Belgium in Manhattan

Today we discovered a really neat little Belgian restaurant on the corner of 20th Street and 1st Avenue in Manhattan-- it's called Petite Abeille. We needed to take Sophia back to the city as she starts teaching Friday. On the menu was Croque Madame, which I have been dreaming about for the last few weeks and haven't had since Paris 2007! How random is that! My other accomplishment for the day was successful parallel parking on the streets of Manhattan without accidentally bumping any other cars! Life can be sweet... :)

Ice Cream & Contented Cows

Tonight was one of those wonderful, perfect summer evenings that we remember and long for in the dead of winter. While the day was hot and humid, the temperature dropped when the sun went down leaving that faint glow of daylight and summer day warmth. It was a perfect summer evening to go for an ice cream at Woodside Farms, a local ice creamery situated on a historic farm. Next to the historic farm house is a small ice cream house where customers line up to get their favorite ice creams. Mine is always the same: coconut and cappuchino crunch. I've tried other flavors, but these two are my favorites!

Fawn always loves going for an ice cream—and banana is her favorite! As soon as we ask "Do you want to go get an ice cream?" she bolts out the door and waits by the car. When we cross over onto Brackenville Road, and then over Limestone Road, she hangs her head out the window sniffing the air as if to follow the trail to the ice cream farm.

Tonight was a special treat because the cows were out in the field, and Fawn got up close to see them. After a thoughtful close look and sniff, she was ready to wait in line for her ice cream.

Global 21st Century Women

Global Woman Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy edited by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild (2002) is a thought-provoking collection of essays describing the lives of third world women, and how the globalization and the changing lifestyles and economies of the first world have changed these women’s lives, families, and communities. Easy to read, this book is not fiction but based in scholarly research conducted primarily through interviews with men and women throughout Asia. These personalized stories include those of women who left their own babies to go abroad to work as nannies or maids for well-to-do families. For most women, this was a way to get ahead and better their own family lives. They worked 14 -16 hours days, enduring indignities imposed on them by their employers, saved as much money as they could to send home, and went without seeing their own children for years at a time. Many women experienced arriving home only to find their husbands had spent all the sent remittances on drink and gambling. The book also chronicles the emotional attachments the nannies formed with their charges, and the tensions this creates between the child’s mother and the nanny. Ultimately, nannies are expendable, and frequently discharged with little notice. Globalization has also created a sex-worker service economy, and the women who work as sex workers are often kidnapped or sold by their families into the slavery of this form of service work. The sex industry has truly become an "industry" specializing in human trafficking across border. Sex-workers have become a tourist attraction, and often the governments in which sex-tourism is most prevalent turn the other way. Besides the first-hand accounts of what many Third World women endure as they become a different kind of global traveler-- that of the expendable nanny, maid, or sex-worker, the book also provides explanations of the cultural phenomena that contribute to having these women become the primary bread-winners for their families. This book reads like fiction, but is totally based on fact! First and foremost, this book should be read by everyone interested in developing knowledge of the state of women acrss the globe. It would also make an interesting supplement for college level courses in women’s studies, globalization, as well as poverty and welfare.

Destiny Day

My trailblazing, mountain climbing daughter has returned—she got within 2400 feet of the summit on Mt. Ranier and had to opt out of climbing the summit because her knee was not capable of going any further. After a successful 92 mile hike on the Wonderland Trail, not reaching the summit on this first attempt was her destiny, and she was wise in making her choice. The mountain will still be there next year!
Yesterday was destiny day for quite a few of us—as I met 2 wonderful women at the 10:30 round table session on Innovative Research Methodologies (I’m at the ASA conference in Atlanta). At the table were Marianne and Karla, both dynamic young women who reported on two very different but very interesting research studies! Marianne, whose research paper presentation was about aid workers fatalities, works for a think tank organization and travels all over the world! She had just flown in from Germany to attend the conference. Talk about a world class citizen! Karla is also international—she is Colombian and married to a Russian. Although she’s a statistician, her doctoral research work is a qualitative study based on the dynamism of food and our intimacy with food. Karla is interested in food because she, through personal experience, has found that our processes foods can make you seriously sick and compromise your immune system. Since Karla ‘s research is about food and people’s relationship to food, she suggestion we go out to lunch at a place where the food “is touched by human hands.” That’s how we had the most divine meal touched by human hands at La Pietra Cucina in Peachtree Center! We ordered the Prosciutto di Parma appetizer, and then shared the Black Spaghetti, Gabby’s Fettucini, and Mezze Penne al Pomodoro for the entrée. Our wine was Enzo Di Sotte Rue Primitivo 2008, which was a soft, light red – the perfect complement to our meal! After lunch we searched for Karla’s favorite dessert place, a little donut place where all the donuts are personally made by the owner, a CIA educated turned donut shop owner, but given that this was a Monday, the little donut place was closed. It was now time for Karla to pick up her kids from school, and for Marianne and I to tour the textbook exhibit and part ways, as so many strangers do when they meet in a strange place and bond over a meal. As Marianne said, “We were destined to meet today,” hence this was our Destiny Day. There’s something about having a meal with people you’ve just met that forges immediate bonds! Good people, good food, good wine, good time and sharing our adventures with strangers. Destiny.

Teeth Whitening in Atlanta

Lately I've developed a practice of purchasing any toiletries I may need (other than the hotel-provided ones) at my destination. That way I can avoid the hassles with going through security and making sure my little bag of stuff doesn't get lost (as happened in London one time), bottles don't leak, etc. Well, I am now at the ASA annual meeting in Atlanta, and needed to secure my toiletries. It turns out that I had to walk 3+ miles, roundtrip, in 94 degree heat and high humidity, uphill all the way, and in full sun, to find a drugstore! You might ask why I was so driven to find a drugstore rather than simply use the hotel-provided toiletries… besides not having my favorite Aveeno moisturizer, I just had to have teeth whitening stuff and take advantage of being away from home to set myself on a strict teeth whitening regimen! I’ve noticed that so many people have beautiful white teeth… and while I’ve never had gorgeous teeth to begin with, mine have never been movie-star-quality-sparkling white. They’ve never been so white that you could see my smile a mile away. Oh, I know that tooth color varies in shades from white to off-white, to creamy white—but with so many people whitening their teeth artificially these days, I was just driven enough to try—hard enough to warrant walking uphill 3+ miles in 94 degree heat and high humidity in… Atlanta in August! Each day I work on whitening my teeth—we’ll see how it all turns out in a day or so… in the meantime, I find myself in obsessive-compulsive mode--frantically rushing back to the hotel room to brush my teeth after I’ve had a cup of coffee…

Sustainable Wine Growing

Well, since last night I've had a chance to search the Parducci winery online (http://www.parducci.com/), and it looks like this wine grower really does run a sustainable operation! They mention everything from the inks used on the labels, reducing the use of fossil fuels, to a strategic plan for reducing its carbon footprint and battling climate change. A simple google search for wine growing practices and the environmental impact of growing wine revealed that LOTS of water is used in growing wine, and it's really helpful if the water can be recycled. ative environmental impacts of wine dustry include the carbon footprint creaed by transportation, as well as the packaging. Another quick internet search showed that Frog's Leap wine, in California rates the highest in "green" ratings. When you think about it, growing grapes takes up lots of land, and the ultimate result of wine production creates a product that uses packaging including glass bottles and foils. Most of the time these bottles are added to the trash heap. Truthfully, I never really thought about the impact of producing wine... after discovering Parducci it really makes me think about this so much more! This wine grower really does practice being "sustainable"! I can't wait to try their other wines and visit this winery, and I'm also going to be more conscientious about the wines I buy and will look for more wines grown closer to home so as to reduce my wine carbon footprint!

Finally, The Wine!

OK- so this blog is called "The Wine Sisters Book Club" and so far my posts have been about books, so you might ask what about the wine? Tonight I'm in Atlanta getting ready for 4 days of intense conference gatherings and session attending! I picked up one of those small (meant as wine for 2 glasses) bottles of Parducci Chardonnay Vintage 2008 from the Mendocino, CA vinyards. From the label I see that this is a "family owned" label with a "sustainable winegrowing" mark on the label. Not sure what that means... The back of the label lists the qualities that, I guess, explain what sustainable winegrowing is. The list includes * locally owned and operated; * grapes from family farms; * sustainable farming practices; * 100% green power; * earth friendly packaging; and * carbon neutral. OK- all noble I'm sure but the wine still comes in a bottle with a metal screw cap (to make it user friendly for hotel guests), so by my count it still contributes to the waste system, right?

I really don't know a thing about wines except there are reds and there are whites. Some are heavy and some are light. Then there is the dry factor, and I'm finding that I like dry wines over sweeter ones.

OK- now for the taste test-- nice aroma... I sense a touch of sweetness in this chardonnay and I'm not sure that I like it. However, it will not go to waste!

Frenzied Reading

My daughters (and my son) are impressive readers! they have read War and Peace, Anna Karenina, or Pride and Prejudice...all those impressive books I have not read. I read shorter works because I don't have the attention span or the discipline to read those tomes. I tend to be an obsessive-compulsive reader-- when I begin a book it's hard for me to stop reading until it's done. Reading a book interferes with my life because I stop doing what I should be doing, and simply read and read and read... it's as though I can't go on with my normal life until I've finished the book! That's why I'm enjoying Eat, Pray, Love because the author is also obsessive-compulsive like me, but she's taken a year out of her life to travel and find herself. Right now I'm on the part where she's in the Ashram in India-- a community of yoga practitioners who meditate, perform selfless service, and experience getting to know themselves. Having just started yoga as a form of exercise, I can only imagine what that experience must be like. Some people can savor a book and make it last longer. It provides that escape into another world. I can't-- my reading style tends to be to devour a book, to consume it until it is over and done. Perhaps someday I'll develop the discipline to go more slowly and relish the tale... but for now, I am driven to a frenzy to read, read, read!

Catching Up

Whew! Times flies as they say-- and the last few weeks have flown like dandelion puffs in the wind! I joined a gym, worried about my daughter hiking 100 miles in the wilderness around Mt Ranier, and bought an e-reader (Nook). The gym has made me fall in love with yoga and water, the daughter has safely survived her 100 mile trek, and I am just now using my e-reader to read Eat, Pray, Love before the movie comes out. It's already a fun read and pure escape from what has become, sad to say, the drudgery of doctoral work readings! I loaded up my Nook with several other books this evening and each involves some sort of true-life travel story. Think I'll promise myself a magnificent trip once the dissertation is done!