Off-Topic Tuesday, or, “Stash It or Trash It”

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I own a few Isabella Fiore handbags.  I like that the bags are different and because they are so different, you don’t see the bags in every Trader Joe’s cart!  I carry my Fiore when I want to be funky, irreverent and unique.  So sometimes the bags will show up on “rotation night” at Precious Children I & II’s conservative, old-money, southern college prep school.  I carry my Fiore when I am meeting someone for the first time and I want to dispel any preconceived notions about who I am.  I carry my Fiore when I go “boutique” shopping.  There’s something about walking into a boutique with a hobo chic bag , a bag that the owner of the boutique  is unable to identify.  For me that’s fun.  I know, I know . . . I am special.  Ha!

Though I love IF bags, I am feeling a certain way about this one.  What say you?  “Stash It or Trash It?”

COPYRIGHT 2011, The Recovering Attoney, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Mind the Gap, or, Make That Change??

 

Let me just jump right in . . .  I will probably sound trivial and vain.  But here goes—I have a gap between my two front teeth!  There I said it.   The Recovering Attorney has a gap.  It’s not a laaaarge gap.  You can’t fit another tooth in there (not that there is anything wrong with that!)  It’s just that my two front teeth don’t meet.   It’s not a Lauren Hutton ( I am certainly dating myself) or former NFLer, Micheal Strahan gap.  My gap is probably slightly wider then Madonna’s.  So there’s your visual!  Ha!

Notwithstanding my adolescent 2 year courtship with my orthodontist,  Dr. Micheal Diamond, my gap returned with a vengeance when I stopped wearing my retainer.  To be fair, I have lived with this gap all of of my adult life and I honestly don’t believe that it has been a hinderance.  Quite the contrary.  In fact,  I have been told by my Nigerian brothers that a gap between a woman’s two front teeth is considered a thing of beauty and should I delicately say her “prowess.”  Think about how many Americans find the slight indentation in the cheek—The Dimple— desirable.    The French believe that a slight “imperfection” in a woman’s countenance adds to her uniqueness and allure.  Think a slight bend to the nose or a birth mark on the face (a stain on a woman’s cheek—known as a wait.for.it—a beauty mark).  Most Frenchwoman refuse to camouflage their uniqueness.  If anything they enhance and flaunt their imperfections.  It has been noted that I smile and laugh a lot so I guess I can be accused of flaunting my gap!  That would explain all of the attention I commanded from Frenchmen when Mr. Recovering Attorney, Precious Children I & II and I strolled the Champs Elysees a few years back!!!   As the saying goes when in Rome France …I am a closeted Francophile, by the way.

So a recap ( pun certainly intended—no caps for me):   I am cool with my gap and Mr. Recovering Attorney is very comfortable with my gap.  Heck, he met me with my gap and  never suggested that I should close it so he must be cool with my slight “imperfection” too!  So why talk about it?  I was wondering.  Is there any physical feature that you would change if given the opportunity.  Consider that you have lived all or half of your life with your large or small_______, or gap, or ______________(you get the point!), in an effort to reinvent, reclaim or “recover”, would you as Michael Jackson said, “Make that Change?”  I will go first.  NO!!!!  Though I am “recovering” and growing, I would not close  my gap for all of the  Goyard bags in Paree (well, just maybe. . .)! 

What say you?

COPYRIGHT, 2011, The Recovering Attorney.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

She is a Good Enough Mother, or, Endorsement 101

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My friend in my head (thank you, Wendy) Rene Syler, has created a website and blog entitled Goodenoughmother.   Rene’s domain ( pun certainly intended) where she speaks the truth straight with no chaser!  If you want a modern, sophisticated woman’s take on family, home, health, fitness, style, travel and particularly motherhood then GEMs is for you.   The former CBS Early Morning Show anchor and author of the 2007 book Good Enough Mother:  The Perfectly Imperfect Book of Parenting  remains actively involved in the news business.  She has made appearances on Oprah, CNN and the Joy Behar Show.  As a motivational speaker and ambassador  for Susan G. Komen For the Cure, Rene travels the country inspiring and encouraging her audiences.  Rene’s well written and witty musings will keep you coming back for more.  

Now Rene does not need nor has she solicited my endorsement.  I stumbled upon her site this week, I read one of her postings and I was home!  Now you must understand this is major for me.  I am a serial lurker (I have  3 years under my belt with at least 5 blogs that I read daily—never commented), I came out of lurkdom and engaged because the post was just that stimulating.   And get this.  She responded with a personal e-mail!  Now I am not suggesting that she has the time or the inclination to respond to every comment with a personal e-mail—but I would not be surprised if she did.  A class act and so down to earth.  So I encourage you to subscribe to GEM and The Recovering Attorney.  Your new go to blogs for rich, original, thought- provoking  content.  Annnnd Cut! Ha!

Oh, I forgot:

Dear Readers Rene is the Real. Deal!  She has anchored a national morning show, she has interviewed  influential national politicians, celebrities (can you say Denzel?); she sat on Oprah’s couch for gosh sakes!  She shares an important message about breast health.  She is a good enough mommy.   And if the preceding is not enough, Rene has beauuutiful hair!  O.K. now I am done!

Here’s the link: http://www.goodenoughmother.com

COPYRIGHT 2011, The Recovering Attorney

Off-Topic Tuesdays, or, Real Estating at 12

This is a new feature ( this is about my 6th post in my less then 1 month old blog—and yes, we are ready for a “new feature”—think big my Dear Readers, and remember, Oprah.com started with 1 view!).  I am calling it Off-Topic Tuesdays.  Why Off-Topic Tuesdays?  For the alliteration.  The name  Wacky Wednesdays is just that, whack.  And Finally Friday will not work because my Fridays are so busy, I might not have time to post; Finally Friday will lead to Stressful Saturday.  So Off-Topic Tuesdays it is.  Anywhooo……

I have plenty of interests and follies.   Reading,  Writing and Real Estating are my go to favorites.  Yes, Real Estating.  A new concept.  Remember, you’ve heard it here first on The Recovering Attorney.  The definition of Real Estating: ” the swooning, fainting, stalking, ogling and the Googling of land, homes and their interior designs, stylings and furnishings (for all of my Attorney Dear Readers—I know that the interior designs are not actually fixtures and thus are not real estate– please allow me my writer’s liberty, thanks). ”

 Now that I think about it, I have been Real Estating  and stalking(without the Googling of course) since I was 12 years old.  I remember it well.  My seventh grade teacher, Mrs. Reynolds ( a dear family friend), at the start of the new school year, challenged the entire class.  The challenge—the two students with the highest GPAs would be rewarded with a Saturday outing to her new home, with  lunch and a movie to follow.  Oh how my best friend and I loved an academic challenge.  Needless to say, Olivia and I were the top two performing students.  So there we were driving up to her new home some 50 miles north of  Manhattan.   The plantings surrounding the home were still immature; the driveway was still concrete white, awaiting the future oil stains from the delivery trucks and from the cars of family and friends who failed to properly maintain their vehicles.  From the curb, the home was impressive.  Had to be at least 2000 square feet of living space under that roof (back in the day 2000 feet was considered sizeable)!  Mrs. Reynolds did not drive into the garage.  She parked on the driveway, we walked up the suspended stairs and we entered through the front door.  The door opened and I smelled the fresh paint and the new wood.  I was excited.  I did not know why I was excited.  I just was.  I guess that was the latent Real Estater/Stalker in me. 

We stood.  In no man’s land.  We were  not in the foyer, nor were we on the terrace level.  We were standing in limbo, neither up nor down— I was standing in a split- level!  At the tender age of 12, I did not know a split-level from a center hall colonial from a New England salt-box, from a Greek revival (I lived on the 31st floor of a balconied co-op fronting the East River and FDR Drive— heck, I was a big city girl).  Do we walk up the short flight of stairs to enter the formal livingroom and kitchen, or do we retreat down the stairs to the family room?  I did not know!   It was just weird to me.  I did not pass judgement then and I do not pass judgement today.  For me, the split-level offers the visitor a hurried, harried decision.  Do you go up or down? Or do you wait patiently for the homeowner to lead the way.  I guess the latter (good manners would so dictate).   The way my mind functioned way back then and the way it functions today, a split-level is way too much for me to process.  But what I find interesting is that I noticed this at 12!  

But my split-level dilemma did not ruin the day.  In fact, it was Mrs. Reynold’s split-level that opened my eyes to architecture and design.  It was in Mrs. Reynold’s warm, welcoming split-level that I fully grasped the concept of hard work and reward.  Finally, it was in Mrs. Reynold’s light filled split-level where I learned how to appreciate and respect the dedication of a teacher and a family friend.  It was a great day.

 Mrs. Reynold’s took us upstairs to the kitchen where we made the most delicious ice cream sundaes.  After the sundaes we went to this new pizza restaurant that was shaped like a hut and we followed up lunch with a movie that starred this pretty blonde newcomer from Down Under and a very handsome Brooklyn-bred Italian actor who later went on to rock my young  world yet again with a movie called Saturday Night Fever.

As for me, I went on to fall in love with and marry a man who designs and builds out real estate every. single. day!  Thank you Mrs. Reynolds.

COPYRIGHT 2011, The Recovering Attorney