Designs for living

Everything I know I learned from my daughter and my bffs

My mother was a feminist. She was beautiful too. And she played it both ways. She used her elbows to get everything she could. And she used her eyebrows to get the rest. She taught me a bit about the first strategy but nothing about the feminine arts. 

Fortunately, I’ve always had a few good girlfriends. One in particular has taught me what to do in nearly every situation—from ethical conduct to what to wear where. 

Another insisted I dye my hair. It wasn’t until I reached for the bottle that I realized that everyone else was already doing it. I had always thought I was prematurely gray. Turns out I was just stupid.

It fell to my daughter C to tell me how to apply makeup and that pedicures and good haircuts are necessities, not luxuries. 

But somehow neither B nor C ever told me about mom jeans. That fell to A—airplanes. For 50 years I’ve worn Levi 501s. But when I had fly to and from New York and California three times in one month, they rubbed me the wrong way. 

Then I discovered mom jeans—they look like regular jeans, but they’re stretchy! I bought the first pair because they were on sale ($8 at Ross!), the second because it was on sale ($15 at Muji!) and third pair (I’m not saying) because I was so ecstatic about the first two.

What else aren’t people telling me?