« August 2009 | Main | October 2009 »
As newlyweds, for some reason, our relatives would always ask what we had for dinner. I think they were either concerned about us getting the right nutrients or my "good" wife skills. My bet is on the latter.
"What are you cooking during the week?," my mom asked me on a Sunday while I was over at her house.
"Why not?," I said cracking up, knowing exactly what she meant between the lines. "It's a perfectly light meal at 9pm."
Shortly after that, my sister-in-law, who is no Paula Deen herself, calls to check up on us. Ruds told her we were having dinner and she asked THE question.
"A bowl of Cheerios," my hubby confessed.
"But that's no meal for a man", she responded.
Ruds and I were laughing for days! I must say though, that after 3 years, I've discovered some fast-meal recipes that do the trick of filling up the bellies. The days of bowls of cereal are not completely over...but now we mix it up a bit.
A teenage girl walking down the street with her arms around her boyfriend...and his hands on her butt, that's a bold girl. A 15 year-old girl sitting on her sweetheart's lap at a family party...that's what I consider a liberal familia. A H.S. sophomore laying in bed watching TV with her novio, with the door open or closed...is she suicidal? Maybe not...after all.
My mom would say that today's girls "no tienen verguenza"...they have no shame. I would say they're bolder because their environment is allowing them to be. Now, is that good, bad or just different from how we were brought up?
I will say this...I found myself gasping for air when I saw that my cousin, a 100% Latino man, allows his teenage-daughter to hang out in bed with her boyfriend...and that it's normal for them. Grant it, they were fully clothed and watching a movie. Am I officially a vieja for thinking it's inappropriate? That would be soooo far from okay in my parent's household. It would be considered downright disrespectful and I'm not sure I would be here, typing away right now, if I was that teen girl.
Now, I'm not claiming that I was an angel as a teen. I did commit some PDA "offenses"...but of course, when my parent's weren't looking. I even had a few friends who were sexually active at 15. That's no different from today's young ladies. I don't want to sound like a prude. In fact, I think girls need to be armed with information about sex so that they can protect themselves. For our girls' sake, parents can't be naive. But flaunting it in public...is that a different story?
I guess my overall question is...are girls losing something by displaying so much PDA or are we hypocrites for frowning upon it?
I just happened to be walking by and saw the commotion outside the Ed Sullivan Theater here in NYC. It's President Obama's motorcade (you see the black limo in the middle of the pic?) arriving this afternoon to tape his interview with David Letterman. On the right, proof that even jaded New Yorkers are not too busy to check out the scene.
BTW, the crowd clapped and cheered when he drove through. I was surprised.
Anyway, you may be asking...then why would I cheat on my manicurist? Let me explain. I had an important meeting last week and I needed to look presentable. I walked in to the Queens nail salon the day before my meeting and she was booked for the day. So I did what I had to do. I had her new colleague do my nails and I didn't think anything of it...'til I stopped by last week to make an appt. and she gave me a half-smile.
So,back to this morning...I get there and again she's kind of quiet and not as happy to see me as usual. My brain goes off with a thousand questions. Is it too early in the morning for her? Did it bother her that I had someone else touch my nails? Is it my imagination or just my guilt? Is it silly to feel guilty? I immediately texted Reg, my friend and also Jenny's customer.
"I think Jenny is mad at me. The last time I was here, I had to get a mani with the new lady. Now I'm here and she's not as chatty," I wrote to Reg.
A second later, my phone rings. "Don't mention my name at all. I don't want Jenny giving me the cold shoulder because of you," my former roommate instructs me.
"But it was an emergency," I replied.
"Well, you needed to go somewhere else for that", Reg advised, laughing.
Oh man...did I break some sort of unspoken rule? The good news is...that by the end of my hour with Jenny, she was back to normal. We were talking about her kids again...and she even asked me about "my roommate". I told her Reg was doing great.
Isn't it funny how I'm on a first-name basis with my friends' psychotherapists? No, they've never met me personally, but anytime I want to drive a point home...or hear a neutral point-of-view, I ask..."What did Beverly say?" I wonder if their ears ring every time we say their names.
The other day my girlfriend was having boy trouble. Another classic story of naughty-guy-full-of-drama crossing your friend's path and she's tempted. Haven't we all been there? "What did Anna say?", I immediately asked, assuming she had told her therapist all about this flirt. "She said he has to work out his issues before he could be ready for a relationship", my amiga confessed. I think that shrink knows what she's talking about...in other words, stay away!
I wonder if therapists know that they're a part of a tight girly circle or what Wendy Williams calls "friends in my head"...if only by osmosis or our imagination.
