whatever happened to kabbalah?

the ancient religion, passed down through thousands of years of religious scholarship?

adopted by madonna, and her family by proxy, it was trendily passed along to the likes of britney spears, lindsay lohan and paris hilton who were all, at one time or other, seen sporting the red string around their wrist as a sign of their true learning of the mysticism.

ashton kutcher and rocco ritchie followed the rites, possibly only as followers to their wife and mother, respectively. we all remember the photos of ashton in white, rocco with long hair.

what the heck happened? have celebrities turned even an ancient religion trendy? has kabbalah HAD it's 15 minutes of fame? after being in existence for thousands of years? the shallow celebrities have turned it into a mockery, amongst outdated fashions like bubble skirts and zip-ankle jeans.

for shame, for shame.

whatever happened to kabbalah?

curl experiment

do any of you remember those little pink sponge hair rollers from when you were a kid?

you'd wash your hair at night, then your mom would wind sections of your hair onto a zillion rollers which snapped securely at the top. then, you'd feebly attempt to sleep on a pillow of pink plastic and crackly-sounding sponge, tossing and turning, and pulling your hairs out by the scalp in the process.

in the morning, mom would carefully unroll the curls, one at a time, and you'd have a headful of curls that would make shirley temple blush.

well, my girl wanted to test this theory. so we went to target, bought a pack of old-fashioned rollers and a pack of newfangled "spiral" rollers. we washed, conditioned, gelled, and rolled. she slept, but when i asked her in the morning HOW she slept, she said, "OK." when i asked if she'd do it again for curls, she said, "sure." we unwrapped the curls, and here is the result.




hey, susan, if you're reading this you can see the tomato plants peeking into the corner of the top photo. they are hugely insane and out-of-control. more later on them...

7 things...

ML at zee's space tagged me to write about 7 things that happened to me as a teen. reliving even a moment of those years makes me want to choke, but i'll give it a shot.

1. my friend jill was housesitting our senior year and asked me to stay with her so she wouldn't be alone in a strange place. she and her boyfriend were having a fight, so i went to bed. when she finally came up to bed (we were sharing the same one) i was half-asleep, but heard her clearly and distictly say, "keep your tongue and your lips AWAY from my body." "were you worried?" i replied. turns out she was talking to the dog. it's been a running joke ever since.

2. i took a trip across the country with my friend leslie (shout out to les-o-lee!) and her mom and dad when i was 13. we traveled in their naugahyde-upholstered station wagon hauling a camper. it was the first time i had traveled ANYWHERE, and these folks have no idea how badly i was bitten by the travel bug after that. we saw mt rushmore and yellowstone, as well as countless gorgeous campgrounds. check out the extreme hair on my head. leslie and i reconnected a few years ago after i google-stalked her, and have had fun getting to know eachother again.

3. i met my husband. i moved from suburban indianapolis to suburban detroit between my sophomore and junior years. we were 16. here's photographic evidence from the yearbook... we were in a play together. he was my father in the play (the guy holding the plant on the left) and i was a bride (in the middle). so i've known him more than half my life. jill, from #1 was also in the play, and it's where i met her, too.

4. tommy and i were voted class artists our senior year. hoo boy! more extreme hair.

5. i spent the summer after i graduated from high school out west with a geology program through the university of michigan's camp davis. it was based near jackson, wyoming, but during the program we travelled to montana, utah, nevada and idaho. i'll never forget the incredible time i had or the stunning sights i saw. oh, and it was a great way to kill 8 credit hours of science... not my best subject. i have many, many photos, but don't feel like scanning at the moment.

6. after i got back from that trip i had both of my jaws cracked open, replaced, and screwed back together. it was supposed to correct my bite. it was interesting.

7. when i got my driver's license, my folks gave me my dad's old company car to drive. it was a late 80's model 4-door black cutlass. i named him slick elliot. i loved that car. senior year, my friends and i painted poster-paint on our cars before graduation, and the paint baked into the finish, permanently etching the inane crap we had written into the paint of the car. my parents sold him after i graduated and went to college, and he was shortly thereafter wrecked. boo-hoo!

don't get used to it!

two posts in two days... i'm not sure i can live up to it for long! let's take things s-l-o-w-l-y, ok kids? mama can only do so much in a day (if i had a penny for every time my kids had to hear that!).

last day of school for my babies! and, with CAMERA IN HAND (wahoo!) i walked them to the end of the driveway to meet their fate. the bus, that is.


they haven't seen a camera in weeks... probably the longest they've gone in their lives without me in their faces, snapping shots of them. i'm shameless with a camera in hand! we have archives in the thousands. well backed-up, of course.

they were adequately corny on this muggy, doomed-to-be-hot morning.


where have i seen this face before?! i don't know where she gets it.


the dog got in on the action... poor jane is inexplicably scared of the camera, so i have very few shots of her looking anything other than terrified. she gets this sheepish, pathetic "don't kill me" look. what a funny girl.

i'm a mess

well, now that i actually visited my own blog, there's hope that i may be able to read all of YOUR blogs soon, too.

sorry it's been a while, folks.

the last remaining camera broke, so i couldn't post photos. of anything. seeing as how i'm visually oriented, that was a big blow.

the dog rolled in poop the other day and when i told her to stay outside while i got a bath ready, she disappeared, only to come back "bathed." i think she went to a pond or ditch and washed herself. is that weird?

if we have to go to another rehearsal, recital, holiday party, birthday party, end-of-year party or party to celebrate all the parties i'm going to fall apart. at the school today i started crying. what a dork! it was just so sweet and emotional.

there's so much more, but at least i put up something.

tomorrow, summer officially starts at 12;30 pm.