Everyday Glamour
A friend of mine recently published a book – a chick-lit novel set in New York – my favorite kind! I downloaded it onto my iPad (LOVE that) and read it on my flight to Toronto last week: 8 uninterrupted hours for good old girl talk. Funny that I didn’t meet this writer friend through my Hollywood contacts or New York Theatre connections, but rather at my daughter’s preschool; she and I were “Room Moms” this year for a class of eighteen 4-year-olds. We decorated the door with photos of the kids’ faces set into paper flowers, we planned and executed parties for every major holiday and some non-holidays, we organized a week long thank you to the three teachers in the classroom – in other words we bonded like beleaguered infantry men trapped in trench warfare for nine months.
When Georgia and I started this blog, part of the interest for us was that you never know where the glamour will surface, and this is just such a case. I have always known that I would transition from my Broadway career into writing, hoping one day to pen a novel – or 10. I’m on that road now, and how wonderful to encounter this fellow mom who after her life in NY and then as a teacher, sat down (during her son’s naps) and wrote a book. And she’s not this trendy entertainment biz kind of person. She’s grounded and funny and tired, and she accomplished her dream. That’s real glamour.
I’m also moved by this sisterhood that occurs among mothers. I’ve found a lovely little group of mom pals – all of us too busy to actually sit down and have coffee together on any regular or irregular basis. But as we drop off and pick up our kids at school, we chat; or we’re in the park, or at a play date, or at one of the 400 birthday parties. There we are together, and I love it. There is a mutual respect and camaraderie that helps you through a particularly challenging day. I marvel at my working-mom friends, single-mom friends, nanny-less friends. I respect and am inspired by the women who are doing a great job as a mom and still making sure they are growing as individuals, moving ever closer to their own goals.
Sure there is a one-up-man-ship that I notice among some surrounding us … “did you see their door decorations?” Yes, there are the moms who will try to out-mom you – but after working with every major diva on Broadway I SO have their number and the perfect response – I don’t compete, I compliment them to the n-th degree, and I do my thing pretending I’m 30% less intelligent than I am. It’s a survival technique for Broadway ingénues and it works like a dream; if no one is threatened, then no one can take their issues out on you. I shall sit idly by as raptor-moms go at each other in pissing contests that would shame NFL starters. No, I won’t engage; rather I shall follow the example set by my new friend and the group I have come to love here in MomTown…. I’ll let the uber-moms out-uber one another, and while they do, I’ll hopefully be doing what my new friend did … write my best-seller, record my new CD, book a European tour … Hey, all those are already half-done! See you in London in April!
PS. Check out “My Life in Loubies” by Erica Negi 