The Friendship Circle

Life has progressed rapidly here on Great Pulteney Street since my last post. We have a phone line, an internet connection, a reclining lawn chair (see right), even satellite TV, with a badass sound system it took us three hours to figure out. I even have a brand-new iPhone (in yo FACE, Orange!) courtesy of Vodafone. We only need one more thing.

Friends.

I have been so lucky to have built terrific circles of friends in every place in which I've lived: Ann Arbor, Washington, Manhattan, Nyack, Cincinnati, Lansing. Paris was no exception. You can read about many of our antics on An American Mom in Paris, or just take my word for it. If it was raining, it was off to M's house for toffee cookies and Polly Pocket Princesses. On a sunny Wednesday morning, it was cafe cremes and sandboxes at the Rodin garden with C and her daughter. If I just wanted to whine about day care/unfriendly neighbors/French bureaucracy/general unfairness of life, there was always a sympathetic ear on the other end of the mobile (or sympathetic fingers frantically texting while steering buggy/changing diaper/shoving Picard into oven). Sigh.

Even Josie misses our friends. She asked if "M, M, L, M, or C could live in England." I told her sadly, but firmly, no, her friends still lived in Paris, and we needed to make some new friends in "the Bath," as she calls it. Always up to a challenge (and a party!) she tried out her mad conversational skillz at a farewell soiree for one of Jeff's colleagues, held at a nearby riverside pub last evening:

Josie: Hi, I'm Josie!
Colleague: Hi, I'm George.
Josie: Hi! What's my name?
George: I believe you said it's Josie.
Josie: Oh... (brow furrows) what's your name?
George: Well, it's George!
(George dares to pivot and respond to question from Jeff and another colleague)
Josie: Hey, George, I want to talk to you!
George: Oh, well I want to talk to you, too. What shall we talk about?
Josie: I got a present. It's a Princess coloring book. I love Ariel Mermaid.
George: Do you, now?
Josie: Yes, and I love Belle, too. And I love Sleeping Dootly, too. And I love Cindumbrella, too.
George: That's great.
Josie: I have a Princess necklace. I have Princess dolls, too. Belle, and Cindumbrella, and Ariel Mermaid!

And it degenerated from there. Fairly sure George was later seen swimming frantically in the Avon, headed upstream to his home in nearby Swindon. He can always come back for the car.

While Josie was busy charming the natives at Husband's Company, I had to rush off to an engagement of my own (double-booked in week 3, can you believe it?). My lovely upstairs neighbor, T, an older lady who lives in a flat right out of Rachel Ashwell's most delectable decorating book, invited me up to join her "Friendship Circle," for drinks at "half-seven." I never know if that's 7:30 or 6:30, I suspect it was the latter as when I knocked on her door at 7:20 to ask if it would be all right if I popped back around 8pm, the room was full. T was dressed to the nines, in long pearls and heels, a glass of wine for me already in hand, so I promised to return toute d'suite.

A Friendship Circle. Surely I must have eaten a magic curry last night, and awakened today in a Frances Hodgson Burnett book.

I returned to T's -- after my quick jaunt to the farewell party -- ready for tea cakes and fairy poems, but found a circle I could better navigate: chips, canapes, political gossip, and lots of rosé wine. Despite its quaint name, it was merely a gathering of people who had moved to Great Pulteney Street sometime in the past several years and wanted to meet me and talk and have a drink and a laugh. Despite several false starts involving George Bush, settlements in the West Bank, and the Bronte sisters (who apparently never really met Jane Austen as intimated in The Secret Diary of Charlotte Bronte, that's what I get for relying on historical novels for literary references), I believe I gave a believable portrayal of the fresh-faced American downstairs.

A bit of a headache this morning, but as Annie famously said (and sang), I think I'm gonna like it here.

Today Josie and I are off to Bradford-on-Avon (sounds romantic too, doesn't it?) to meet one of Jeff's colleagues' wife and two sons for a playdate. We're taking a train, but I will utilise any mode of transportation at my disposal provided there are energetic preschoolers on the other end. Girlfriend needs new homies.

OH - and in other huge news, Josie appears to be for the most part out of diapers! I will wax poetic on the whole potty-training experience at a later date, but after nearly a year of ups and downs, this is a major development. A veritable movement. Wicked Pissa. I can only assume she filled George in on these thrilling events ("Princess panties" would logically follow Princess coloring book) after I left her at the party. Poor George. I should probably also assume that was our last invitation to a Husband's Company event.

This weekend it's supposed to be lovely here - hope the sun is shining wherever you are!