My First Order!

A new batch of leaves have just fallen! My cousin heard about my leaves from my aunt who saw my mom's leaf from last year and she needs a wedding gift for this weekend...for a couple who have a cool decorative pond in their yard.
So Joanna just placed an order for one!
This time I set up my kitchen counter to paint them.
That worked out well.

The colors, flat and solid just bored me this time, so I decided to add some gold.

Anyway, I thought gold might make a nice wedding gifty flavor.

And voila!
I'm absolutely loving these and want to make more ASAP. But I'm running out of leaves.
My elephant ear plants weren't very big or lush.
Must plant more next year.

This red one is my favorite. I don't know if I'm going to be able to give it away.





And I was newly inspired while I was painting them upside down. I have a fantastic idea for next Halloween that I'm going to work on next. I can't wait, it makes me laugh already!

True Love?

2009 World Series.
7th Inning.
Phillies are winning - it's now or never!
17 year old boy sitting on couch alone,
watching television and
texting his girlfriend.
I walk in.
He points to the tv
and says,
"This is her favorite show,
I'm watching it with her."
A baker carefully lays
a multicolored fondant
over a cake.
He's watching Cake Boss
during the World Series
because his girlfriend
is watching it at home
with him.

True Love Or
-Gasp-
Yankees Fan!?

Boo.

The Barber Shop

Sean has more hair than my hardwood floors. He has two basic cowlicks, thick hair and the hair that lays on the very top of his head goes in two directions, like the ocean and an undertow. We go to the barber shop quite frequently, even though it probably doesn't show. He is enjoying having his hair longer lately, like his brothers have in years past, so it always looks like he needs a trip to the barber.


Jackie is our barber and she does a great job and in a very warm, friendly manner as well. This is a lady who gives my kids a trim and then goes home and prays for them. What more could you ask of a barber? Recently Sean was getting a haircut and one of Jackie's faithful customers came in with his mom. Mom went next door for her cut and the boy, probably in his early teens, sat down next to me. The boy exchanged some good-natured banter with Jackie and I realized that he was mentally disabled in some way. Soon he was talking to me, telling me entertaining stories of his favorite diner, how he likes to vacuum (I immediately invited him over), that his home had 294 stories and that he vacuums them all, etc. I couldn't help but encourage his stories. We laughed a lot, all four of us.


"Steve" was especially bothered by dirt and on his trips to his favorite diner where he ordered his favorite dinner from his favorite waitress, he would often go into the kitchen and clean the filters of the stove exhaust fans. They are filthy, according to Steve, and he cleans them thousands of times each visit. Someone needs to! Again, I invited him to my home.

All of his restaurant stories reminded me of my years waitressing at Adelphia during summers home from college. The stories I could tell. Of the flying prime rib in the kitchen. Of the pans and pans of baklava I ate with my fingers. Of the time I poured au jus on a lady's head. (That's not one of my personal favorites.) But the story I most wanted to tell Steve was the time Paul, the cook, was leaning over talking to me from behind the serving counter and a piece of bubblegum fell out of his mouth into the bubbling pan of spaghetti sauce. We searched and searched, Paul dipping the ladle in over and over, but we never caught a glimpse of it and could only assume it melted on impact.


I said to Steve, "Do you want to hear a story from when I was a waitress?"
Steve said, "No. I tell my own stories."


Is that not the most beautiful thing you've ever heard? I threw my head back and laughed so hard, along with Jackie who was standing there cutting Sean's hair, listening to us go on. Doesn't everyone want to say that when someone tries to add their own "better than that" story? So, hey, I shut up and listened to Steve.

"...blurry...clear...blurry...clear..."

In keeping with the warts and cyst, which his mother also received in 2nd grade, Pie got glasses yesterday. On my first day of seeing clearly, Scott Palesheski called out "Four Eyes!" when I entered Mrs. Hutton's 2nd grade class. He was also wearing glasses, big thick plasic square ones. I hope Sean's reception is a little kinder and gentler today. Ellie, Kaitlyn and Erin all wear glasses too and I don't think they'll be so callous. (Scott also used to kick me in the shins regularly, so I think there was something else going on there.)

It was a precious moment I may not forget, when we walked outside of Dr. Floyd's office to the car. This is what I heard, over and over: Oh my gosh! I think these glasses are really going to help me! Wow! Everything is really clear. Then he'd slip them off his nose and say, blurry...then he'd slip them back onto his nose and say, clear...Mom, these things are really going to help me! How does glass do that? Help me see clearer? How does just glass help you see better? Wow, these are going to help me.

Plum Tuckered Out

It's late Sunday. I am posting from bed, while channel-surfing. A perfect time to create a punny brain teaser! Ironically, this has nothing to do with my two prior posts, just a silly thought I had while driving home from a far-away soccer game today. You may play along if you enjoy word games or simply leave the comment Jennie, go to sleep.

There's a convention and each different group representing a career, hobby or special interest wore a different colored t-shirt. Can you guess what color each group wore? Some are punny, some are just dredged from the deep crevices of my creative cortex and probably make little to no sense at all. (At least that's what Stan is saying as I try them out on him.)

Example:
The squad of sergeants wore army green. The citrus farmers wore lemon yellow.

1 The herb growers wore - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

2 The glassmiths wore - _ _ _ _

3 The book club wore - _ _ _

4 The soccer team and the personal development group wore - _ _ _ _

5 The leather workers wore - _ _ _

6 The autobody and ironworkers wore - _ _ _ _

7 The chorus wore -_ _ _ _ _

8 The cabinet makers and Diana Ross fans wore - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

9 The dairy farmers wore - _ _ _ _ _

10 The masons wore - _ _ _ _ _/ _ _ _

11 The parachuters wore - _ _ _ / _ _ _ _

12 The cast from Gilligan's Island wore - _ _ _ _ _ _

13 The depressed anemics wore - _ _ _ _/ _ _ _ _

14 The mattress salesmen wore - _ _ _ _ _ _/ _ _ _ _ _

15 The obstetricians wore - _ _ _ _ /_ _ _ _

16 The florists wore - _ _ _ _

17 The policemen wore - _ _ _ _ _ _

18 The toastmasters wore - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

19 The pianists wore - _ _ _ _ _

20 The martini drinkers wore - _ _ _ _ _

21 The dowsers wore - _ _ _ _

22 The weightlifters wore - _ _ _ _

23 The fishermen wore - _ _ _ _ _ _

24 The soup lovers wore - _ _ _ _ _ _

25 The poultry farmers wore - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Answers!

More Colored Birdbaths, More Colored T-Shirts

Remember last year when I showed off our birdbaths here and here?
We made some more yesterday. I meant to photograph the whole process just for the fun of it, but got busy and forgot. Basically, you get a small pile of sand and form it so that an upside-down elephant ear fits it nicely. Then you cover that sand with plastic, turn the leaf upside-down on top of it and cover the leaf smoothly with vinyl patch concrete. Then you wait for them to dry.

These were done on my front porch. Our first two were too watery, but eventually we got the vinyl patch to a good "puffed pastry" consistency. Then we'll paint them with acrylic colors and seal the concrete. I'll post more pictures when we do. Such fun. I didn't keep one of last year's batch, but gave them all away as gifts, so I hope to get one this year for my garden.

This morning I talked to my pal Jane over the phone while watching my littlest's soccer game, during which, incidently - you know, while I'm here I might as well tell ya he scored the only goal of the game in the last couple minutes but it had started to rain heavily and I went to the car and missed it ... anybadmother...

So I was chatting with Janey, who's a psychology professor, and we were telling each other about our weeks. I often discuss psychological stuff with her because she likes the research end of it and I have many psychological issues interests so it comes in handy. heh heh. I told her about the class color thing and how I just wasn't so sure that schools have any idea what kind of environment "they" are facilitating sometimes or the kind of lessons "they" are teaching sometimes and she sort of chuckled and agreed. "You know," she offered immediately, "there are psychological studies about ingroup bias and outgroup derogation [creating situations that cause people to be biased toward their own group and derogatory toward another] where they simply take totally random people and slap one color shirt on them and then a bunch of other people, totally randomly, and slap another color shirt on them and watch them immediately form ingroup bias and outgroup derogation pretty consistently. It's well-known in the psychological community that all you have to do is tell some people they are different from others and they will perceive a "them vs us" thing where there simply isn't one." [Not her exact words] I often wonder if the people who make their living being the professionals in the field look into things like educational, psychological, scientific studies and conclusions before they insititute a procedure. So, I guess if this is the forced environment of schools to create a I Belong, Therefore I Exist atmostphere, those who go along with the experiment are probably perceived as more successful there - they belong! And those who don't quite understand it, who say, "Huh? What? Why am I being asked to align myself with some and separate myself from others?" must either put on the assigned shirt and go along or just stand aside and watch all the pretty colors.

Class Color

What do these words, together or apart, bring to your mind? Do you think about division, differences, elitism, segregation, pride or competition? Do you think about high school? This morning I contemplated these things, the history and significance of the words "class" and "color" in our society, and homeschooling too. I think it all started in a pep rally but I began to wonder, So what are we cheering for again?

Stan drove Seth to school, stopping at the local convenience store on the way. Seth went in and Stan observed in the parking lot students from our local high school all dressed, painted and decked out in green. When Seth got back into the car, Stan asked him what was going on, why members of his senior class were wearing green, considering green is not one of the school's colors and it's not March 19th. Seth said it was "Class Colors Day" and the senior class color is green. Not even knowing what that meant, Stan looked down at Seth's blue shirt and before he could consider the absurdity of this question, the words had already left his mouth: Do you want to go home and change? He could have evoked the same response with: Hey, would you like to spend the day at the local waste water treatment plant?

If we had a "Class Colors Day" in school back in 1983, I don't remember it nor am I sure I'd have joined in and worn the assigned color because then, like now, I would have no idea why such a day would be created...why we'd need a class color...who decided which color...how it could matter what color my shirt was or whether I painted my face purple or dyed my hair the same...what was it all for...what are we accomplishing and do I want whatever that may be anyway? In other words I'd probably have been more interested in what was going on at the local waste water treatment plant.

Classes, levels of schooling - these ideas lost meaning to this family while we explored the world of homeschooling for 8 or 9 years. One of the most amazing things I observed is that children naturally do not orient themselves by age and class standing. Adults and institutions construct that artificially for our young. Perhaps homeschoolers are the only ones in this society who have a clear glimpse into this phenomenon. Put the children of 15 homeschooling families into a gymnasium to play and you will not only see teenagers playing basketball, young children pushing around big balls, babies toddling on mats, girls playing with hoola hoops and boys slamming tennis balls against concrete walls, but you will also see teenagers carrying 6 year olds on their hips, lifting them up to make a basket. You will see 8 year olds rolling balls to babies. You will see a 14 year old off to the side chatting with a parent about a book. You will see 17 year olds organizing a game of wiffle ball with 14 year olds, splitting up the teams. You will see a 13 year old teaching an 8, 12 and 16 year old how to play flag football.

Do the same with the children of 15 families schooled in institutions and you will see division, discomfort, decisions. Should I go jump rope with those 2nd graders from my neighborhood or will the other 4th graders think I'm a loser. I'm generalizing here but in my experience most homeschooled kids weren't interested or influenced by what "grade" their peers might be in. They didn't seem to consider how old a playmate was. Imagine not playing with a friend who's 9 months younger than you because he's in 6th and you're in 7th. In homeschooling communities, that distinction doesn't even exist. That 6th grader may be far beyond the 7th grader academically or vice versa, but what really matters is that they want to skateboard together, not which math book they study or what reading class they're in or how old they are or what color they're wearing. Wanna play? Wanna be friends? This is the pertinent information. Could there be anything more unnatural than you - a grownup - only hanging out with people your own age? Only working in an office full of 47 year olds? It seems ludicrous outside of the institution, doesn't it? But poll any group of kids walking home from school and I'll betcha they're all born within 12 months of one another and perhaps even lobbing teases to the group behind them who all happened to be in the math club. Those of us who were schooled entirely within the walls of a class/level-oriented institution may not even be able to see the significance of that scenario. Homeschoolers might.

It's funny. My oldest, who homeschooled through 7th grade (which the exception of 5th) used to call his friends every day after 3:00. He called kids from his soccer team, kids from the neighborhood, kids he knew since he was a toddler, kids he knew from church - all kids who went to public school. The summer before he went into school I happened to count how many different kids he brought home to play - 22. He loved kids, he loved to play, he reached out. Then in eighth grade he joined all those kids in school and suddenly rarely hung out with any of them. His number of friends fell to around 3. Why? I don't know, but I can tell you what I think. I believe he went into school and saw divisions and classifications. Before he went to school, he just saw kids and friends. In school, he saw the cool kids, the smart kids, the popular kids, the dweebs, the band members, this lunch table, that clique, the athletic kids, those in the top math class, those in the lowest, the big 8th graders, the lowly 6th graders. So he made a couple of friendships that worked and, in some ways, narrowed his outlook on life. And every day he went to school, he was reminded of all the levels, divisions, classifications, groups and other ways to label and define people. Why not add colors to the list?

Isn't that what the high school is doing when they ask everyone in the different classes to wear a certain color? Providing for these kids an identity? Something they can cling to? I'm green. And I'm a senior. And darnit, today I'm proud to be a green senior. I see you're a yellow sophomore. Huh.

I can't help but extrapolate here. I'm staring at the irony in this and entertaining writing a letter to Whom It May Concern. Hey, aren't we all supposed to be holding hands now, you know globally and all, joining together as one, embracing one another as same, blurring lines of differences, coming together as one people and all that? Shouldn't our public schools, the very place our government indoctrinates teaches our children how to think about the world and their place in it, be accountable too and sensitive to this goal? So, why do they themselves (the schools) tout their greatness above the school in the town next door? How exactly does that unite our country in a common purpose or even that big idea - tolerance? Why do they frame and display articles that show their ranking in the state? Why are our public schools competing with each another? And why do they use our children's own performances and accomplishments to do that? Why are our cheerleaders saying we're great and you're not? Why is there "Panther Pride", "Cougar Country", "Emu Egotists"? How come we rally up "our kids" and boo down "their kids" who wear a different colored jersey? We even do this in youth sports, encourage competition and even negativity between teams of kids from the same town when they're in Little League and then ask them to unite devotedly on the same high school team. Separate them in school by color and rank, join them together after school in identical uniforms. Mixed messages? Pointless positioning? Boredom? And what about the ones who didn't wear their color because the washing machine broke or happen to wear the color of another class that day? Or couldn't get their parents to go out the night before and purchase a green shirt or green hair paint? Do they fall into yet another class? Do they get labeled the less discriminatory class? And is that good or bad?

{And while I'm in a questioning frenzy: Really, why do we have football stickers on our car windows that say: Pain is temporary, but pride is forever when to my knowledge - which is teeny in this area - our team has never won even half their games in a given season, but is usually pounded soundly? I couldn't help but think that sticker should read the exact opposite. At least then we could brag about having an honest football team anyway.}

So why the class divisions? Why all the labeling and sorting? Why the "junior pride"? Why the "freshman friskiness"? Why the "senior snobs?" I wonder who would be able to give the reason or even venture a guess. And what about those class colors?

I asked Seth what it was all about when he got home this afternoon. He shrugged and said, "I have absolutely no idea. Never have, never will. Can I have the car keys?"

Yeah. Aruba.

You'd think I'd be happy. I am in a small way, but I'm mostly kind of disturbed that I'm going to Aruba. Here's how it started. My friend Coleen and I have a mutual friend who's a vet. (ernarian) She had plans to go to Aruba for business. Coleen said, "Hey! I want to leave the state of New Jersey!" And our other friend (whose 70th we just celebrated) is always up for travel, so she said she was in. Then I got a phone call, "Hey, Jen, we're going to Aruba. Wanna go with?" I breathed a deep sigh and told her through clenched teeth that I'd get back to her.

Then I probably slumped up to Stan with the situation, sighing.

Then I probably walked over to the huge world map in the computer room and cringed.

Then I thought about blue water and white sands and how I'll never see that in Atlantic City.

Pro and Con thoughts swam dizzyingly around my head for days...

pro - one of my goals in life is to sit on a white beach before a blue water and receive an umbrella-ed drink from a waiter.

con - I do not like flying.

pro - I could use a couple days off the continent.

con - But maybe not so high above it.

pro - I could use a few nights of slumber-partying with fun ladies.

con - I do not believe that it takes only 4 1/2 hours to fly to Aruba from my home. No matter what Shirley says.

pro - I got my passport! I have a passport!

con - I sorta look like a drug trafficker in my picture

pro - My friend Coleen assures me that we will have much fun in the sun.

con - I can't get that Funniest Home Videos episode out of my mind where the speed boat drags the heavy lady across the beach on her stomach before her parasail lifts her gracefully into the air.

pro - I need a vacation...to relax...

con - Me + turbulence = cartoon cat hanging by claws from ceiling.

pro - Think of all the pretty sunny blue and white pictures I'll be able to post when I get back home!

con - Think of the mess my entire life could be in when I come home to four males and a dog!

con - I'm a homebody, people!

pro - I should leave the house, state, country once in a while.

pro - Though I had weird fears of Aruba's close proximity to :/ Venezuela and its president Hugo Chavez, I could reassure myself by remembering that it is, in fact, a Dutch colony and Venezuela isn't going to invade the island any time soon....

con - Until Stan told me yesterday that the Venezuelan government took over the Hilton on Margarita Island. Which has absolutely nothing to do with the island of Aruba other than they're both off the coast of Venezuela.

Which is enough for me.

Anyway Coleen slapped me across the face and told me I was going.

So, yeah. Aruba. I'm going.

I'll be sure and send you a postcardpost.