Sunday, September 27, 2009

Sorties du dimanche

Tacos a Maxell street market; un march eclectique au sud de la loop


Pilsen Art Walk: Portes ouvertes pour les galleries de Pilsen. Par rapport a l'an passe, il n'y avait pas grand monde, et certaines galleries avaient ferme. Cela dit, on (Emily et moi) a retrouve les artistes qui nous avaient deja plus l'an passe.



Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Article du New York Times

Il y a un article super interessant dans le New-York Times, sur le fait que les femmes "de maintenant" sont peut etre liberees, mais moins heureuses. En gros, on se met la pression sut tout. Les filles, lisez et dites moi ce que vous en pensez:


Women are getting unhappier, I told my friend Carl.

“How can you tell?” he deadpanned. “It’s always been whine-whine-whine.”

Why are we sadder? I persisted.

“Because you care,” he replied with a mock sneer. “You have feelings.”

Oh, that.

In the early ’70s, breaking out of the domestic cocoon, leaving their mothers’ circumscribed lives behind, young women felt exhilarated and bold.

But the more women have achieved, the more they seem aggrieved. Did the feminist revolution end up benefiting men more than women?

According to the General Social Survey, which has tracked Americans’ mood since 1972, and five other major studies around the world, women are getting gloomier and men are getting happier.

Before the ’70s, there was a gender gap in America in which women felt greater well-being. Now there’s a gender gap in which men feel better about their lives.

As Arianna Huffington points out in a blog post headlined “The Sad, Shocking Truth About How Women Are Feeling”: “It doesn’t matter what their marital status is, how much money they make, whether or not they have children, their ethnic background, or the country they live in. Women around the world are in a funk.”

(The one exception is black women in America, who are a bit happier than they were in 1972, but still not as happy as black men.)

Marcus Buckingham, a former Gallup researcher who has a new book out called “Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently,” says that men and women passed each other midpoint on the graph of life.

“Though women begin their lives more fulfilled than men, as they age, they gradually become less happy,” Buckingham writes in his new blog on The Huffington Post, pointing out that this darker view covers feelings about marriage, money and material goods. “Men, in contrast, get happier as they get older.”

Buckingham and other experts dispute the idea that the variance in happiness is caused by women carrying a bigger burden of work at home, the “second shift.” They say that while women still do more cooking, cleaning and child-caring, the trend lines are moving toward more parity, which should make them less stressed.

When women stepped into male- dominated realms, they put more demands — and stress — on themselves. If they once judged themselves on looks, kids, hubbies, gardens and dinner parties, now they judge themselves on looks, kids, hubbies, gardens, dinner parties — and grad school, work, office deadlines and meshing a two-career marriage.

“Choice is inherently stressful,” Buckingham said in an interview. “And women are being driven to distraction.”

One area of extreme distraction is kids. “Across the happiness data, the one thing in life that will make you less happy is having children,” said Betsey Stevenson, an assistant professor at Wharton who co-wrote a paper called “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness.” “It’s true whether you’re wealthy or poor, if you have kids late or kids early. Yet I know very few people who would tell me they wish they hadn’t had kids or who would tell me they feel their kids were the destroyer of their happiness.”

The more important things that are crowded into their lives, the less attention women are able to give to each thing.

Add this to the fact that women are hormonally more complicated and biologically more vulnerable. Women are much harder on themselves than men.

They tend to attach to other people more strongly, beat themselves up more when they lose attachments, take things more personally at work and pop far more antidepressants.

“Women have lives that become increasingly empty,” Buckingham said. “They’re doing more and feeling less.”

Another daunting thing: America is more youth and looks obsessed than ever, with an array of expensive cosmetic procedures that allow women to be their own Frankenstein Barbies.

Men can age in an attractive way while women are expected to replicate — and Restylane — their 20s into their 60s.

Buckingham says that greater prosperity has made men happier. And they are also relieved of bearing sole responsibility for their family finances, and no longer have the pressure of having women totally dependent on them.

Men also tend to fare better romantically as time wears on. There are more widows than widowers, and men have an easier time getting younger mates.

Stevenson looks on the bright side of the dark trend, suggesting that happiness is beside the point. We’re happy to have our newfound abundance of choices, she said, even if those choices end up making us unhappier.

A paradox, indeed.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Jardin Botanique

Apres avoir (une fois de plus) trouve les portes de Six Flags fermees, nous nous sommes rabattus sur le jardin botanique avec nos amis francais. Alice avait l'air plutot contente; au final, ce qu'il interessait, c'ettait d'etre avec sa copine.

Quand au dejeuner...trouvez l'erreur. Appetissant non?







Au revoir!


Dernier dejeuner avant l'avion (et Chantal en Petit Chaperon Bleu taille 5 ans...)

Monday, September 14, 2009

Oh!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Exposition Olafur Eliason au MCA


Nous allons essayer de faire une sortie avec Alice (toute seule) toutes les semaines, et pour bien commencer, je suis alle voir l'exposition "take your time" avec elle. C'etait super.
Je mets le lien vers le site du MoMA qui presente la meme expo.
http://media.moma.org/subsites/2008/olafureliasson/#/visitor_images/

Paquet bien arrive: Merci Grand Mere Jacqueline


Alice adore ses livres-CD et va (presque) sagement attendre le mois prochain pour ouvrir le paquet cadeau pour son anniversaire. Lucie s'est abstenue de commentaires sur ses cadeaux.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Giggly babies

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Rencontre au zoo

D'habitude, Alice est contente quand elle rencontre des chiens sympas sur sa route, mais la, elle a rencontre un autre animal de compagnie:

Sherif & Tribunal

Ca y est, nous avons lance la procedure officielle pour l'adoption de Lucie:

-Lucie recoit un avis du sherif et une etoile de "junior sherif deputy"

- Il y a une salle d'attente spéciale pour les enfants:

-Alice a aussi eu son etoile

- Comme dans les films, on a leve la main droite et jure de dire toute la verite

Premier jour a la "nouvelle" ecole

Alice adore sa nouvelle ecole et m'a fait la tete quand je suis allee la chercher tot...pas longtemps il faut bien le dire, puisqu'on allait manger une glace apres.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Lucie grandit / Lucie is getting bigger

Il va bientot falloir agrandir le berceau / It's time to move to a full-size crib




Sunday, September 06, 2009

Alice Pretend Birthday / Le pre-anniversaire d'Alice: Part 2 @ Six Flags

Lucie is anxiously waiting to be tall enough to go on the rides / Lucie attend avec impatience de pouvoir participer

Sortie de la "bataille des pirates", trempe / Soaking wet after the "Battle of the pirates"

Grand-pere aime autant les roller-coasters qu'Alice / Gery likes roller coasters as much as Alice does



Friday, September 04, 2009

Pediatre / Pedetrician

Visite du 2e mois chez le pediatre hier. Tout va bien et la conclusion etait que Lucie etait une "SuperStar": "She is like a light bulb, she does everything she's supposed tout perfectly!" a dit le medecin.

Cote poids, elle s'est bien remplume: presque 12 lbs et 52 cm. Tout ca au dessus des medianes.

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2nd month visit at the pediatrician yesterday. All goes well and the conclusion was that Lucy was a "SuperStar": "She is like a light bulb, she does everything she's supposed to perfectly!" said the doctor.

She is also getting quite plump: almost 12 lbs and 52 cm. Both weight and length were above the medians.

Alice Pretend Birthday / Le pre-anniversaire d'Alice

Alice a fete son anniversaire en avance avec ses grands parents. Au programme:

- Sortie a ToysRus mercredi pour acheter des cadeaux (evidemment, tout ce qu'on deteste: des trucs a piles en plastique rose qui font du bruit!)
- Le jeudi: tour en caleche a Chicago; chocolat chez Ghirardelli (sous pretexte d'utiliser les toilettes); canard laque a "House of Fortune" a Chinatown; et de retour a la maison, anniversaire avec profiteroles au chocolat maison.

Alice celebrated her birthday in advance with her grandparents:

- ToysRus Wednesday to buy gifts (obviously, everything we hate: pink plastic toys that make noise!)
- Thursday: horse carriage ride in Chicago, with a break at at Ghirardelli (under the pretext of using the restroom!); Peking Duck at "House of Fortune 'in Chinatown, and back home, birthday party with homemade profiteroles.
> swap







Rattrapage / Catching up : Les Travaux


Rattrapage / Catching up : Grand-Mere Chantal and Grand-Pere Gery






Rattrapage / Catching up : Les restaurants