Thursday, October 04, 2007

Better than fiction

I teach near what appears to be a very wealthy private school, one of those ones where, even though it's smack dab in the middle of NYC, the kids range in ethnicity from platinum to dirty blond. The cafe where I go on occasion for a pre-class coffee, pastry, and lesson plan review is also the one where mothers with it-bags come to gossip (or Gossip) after dropping their kids off at school and before playing tennis or otherwise working out. They are a fit bunch.

As I was thinking of ways to explain the difference in sound between "ton" and "temps," I inadvertently heard about an extremely messy divorce between Woman A and her husband. Woman B did not seem fascinated. To protect the innocent-ish, I will only note that the husband has parked the BMW he got the Other Woman at the country club's lot. Real Classy. Every time a Woman C or Woman D came into the coffee shop, they would notice Woman A and ask her, in this phonily concerned way, "How are you doing?" and she'd say, "Great, great!" with such stunningly fake enthusiasm, before continuing to pour her heart out to Woman B, who, soon after, had to get going. My lesson plans owe rather a lot to the invention of headphones.

The point is that what's actually going on in the world of which Serena may or may not be a part is far more juicy (or Juicy) than what happens on "Gossip Girl." Unless the folks behind the show pack in a bit more action, I may have to stop watching and start sitting in this coffee shop, headphone-free, on the days I don't teach.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting. Don't the au pairs usually take the kids to school instead of the mommies?

Phoebe Maltz Bovy said...

Having a job that lets you work when you feel like--or better yet, having house help but no job--is a luxury. Au pairs always relevant. But it could well be that 80% of the kids are dropped off by household employees and I'm just seeing the 20% parents, or those among them who drink coffee.

Miss Worldwide said...

"the kids range in ethnicity from platinum to dirty blond"

That's beautiful, I wish I could write like that. Sorry, I know, flattery will get me nowhere...