the town center and it is a beautifully restored old hotel.

Saturday, we were off to Six-Fours, to the Lebelles, there. Pierre and Paul spent quite a lot of time looking at their old family films that have been transferred to a DVD. We brought back a big box of slides that Paul is now in the process of scanning into his computer. The big job is trying to sort them out -- where, when, who...

Here are some shots from our trip: