I now have had two months worth of birthdays! My mother Shirley said inside every "old" person is the young person you have always been. Looking in the mirror I realize this must be true!
It was a relaxing birthday which fell on Sunday. I made a carrot cake with help from Amir who grated 3 cups of carrots! He came up from Chicago to help us celebrate. Towneley hosted dinner at the Lao/Thai restaurant in the photo and we came back to have the B day cake. I lit a lot of candles at the dining room table and put 6 candles on the cake.
With Towneley, Amir, Antonio and Signe It was a party of 5. Signe gave me a hat box full of gifts including a book on Feng Shui, lots of wooden massage gadgets, a piece of silky cloth and two clear glass angel candle holders. T got me a vacuum cleaner(my choice, which I picked out), and later brought me a dozen pale yellow roses. Amir got me a fall bouquet and gave me a great massage. He offered to go shopping with me, but I had already gotten myself some fancy imported Provance Sante French Eau de Toilette from the Coop, so I declined. He paid for my new business cards instead. Antonio gave me a sparkly red agate stone the he found when we went to Cherokee Marsh. He is going to tumble it and I will wear it as a pendant.
I got cards from Dorset, T's mom, sis Chris, Amir and Tana and Brad. Aunalee called from Florida, Dorset from Houston and nephew Ben from Minneapolis and Chris from Iola. I Got email greetings from Isaac and others.
To me the number of B days don't mean too much. I am "fit," feel good and still look OK. I don't think much about "mortality," but this morning I figured that if I live as long as my mom I might have another 26 years, so that is a lot of time to dance, read, write, dream, travel and do anything else I love.
Saturday, January 1, 2022
Birthday 2009
I now have had two months worth of birthdays! My mother Shirley said inside every "old" person is the young person you have always been. Looking in the mirror I realize this must be true!
It was a relaxing birthday which fell on Sunday. I made a carrot cake with help from Amir who grated 3 cups of carrots! He came up from Chicago to help us celebrate. Towneley hosted dinner at the Lao/Thai restaurant in the photo and we came back to have the B day cake. I lit a lot of candles at the dining room table and put 6 candles on the cake.
With Towneley, Amir, Antonio and Signe It was a party of 5. Signe gave me a hat box full of gifts including a book on Feng Shui, lots of wooden massage gadgets, a piece of silky cloth and two clear glass angel candle holders. T got me a vacuum cleaner(my choice, which I picked out), and later brought me a dozen pale yellow roses. Amir got me a fall bouquet and gave me a great massage. He offered to go shopping with me, but I had already gotten myself some fancy imported Provance Sante French Eau de Toilette from the Coop, so I declined. He paid for my new business cards instead. Antonio gave me a sparkly red agate stone the he found when we went to Cherokee Marsh. He is going to tumble it and I will wear it as a pendant.
I got cards from Dorset, T's mom, sis Chris, Amir and Tana and Brad. Aunalee called from Florida, Dorset from Houston and nephew Ben from Minneapolis and Chris from Iola. I Got email greetings from Isaac and others.
To me the number of B days don't mean too much. I am "fit," feel good and still look OK. I don't think much about "mortality," but this morning I figured that if I live as long as my mom I might have another 26 years, so that is a lot of time to dance, read, write, dream, travel and do anything else I love.
The Frozen Pumpkin
Dec 9 2012
Wisconsin in Winter. How do the small animals survive? It has been zero, somewhat above and below for the past few weeks. Today it may get up to 30 F. A heat wave!
I have an informal compost in the back yard. It provides some excellent soil in the spring. This area also attracts the interest of a number of animals.
My decorative pumpkin of October and November was still on the front porch this week - frozen solid of course. I know the squirrels and other animals like squash and pumpkin seeds. I brought it indoors to defrost and then cut it in half to make the seeds available to what ever creature might find them. I hoped they might arrive shortly after I put it out in the compost area, but they are used to eating frozen food.
The back yard is full of rabbit tracks. I noticed the rabbits had visited the compost area shortly after the 18" snowfall last week. They nibbled on the salad and other greens I had put out there on the top of the snow.
I just checked the pumpkin and so far no takers. The coffee cake I put out to the side of the compost, has not been touched by the fat, blonde eared squirrels who are out there nearly everyday when it is not winter, so it seems they are in semi- hibernation mode.
Other animals that the next door neighbor mentioned he had seen out there at night from his second floor balcony include raccoons and even an opossum! Who knew? I have also seen the dark mice, maybe they are voles (?), racing around the area in the warmer weather. They live very close to the compost, I think, to avoid the local cats who also regularly hunt there!
Last year I got some black sunflower seeds that I hoped the birds might enjoy. Alas, lacking a bird feeder, it was the squirrels that feasted on them, boosting their body heat with the protein they contain.
Right now - thoughts of the cave people who survived the ice ages. Here I am, warm in my home, so near yet so far from the cruel mistress of the frozen northern winter.
Long Hair and Wtichy Women
FASHION & STYLE | October 24, 2010
The Mirror: Why Can't Middle-Aged Women Have Long Hair?
By DOMINIQUE BROWNING
At a certain age, cutting your hair is considered the appropriate thing to do, as if being shorn is a way of releasing oneself from the locks of the past.
One commenter said they think that long gray or white hair looks "witchy" on women - maybe this was a guy? What does this mean? That they are powerful, mysterious, dangerous or??? More power to the witchy women!
This NY Times article now has 1266 comments (the most I have ever seen on there, they usually cut comments off way before this point), so it seems like everyone has something to say about this. It was interesting to read the comments made about women it the family and hair as something beautiful and something that many people had fond memories of. How their hair was a big part of collective memory and individual identity.
Well, I have long hair because that is what feels the best to me. My mom was always hounding me to "get a hair style" after I turned about 35. I did have it cut a jaw length and wore it that way for a few years, but after I went to Jamaica when I was 43. After that I just let it grow and it is halfway down my back. Too bad that my hair is thin as it is, but tho I am an "older woman" I am lucky that it hasn't gotten thinner as many people commented on in the article, and now needs a bit of a trim now. My friends cut my hair which only takes a couple of minutes and after it is trimmed a few inches there is just a few tablespoons of hair.
I started coloring my hair in the 60's. I was a teenager then when we lived in California and I wanted to be a "real" California girl. I used "sun in" which you just spritz on. It has always worked well for me and is fast, cheap and easy. Since I was a blonde as a kid that type of coloring worked fine and looks pretty natural (or at least I think it does).
In the 50's the "pixie" hair cut was just the "thing" and my mom made my sister and I get one. I cried and didn't want my hair to be cut. I could take care of it myself and I tried to talk her out of it. No dice. But I did win honorable mention in a "Cute Kid" photo contest due to that hair cut - that and my chubby round face and pixie smile to match.
The last 3 years I stopped coloring my hair, but I am going to color it again in December. I did it last June for Isaac and Angie's wedding. Sister Chris was commenting on it - repeatedly. She goes to some stylist due to her thin hair and has spent a lot on color and cuts, but that era is coming to an end since she is retired and doesn't have that much to spend on what I would call a luxury. I used Garnier "natural (honey) blonde" shampoo-in color and it said that the color would wash out in 4 weeks. It never did...hmmmm.
In Jamaica fair hair is prized, as it is in Turkey, thus so MANY bottled blondes there. But when they see someone that they suspect has natural blonde hair that is really something to stare at. (Staring is considered "normal" there.) What they expect is "true" blond is apparently truly "exotic"...
At the Willy St Fair in September I saw so much beautiful blonde hair on women (probably 90% of it colored) that was shining in the sun. I decided I would do it again this winter before my trip to Jamaica. I am going to try to avoid my white forelock, which I love. It was one reason not to color my hair recently since my hair is now such a dark "ash blonde" and there is a good contrast that makes it more noticeable. In my 20's a friend's mom had a white forelock that I thought was so cool. I didn't think I would "get one" as neither of my parents had one, so was very happy when that came in a few years ago.
Of course women's hair is considered their "crowning glory." And in the late 60's and early 70's my mom grew her hair long - almost down to her waist. She was about 50 at that time. You could see the progression of the gray from top to bottom that was very noticeable as she was a brunette. I have a picture of us out in the garden with me holding out her hair out in a cascade for the photo. I think she got tired of taking care of it after a few years and went back to her shorter hair style. I cut her hair on many occasions. She cut the family's hair on the "old days" and I learned how to do it by watching her and also from watchin stylists cut my hair when I did have a "style." Now I cut my friend Antonio's hair. One year many years, ago, I cut almost five or more family member's in successionhair one Thanksgiving while the turkey was roasting including. The last to be cut was my nephew Isaac's golden locks - he was about 2 and it was his first haircut. He cried the whole time.
Well, let's hear it for the witchy women, and hair as an object of memory, beauty and identity!
The Mirror: Why Can't Middle-Aged Women Have Long Hair?
By DOMINIQUE BROWNING
At a certain age, cutting your hair is considered the appropriate thing to do, as if being shorn is a way of releasing oneself from the locks of the past.
One commenter said they think that long gray or white hair looks "witchy" on women - maybe this was a guy? What does this mean? That they are powerful, mysterious, dangerous or??? More power to the witchy women!
This NY Times article now has 1266 comments (the most I have ever seen on there, they usually cut comments off way before this point), so it seems like everyone has something to say about this. It was interesting to read the comments made about women it the family and hair as something beautiful and something that many people had fond memories of. How their hair was a big part of collective memory and individual identity.
Well, I have long hair because that is what feels the best to me. My mom was always hounding me to "get a hair style" after I turned about 35. I did have it cut a jaw length and wore it that way for a few years, but after I went to Jamaica when I was 43. After that I just let it grow and it is halfway down my back. Too bad that my hair is thin as it is, but tho I am an "older woman" I am lucky that it hasn't gotten thinner as many people commented on in the article, and now needs a bit of a trim now. My friends cut my hair which only takes a couple of minutes and after it is trimmed a few inches there is just a few tablespoons of hair.
I started coloring my hair in the 60's. I was a teenager then when we lived in California and I wanted to be a "real" California girl. I used "sun in" which you just spritz on. It has always worked well for me and is fast, cheap and easy. Since I was a blonde as a kid that type of coloring worked fine and looks pretty natural (or at least I think it does).
In the 50's the "pixie" hair cut was just the "thing" and my mom made my sister and I get one. I cried and didn't want my hair to be cut. I could take care of it myself and I tried to talk her out of it. No dice. But I did win honorable mention in a "Cute Kid" photo contest due to that hair cut - that and my chubby round face and pixie smile to match.
The last 3 years I stopped coloring my hair, but I am going to color it again in December. I did it last June for Isaac and Angie's wedding. Sister Chris was commenting on it - repeatedly. She goes to some stylist due to her thin hair and has spent a lot on color and cuts, but that era is coming to an end since she is retired and doesn't have that much to spend on what I would call a luxury. I used Garnier "natural (honey) blonde" shampoo-in color and it said that the color would wash out in 4 weeks. It never did...hmmmm.
In Jamaica fair hair is prized, as it is in Turkey, thus so MANY bottled blondes there. But when they see someone that they suspect has natural blonde hair that is really something to stare at. (Staring is considered "normal" there.) What they expect is "true" blond is apparently truly "exotic"...
At the Willy St Fair in September I saw so much beautiful blonde hair on women (probably 90% of it colored) that was shining in the sun. I decided I would do it again this winter before my trip to Jamaica. I am going to try to avoid my white forelock, which I love. It was one reason not to color my hair recently since my hair is now such a dark "ash blonde" and there is a good contrast that makes it more noticeable. In my 20's a friend's mom had a white forelock that I thought was so cool. I didn't think I would "get one" as neither of my parents had one, so was very happy when that came in a few years ago.
Of course women's hair is considered their "crowning glory." And in the late 60's and early 70's my mom grew her hair long - almost down to her waist. She was about 50 at that time. You could see the progression of the gray from top to bottom that was very noticeable as she was a brunette. I have a picture of us out in the garden with me holding out her hair out in a cascade for the photo. I think she got tired of taking care of it after a few years and went back to her shorter hair style. I cut her hair on many occasions. She cut the family's hair on the "old days" and I learned how to do it by watching her and also from watchin stylists cut my hair when I did have a "style." Now I cut my friend Antonio's hair. One year many years, ago, I cut almost five or more family member's in successionhair one Thanksgiving while the turkey was roasting including. The last to be cut was my nephew Isaac's golden locks - he was about 2 and it was his first haircut. He cried the whole time.
Well, let's hear it for the witchy women, and hair as an object of memory, beauty and identity!
Saturday, August 22, 2020
In Istanbul, Turkey - Spirit of the Wind
On my first night in Istanbul in August a huge wind was coming in from the north west. My bed was right by the big double windows. Of course I was exhausted from the excitement, long flight and time change. I lay there all night facing the widow with the big wind hitting me in the face and pouring over me.
Later I found out that in Turkey the wind is a magical force - maybe a god - in the ancient regional cosmology. Rusgar is the name of the wind, ruya means dream and ruhum means spirit in Turkish.
I was blessed by the mighty wind on my first night there in Turkey.
If you're on a mini bus the covered women don't want a window open with the breeze blowing on them for this reason. In the old days, if a girl got pregnant they said - the wind did it!
The Magical Turkish Wind -
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Labor Day - L_A_B_O_R - Jobs of Yesteryear...
RE Labor -
I worked at Waunakee Canning Co canning corn in late summer of 1970 when I first moved to Madison. I had transferred down to UW-Madison, had been a student at Eau Claire for two years.
A school bus picked us up around town and we went 30 min out of town to the Waunakee Canning Factory. My shift was 6 or 7 pm until 1 or 2am. Lunch 30 minutes at 10:30 or 11.
My job was standing pulling de-husked corn off the conveyor belt and feeding it into a decerneling machine - zip, zip, zip. I was the relief person, going repeatedly down the row so each woman sequentially could get an 10 minute break. I got a break when I got to the end of our row of about 10 people. The workers in this part of production were all women. Mostly young "kids" and quite a few farm wives. Federal minimum wage, of course - maybe $1.60 hr.(Amazing!)
When there was a mechanical problem somewhere production was shut down everyone went up on the roof to relax and enjoy the stars in the cool summer night. Our happy paid breaks lasted from about 20 min to an hour or more.
While working on the line I mentally reviewed every life experience I'd had in my 20 years and remembered every dream I could. After 3 weeks, at the point of * mental numbness,* went to lunch then just walked off the job without notice. I couldn't handle * one more minute *. I started hitchhiking back to town and a county policeman picked me up on Highway 113. He said - What are you doing out here? He took me to the Madison city line where a city squad car met us and that cop drove me home to the coop where I lived.
I went back a week later to pick up my check that was ordinarily passed out at the end of the shift on payday.
So my little brush with labor/factory work was - an education.
After that I got a job at Yee's Cafe, one of just two Asian restaurants in town, in the old Capitol Hotel on King St (now a site of a big state office building). It was a big improvement. Business was great and I made good money in tips. Federal/state pay rate for this kind of work was around $.75 an hour for tipped employee, we did get an included meal.
*************
After 4 years of working various jobs and not being able to save money for school, the Pell Grants / loans started (in '74) and I was able to go back to school in Jan of '75 with matching grants. I went to school full time and worked 3 part time jobs. One job was school bus driver on the morning shift, did sign painting in the graphics dept of the Memorial Union in the late afternoons (maybe $3.50 an hour) and did life modeling in the Art Dept($7.00 an hour?) where I was also a student. Both were work study jobs. In the summers I got some pick up work waitressing.
I went all 3 semesters each year for 5 years total.
I took one summer off - in '78 I finished my BS in Art Ed and I went to Europe with my "rich" Jewish boyfriend. We were there for 9 weeks. We travelled around most of western Europe on Eurail passes, did some camping and stayed at penosionies. My backpack was 35 pounds with the sleeping bag.
It was a glorious summer and long way from the canning job!
I started grad school that fall I finished in two years with one MA and one MFA degree working the same 3+ jobs.
Finally a "professional!" I got job teaching art in the fall at McFarland Middle and High School. Was paid the entry level rate (:-( ) because it was a semester long sub job, but I designed and taught the whole art curriculum 7th - 12 grades with 5 classes (100 students) a day...
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The long and winding road of - W-O-R-K!
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