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What Friends Do
Aviva discusses Ramona's curiosity about her prosthetic and laments not defending Heather.
The ladies seem to be having a lot of fun in London. Aside from my reticence to fly on a moments notice, there was a lot going on with my family. I had four birthday parties, one child down with the flu, one vocabulary test and one geography test, baby classes, pick ups and dropoffs, bathtime, bedtime stories, homework help, etc. While I would have loved to have been there, the timing for London just wasn't right.
Shoe shopping was never much fun for me because I was extremely limited until I was 26 years old. (I was only able to wear clunky weird boots -- even in the summer.) At 26, I had further surgery which allowed for better fitting prosthetics and, for the first time in my life, I could wear heels, open-toe shoes, flip flops etc. To this day, it is a great treat for me to wear wedges and heels -- anytime, anyplace. People who don't know that I wear a prosthesis (although now those people are far and few between) often ask, "Why do you wear heels so frequently?" Ahhh, if they only knew. . .Some of you may have noticed and wondered why I was bathing the children in wedges! Now you know that any heels are always a treat for myself.
Shoe shopping with Ramona was quite the experience. I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable about my leg, and I welcome all questions. Yet who knew it would be so difficult for a woman in her fifties to understand the concept of an amputated leg? I learned that day that Ramona had never heard of the word "prosthesis" before. To question whether or not I can wear a bathing suit is bizarre. Does Ramona think I should be ashamed to wear a bathing suit? While Ramona may have been insensitive with her line of questioning fit for a child, I am going to assume she was trying to be funny and cute.
Maybe Ramona was afraid I would remove my prosthesis, and fearful of the whole process of shoe shopping with an amputee. I tried to make it out to be no big deal and set her at ease. That's what friends do right? (Please refer to this question in future episodes.) And if I wasn't able to set Ramona at ease, maybe someone out there can feel a little bit better about whatever issue they are anxious about exposing. In my case this has been taken to a whole new level as there is actually a parody account on twitter with the "AvivasLeg" handle. To be honest, whenever I see it, I am not sure whether I should laugh or cry. As I have throughout my life, and now more than ever on this #RHONY journey, I have chosen to laugh. Life is just too short.
At dinner, Ramona brings me back to junior high. She is intimidated by Heather and it shows in the form of mockery. It was at that point that my interview quote, "I felt like I was with a 6 year old," should have been placed. I felt uncomfortable, especially with the cameras looming. As Ramona got really mean, I sat there, frozen. I should have defended Heather, and I am sorry to Heather that I did not. Luckily, Reid poked Ramona a bit by asking her if she has these problems with other women! (I could not believe he said that!) Mario's reply was priceless, "No, she doesn't RIGHT NOW. . ."
The good news is that just as in junior high, we move on, move up and get past the nonsense. In this case, "the show must go on!" Thank you all for watching and reading and I hope you enjoy it all. I appreciate your feedback and for further interaction follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and on my website.
