Sometimes, When I Open My Mouth

Sometimes, when I open my mouth, words fly out.

Last summer, I was sitting in my beige station wagon, outside the beige preschool, in the middle of my beige town, when, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but another mother, come to fetch her child, dressed in a white peasant blouse, burnt orange cut-offs, and black biker boots.  Nothing beige about her.


Wow.  She's not from around here, I thought.  It wasn't just the way she was dressed, it was that she managed to pull it off.  Go ahead.  Go back a few lines and re-read the description.  Then believe me when I say, she looked good.

As the summer wore on, we had the opportunity to meet.  We were parked next to each other, dropping our kids off.  I smiled at her and her cute daughter.  She smiled at me and my cute daughter.  Then, as a conversation starter, I said the first thing that popped into my head.  "You aren't from around here, are you?"

I meant it in a good way.  And, as she has seen so much more of the world than my sweat pants and pony tail ever will, I think she took it in a good way.  At least I hope so.  I didn't try to "make it better" by explaining myself.  With my mouth, that only seem to make things worse.

My verbal ineptitude aside, a casual acquaintance was born.  She and her family just moved to California.  She is a lawyer in several states, but not California (yet).  She has two kids the same age as mine.  Good, right?

Last week she told me that her (hip) daughter had out-grown some of her (hip) clothes, and asked if I would want them for Cate.  "Yes, that would be great," I said, politely, and tried very hard not to jump up and down, like a giddy stay-at-home lawyer on a tight budget.

Well, we went to her house the other day and picked up a gi-hoo-gah bag of clothes.  It was like Christmas!  And, the clothes are adorable!  Hip adorable.  Some are brands I have never even heard of and have European sizes in them.  Three dozen tops and dresses.  I know this because I had to buy new hangers.  That's not counting jeans, leggings, skirts, shoes.  Cate could wear a different outfit everyday for a month, and I still would not have to do laundry!

My daughter is small for her age.  Do you think it is too much to ask that she keep wearing a 2T until she is in kindergarten?

Thank you, thank you Hip-mom and Hip-daughter, whom I shall not name here, because they could be in the witness protection program for all I know.  We have been buh-lesst! 

Sometimes, when I open my mouth, words fly out and it isn't all bad.