2002-05-07
This weekend I went to a baby shower for a work friend. The group on the whole was younger than I--early thirties to my late thirties--and much more.... What? Well, for one thing they are, like my friend, much more "beauty active" than I: plenty of makeup and blown-dry hair. Which is not to say they looked over-done or anything like that. They looked casual in the way that the discerning eye can tell takes a considerable amount of time and a bit of money as well. Their outfits all looked freshly pressed.
And the shower itself, the refreshments and decorations and gifts and cards and wrapping, were in a similar vein--all in excellent taste, all requiring time, money, effort, or some combination thereof. I can convey the sensibility with one word, and in fact these women would occasionally shriek that word: "Martha!" Imagine mock accusation mingled with admiration.
These women, as far as I know, all have full-time, professional jobs. At least one of them is a doctor. Granted, few of them have children yet, but even so, I am stunned that they manage to look the way they look, put together the kind of party they put together, work their full-time jobs, make it all seem effortless, and still be alive. And I feel fairly confident that their houses are tidy. Even pre-Clay, I'd have been hard-pressed to accomplish a fraction of this.
Is there anything I manage to do that they don't? They seem to read--some of them are in a reading group together--and to watch some TV. I'm sure some of them have commutes comparable to mine. They certainly seem to exercise--almost all were slender and fit. Do they not sleep?
It's a mystery to me, really.
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