Bourgeois Dilemma #7: what's for dinner?

No need to explain, September was a rough month for me and the Tuscan trip made October tricky as well. But I am back, and the gerbil wheel rhythm of life has resumed to a point where I can carve out the minutes required to get down to business and write. Or at least ignore the screams of my children "playing" long enough.

Now, briefly, the trip to Italy was a huge success. I learned a few key things:

1) people who live in colorado tend to be quite proficient at riding bikes fast up huge hills

2) tuscan towns with names beginning in MONT (montepuliciano, more than just wine), montalcino (possessing one of the few shops accepting american express in tuscany) and MONTiciello are so named because they are perched on the top of a big hill so as to be able to see approaching armies and/or so as to induce leg cramping and exhaustion in semi out of shape bikers tying to be macho and avoid the "slow" group on a bike tour

3) even when cycling 5 hours and burning approximately 3,000-4,000 calories at a clip, it is possible to eat so much bruschetta, hazlenut pecorino cheese with truffle honey, picci pasta with mushroom ragu and chocolate tart (all washed down with plenty of wine) so as to return home having gained weight.

As with anyone in a dual earning, child rearing, dog walking life, returning home from a blissful vacation is always hard. One of the worst aspects is the return to figuring out what to eat for dinner. A return from europe, where labels like "slow food" and "local" don't even need to be applied as there is no alternative, is a special shock to the system.

Last week, as I dug in the freezer to unearth a bag of trader joe's quinoa vegetable mix to spoon into baked acorn squash leaving the family to inquire if there was anything else on the way, I was reminded of a blissful but brief lived chapter in our lives when my sweet husband endeavored to take over the planning, shopping and preparation of the daily meals.

This chapter was precipitated by a visit with his identical twin brother and family. The subject matter of another post, being married to someone who has a dna doppelganger can provide interesting dimension to one's life.

In this instance, the effect was quite positive. We were welcomed in to the suburban alter ego of our own life with a meal that was, in short, delicious. slow roasted fragrant pork tacos on fresh warm tortillas with a side dish of delicious vegetables that had everyone in our family asking for more (my big girl had yet to side with the animals and swear off eating "anything with eyes"). As the oohs and aahs rose over the table, we learned that this meal was 100% conceived, planned and created by my sweet husband's twin; after some gentle prompting by his better half so as to achieve a more balanced division of labor in the household. The story as told to me was a conversation that went something like:

You need to take over a) the management of our household finances or b) all of the meal planning and shopping, i've been doing both for the past 17 years

Umm, both of those are HUGE

For my money, the results of the b) choice were nothing but good. And as the delicious food and craft brewed beer seeped in, it was decided that my sweet husband would take on the same role in our household. We did, in the heat of the moment, also decide that it would be an interest topic for a memoir of sorts: two brothers, cooking their way through a year of family life, in mid life . . .

And this is how far it got:

Day #1:

I did it, I've placed an order on fresh direct and we are all set for the week.

Day #2, circa 6PM.

As the children melt down into the it's too late for dinner spiral, my sweet husband turns moderately sour and barks I am working on a nice dinner for us, how about a little patience and appreciation Moments later he presents a mound of beef stew with mushrooms (nothing like a simple diner for a tuesday night with the kids!) to a plea of I don't like this from the tiny girl. How about buttered egg noodles?

Now, an important foot note to this is that my husband is actually quite gifted when it comes to cooking and entertaining in the adult realm. He possesses the ability to figure out menus that are interesting but not weird. And as with all his pursuits, he takes no half measures (for example in Italy, having ridden his bike a maximum of 50 miles in the relative flatlands of NYC, the guy rode 100+ miles across tuscany over five mountain ranges and was on his bike again the very next day). Once, I gave him a old school hand cranked pasta maker as a gift and he managed, somehow, to draw blood from a knuckle such was the intensity he applied to making sheets of pasta for homemade ravioli. I am not even sure you could do that if you tried.

During the daddy cooks every night era, I managed as I have never before in my life as a control freak, to keep my mouth shut. Trust me, I wanted this to work out. We are avid users of Fresh Direct. Somewhere around this time, or just before, they had developed the pure genius functionality of pre-loaded recipes . . . find something you want to make, click and all of the required ingredients show up in your cart in roughly the right amount. Now, in an ideal world one might control for pre-existing inventory so as to avoid build up of certain foods (to give Fresh Direct credit, they do put the ingredients in two categories: you need and you might need.) But this does not take into account the enthusiasm of someone who has decided that he is going to revolutionize the eating habits of his family by cooking gourmet meals every weeknight. And, while Fresh Direct, Amazon and itunes genius are so very good at telling you what you might like or want, or what your "favorites" are, they haven't yet projected the algorithm of you know, you purchased shallots and sea salt the last four times you shopped with us, do you really need more?

So, sadly, this chapter in our lives was short lived. I think we made it two weeks, maybe three. Daddy in Charge of Food came to a screeching halt one afternoon when, looking for celery or something to make a healthy snack on a weekend afternoon, I opened the produce drawer in the fridge to find about 30-40 shallots and not much else. In his zeal to create winning dinners, he had lost sight of breakfast, snacks and household cleaning supplies. So while we dined on chicken a l'orange everything else in the way of food and basic household supplies went by the wayside.

Now, nearly 18 months later, it's been a long time since I have paid a bill or managed anything to do with money in our life other that to try to make some. Conveniently, when looking for sea salt to add here or there to a salad I am serving alongside hamburgers/veggie burgers on a tuesday night, I can still draw from the massive supply that we built up during those two weeks long ago. And just the other day, when my neighbor came to borrow a clove of garlic, I noticed a few shallots in the jar.

And I smiled, thinking about beef stew on a cold winter night.

Bourgeois Dilemma #29: my bike trip in tuscany is causing me stress

Yes, it's been a while since I've found the time to write. First, I had to return to Alison from Aliey which involves a lot of unpacking, reorganizing and the like. I needed to check on things like the progress across the way at the Krugman's (looks like they might move in sometime sort of soon). And find stuff that Carmen managed to lose even though we weren't even home. The kids had to get back to school, which happens to little, too late in my estimation. The dog had to be neutered and a summer's worth of weird food remainders left around by my sweet husband had to be painstakingly weeded out "oh honey, that's not a bug in your cereal, it's just the way they cook it." Oops. It was a bug. A lot of bugs, in fact. Humming in the background of all this of course is The Job. Very busy. Sweaty palms busy. But that's a good thing.

So where and how in all of this am I supposed to get ready for a week long bike trip in Tuscany?

One of the outcomes of the particular trajectory of my life is that I am fortunate to know a handful of people whose generous spirit is equalled by their generous bank account and from time to time, we are the direct beneficiaries of their largess. Now, vacationing with the Wealthy is not for the faint of heart because at times, the "free" vacation ends up costing more than one might spend on the typical family outing to the time share. Which is not to say it's not worth it to get to the alps for a week in a chalet with fresh chocolate croissants for breakfast every day. But funny things can happen (maybe it's the altitude?) such as getting swept away and finding yourself standing on a laser foot measurement device purchasing $1800 ski boots that are guaranteed to fit forever. Because that's what all the other kids are doing! All kidding aside, I've seen horses on stage at La Fenice in Venice, para sailed off the side of a mountain with my skis on, and skied off piste in the alps like I was born to do it and I am a better person, if poorer, for having gone along.

But now, it's gone massive. We are being treated to a week long bike trip in Toscana Maratima. We will ride up to 100 miles a day with climbs up to beautiful medieval mountain towns overlooking the hills, do yoga every morning and learn to make olive oil. And, lucky for us, we are someone's guest on the trip. Which is awesome. But it does not make it "free." Mainly because you cannot train for a bike trip like that on a 12 year old hybrid mommy bike with a seat on the back and a basket on the front.

Step 1: go to the bike shop and get a proper bike. Go with the intention of getting the cheapest bike you can get away with to serve the purpose. Leave with a carbon road bike with custom pedals, the newest shoe technology, special ultra padded bike shorts, jerseys, socks, glasses and gloves. Make an appointment to have the bike "fitted" and be sure to give the bike store man your email so that he can let you know when the arm warmers and windbreakers are in. While you are there, buy new bikes for your children and get everyone in the family a new insulated water bottle. Why not?

Step 2: make the time to ride the bike for up to 2-3 hours at a stretch. Thank god, it seems that Alison can rely on some of the same muscles that Aliey has been working on the tennis court over the summer to pedal on the bike as it seems to go pretty well the first time out. And there are some side benefits. The special cycling gear, for example, is kind of like full body spanx. Sometimes, I don't want to take it off when I get home. The glasses are cool and super lightweight and look like the ones Bono wears. Except for the fact that I am keeling over backward on account of the shoes, I actually look pretty hot. Thinking that my friend Delia might be better off taking up cycling so as to look the part at her kids sporting events. The nice thing about the rides themselves is that they take me to places I wouldn't otherwise be at times I wouldn't be there. Like along the shoreline at 6AM in CT the day I took my dad to have his driving test. Watching fat men with carpenter's smiles reel in crabs while the tide rushed in sure was a nice way to start the day. Naturally, my sweet husband has cancelled his marathon training in order to make time for the bike trip preparation and reported to me over dinner tonight as he shoved taco number 4 down his craw that he weighs the same as he did his senior year in high school. Me? Chowing the three mini packets of swedish fish from the big bag I bought to send as a care package to my goddaughter in boarding school and that sort of wanton eating of junk means that ride as I may, I am still subject to apt commentary like mommy your flab is hanging down tonight.

Step 3: the crushing blow. Procure the appropriate "apres bike" attire and required gear. Tuscany in October. It might be hot, it might be cold. You need to walk around the medieval towns. Swim by the sea. Look casual but elegant for dinner. Bring a yoga mat if you like padding underneath you when you do yoga. Somehow it seems that just wearing the body spanx bike gear with a pashmina and big earrings isn't going to cut it here. So I trawl around the sale racks at j crew and banana republic hoping to find a few signature items to enliven the white jeans. Do they know in sienna that it's gauche to wear white after labor day? I hope not.

But you know, the special bike is pretty darn fast. When I get on and start to pedal, it moves and I get a little frisson just like when I was a kid and Mrs. Blum let us ride in her circular driveway and play "village". Yesterday I went whizzing all the way down to wall street in about 30 minutes. Of course, I did get totally lost and ended up in Chinatown and only managed to suffer the humiliation of falling while panicking and failing to properly release my foot from the pedal once. As a master of the universe striding by said "that looks more embarrassing than painful." Right-o chap. Over the weekend I encountered a professional bike race in central park and had the pleasure of being passed at high speeds by packs of cyclists who seem to be able to propel themselves uphill faster than I can go in a car. Good for them! I only wish that I was as lucky as the girl on a date with the dude in the "palo alto cycling" jersey who actually put his hand in the small of her back and pushed her up the big hill. But I am sure that on the bike trip there will be a suave fellow named Fabrizio who is there for just that purpose on the way to Castagneto Carducci.

Or there's always the van.

Bourgeois Dilemma #44: I am not tournament ready.

First of all, to those of you who've been asking for another dilemma, my heartfelt apologies. Aliey was really, really busy for the last month and between the beach, keeping the job above water, the family and a lot of time on the court as well as entertaining in style, well, not much time for this. But I am back and it seems fitting given the US Open to focus on the game of tennis.

I am not one of those long legged preppies who is a natural on the court in a cute white skirt no matter who's playing. In my early years, in fact, I participated in the tennis clinic at the club after swim team because my mom left me there all day and that's what the other kids did. But I was not good. Lester, the kindly old pro who also handed out candy canes dressed as santa at the annual sing along carol party, tried his level best to get me to do whatever it was they wanted us to do back in the 70's when swinging a racquet, but it didn't really happen for him or for me. As a harbinger of the "everyone gets a medal" concept, I managed to get a bronze sticker for my plaque for each skill I failed to attain: forehand, backhand, serve and volley.

But, in the real world, most people have not had the benefit of an early life with grandparents who turned on the TV only to watch Wimbledon and plenty of time at the club trying to get better. In a civilian setting, in my late 20s and the early days of my career, I was actually "not bad" at tennis. This led to the height of humiliation at one particular sales conference in Palm Springs (remember the good old days?) in which my account team at the agency, after schmoozing with our clients and the sales force decided to use the free hour before the casino mixer to recreate a little. But just as a scratch golfer won't throw his game just to close a sale, my boss took no prisoners that day on the court. Somehow, I ended up partnered with one of the very senior most people at my company as my partner. He also happened to have been the captain of his big 10 tennis team. We faced off against my boss, who played college tennis in the SEC as well as the big boss of our group. Whether he played for a college team I don't know, but he had no desire to lose. We assembled our game and somehow the word got out that we were playing. For reasons unknown to me, we were on a stadium court and little by little, a group of spectators including the senior mucky mucks of the client assembled. In my mind's eye, I was the person that they'd all be talking about that night - lovely young thing sure can hit a tennis ball! In reality, it went down more like this:

I am serving. I serve as hard as I can to my boss from the ad court.

He rips a return that puts a hole in my tennis skirt to my backhand.

And again.

And again.

My partner, Mr. I am in charge not only of the office, but the entire region looks back and me and says I think we'll take the I formation on this one.

I don't even know what that is.

Humiliation.

Now, this was a good 15 or so years ago and I have evolved. Last year, for the first year ever, I played tennis with a friend and a pro ALL YEAR LONG. this has a dramatic and positive impact on one's game. Late last year, in the context of a professional transition, one of the points on my decision matrix was will i be able to continue playing tennis as much as i want to? there is something fun and relaxing and great about taking on a sport well in to middle age that practice and work really does make better.

but that's not the same as being tournament ready. tournament ready involves drills, games, hours and hours of practice that I just cannot figure out how to fit into my life. as a friend who wins all the tournaments said to me once in passing my game got so much better after I stopped working. nice work if you can get it.

in spite of my now year round playing, the annual season that matters is really august. I play, my sweet husband plays and our girls do to. nothing quite so cute as a 5 year old in tennis whites with a streak of maple syrup down the front.

every year is better than the one before it, and every year I have the same feeling that I did that day in palm springs maybe this time, i will bust out and WIN.

this year, I had 3 chances to make myself, my family, and my tennis coach proud.

Parent Child Tournament: August 6

this will be fun, just a bunch of kids and their parents having a good time. the trick is, the idea is that the adults are good enough at tennis to have complete control over the ball at all times. to make it FUN FOR THE JUNIORS. great. I have just paid $240 over several lessons to learn how to lower my strike zone and to hit an evil topspin forehand and now i am supposed to luff the ball over the net to an 8 year old gently enough that it doesn't look like I am trying to win so that my 10 year old daughter will be happy. talk about a set up. in a particularly special moment, little A's dad puts a soft ball in to the air that comes in range of me at net and some primal instinct takes over and I hit a perfect volley spiked to the feet of the net man across the court. trouble is, he's a 6 year old boy. a cry of "aliey" goes up on the porch and I am crimson. after that, I cannot even get close to the ball without panicking and we suffer grave defeat. the truth is, a parent cannot do anything right in this context - out dear friend J and his 15 year old daughter played in the same tournament (and won) - her comment to him as he helped them to go ahead round after round: papa, you aren't smiling enough.

Ladies Doubles: August 12-13

one day during the clinic the head pro comes on to the court looking for players. My friend J and I shuffle around a bit a decide to do it. She is, like me, a good player who gets better every year. also like me, she probably didn't hit 10,000 balls before the age of 15. but we love it and we decide to go for it for fun. this is significant as early on in the season in a mixed doubles game I managed to unleash one of those topspin forehands at great speed that unfortunately made contact with her larynx. luckily she seems to be ok and ready to go. In the first round, we are paired against amazonian regular players with ridiculously defined leg muscles. people who ask for overheads in the warm up and take practice serves where they manage to toss balls to each other as if choreographed. it might have been when J stepped up to serve and ask for FBI that we lost the match - we were so clearly out of our league. 6-0, 6-0.

Mixed Doubles: August 21

My sweet husband really gets points for even agreeing to go along on this one. He hasn't had the benefit of year round coaching or the hours in august that I have, but he's a natural athlete and in such good shape that he can get anywhere on the court at any time. But our first match against Missy and Chip doesn't end so well. We try, but have some drama early on when he smacks a forehand into my kidney and nearly kills me. Missy and Chip have a way of approaching each other between games and conferring on strategy. tempting as it is to replicate this and just ask about the weather or what kind of beer would taste good, we refrain. but you know you are out of your league when a ball sort of near the net that you might not notice (not as if you are about to go near the net when playing against the formidable team of missy and chip!) gets a remark of is that ok with you? from the opponent. yes, it's fine you answer even though the obvious and desired response is oh my gosh let me move that ball lest I trip over it when I move up to dominate the net yet again

It's not as bad as it all seems. J & I actually got a towel for winning the consolation of the women's double and the consolation round of the mixed doubles had cold beer to sip between games - those championship players had only stress and underhand serves. And just today, in the 97 degree heat, I managed to get 4 games off of a crazy hungarian software developer who would have wiped up the court with me only a few months ago.

i've added a weekly doubles game early AM to the weekly lesson. And for sure, I am going to be ready for the tournaments next year. look out. Lester i am going to make you proud one of these years.

Bourgeois Dilemma #17: i think it's appendicitis

The other day when my friend C was late for a 9AM court due to her young son's sore throat (done only under duress, as the 9 AM court is only an hour and it's hard to get much doubles in an hour), I was reminded of a standard issue faced by women all over the world: the sick husband. Now, her son is only a child but she was effective enough at describing the syndrome of the level of moaning and complaining and sensitive treatment required when even a moderate illness takes down a Y chromosome to remind me of this age old dilemma. Aptly described in the vignette "man cold" which was hard to miss a few years ago as it made it's rounds on email and facebook (if you are not represented in one of the 4.5 million views on youtube here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXLHWmjA5IE) I have suffered the collateral damage of the sick spouse many times. In the early days, probably before we were wed, i was sensitive and sweet - given that we live at times in one of those twin studies, I had the validation of being called the "nice wife" when it would freakishly occur that both my sweet husband and his identical twin brother came down the the "flu" at the same time . . . my florence nightengale approach in the early days involved trays with chilled OJ and hot tea, buttered cinnamon toast and fluffed pillows to make him comfortable. My sister-in-law, with a few more years of marital bliss and a baby under her belt, had a more pragmatic approach: seal off the germ infested moaning male member of the household, roll a frozen can of OJ under the door and tell him to come out when he's better. Children force us to become more survival oriented on many levels, but a full time working mother just doesn't have time to be sick or to stay home with sick children, so when the man/dad in her life goes down he must be quarantined. a true friend, my sister-in-law is also a teacher and I have adopted her approach as time has gone on - recently, when the vile stomach flu that started off with an email memo from dutiful school nurse H that had me trotting in to the children's room at 3 am with the special bedside puke bowl made it's way to my spouse, I simply provided a bottle of clorox and a new sponge, then sealed off the room with Saran wrap and tell him to disinfect when he's better and ready to re-join the family.

On occasion men do get truly ill as do we all. Four or so years ago, when my tiniest child was still a baby, we were due to go the the dominican republic for spring break. work was frenzied, so i had asked for the indulgence of staying "until it's done" a day or two before we were due to leave. at about 7:30 PM, just as I was getting into a groove and about to have a conference call with someone in asia, I received a call from home:

Honey, it's me

Who? the grunting hoarse voice on the line is hardly recognizable

Me. I think I might have appendicitis.

What? You were fine this morning, are you sure?

Well, I looked on web MD and it seems like it. I really don't feel well. I am so sorry but I think you need to come home.

Now, a normal person might be happy to get a get out of jail card in order to come home early from the office on a late night, but my sweet husband knows the brute force of "get things done mode" and that getting in the way of that is like trying to swim out of a rip tide, smart man that he is. But, he really didn't sound himself so I capitulated.

OK, I will get in a cab and come right home.

But not without sending the following email to the colleague in asia:

So sorry, but I am not going to be able to have our call at 8:30PM EST, my husband thinks he has appendicitis. Men.

I arrive at home and he's lying on the floor in the front hall attempting to give the 6 month old a bottle while the 5 1/2 year old is working to apply a cold compress to his stomach.

Have you called the Dr?

No, I just looked on line.

Call me an enabler if you like but I dialed the Dr. and handed him the phone. His end of the conversation was a series of "no" and "yes" answers completed with Uh. OK, yes, I guess so. Thanks.

Honey, I've got to go to the hospital right now.

Thank god, his sister lived nearby and was able to accompany him as the ER at 100th and madison isn't really a great outing for the whole family at 9PM. I waited at home and got periodic updates as to how many people in white coats had come in to examine him:

Does it hurt when I do this? Sharp jab to the abdomen.

oooiiiiiaaahhhhhhhhouch.

In the aftermath it was determined by the sister's boyfriend that the janitorial staff of the hospital were passing the white coat around with the promise of a good laugh when you go give the guy in cubicle 7 a sharp jab to the guts.

Now the guy did have an appendix that was about to rupture and since this event to place in the aftermath of a certain NY governor having major issues in the wake of a botched appendectomy, it was decided that it was a good investment to send him to the concierge floor of the hospital to recover so as to reduce the chance of infection.

Oddly enough, the notion of the concierge floor has not permeated the maternity ward so in spite of the numerous times I had endured the "beauty of childbirth" in this hospital, I had never seen 11 WEST. I arrived early the next morning to make sure that my sweet husband was going to survive and amid the hubbub of the early morning rabble looking for directions to their dr/clinic/er/sick old auntie the moment I asked for "11 WEST" a hush falls over the crowd and I am whisked over to an express elevator to the 11th floor. Walking across an internal catwalk connecting the grubby old hospital building that houses the ER and maternity ward to the glass atrium containing 11 WEST, I see the back of a familiar blond head in one of the windows. Except it can't be, as this person is clad in a white terry cloth bathrobe reading a newspaper while sitting in a chippendale chair.

I enter the automatic doors and am caressed by cool air and the scent of white lilies. A unformed concierge behind a marble desk greets me and directs me to the room where my sweet husband is recovering. Other than a few emergency pull cords, I might as well be at the four seasons.

Entering the inner sanctum I help myself to a diet coke from the stocked mini bar and rounding the bend see my husband. He is sitting with the sports page and ESPN, a leather room service menu on his table and a bottle of vicodin before him.

the doctor thinks it would be a good idea to stay another night, you know, just to avoid any post surgical complications he murmurs.

I'll bet. Funny, just six months before when I had given birth, there was no stocked mini fridge, no menu, no lilies. Just a first time mother yacking away with the story of how she went in to labor and every detail that came after all the way until that very blissful moment with her little bundle of joy in her arms in my room while I was trying to sleep for a few last interrupted moments while the very capable nurses took care of my tiny infant in the nursery. I bet they don't even allow newborn babies in 11 WEST, they certainly wouldn't want to disturb all those men resting up from their surgeries and watching tv while buzzed on painkillers.

Now in a moment of sensitivity I will say that I am glad the whole thing unfolded as it did as the heli pad at casa de campo looked a little overgrown with weeds and the notion of getting to decent medicine from the domnican republic does send a little shudder down the spine.

but let me say, the next time I come down with a cold i know where to go for a little r&r.

Bourgeois Dilemma #4: if it's August, I must be Allie

most of the time, I am a fairly type-a working person. for a long time, I worked in the salt mines of the advertising agency world in various roles and of late, i have taken a different tack and have a closely held business as an executive recruiter for advertising and marketing (some would say that headhunter demeans the job, but I kind of like that word).

but kind of like clark kent who morphs into superman when the need arises, i am also "Aliey" (a spelling of one of the nicknames for my given name that I made up myself along the way - reading specialist, anyone?). In most of the world, it's ali as in ali mcgraw. but not in my world.

For most of my life, people have called me Alison. My family, however, has called me Aliey. This has been a nice thing, like going home from college to do laundry. Hearing that name meant safety, coziness and the familiarity of make your own sandwich night. but in school, in life and certainly in business, I've been Alison. Since I got married and changed by last name from S. to L., some have taken to calling me "AL" (at which point I need to ask myself who is better, Paul Simon or Elvis Costello). But "Aliey?" not so much. doesn't really evince the kind of take no prisoners attitude required to get the job done.

until one year, when arriving at my adoptive summer vacation spot, a certain island off the coast of Massachusetts with no stop lights and only four public restrooms and a "fog happens" laissez faire attitude that only slightly covers up the fact that there's a line up of gulfstream G200's at the airport like taxis at grand central station, my mother-in-law happened to introduce me to someone as Aliey. this moment goes back about 17 years and little by little, as I've aged and decided that it makes a lot more sense to spend as much time as possible away from the real world especially in summer, Aliey has kind of taken over the month of august.

in many ways, aliey and I are similar - we are perfectionists sometimes to a fault. we have two kids. we like to play tennis. we have a job. we have a handsome husband.

but aliey is different. she is more socially graceful and makes friends easily on the tennis court. she rides around town in the morning, in her tennis whites, on a bike with a 12 year old baby seat on the back that sometimes holds a tennis racquet, sometimes a child, and sometimes a case of wine. people wave to her when she rides and say "good morning aliey".

full on Aliey took time to emerge. in the early years, aliey and alison were much closer. the first year that Aliey spent two weeks instead of one, she got into a rhythm of ladies doubles with a group of pals she met in the tennis clinic. alison hadn't really figured out how to get out of the way at this time, so was carrying her blackberry court side in anticipation of a call from THE BOSS back in NYC. A little frazzled and possibly even a little late, she jogged up to the court and explained her absence with a shrug and "work" with a gesture toward the blackberry on the bench. One of her opponents, a tall drink of water with the kind of brown tan that doesn't come from just a week at the shore with a last day of SPF 15 thrown in for good measure looked up and said

what is this work that keeps getting in the way of our tennis?

umm, I work in advertising

ADVERTISING???!!? at this point her lovely face is drawn long by her hands as in The Scream god that's a terrible business, my husband used to own an advertising agency.

Of course he did.

Aliey didn't miss a step of course and got right down to spinning her racquet to see who would serve.

Years have gone by and little by little Aliey has taken over more and more of the month of august. alison is there, of course, in the background attending to the work that she needs to, but Aliey lives large. Hosts cocktail parties, gets invited to cocktail parties and brings her signature hostess gift of a reused jar with a bunch of flowers from her cutting garden tied with a ribbon, plays in the parent-child, ladies doubles and mixed doubles tournament. Aliey has so many sets of tennis whites that she doesn't need to wash them but she does just for kicks. last year, upon returning to NY alison was s0 overwhelmed with getting the kids ready for school and finding a new job that she didn't really attend to some basic housekeeping details like unpacking, moving aliey's bike to the basement and so forth. some crossover friends who have taken to spending a week in aliey's back yard came by to pick up a dog blanket they had left behind. Alison didn't realize that they were coming IN to her apartment as she and Aliey would never let anyone see the place in a such a state!

B walked in and nearly screamed "aliey doesn't live here".

Oh no she doesn't, Alison does.

There are a few other key differences between Alison and Aliey. Aliey lives in houses with names like Aurora Villa, Shanunga, Top of the Hill and friends will come to find her and then later say I stopped by Aurora Villa but you weren't home. Alison lives in a back of the building apartment with the usual alphanumeric designation. Aliey rides her bike with no helmet. Alison takes public transportation. When Aliey gives a party she gives a basket of hand written invitations to her children to hand deliver around town. Alison uses evite. Aliey has a brazilian cleaning lady named isadora who never loses things and can be called on to clean up the kitchen after dinner in a pinch. Alison has carmen need we say more.

Occasionally, Aliey and Alison collide. several years ago, after some friends had come and took some tennis clinics and purchased some merchandise on Aliey's account at the tennis club, back in NYC Alison send them an email with an accounting so that they could send her a check.

RE: Casino Bill

It was so much fun playing with you all up at the Casino- sorry we didn't win more - next year! As you asked, the bill came and you owe us $462. No hurry, I've already settled up.

xxxAliey

Moments after pressing send, a note comes back from a controller in a sister company who's last name is the same as Aliey's friend (damn those tricky email systems):

RE: Casino Bill

I don't think this was meant for me

Great now some finance geek in Detroit worn down by Sarbanes Oxley compliance thinks Alison is a gambler

RE: Casino Bill

Thanks - oh, and not that it matters, but just so you know, that's a tennis club, not a gambling outfit.

Reply

RE: Casino Bill

Sure.

Oh dear, Alison's reputation besmirched by Aliey.

No matter. It's August 3 and Aliey has already logged a few hours on the courts and is while Alison is annoyed by the fact that this post didn't go up on August 1 as intended, but Aliey knows that it was much more important to accomplish things like getting the little ribbons tied to the back of her new beach chairs so that everyone would know who's is who's. In four short weeks, it will be all over and alison will go home and see if the krugmans have moved in yet.

But in the meantime, aliey sure will have some fun.

Bourgeois dilemma #38: electricity can be tricky

Most of the time, we turn things on and off without thinking too much about it. of course there's the occasional thunderstorm/hurricane/heat wave induced power plant failure when rural and/or urban dwellers find themselves in search of a flashlight to figure out what the heck is going on. or, if you are lucky, you have an off the grid cabin somewhere where on summer nights you catch fireflies in a jar to light the way after the embers of the fire circle burn down.

on a day-to-day basis, I am pretty hooked on electricity. the laptop and fully charged iphone that are the weapons of my trade are fairly key to survival. the fridge, and of course the tv that provides a comforting quiet half hour or so for some of my dependents: children, sweet husband and at this moment in time, my dear old dad. dear old dad really loves to watch the stock market ticker and manually calculates his net worth daily in spite of years of encouragement to take the even slightly longer view of a month or a quarter. he also loves to watch the history channel and on occasion the travel channel. at this writing, I am on dad duty at a rickety rental house at the beach. the first time the tv screen turned blue instead of tuning in to the mellifluous tones of Samantha brown, we were right on the phone to the landlord. a local fourth grade teacher who looks as if he logged his fair share of mileage following the dead in the 70s and 80s, he didn't seem to have the faintest idea about the cable tv. so I gutted it out with comcast and set up a service call. for three long days, dear old dad went without samantha. naturally, on the appointed day I stood sentry over the phone, living in fear of missing THE CALL that would tell me the service man was on his way. no call. at 5, the end of the 2-5 window, I placed the obligatory call to comcast myself and was told that the serviceman had cancelled since the customer was not home. now I don't need to tell you what ensued. I am sure you've had the same dialog with your local cable provider once or twice yourself. it just so happens that rickety beach rental's driveway is 20 yards from the entrance to the town beach and service call was set for a day that turned out to be a 10 in terms of beach time. I am pretty sure that if i had binoculars, I would have been able to see the slightly pale and flabby comcast man in his uniform down over at the snack bar up the way.

some people might want to take matters as simple as a cable outage into their own hands, but i've been burned by this approach before and so like to stick to the professionals. my sweet husband and i spent the first few years of our married life in a garret of sorts on the upper west side. the apartment's best feature was a terrace comprised of the downstairs neighbor's rooftop. otherwise, it was good for us but there were certain compromises. such as the bedroom, narrow enough that a double bed took up so much space that an arm extended from a lying down position would meet with the wall at about 135 degrees. another quirk of our newlywed nest was the air conditioning limitation in the lease. due to the landlord's probable lack of wiring up to code, it was written that only one air conditioner be run at a time. there were two windows in addition to the door out to the "terrace" and each of these windows had the special big plug nearby, leaving one to draw the logical conclusion that each window could hold an air conditioner and so they did.

I am a pleaser and a perfectionist which means that I am a stickler for things like leases. one air conditioner at a time was decreed by Mr. Mort Elbirt, and so even on the hottest day, in our garret, one air conditioner we did run.

now, there wasn't anything in the lease about an air conditioner and the television running concurrently so on a particularly scorching evening we were cozied up after our three course meal for movie night. the ac was humming and we were pleasantly chilled. tv on andbzzztboom. blackness. no ac. no nothing. we opened the door to the apartment and were met by a pitch black hallway and the sound of some rustling and concern below. my sweet husband, never shy about electronics and other matters that for all his god given intelligence he has no right to take on, went in to the breach and headed down to the basement to look under the hood. there were a few apartments with lights on so he was able to find his way down and was joined there by neighbor Ned who was clad in a silk kimono and not much else. In spite of the large rent we paid, the basement of the building had not been touched since the era of the horse and buggy and was a dirt floored room with a lot of plumbing and wires hanging around. enticingly, in the back corner loomed a large handle with a faded skull and crossbones sticker plastered to the front.

the gravitational pull of this handle was too much for my sweet husband who, in spite of increasingly loud and high pitched protestations from neighbor ned and the fact that he was standing about ankle deep in water that had been sitting there since 1895 (I knew after a brief 6 months of marriage to stay out of it), approached, touched, reared back and then went for the kill and pulled the switch and flapped it back. total blackness and the eerie quiet that comes when 10 or so window unit air conditioners cease humming instantaneously. as we mounted the six flights of stairs from the basement to the garrett, people were in the hallways canvassing about what to do and one of the long standing tenants placed a call to the landlord. Our concern was limited to where we were going to sleep that evening, and thank god a pal was traveling so we hoofed it a few blocks to another apartment with functioning AC and TV leaving neighbor ned and the rest of the crew to swelter in the dark.

The next day, I navigated a rather irate Mr. Elbirt

you have two air conditioners

we do, but we only run them one at a time. there are two ac plugs

don't lie to me

and so forth.

Years later, we had to get a letter of recommendation from Mr. Elbirt to purchase a co-op and learned that he had died of a heart attack. presumably, the stress of managing law breaking tenants did him in.

There are a few of these types of incidents in our collective history as a family - garbage disposals, alarm systems and the like falling by the wayside with well meaning attempts to fix/stop/etc. But I've got comacast in the crosshairs here at the rickety rental. How dare their technician out and out lie to me? Supervisor Sally is very contrite and apologetic as to the fact that it will be two days before she can get someone out here. So I give dear old dad the bad news and he goes back to his word find puzzle. On the appointed day, I call first thing to be sure that all is in order for the 12-2 window, and a new teleprompt informs me that I can reset my signal after an electrical outage by pressing 2. who knows, maybe running the dishwasher and the washing machine at once counts as an electrical outage. After all, the clocks are forever blinking here at the rickety rental. Please wait 40-60 minutes while we reload your channel line up. And gosh darn it it works. I cancel the service call and post the number on the fridge. All set. A week later, it's part of the routine. Put in a load of dirty clothes and towels, mop down the kitchen counters, start the dishwasher and call my friend at comcast to reload my channel line up. Until, one day, she's not there. My only option is to wait for an operator. Not, we've all had the infuriating experience of hitting “0” repeatedly and being informed in some matrix like command that that option is not valid.... press 1 to return to the main menu, dos to habla espanol and so forth. But in this case, I just want to press 2 and go on about my business. Instead, I have to try to convince customer service representative Johnny to do what she has done for me so beautifully all of these days

Hi, yes, ummm I know why my problem is, I wanted to reset my signal but the command isn't there, can you do that for me?

No ma'am, you don't have any equipment there so I am unable to do that.

Huh. that's weird, I've been doing that about once a day for the past week or so and it seems to have solved my problem.

Well that's not possible. You don't have any of our equipment over there.

Listen, your last name doesn't happen to be Elbirt does it?

What?

Never mind. Just do what I am telling you please. Don't ask questions; just do the thing that she does when I press 2. Don't tell me why it won't work, just do it please.

OK.

And about 40-60 minutes later, the channel line up loaded, Dear Old Dad settled in to watch Samantha Brown in Cambodia and is happy as a clam.

Until I decide to blow-dry my hair.

Bourgeois dilemma #3: i've turned in to a dog person

most of my life, I have been characterized as afraid of dogs. my own personal mythology encompassed a matching pair of russian wolfhounds that terrorized me on the suburban street of my childhood home with their grand pointed noses about eye level with my smaller self. only recently was that memory adjusted by my sister, 9 years my senior, who informed me that the dogs were dachshunds. no matter, I just never really clicked with the idea of a dog. gerbils yes, and a series of goldfish poignantly named "cat" and "dog." but my mother was allergic so we were not a dog house and that lack of canine connection left me wary of the drooling, jumping on you, sniffing at your crotch and smelling bad scenario that I associated with dogs. even to the point where I would mock my college roommate when she would call home and inquire sweetly after "Boo and Sham" her little hounds named for Bristol VT and, of course, Chamonix.

I did have a minor connection with my first love's dog, some kind of shaggy medium dog named, of all things, Muffin. But in retrospect maybe it was just the glaze of 16 year old first love syndrome that made his entire household seem special and glowing to me.

Recently, however, I gave in to the pleas of my sweet husband and both of my pet starved children. And we got a DOG. We tried a friend's on for size first, dog sitting Teddy for a weekend and then a week. Seemed to go ok. We signed up with Teddy's breeder but were disappointed when his parents struck out three times. So moved on to another breeder of the same type of dog and received the birth announcement of the litter on January 9th. So "teal" as in the color of yarn around his neck became Milo.

And something deep inside of me started to change.

We watched Milo grow over the days and weeks and finally he came home to us on April 1st. Thank god, my sweet husband grew up with dogs and has been an absolute genius at training Milo. No marley, this dog does what he is supposed to do outside and since we are much stricter parents to him than we've ever managed to be to our own kids, he hasn't ruined anything. now, I will say that in spite of the fact that he's a good deal bigger than originally planned (he is, after all, the unlikely combination of a toy poodle father and a golden retriever mother with the unfortunate name of golden doodle), i am mad for this dog.

i guess i knew it when one early morning (the 6:30 am walk is happily mine) some jogger said wow that dog is looking up at you with such admiration and my heart swelled. no one really comments out loud when you are having a sweet loving moment with your kids, so the last public commentary I have had on my parenting was when I was 9.5 months pregnant with my tiny daughter and people would say things like gee, you're so big you must be having twins. doesn't exactly warm the cockles of your heart.

but I really knew it when one day not long ago, as I was crossing the street with Milo and my sweet husband was walking along with me (yes, we leave our children alone in the apartment while I walk the dog. one reading, the other sleeping - feel free to call DFS!) and we came across one of milo's pals, a golden retriever pup named buddy. and, as if possessed, a high pitched voice came out of my very own mouth in a sort of yelp screech ohhh milo, look there's buddy, don't you want to play???!!!

my husband stopped cold in his tracks and looked and me as if I was nuts and promptly took off into the park as if being chased by a mugger. Naturally I went on about my business and took milo down to the section where all of his morning playdates are. hudson the boxer, prince the black lab, babka the havanese, the unnamed "unfriendly" dog help tightly by the man who for some unknown reason insists on walking him right through the off leash dog hang out early morning area. I could go on. And let me attest to the fact that in some 12 years so far of having playground age children in NYC, I have not once had an idle first name basis or made a friend with the parent of another child. I am not that mommy. I am the mommy huddled on the bench reading a magazine or conducting a phone call or posting some witty status on fb from my iphone. I am not chatty mommy. well, not a chatty human mommy. but with milo, it's different. he needs me to know these characters - morty, adrianne, oliver, meg, karl - the DOG PEOPLE. and I do.

It's even deeper than that. on my birthday, my sweet husband offered to take the morning walk so I could read in bed. he went, but only with 10 minutes of instruction as to where to go, how to stay away from the unfriendly dog and how to make sure he didn't get in to trouble. and every time I go to the pet store to pick up some necessary supply, I find myself like a grandparent unable to control the urge to buy milo a new toy. I have referred to myself many times as milo's mommy. and in the car, with a lifetime of sailing and long car rides under my belt, at age 43 I find myself with the onset of empathetic canine induced carsickness. helpful as if you can anticipate when the dog might lose it, you can contain it much more readily. so I am the dog puke canary in the coal mine in the family now.

Milo is away just now - last week I taught him how to swim at the beach - he made me so proud. he's off with my sweet husband and the girls for a week of camp daddy in the mountains so I can have the dream of working as long as I want with no interruptions, eating my cereal standing up at the counter and actually reading a book. but when I came home tonight and there was no goofy puppy pawing at his crate wagging his whole body waiting for me, it was hard.

maybe, just maybe, tomorrow at around 6:30 I will go for a jog in the park and just amble through the dog area to see who's there.