2009 YEAR IN REVIEW

2009
In 2009, these things happened.....


JANUARY 2009: Obama's inauguration. Started yoga three times a week! Had a lovely and relaxing weekend near Bordeaux on our friend Remy's organic farm.



FEBRUARY 2009: Bought my first grown-up purse :) Photos available for viewing on facebook. (brontibay....mmmmm) Had a Valetine's date with Bee. Starting rehearsing for the play TROIS LITTLE AFFAIRES.



MARCH 2009: Went to the south for Bruno's sister's wedding and I bought a cute dress and the weather was nice...and I got sick and barfed the entire wedding day and missed it all. Oops. The trip started out great! Also I threw a babyshower for Jeannine and went to a great prouduction of Uncle Vanya at Bouffes du Nord (Peter Brook's theatre) and brought my friend Courtney's little sister with me :)



APRIL 2009: My mom came to visit! It was really fun GREAT! We rented a car with Bruno and went to see castles in the Loire Valley. SO FUN!



MAY 2009: BUDAPEST TRIP by T.S. SHELLIOT! That'd be me, sarah and shelli...arriving from NY, Paris and Oslo to spend a fabulous weekend together! It was A-MAZING! Then I went to Nice with my friend Natalie for a weekend. Also very good times. BEACH! And sipping Monaccos on the terrasse in the sun. Love it. Also....baby Arthur was born May 20th!



JUNE 2009: Two performaces of our play TROIS LITTLE AFFAIRES. Very good experience and an important step for the project! Also Bruno's neice was born, Maelys, on June 23rd and our good friend Fanny's baby, Amel, was born June 18th!



JULY 2009: Trip to the south to meet Maelys. She was beautiful, precious and so tiny! A great trip, hot and sunny and time to enjoy the pool! Bastille day fireworks at the Eiffel tower as viewed from a rooftop on the Ile Saint Louis...breathtaking. The rooftops and the view of Notre Dame, the Eiffel tower, the Pantheon...stunning! Also for the second half of the month Bruno and I were in MN!!! We went camping with my mom and jim and took the boat out a bunch and skiied. Theresa came home early to surprise me. I got to see Monica and her beautiful kiddies, Bella and James, on my magical extended layover in Chicago. PERFECT!



AUGUST 2009: Still at home in MN. Great times with fam and old friends (Megan, Rob, Mark! Abby! Natalie and Liam! Jess!!! I loved seeing all of you this summer!!) Then next up was a lovely week in CA seeing Kate, Anna, cousin Rob and Frankie, my sweet friend Lilia and then weekend trip to Santa Cruz on the beach with Terra, Sasha and Courtney. FAB-U-LOUS!!



SEPTEMBER 2009: Back to work after summer fun. Joined a Monday morning acting workshop with my old teacher Mylene from l'AIT. Started teaching at Method Acting Center on Wednesday nights...this started with involvement in the intense 7 day 'semaine d'integration.'



OCTOBER 2009: Bruno and I had our 4 year anniversary! I went to visit Viola in Milan and it was beautiful and sunny and we went to a SPA! Also I got cast in the ensemble for the epic production of DYING AS A COUNTRY at THEATRE DE l'ODEON! We started rehearsals in October.



NOVEMBER 2009: Performed in DYING AS A COUNTRY on the Odeon stage to 5nights of full houses in a 400 seat theatre. We got champagne and tons of delicious little things to eat after the opening show. Felt like a star! Then after dying as a country I took to dying as myself on the couch with the flu. That pretty much took most of November! Oh, and I turned 29! Also, 3 LITTLE AFFAIRES signed the contract to do 36 date run at A La Folie Theatre starting March 18th, 2010! (www.3littleaffaires.com)



DECEMBER 2009: Really fun night of 'works in progress' sponored by the Arts Arena...I performed in Mose's "Should Your Head Get Caught in a Lawnmower," a special seminar about what to do when Maria Callahan no longer loves you. Got reunited with an old college friend, Jeff Kite, who is now playing with Julian Casablancas (of The Strokes) and got invited to the show at the Bataclan with back stage passes and went out with everybody after the show. FUN! Went home to see my fam for the holidays! It was a great trip...arriving in Milwaukee in time to see Angie direct the Christmas concert for her school. I got to stay at Angie and Greg's beautiful home! Went to Rochester to see where my mom works now and Theresa came up to meet us. Then a trip to Lake Crystal and up to my dad's. A lovely and relaxing New Year's Eve with friends by the fire place north of Paris.



Wow...looks like this year got better and better! And I have very HIGH HOPES for 2010!! I hope this finds you well and should you feel so inclined to make similar list...I'd love to hear what you've all been up to!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY! I hope 2010 is full of love, laughter, learning, discovery, joy, good food, good friends and good health!

How Many Expats Does It Take to Buy a Light Bulb?

I had a wonderful, wonderful trip home to see my family in Minnesota and to see friends out in California…but it’s great to be back in Paris, too. Paris is an absolutely breathtaking city…and when I first come back after a few weeks away, I notice it even more. I love it here and I love my life…but that is not to stay that there aren’t many little “challenges” that I encounter along the way:

My desk lamp burned out late last night just before bed, which wasn’t much of a bother as I was ready to turn out the lights. But as I am sitting here at my computer and the sun is stating to set, the room is getting darker, I’m starting to regret not having made it to the little knick-knacks and hardware store before it closed (around 7:30pm…when it was still light out, so I hadn’t so much been minding the burned out desk lamp, at that point).

I look at the clock: 8:47pm. I realize that the grocery store would probably have light bulbs, too! (That probably seems obvious to you, but here grocery stores are really all about the groceries and there are plenty of other things that you definitely CANNOT get in a grocery store…like aspirin or baking soda, which are both sold at the pharmacy, for example.) So, I grab the burned out bulb and make a mad dash out the door. At a dead sprint, I run down my three flights of stairs and the block or so down the street to the store. The time is 8:50pm. And….the door is locked.

So now, I'm standing on the other side of the glass, begging the security guard to let me in. Luckily I am armed with the burned out bulb! I feel like this really helps my case. I keep showing it to him and saying, “S’il vous plait! S’il vous plait! Je suis dans le noir! Qu’est-ce que je vais faire! Il n’est même pas 21h! S’il vous plait!” (Please! I’m in the dark! What am I supposed to do? Come on! It’s not even 9pm!) One of the cashiers notices me and I try to appeal to her as well, but she just rolls her too-much-eye-make-up-eyes and says, “Non.”

I turn back to the security guard, show him the bulb and make little sad pathetic faces and clasp my hands together, begging.

A couple who just finished paying for their groceries (oh yeah, there are still other customers in the store and the cash registers are still on) is standing by the security guard on the other side of the glass from me and they start saying, “Oh! Come on! It just takes a second to buy a light bulb! What is she supposed to do? Come on!” And I’m saying “Please! Please!” and showing him the light bulb and pointing in vain at the sign on the door that says “Open until 9pm” in bright green.

The security guard looks a little uncomfortable. He starts saying, “I’m just doing my job. I mean, I am supposed to keep people out.”

Finally he has to open the door to let the couple out and now there is no glass between us and we’re staring at each other and I again say “Please!” and hold up my light bulb. Then I say, “Oh! This is really mean!!” The security guard looks hurt, “I’m not mean! I’m…uh…well! I’m just…” The couple leaves and he doesn’t close the door. He just stands there and says, "Well it’s my job, but if I were you I would just…do something when nobody was looking.” So he’s not exactly inviting me in, but I figure I’m in the clear. I dive into the store, grab a pair of fresh 100w twist-in* bulbs and dive for the register before the eye-shadowy one comes back. The cashier scans them, asks me for 3.37 and I am extremely grateful to see that I have a 5euro note in my wallet and that I am not going to have to ask if I can charge it. Whew!

I run home, make it back up stairs, screw in the bulb and am enjoying the bright and happy glow of my desk lamp all before 9pm… but don’t think it came easy!

*You may be saying to yourself, “Tina, if you had a few spare bulbs around, none of this would have happened.” As a matter of fact, I do have two spare 100w bulbs in the closet, but both are snap-in bulbs and the desk lamp requires a twist-in bulb. That’s right. There are two different kinds of light bulbs…ones that snap and ones that twist, and each fixture can only accept one or the other. Because one universal style would be just too easy!

Bundle Up

I met some friends for coffee on Sunday...it was about 36 degrees that day. That's COLD for Paris! I know, I know. I'm from Minnesota...but in Minnesota we have central heating. It's just not the same thing. When it's 36 degrees in Paris, you know it and you're cold. It helps to say it in celcius degrees...that's only like 2°C. Much more threatening! Anyway, I went to meet friends and I was happily greeted by five faces with rosy cheeks, five heads with matted down winter hat hair and five bodies bundle up with turtle necks and sweaters. C'est l'hiver, quoi! People dressed FOR WINTER! I liked that. It's kinda cold and uncomfortable...but it helps you appreciate a steaming cup of coffee or a hot chocolate, you feel so lucky to get the spot next to the radiator and you bundle up. People in the Midwest like to talk about how much they love "the seasons"... well, what season is it in your heated garage? Paris winters are dark (even an hour less daylight than the northlands of Minnesota!), grey, dreary and cold. Pretty miserable. But we're all in it together :) And oh how much sweeter the spring...

Momma's Banana Nut Bread

I've been baking a lot lately and one of the things I've made most often is my mom's banana nut bread. I've promised the recipe to a few different friends...so I've decided to post it here:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup cooking oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs beaten
3 ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups flour
1tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I use walnuts)


Steps:
Beat oil and sugar.
Add eggs and banana and beat well.
Add dry ingredients, milk and vanilla.
Mix well.
Stir in nuts.

Pour into greased and floured loaf pan.
Bake at 350° F for 40min.

To be more healthy:
I use 1/2 cup white granulated sugar and 1/2 cup unrefined sugar.
Also when baking I sometimes use 1/2 refined flour half whole wheat flour.
I use cooking oil with Omega 3 and Omega 6.

To be less healthy:
I sometimes add white chocolate chunks. You could also add chocolate chips.


BON APPETIT!

If you're rich, young and healthy then McCain has to a health care plan for you!!!

I wanted to pick and choose some highlights, but I am just copying the whole article below.
If you or anyone you know is still feeling unsure about voting, YOU SHOULD READ THIS or pass it along.

I know I live in France and now have access to basically the holy grail of health care, so maybe I've become more sensitive on this issue. But I can simply NOT UNDERSTAND HOW THE HELL A COUNTRY AS RICH AND POWEFUL AS THE UNITED STATES HAS MORE THAN 45 MILLION UNINSURED CITIZENS. Honestly, it is absolutely disgusting.

Both plans are far from perfect, but the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates that the McCain plan would lower the number of uninsured by a mere two million in 2018, out of a projected 67 million uninsured in that year. The Obama plan would cut the number by 34 million, the center says, but still leave nearly 33 million uninsured.

Obama's plan would be at least a modest step in the right direction.


And McCain's plan runs the risk of screwing over elderly and less-healthy people.
So yeah, if you're young and healthy and plan on being young and healthy forever, and also if you don't give a crap about your parents or neighbors... then yeah. You can just go on ahead and vote McCain!

Oh and if you want to vote McCain, you should be rich too, because...
"Despite all the Republican warnings about high-spending Democrats, McCain’s plan could be a lot more expensive than Mr. Obama’s, at least in the early years, and possibly in the long term. This is because the generous tax credits would drain federal revenues faster than the tax on employer policies would replenish them."

This is from the New York Times- Oct 27th, 2008

THE CANDIDATES' HEALTH CARE PLANS
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/opinion/28tue1.html?ei=5070&emc=eta1

The nation’s health care system is desperately in need of reform — as far too many Americans know from grim, personal experience. In this election, Barack Obama and John McCain are offering starkly different ideas for how to fix that system.

There is no shortage of problems:

¶ Some 45 million Americans lack health insurance, limiting their ability to get timely care.

¶ The costs of medical care and health insurance are rising much faster than household incomes, making it increasingly difficult for people to afford either.

¶ People can’t carry their insurance from one job to another, limiting their mobility. Outside the workplace, it is hard to find affordable insurance.

¶ Despite the wealth and technological prowess of this country, the quality of medical care often lags behind that available in other industrialized nations.

Both candidates have largely accepted the prevailing expert wisdom on ways to improve quality and lower health care costs over the long run, such as relying more on electronic medical records and better management of the chronically ill. But they have very different ideas on the best way to make insurance available and affordable for all Americans.

We believe that Mr. McCain’s plan, which relies on reshaping the tax code, is far too risky. It is likely to erode employer-provided group health insurance and push more people into purchasing their own insurance on the dysfunctional open market, where insurers often reject applicants with pre-existing conditions.

Mr. Obama has focused primarily on extending coverage to a big chunk of the 45 million uninsured Americans by expanding existing private and public programs with the help of federal subsidies and mandates. His boldest innovation would be a new federally regulated exchange where Americans not covered at work would be able to choose — as federal employees currently can — among a variety of private group policies. He would also create a new public program to compete with the private insurers.

Mr. Obama’s plan is a better start than Mr. McCain’s. But it is still not likely to help all Americans who need and deserve affordable, high-quality medical care.

As voters weigh their choice for next Tuesday’s election, we offer this detailed review of the two candidates’ plans.

THE MCCAIN PROPOSAL Mr. McCain’s main idea is to change the tax code so that workers would have to pay income taxes on the value of their employer’s contribution to their health insurance. In return, all Americans, whether currently insured or not, would receive a tax credit of $2,500 for an individual or $5,000 for a family to buy health insurance, either through their employer or on the open market.

Mr. Obama has derided this plan as giving tax credits with one hand and taking them away with the other. But the tax credits are initially so generous that a great majority of workers would end up ahead: their tax credit would exceed the tax they would have to pay on their employer-provided insurance.

They could stay in the same health plan at work and have extra money that could be applied to other health care costs. Or they could buy policies in the open market. As good as that sounds, a $5,000 credit would not go very far toward buying a typical $12,000 family policy but might well suffice for the young and healthy, who get preferable rates.

Mr. McCain correctly recognizes that there are disadvantages to linking insurance to jobs — as thousands of laid-off American workers already are discovering — and that there is an intrinsic inequity in the current tax code that favors those who have employer plans over those buying individual coverage.

The great danger is that Mr. McCain’s plan will fragment the sharing of risks and costs — the bedrock of any good insurance plan — by enticing young, healthy workers to bail out of their employers’ group policies to seek cheaper insurance on their own. Their older or less healthy colleagues would be left behind, which would drive up premiums at work. The rising costs could lead many companies to drop their health coverage entirely.

The proposal also offers little protection for older and sicker people forced to buy policies in the open market. Mr. McCain says the federal government would help underwrite high-risk pools like those operated by many states to cover such patients. But the subsidies his aides have talked about — some $7 billion to $10 billion a year — would fall far short of the amount needed.

Mr. McCain would loosen state regulations on insurers by allowing companies to sell across state lines. Some states require insurers to accept all applicants and provide specified standard benefits, and they limit the ability of companies to base premiums on health status. In the name of promoting competition, Mr. McCain’s plan would free companies from those terms. Anyone who lost insurance as a result would have to seek coverage through the high-risk pools.

THE OBAMA PLAN Mr. Obama would do far more than his opponent to address the nation’s shameful failure to provide health coverage for all citizens. He would require all parents to get coverage for their children and expand Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. He would also require large and midsize companies to offer health insurance to their workers or pay into a kitty to subsidize coverage elsewhere — a provision that Senator McCain castigates as a “fine” but that really is their fair share of the burden.

Mr. Obama says the government would provide subsidies to encourage small employers to offer coverage and to help low-income people buy insurance. This is not a government-run program — as Mr. McCain claims — but it does give the government a much bigger role than it now has by expanding public programs and creating a new national plan.

Mr. Obama would also greatly increase government regulation of the insurance industry. He would require insurance companies to take every applicant and meet a minimum standard of benefits, and he would prevent them from charging higher premiums based on an applicant’s health. Some states have similar requirements now and insurance companies still sell policies there.

COVERAGE Some experts estimate that the McCain plan would reduce the number of uninsured only modestly because millions of people would drop or lose employer coverage, and not many more than that would buy policies outside of work. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates that the McCain plan would lower the number of uninsured by a mere two million in 2018, out of a projected 67 million uninsured in that year. The Obama plan would cut the number by 34 million, the center says, but still leave nearly 33 million uninsured.

The McCain campaign makes an optimistic prediction that up to 30 million of the uninsured might take out policies using their tax credits. If so, those policies would probably be meager — with high deductibles, large co-payments and limited benefits — and unlikely to provide much help in a crisis.

COSTS Despite all the Republican warnings about high-spending Democrats, McCain’s plan could be a lot more expensive than Mr. Obama’s, at least in the early years, and possibly in the long term. This is because the generous tax credits would drain federal revenues faster than the tax on employer policies would replenish them.

The Tax Policy Center estimates that the McCain plan would cost the federal government $1.3 trillion over 10 years, and the Obama plan $1.6 trillion. Using different assumptions, the Lewin Group, a consulting firm, estimates that the McCain plan would increase federal spending by $2.05 trillion over 10 years, compared with $1.17 trillion for the Obama package.

Neither candidate has persuasively explained how he would pay for his plan. Mr. Obama says he would apply the money saved by rescinding Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy and hoped-for savings from reforming the health care system, but there is considerable doubt those savings will materialize quickly.

Mr. McCain also counts on cost-containment measures but is mostly relying on market forces to reduce the cost of health insurance and health care. He expects that people who buy their own coverage will shop for cheaper policies and make more careful choices about what medical care they really need. Among the dangers is that chronically ill people may forgo needed treatments.

Mr. Obama’s plan is the better one because it would cover far more of the uninsured, spread risks and costs more equitably and result in more comprehensive coverage for most Americans. We fear Mr. McCain’s plan would jeopardize employer-based coverage without providing an adequate substitute. At a time when so many employers are reducing or dropping coverage, that is not a risk that the country can afford to take.

Debate Issue

Hmmm.... I guess someone McCain's age is a little more interested in Viagra than birth control. Understandable, understandable.

But what about the rest of us?

Wouldn't it be nice to have someone leading the country who is at least a little bit in touch with the general population? (Note: the USA is a nation where 98% of women use birth control at some point in their lives)

John McCain has been unable to answer a simple question: Shouldn't insurance companies be required to cover birth control if they cover Viagra?

The questions was first posed months ago, and he still hasn’t answered that question clearly.

Click the link below to see the video and tell debate moderator Bob Schieffer that John McCain owes millions of American women voters an answer on birth control.

https://secure.prochoiceamerica.org/site/Advocacy?id=3323

As recently as 2005, McCain voted specifically against requiring insurance companies to cover prescription birth control.

Maybe Sen. McCain has done his homework and can now give a real answer at the debate. Or maybe he doesn’t want to answer because he knows his record is unacceptable to the American pro-choice majority that will decide this election.

Please watch the video (it's only a minute and a half long) and request that this question be raised in the third deabte!

If you don't like what I am saying here, let's let McCain answer for himself...

The Real McCain

This is a three minute video and I STRONGLY urge you to take the time to watch it.
You think you know John McCain? Here is The REAL McCain.
Please watch this, think about it and get the word out.
Electing John McCain in 2008 would be a DEVASTATING MISTAKE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEtZlR3zp4c