The REAL Housewives of New York City

I admit it... I love Bravo reality TV shows. There it is, out in the open. In fact I watched the first episode of Top Chef twice in a row on Wednesday night when it premiered... (mostly because Jon was on call and I have a hard time falling asleep in my bed without him -- and I kept dozing off the first time it came on... but that's beside the point!) Anyway, when I heard they were doing a reality TV show called, "The Real Housewives of New York City," sort of patterned after the version in Orange County, I was definitely intrigued.

This week was it's second week running, and I'll be honest, I really can't stand it. I've actually felt a lot dumber after watching it. I gave it a fair chance after the first week and thought I might get into it a bit more. But, the characters are SO lame! And I feel like it gives the people that live here such a bad rap. Granted, there are a lot of socialite types here that run the city and everyone's obsessed with money and image... but I seriously can't get over how uninteresting these people are. Their life consists of who they are going to try to impress next and instead of making me want a house out on the Hamptons or to shop on 5th Avenue, I actually started appreciating my little ghetto neighborhood a bit more. I came across this review in the L.A. times and couldn't agree more.

I love running into the same people on the sidewalk all the time and getting to know my grocery check-out lady and dry cleaner's names. I've met so many cool stay-at-home moms in the neighborhood recently... at the playground and at Noah's toddler class... and it just gives me such a good sense of being part of a community. And I actually think that's kind of a rare feeling in this city. I hosted a playdate last week at my apartment and invited new moms we met around the 'hood. One of them had recently moved up to our neighborhood from Chelsea. The rest of us all sighed and said, "Oh, I'm so sorry... that's got to be a huge change for you. How are you adjusting?" I thought it was hilarious when she admitted that it has been really hard and actually compared it to moving to the suburbs. One of the other moms piped in who had moved to the neighborhood 2 years ago and had a similar experience. They feel that way because our neighborhood is not very touristy and there aren't a lot of people coming here just to wander around the Heights like you might do in the West Village. (I had to agree, with the exception of the minivan and neighborhood Target that I covet to get the full suburbia effect!)

And so as I sat in my 800 sq. ft. apartment with 3 other stay-at-home-moms and their toddler boys, listening to Jack Johnson and munching on the oatmeal raisin cookies I had made for the occasion, I couldn't help but think that we were "The REAL Housesives of New York City."

Here's a glimpse of next week's episode... looks like I won't be missing much.