European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 27, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A longing for nesting Byhanna Quindlen new York times y Friend s voice was As plaintive Asa Bird s song Al night do you know whal i tally want to do7" she asked. Look Lor floor tile make pies and have another Toby i be plied. No she said shop Lor wallpaper go to Antiques shops and have another baby do you think i m crazy 1 i think you re Avo Rago i said i be had Titia conversation a half dozen times this Winter. All the women in question Havo one Greal child and one genl pm. They re enamoured of the kid and lived of Iho work m part because it lakes Loo much time away irom the kid thai does t necessarily mean they want to quit How does four mornings a week sound to you another of them asked me rhetorically one Day. Bui Thoy to All heard the stories Aboul How it s Iho second baby that s the Hole in the Bottom of your Caser boat plunging you to the Depths of domesticity. And they want the second baby. And maybe the Boal Loo. What a lol of them also miss i la Call for Lack of a better lorm nesting. Its the wallpaper the pies. The allow elder trivial assemblage of those Small component pails Hal make up to leu Many of us. Nesting has been traditionally undervalued. This is because nesting has largely been the Purview of women. I on the other Hond have traditionally overvalued nesting because i am a crazed Rosier ii gives me the illusion that the Worful is a secure and pred late place with certain pictures on Cclam Walls and certain Little piles of pillows on certain Beds i do nol always like making soup Tudge afghans quills and brownies but i Liko Al Casl to consider making them. One saturday Al the end of my first pregnancy i bought Iresh Lowers Lor the Kitchen Iho bedroom and to of the bathrooms Hung curtains in the baby s room Well to the Bulcher Lor Iamb chops and served them with a cheese soul lab. When the Flowers were Aira gtd Iho curtains Hung me Danei oaten and the dishes washed i went into labor. There s a term for this routine in pregnancy books they Call it Iho nesting instinct and they warn you about in because in you be been running around buying Lowers and Lamb chops during the Day you la be Loo lived to push that night ii gave to a certain sense of Pride. However when the nurse wrote Down whal i d last eaten to be Able to say cheese soul Lac. We undervalue nesting now. In Par because to think of it As a 1930s phenomenon the kind of thing thai mrs. Cleaver did when Waby and the Beav were away at school and she could just sit Back Wilh a cup of Coulee. Go through some pattern books whip up cafe curtains Lor the Kitchen and then make some chocolate Chip cookies like Many of the other things we believe about the mothers in our lives. This one is largely wrong Wilh five child Ion spread Over 1d years my Solhei had no time for nesting. Shu did t Havo the Job. But she did t have the Sitter either and it would to years until she had us All in school at the same Lime. The closest she Ever got to paging through wallpaper books and restoring Fum Ilure was when she sprang Lor a diaper pail in a Nice pastel. I be got Tho Sutler All right but i also Havo the Job the last time i looked at wallpaper. I look the kids along which shows Hal even lazily intelligent people Are sometimes rendered unbelievably stupid by their own competing interests. That was the time i thought seriously about wiling three Birds Wilh one Stone by writing an article Aboul selecting wallpaper occasionally in the last 10 years i Havo met a woman Wilh children in school and no Job and i have Houghl uncharitable and almost reflexively what in the world does she find to do Wilh herself Oil Day i Don l think that anymore. Now i imagine lunch Wilh a Friend considering slipcovers doing a Lille gardening spending an hour working on dinner Belore everyone arrives Home. That life of lunches upholsterer appointments and chopping trips stretched to fill the empty hours is something 1 ran trom Wilh furious Little feet when i was growing up. It s something that barely exists now except among the very Rich it s something barely related by men and by women too. It s nol that i would like Ilas a Way of Lite. I d just like a Little Iling Al it every once in a while. I m making his sound a Little too much like an alternative to work it s really quite distinct Horn , and from Home decoration and from having children. I am sure Tor example that the reason you have such a manic urge to nest the Day Belore you give birth is Hal in is Nalio a Way of telling you that you will not be Able so much Aslo Purchase pillowcases for six months the word nesting is right for it because in is like that the sporadic assemblage of Small bits and Peces. Woven together arranged correctly until you Are comfortable Silling amid them. Or perhaps the woj is something Ihal s almost become an expletive in recent years. I know a air number of women who would like to spend just a Little More time being homemakers. Making a Home. Gelling All a Fine Points right. Surrounding themselves and their families Wilh a Wile Twig House of Gimp Racks and linens and Plasic containers filled with Good things to eat. In Ihn mistaken belief thai this will make everyone Happy and  s not a big thing but i m tired of big things. Sometimes i just want Tea time for the line ones the Houts to Feather my nest soft Contact wearers dropping out by Larry Dovle United press International Mary Beth Loughan wore Soi Contact lenses Tor eight years but no she s sick and liar cd of the  Hoy gel gunned up Wil protein Hicie s All these different chemicals you have to use and they re  the 24.year-old graphic designer says. And my eyes must produce a Tot of Oralein because it was always a pain Edilh Lee. Loughlin s co worker adds this complaint about the Solt con lacks when you drap or lose them they turn into Saran wrap " the two Hyvo since switched housing Haid cont aels and their glasses occasionally lol loping a Irand that has soft Contact Lens manufacturers concerned. According to Industry sources 23 million people in the United Stales Wen contacts about 30 percent the soft variety. But at the Sama Lime some 14 million americans have hied and Given up wearing soft contacts since they were introduced in 1971. The reasons though no doubt varied revolve around a single theme. Soft Contact tenses Are Haider to maintain and easier to damage Ihan hard con lacks and Iho aesthetic advantage Over glasses is no longer there. Glasses have become so fashionable that some people who Don l even need whom Are wearing Thorn. So. Some 14 million people say. Why put up Wilh the hassle ironically Solt lenses Aro a hassle practically by design. Solt contacts were developed to be As much like the Eye As Poss