“Circe, go wear something fancy and I’ll take your photograph, okay?”
Circe the Belly Dancer
Circe, the seven year old daughter of my friend Fred, decides that “fancy” means belly dancer outfit (complete with socks.) Before I take her portrait, she checks herself out in the mirror and sucks in her little belly. After a few pictures, she flies upstairs to change into something else.
Preparing to emulate Marilyn Monroe
Circe is not in the mood for classic portraiture. She trades in the oriental costume for the Marilyn look. She then reclines on the settee and looks at me from under her eyelashes appearing slightly underwhelmed. The portrait is vaguely disturbing, even more than I had anticipated, but the rule is to let her do and wear whatever she wants.
Circe has a new idea for a fancy outfit and tells me it will be a surprise. She will call me when she is ready. Five minutes later, she screams my name from the top of her lungs even though I’m just in the room next door.
Circe and the lion
In her happy messy room, Circe, dressed like Tarzan’s Jane, is lying on her bed with her favorite lion… and the little stick to beat him into submission.
I ask her to find something a little more simple and she comes back in a white dress.
Circe a la fenetre
I hear a bit of commotion outside the room, open the door, and find myself facing Catherine C., my neighbor from 35 years ago. I had not seen her since she had moved from our street in the seventies but I recognize her immediately! Weird! I ask Circe not to move while I go downstairs to meet her husband and children. One thing leads to another and before I know it, I’m having a cup of tea and cookies. More exactly tea and a cookie. The confections had all been made by Circe and taking a bite out of them is a mere impossibility. We all sit around chatting and dutifully sucking on our cookie, trying not to break any teeth.
Half an hour goes by and I suddenly remember poor Circe. I grab the camera and run up the stairs. This is what I find when I open the door:
Circe who awaits
She has not moved an inch but looks mildly resentful (and freezing.) I have now created some abandonement issues in that sweet abiding little girl and I’m not feeling very proud of myself. The mood has soured and the session appears over. I am not used to being obeyed. Who in their right mind would obey me anyway?
This session was photographed with a medium format film camera. I went back to film for the first time in many many many years, only to find out that in Dallas, you cannot find a lab with an old-fashioned dark room!
Categories: Children
Tagged: Brussels, children photography, cookies baked by kids should not be served to guests, creating abandonment issues, Family, fancy outfit, film photography, Hasselblad, life, medium format film, Photography
My sister faked cancer. She faked not one, but two cancers. If you are going to tell a big lie, you might as well fabricate an even bigger one for maximum effect. In the end, it turned out that her stomach and esophagus cancer surgery was in fact a gastric bypass to rid her of her obesity.
My sister and I are not on speaking terms. Blood may be thicker than water but when you put your 75 year old mother through the ringer with imaginary health problems, my blood thins out considerably. Seriously. She even attempted to turn the situation around by claiming that her lies were a cry for help and that my failure to recognize her anguish denoted a clear lack of compassion on my part. Nice try.
With my habitual Christmas foreigner abandoning me to go frolic in the Argentinian Pampas this year, there would be no Christmas dinner with my sister and I sitting at the same table. Instead, she gave her son a card for me with the strict instruction to open it only the next day, on Christmas.
The card was in a white envelope with a small golden bow.
It was a pretty thick envelope and all evening, I kept wondering if perhaps it contained a letter of apology (way overdue.)
The next morning, in bed with a good book and my morning coffee (it’s unbelievable the number of books you go through when not blogging!), I looked at the envelope on the night table begging to be opened with its cute little bow.
The card looked very average. In our family, we always go for funky and the Golden Retriever carrying Christmas ornaments definitely did not pass the originality test. Very unlike my sister. I opened the card.
Eek! Eek! Eek! Hair!!!! I kid you not. With roots! My sister cut all her hair off and stuffed them in my card. My instincts kick in. Or woman’s intuition, whatever you may want to call that special 6th sense. I think my sister is not going to apologize. I can just feel it with all my mighty powers of deduction. I push the hair aside.
What did I tell you?! The use of English remains a mystery since French is our first language, but nevermind the semantics. This is my first hate Christmas card ever! I didn’t even know such thing existed. In retrospect, the use of the golden bow on the envelope seems quite deceiving when coupled with the nice curvy handwriting.
I’m going to take the hair and make a little pillow with it.
Just kidding. I’m going to keep this card for the day my body is found in a Belgian gutter, stabbed to death by a hairless assassin.
Categories: Brussels
Tagged: Borderline histrionic personality, Brussels, Eek eek eek hair!!!, Family, family love, Freak, Hairy Christmas card, humor, I think my sister has problems, I'm back with a vengeance, life, Merry Christmas you stupid bitch, My blood is very thin these days, My sister is hairless, personal, Photography, Thoughts, Who fakes cancer?
