S3x in the Canyon

 There's a little bistro in our canyon that [The Man I Love] and I sometimes like to go to sit out on the patio and enjoy a glass of wine at the end of the workday.

The other customers represent a cross-section of Topanga, which one could stereotype if one wanted - there's the young man with the laptop, poaching on the County Library's wi-fi; there's a couple of long-haired pony-tailed music industry guys; there's a young family taking their elderly Topanga-dwelling ex-hippie grandpa (or ma!) out to lunch, marveling at the idea of a Frenchified bistro rising up in Pine Tree Circle where the old rug shop used to be.

But today, we nibbled our ahi tartare and shared the patio with another Topanga phenomenon - the power-girl, yoga practicing, health-conscious young mom cohort. There were probably six of them; all late 20s. Obviously girlfriends from way back - college or school or work. Perhaps they'd all gone on a hike. Or decided to have a glass of wine after Pilates. Or maybe after Mommy-and-me.

They clustered round the table, cooed at I-phone photos of babies, and doted upon the one real baby who was there - now awake and gurgling, after having been nursed beneath a properly batik-ed sling carrier for the first fifteen minutes of the gathering. Oh, and a dog. With a bandana.

They talked about babies, herbal healing for asthma  preschools, web design and their husbands. And shoes. A lot about shoes.

It's like Sex in the City, only it's in the Canyon.