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Show ' iff JJ- 4 I :fr tfero: Sitirfilke a Vefiim I , Wt CWm by Teri Gomes The French influence hits home For the past week a lovely, blonde, 22-year-old French girl has been our house guest. Her effect on our family has been nothing short of amazing. Natalie Orcel is here from Courchevel to spend this winter. She has a Jib at Colesport but her housing fell through upon her arrival here. Since last Monday she has been with us while we have tried to find her something, !A) reasonably priced and b) near a bus or the resort, j since she has no car. , We're still looking. ! We really lead a very simple life around here. Casual meals eaten in front of the television are the norm most nights during the week. And that television, I've (discovered, when looked at through the eyes of a foreigner, is pretty silly a lot of the time, i Evening news broadcasts are incredibly focused on ! American events. A program that bills itself "the world ; news" has a little piece about Ethiopia one night and a i small item about Beruit the next, But world news? (-Hardly. r And what would television be without commercials? ! We have grown rather blase to their constant ' interference in regular programming. But Natalie looked t puzzled the other night at a McDonald's commercial that really defied translation. Maybe you've seen it. Dozens of Chicken McNugget pieces are lounging on beach chairs around pools of i sauce. One by one they jump into the sauce. By the time I tried explaining these are meant to be pieces of food jumping into special sauces and they have been given cartoon-like animation we were both laughing about the ' food with sunglasses sitting in beach chairs. It really is rather ridiculous. My children have taken to Natalie like an older sister. Well, at least my daughter has. Perhaps if I were to be honest I would notice my son looks at her less like a brother than- an admirer would. My son is just 13, but nearly six feet tall and in the ". eighth grade. To date he has shown a small interest in females, but nothing which has required my driving him I and a friend to the movies or anything. He also is a rather ; typical teenage boy. He showers generally under duress .' and has the domestic qualities of Oscar Madison j (remember the Jack Kiugman character in The Odd . Couple?) - t So, you can imagine my genuine shock when Randy v voluntarily showered for Thanksgiving and ironed his 1 own shirt and pants. Natalie, I think, was indirectly t responsible for the change. '('. And at dinner, my shy son made sure he was seated next to the shy girl. He explained all the different food $ dishes, and while the rest of our table of ten was j laughing a little too loud and eventually singing and : swapping stories, Randy was quietly translating slowly for Natalie and pouring her more wine. The kid was downright charming. No, he does not view Natalie as an older sister. Jenny, my daughter, has begun styling her hair. Every day. While she has for the past few years made an effort to look nice, it has become incredibly concentrated in the past week. Fancy combs and curling irons and clear lip gloss are now the order of the day. And her conversation is filled with '"'Natalie says" and "In France they do this Natalie has done little overt to encourage all this change in behavior. She only gets up each morning looking beautiful. Spends very little time dressing to make herself look more beautiful and then cheerfully greets the day. There is a style there, so hard to explain or capture. The way she ties a scarf around her neck, a jaunty little cap she wears, a walk, a flair really, that seems inbred. All this has not passed by my husband, either. He does things that a husband does only when he is still a fiance. He opens doors for her: car doors, house doors, cupboard doors. He asks her if she would like more wine, water, tea. And then he actually gets it for her! He makes room for her on the coveted best-couch-to-watch-television-on. He drives her up to work at 8 a.m. on his day off Natalie smiles prettily at the attention but does not make too much of it. Ah, smart girl. This morning, however, was the moment of truth for me where little Natalie is concerned. Natalie was going skiing on her day off with our friend from New York. Natalie had no ski pants, so I loaned her mine. My wonderful black bibs that fit like a second skin. We are the same height. That is where the similarity in size ends. The pants did fit in length and actually overall they looked pretty good on her. But that's the French for you. The pants were actually two sizes too big and still looked chic on Natalie. When I said to her, "Not so bad?" she smiled sweetly and said "Oh no, I put on two heavy sweaters underneath and they fit alright now." I cringed in my hot pink sweatsuit. No fashion magazine, no diet book, no dressing room mirror could have brought home the point more clearly that I need to lose those extra ten I've been packing for some time now I drove Natalie up to the ski hill in my early morning E.T. persona. The sweatshirt hood is pulled all the way up over my greasy hair and I am putting chocok es into my mouth while muttering monosyllables not of this planet.". And it struck a vein with me that someone, somewhere in this town will turn up a room, someplace, for Natalie very soon. In the meantime I, like the rest of my family have fallen under her spell. I did a solid set of leg lifts and sit-ups when I got home and I focused on her in mv black ski pants the entire time. my Natalie has proved to be an inspiration around our household. Let's just see how long it all lasts. |