This Serious Moonlight

So one night last week just after turning off my light to go to sleep I was delighted to discover that I could see the (nearly full) moon from my bed here. Lying in bed looking at the moon is one of my very favourite things to do and it brought me back to the days when I lived on Hilgard in Berkeley and fell asleep and woke up right next to a big window. Each night I watched the planes fly overhead, and some nights I'd get to enjoy seeing the world through the glow of moonlight. One morning that fall I woke up to see this huge glowing slightly pink moon setting in the early morning light. That morning remains one of my favourite memories of the apartment.

Berkeley was an especially good place for moon viewing, particularly among urban environments. Due to the lack of skyscrapers and tall buildings in general, the sky always appeared more visible, and closer, and it just seemed easier to see the moon. The full moon rising huge and yellow behind the Berkeley hills (and the fall full moons were always the brightest and best of the whole year) continue to be highlights of my time there. In Toronto, my views of the moon are more easily obscured by buildings or trees. Although I love the view of the full (or nearly) moon from the windows in my front door. It often does get blocked by trees, so those glimpses of it are always exciting. Happily Montreal, or at least my neighbourhood, also seems to be great for moon watching.

A bit of a cliché to be sure, but I've loved the moon for as long as I can remember. Growing up I adored Kit Pearson's Looking at the Moon. I read that book so many times even today I could probably recite entire passages from it. One of the ideas in that book, which I now know is a common one but seemed really novel to a 12 year old me, is how no matter where people are in the world, they see the same moon. I never get tired of that idea, or think it's cheesy or silly.

Sometimes I think I like the full moon best (just because it's the brightest, most romantic etc) but it always makes me really happy to see a crescent moon in the sky, especially right after a few moonless nights. When C. and I went to Iguazu Falls on the border of Argentina and Brazil five years ago, we learned that while usually access to the falls is prohibited at night, when there is a full moon the falls are open. I became determined then, and am still determined now, to one day go back there on a full moon. Seeing the moon (preferably full, or nearly) over any body of water (especially lakes and oceans) is one of my favourite ways of seeing it.

The idea of the moon as a person is also cool. I have a magnet on the fridge of 'La Luna' (see picture below) and she is clearly female and has very pretty bright green eyes. The moon in the other picture below appears male to me, although I guess it could go either way. Mostly that picture just makes me think how great it would be to play on a tire swing attached to the moon. It's fun in images to see the moon as a person but I never think of it as being either male or female when seeing it in the sky. Instead, it's just this mysterious, though familiar, object looking down on us. Something bright and familiar I can see no matter where I go.

Fabulous First Ladies

So I have to admit that I have a secret love for first ladies - namely Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni. In some ways I see them as real life Disney Princesses, in that I love them in kind of the same way I love Snow White and Belle (and all the others too!) Mostly I just think they're really pretty; and I like their clothes, and their personalities that come across in pictures, and interviews.

Michelle Obama is super cool for so many reasons: she's a lawyer (obviously a cool profession :), she's from Chicago (a city I've only been to in passing but totally want to really visit), she's tall (5'11 I think! I find it cool she's tall because I've always wanted to be taller... 5'9 would be my ideal height...), her birthday is January 17 (so the day before mine!), she likes J Crew (and always looks super rad in their clothes!), and she seems to have great relationships with her kids, mom and husband. All around, she is very appealing. It's interesting because in Canada, the whole idea of knowing/caring about the 'First Lady' (that term isn't really even used here) is uncommon. I've read maybe one or two articles about Laureen Harper (the Prime Minister's wife) and I've seen a few pictures of her, but I really couldn't tell you very much about her at all. Whereas I know quite a bit (albeit somewhat superficially) about Michelle Obama.

I've liked Carla Bruni since way back in the fall of 2003 when someone gave me a mix cd with two of her songs on them. I loved those songs so much that I bought the whole album. Carla Bruni was so intriguing -- an Italian supermodel, who now lived in Paris and wrote and sang her own songs in French! Her second album came out while I was living in Paris in the spring of 2007, and of course I bought it. She also made a public appearance at a record store near my apt but I couldn't attend, much to my chagrin, because of work. A few months after I left Paris she became romantically involved with the recently elected French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, and in February 2008 she married him. My biggest regret was that I wasn't in Paris to read all the Paris Match and other glossy magazines which must have been chronicling their every move. A few months after their marriage, Carla Bruni was on the cover of Vanity Fair and told them she'd voted for Sarkozy's opponent in the French election (albeit before she'd met him, but still) which I thought was very cool.


My love of both of them has most definitely been encouraged by the Huffington Post's Style page. It is such a fun website to visit. It loves putting together slide shows of different models/actors/princesses/first ladies and asking people to vote on which outfit/hair style/shoes are best. I rarely vote, but I do love looking at the pictures! The site regularly has Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni slide shows. My personal favourites have been the slide shows of official state visits or summits when I get to see pictures of the two of them together. The Style Page loves the whole Obama family. There are regularly pictures of them walking across the lawn of the White House either about to board a helicopter to, or having just gotten off one from, Camp David, or on vacation, or walking/playing with the dog, or at any number of other various events. Sometimes it can feel a bit weird to be clicking through picture after picture of this family I don't actually know hiking in Maine or eating ice cream in Hawaii or playing with their dog, but mostly it's just fun so I don't think about it too much.

I definitely recommend checking out the Style Page. Maybe you will start to love Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni too, if you don't already!