pysanky! you're welcome!

this evening me and my step sisters, step brother, their mom, christine, made pysanky!!! **ukranian eggs.** i actually used to make these with my mom and dad for easter back when i was really little and we still all lived together on 11th street. it was a pretty heavily eastern european neighborhood then, from my memories. there are still sundry ukranian, polish, and russian establishments around, but nothing like the eighties. one of my favorite stores - the ukranian goods store on 9th between 1st and 2nd, next to [marble paradise] dinosaur hill - was packed up and closed down a month or so ago, and it well near broke my heart. there's still the ukranian national home, the sly fox, the meat shops and all, but still...

in my building, there were these two polish young ladies - grace and someone else - who would watch me in their apartment when my parents went off to their poetry readings or whatever they were up to in 1985. these ladies would gossip in polish and paint their nails and it was awesome. i remember their linoleum kitchen floor and perfume. they must've been about my age, i guess, but i thought they were so sophisticated at the time. and an old russian lady would call me babushka and sasha and pinch my cheeks in the hallway. i lived on the 5th floor and when i was little it was a long walk up. i would stop half way up and hang out on the steps sometimes, while my parents brought the groceries up. she would pass me on the stairs, old as she was!!! tough stock!

anyway... i used to make pysanky and here i was making them again! if i can i will scan some pictures of mine before i give them away. it's cool cause you paint beeswax on the egg and then dip it in dye and then paint more, etc.

they're like fucking gems!