Way back, when I was twenty, I started working at a bead
store in Bloor West Village. I knew
nothing about making jewellery but I loved the idea of working in little store,
being sort of artistic, and sipping coffee.
I actually became quite...handy?...at making basic wire jewellery and
would spend my Saturdays off with my friends from the other bead store
location, shopping for beads! All this
to say, I fancied myself a bit of an entrepreneur and made jewellery to sell
and created the label “urban goddess”.
A few years later, my love of matching colours and wishing I
had more artistic talent, took the form of taking some make up art classes,
quitting my under-paid corporate consulting job (I swear, I’m the only person I
know who made more money working for a non-profit then I did as a “consultant”!) and deciding I wanted to be a
makeup artist. Under the same name. I even purchased the domain name, and had
business cards designed while I worked in a non-profit and did makeup for
weddings and charity fashion shows.
And then I had a baby.
And I truly felt like a goddess. Talk
about a goddess-like power: I helped
create a whole little girl and now I was blessed with the privilege of being
loved by her and loving her; of being depended upon by her and, let’s be
honest, depending on her in a certain way.
From the beginning my daughter
and I were totally urban! We walked
everywhere, we lived in non-air conditioned co-op apartment, we had over-priced
gourmet sandwiches for lunch from the distilleries, she came to brunch with us
every Sunday at non-chain restaurants, and we bought groceries at St.Lawerence
Market. I then figured I should channel
my love of cooking into some sort of business venture for other urban
goddesses. (More on that at another time I think).
Now we live in the suburbs, not just any suburban
neighbourhood, but the very one I grew up in and spent years trying to move out
of so I could live downtown. (I never
did live on, or even slightly off, Queen West).
Not only that, but I’m now forced to commute to a university that I used
to live walking distance from. But trust
me when I tell you, that’s one of the very few things I miss about my former
urban digs. My suburban home is filled
with the laughter of three little girls.
We have a pool (it came with the house), central air conditioning (key
to keeping this humidity despising mama sane), a Costco membership (I secretly
love this place!) and a cross-over because if there was one stand I was going
to take it was that I would not, I repeat NOT become another brown suburban mom
driving a minivan!
Not so urban anymore.
But still a goddess in the eyes of my three girls, my partner, and most
of the time, myself. Hence, the urban goddess became the suburban
mama goddess. And that’s what I’ll write
about, hopefully.
Are you like me, an
urban goddess turned suburban mama goddess? Or do the suburbs represent a foreign land you visit occasionally before fleeing home?
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