Cigarette boat? Maserati? Such a male mid-life crisis cliché and so not us. But we’re a little clichéd too. We sent our crack team of amateur sociologists—qualifications include obsessive reading of grocery store tabloids—out and about on the North Shore to identify some different manifestations of the female “mid-life crisis.” Here are a few […]
Do you have one of the town’s hottest tickets? Not that Oprah’s favorites show where you get free iPods and cashmere underwear. Urban legend says to score a seat you have to either send her 20,000 emails a day or swim across Lake Michigan. We’re talking the Chicago Blackhawks, who might just bring the first […]
Pompom, dance teams, cheerleading. Why in the post Title IX world, on the sports-centric North Shore, would girls choose to be on the sidelines? Because a halftime performance doesn’t mean a half-hearted athlete. These girls can high kick and kick some serious butt. High School dance teams, like the Maine South Hawkettes, who placed […]
I didn’t marry the guy who gave me the talking robot alarm clock or the one who proudly presented me with a purple-suede Members Only jacket on Christmas. I married the guy who spends time and energy buying thoughtful, creative gifts. I try to reciprocate. But whether it’s for him, my dad or crazy […]
The store aisles are filled to overflowing with beautifully crafted velvet tree skirts, hand-stitched stockings, boxwood wreaths and elegant blown-glass ornaments. I am drawn … but today I am searching for something else. Where, I wonder, can I find a tablecloth for our Hannukah dinner? “Oh, you’re looking for Hanukkah decorations,” says the impatient […]
The hot pink gloves, cleats and sweatbands worn by the National Football League players in the October games to support Breast Cancer Awareness month didn’t diminish their tenacity, stamina or strength. And breast cancer didn’t diminish the tenacity, stamina and strength of Wilmette resident Ann Sciortino. Nor did it take her sense of humor. In […]
Now what? The ping-pong paddle I had surgically attached to my 9-year-old Brent’s hand is the least of my problems. I’ve got Wang living in the guest room and there’s the whole issue of his guaranteed 7-year-contract. Former Olympic table tennis players don’t come cheap, and that’s not even counting the first class plane fare […]
When I’m slugging back my fifth Blue Moon, my friends don’t point out that I’ve just consumed 855 calories, excluding the orange slices, which I count for all 5 of my daily fruit and veggie servings. And they don’t say I’m never going to lose the beer gut if I continue to drink like a […]
Of the 28 kids who took the karate promotion exam at the Traditional Karate Center in Wilmette last spring, 27 got promoted to a full belt. Only one kid got a provisional pass: my youngest son, Billy. Billy, who I’m always feeling bad for because he has grown up in the back of our […]
Come fall, I’d save my “best” outfit of the week—Spanx underneath my one pair of $200 jeans and Frye motorcycle boots (I’m a Bloomingdales shopping kind of rebel)—for my two older boys’ kindergarten soccer games. The good outfit came out on Saturday mornings because kindergarten soccer seems to be the social nexus of the […]
