Sisterhood46

Living in a city, very often means living on an island of blue. For example, living in NYC for the last 5 years has meant that no matter how crazy the Republican regime got I was surrounded by fellow Democrats with whom I could commiserate. It gave me the opportunity to have a daily sanity check. When we moved to Connecticut I was a little scared about our town's political leaning, after all Connecticut is not known for its liberalism, and they have a Republican governor (a woman mind you, but still a Republican). I found a few reassuring signs. I saw an Obama sign in our neighbor's yard. People smiled when they saw my kids wearing their Obama t-shirts around town. I found a group of people to celebrate Obama's inauguration with. My son's elementary school even showed the inauguration live in their auditorium. My sense of relief came to an abrupt end last Thursday, when I went to pick up my youngest son from school. On the back of the Lexus in front of me were two st...

I'm originally from Paris, France. And although I've spent more years living abroad, I'm very attached to its culture and customs. My desire to keep that link to France was increased tenfold when I had kids. One of the fun parts is sharing with them my favorite French treats and holidays. When I was very young and living in Paris one of my favorite memories was going to a boulangerie and getting a warm pain au chocolat before or after school. Living in NYC made it easy to pass on that tradition. The kids and I had a couple of bakeries to go to after school to grab a pain au chocolat . We did it almost everyday. Another tradition close to my heart is sharing a Galette des Rois in early January. You get to eat this yummy cake called a Galette des Rois and who ever finds the figurine inside the cake, gets to be king or queen (see below for a longer explanation of this holiday). Living in NYC, made it easy to pass on this tradition. There are two great places for thi...

I'm a very specific kind of nature lover. I love the beautiful things in nature. I love the flowers, the birds singing, the sunlight shining through the leaves of an apple tree, and above all the amazing colors nature comes up with. I've never been into the animals, the bugs, the snakes and rodents that inhibit the outdoors. Ever since I was super young they always elicited a " yyyyyuuuuck !" response. Now that I've moved to the burbs I'm noticing these creatures all around me and I can't say I'm enjoying getting to know those natives. This is a two part problem. One I don't like them and I don't want to like them but more troubling is that I can't even identify what they are! One day I was jogging back from the beach when I saw a four-legged animal trotting towards me, I just assumed it was a dog. As I got closer I realized it was a fox, a real live fox. It stopped looked at me and I tripled my jogging pace! Last week, at the break of dawn...

There is something especially brutal about having a snow day on a Monday. After having spent a weekend with the kids, and really feeling the need for a little bit of me time, you hear that the kids are not only going to be home for another day but that chances are you will be stuck inside the whole day. So you wearily have to go from "get stuff done" mode to "how many indoor activities can I come up with to get us to dinner time." Of course all of this gloom lifts when you see your kids faces light up as you announce that school has been canceled. All of a sudden everyone feels like they've been given a spontaneous holiday. With no 7:20AM bus to catch the morning slowed down to a nice pace. Breakfast finished around 9:30. Then instead of trying to find something to do, the kids asked if they could go play outside in the snow with the neighbors. I got everyone into snow gear and stayed in my PJs . Yeap ! that would never had happened in the city. I would have ha...

I have always felt safe when I'm surrounded by people. Mind you I might be standing next to a rapist for all I know, but in general I feel safer when I know there is someone close by. Every Monday night at around 9:00PM, I leave my NYU classroom and walk to Grand Central. It's about a 10 minute walk, I'm alone, it's dark, but I feel absolutely safe. Every Monday night at around 10:30OM, I step off the train and walk to my new home in the suburbs. It's about a 10 minute walk, I'm alone, it's dark, and I feel so vulnerable. So much so, that about 5 minutes into my walk I feel the need to call hubbie to let him know I'm on my way. Why do I feel vulnerable in a place that should in theory much safer than the streets of NYC? Is it because there is absolutely no one else but me walking in the street? Is it because it is soooooo silent that I can hear every single one of my footsteps, every leaf rustle? Is it because there are barely any street lights so the ...

So as you know, everyone drives everywhere in the suburbs. And I mean everywhere. So you would think that they would be pretty decent drivers since they spend so much time behind the wheel. Guess what? It's exactly the opposite. People here have spent so many hours behind the wheel that they are in this sort of coma. None of them pay any attention. None of them use their signals, they just kind of decide last minute to take a turn across four lanes of traffic. I mean this is the most life endangering driving I've ever seen, it even tops the crazy drivers in Bogota, Columbia! It's actually really scary because they're all driving SUVS. I can't tell you the number of women I've seen driving these things and meanwhile they can barely see over the wheel. So they can barely see where they're going but they're on the phone, painting their toenails while driving through a stop sign. It just boggles the mind. The other day I was in the car with all three kids,...

The kids, hubbie and I have just come back from a three daybreak in NYC. We stayed in our old neighborhood. At first I was a little apprehensive that everyone would feel really homesick. In turns out everyone really enjoyed themselves. We had a great dinner with three other families. The kids hung out with their friends, I shared a much needed drink with the other moms. It was so much fun. The kids' table made Animal House look tame but apart from that it was great. We went to our favorite restaurants, discovered some new one. Braced ourselves against the cold and walked around town. Hubbie and I had a much needed date night at Nobu. Our old babysitter came to our hotel to look after the kids. When we got home this afternoon, I asked the kids how they felt about the trip. They both said that they had a great time and that they miss NYC. But to my great surprise they also said that they liked Westport. They like the freedom of being able to go for a bike ride with the neighbors by ...