this animal is real!!!!

my mom knows all the sixties dances:

the watusi
the bus stop
the mash potato
the twist
the swim

**{picture is NOT my mom}

do the dances people i know have names? can we name them if they don't have specific names already? i know some of the dance moves i do could be called:
the ringwald
the impatient shimmy
the supermarket
the bus stop
the muppet
the axl

people i know do some special moves, too. if i was to name them, some might be:
the snaps n' twirl
the snaps n' side-hop (different person)
the eyes-up sway
climbing the rope
the generic booty shake
the frantic prance



is the size of the smile in a photo of a stranger a clue to their everyday happiness? there are some people (not people i know) who smile the same smile in every (anticipated) photo. what makes them do this? it is not the way i approach photographing. i want the photos to show what has happened in my life, or in the lives of people i know. but maybe it is better to show the same unwavering smile in each moment, the smile you are reaching for, practicing for a time when the smile will never leave your face?

this is my mom. she always looks so youthful to me. she is probably in the ocean looking at the coral reefs right now.





my mom teaches pre-K. i babysat three- and five-year-old brothers on sunday. it was hard! we had fun, but they also "tested my boundaries."

examples of fun:

experiment with all spices from cupboard in a bowl of water, which we all tasted (lemony-tasting face + "mmmm")
chutes and ladders, first with the board, then freestyle on arms, couch, feet, noses
drawing elephants with planes and a lake, and a bear in a cave with an apple tree and bees
construction of elaborate marble chute and maze
making popsicles (which must be checked every 20 minutes to see if they've froze yet)
reading 'blueberries for sal' before tuck-in
fishing for magnetic-lipped fish in the bathtub during bath

examples of boundary testing:

splashing soapy johnson & johnson bubble water in my face
throwing banana peel at me with delighted giggling
pouring water on the floor in the kitchen
snatching take-out menus and flinging into the soapy, filling bathtub
refusing to speak to younger brother, causing him dismay for no reason
requesting cinnamon toast before dinner and then not being able to finish pasta

anyway, kids are a trip! these particular ones were REALLY smart. liz has babysat them before and can back me up on this.



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"The ants made a faint crunching sound as life left them. Like an elf eating toast, or a crisp biscuit."
there are two kinds of people: those who killed ants as children, and those who didn't.