Real Housewives of NYC, Olivia Giovetti, and Me
The 'flu is something I wouldn't wish on very many people. I'm just today emerging from a terrible few days of sickness, which were useful for very little. I couldn't get any work done and accordingly fell behind on some freelance work.
I did learn a few things during my sickness hibernation, while I sat, mesmerized yet lifeless, watching all four episodes of the Real Housewives of New York City back-to-back. Among the lessons: certain rich people are not very sophisticated about travel. Example: raving about St. Barts as your favorite place in the Caribbean, because it's, you know, so European. Why go to the Caribbean in the first place? Or why not dig just a little bit deeper and come up with someplace less clichéd, like, say, Les Saintes, an island with a quaint little village and lovely beaches that feels awfully European yet also Caribbean, a place where few Americans travel? It's the desire for a Caribbean stripped of any regional characteristics that bugs me. That and the lack of imagination. Limitless amounts of money mean unlimited imagination, right? Apparently not.
What else did I learn? It's completely kosher to knock your friend for going to St. Barts during the summer—and to actually sound aggrieved because said friend paid $300 (versus your own $2000 outlay) for a night at a hotel, as long as you do it in a confessional and not to your friend's face. Let's see, what else...oh yes, the Lower East Side is scary and bad. I learned that as well.
It's nice to emerge from sickness to see my guest playlist on Olivia Giovetti's amazing blog, High Culture on a Low Budget. HC/LB is chock-full of tips and suggestions for blazing a budget-savvy trail across Europe. If you haven't bookmarked and favorited it to bits, you should. Thanks, Olivia, for the opportunity to reminisce!
