isolation, creation: Piney and the Underground Girl Who Saw Light

oh dear mom:

living far away from family and friends is sometimes lonely. after all, i don't have you around to harangue me with demands to fix your phone, which you swear is 'utterly and completely broken', only to discover your rage-oid dog gnawed out the battery compartment while you were sleeping. whoever thought i'd miss that?

strange enough, i do. and i can hear your response as if you were sitting in the room: so what are you doing about it?

why, lots of things! i give myself fake interviews, collect roadside trash, wash myself in cooking supplies and massage my houseplants, for starters.

in the remaining few hours, i try -- and sometimes succeed -- in making art.

i have been collaborating with a wonderful Japanese artist, Takeshi Nakajima, to produce a book, Piney and the Underground Girl Who Saw Light. 

Takeshi, if you remember, was my student. i was supposed to be teaching him English. we began this book instead and have been working on it ever since. 

Piney and the Underground Girl is the illustrated story of a pinecone and a subterranean girl who serendipitously meet.  you see, the Underground Girl has never ventured from her cave and Piney, as all pinecones do, must soon fall to earth. can they possibly help each other with these transitions?

page three: the Underground Girl hears music.

sometimes, i'm really sad to be away from you. but if i hadn't left the U.S., i don't know that this project would have come into being. i'm really pleased with how it's coming along.

page six: the Underground Girl's delicious vision of the world above.

so yes, i'm far away from almost everyone i love... and this is what i'm doing about it.

oh dear mom, i'm learning that isolation can really pay. it gives time to create and space to imagine. know what else pays? having an awesome mom who encourages you to dream.

love always,

Gina

tasty tooth powder, part two!

"and what, exactly, does tooth powder have to do with me? i'd rather hear about something funny. after all, i gave birth to you --- so i must have a pretty good sense of humor!" -- oh dear mom

well! after i recovered from the hysteria induced by sipping from your boundless fount of wit, i decided to take your question seriously. and really, dear mom. this one is easily resolved. i'll do it in two neat steps:

1. if it has to do with me, it has to do with you.
2. see number one.

i do hope this is the last time we have to have this talk.

so last week, American folk hero Erin Gleeson testified as to the awesome powers of baking soda on teeth.  her spot-on suggestion to put a drop of essential oil directly on the toothbrush got me thinking about my own routine.

i always follow up my baking soda brushing sessions with a homemade mouthwash. it gives me a tingly feeling. like when you used to give me a  'good smack in the mouth', but more minty.

how to make the mouthwash, you ask?

• Bring two cups of water to boil.
• Throw two whole cloves into the boiling water and simmer for half an hour.
• Allow the liquid to cool. While the water cools, rummage through your teetering mountain of smelly recyclables until you find that old witch hazel bottle from last month. Or, use a spare jar.
• Remove the cloves. Pour the caramel-colored liquid in the smelly old bottle/shiny clean jar. 
• Add with 15 - 20 drops of the essential oil of your choice. (I prefer peppermint with a dash of tea-tree.)
• Cap the bottle/jar/receptacle and shake, shake, shake, senora!

oh really?

oh ye of little faith! it's easy and refreshing, though perishable. i'm still tweaking my recipe. next week, i'm going to experiment with fresh herbs and alcohol, two mainstays of your hippy youth. but for now, my teeth are shiny, clean and fresh.

coming soon: sourdough, seitan and an interview with my one and only oh dear mom! (that means you. prepare yourself!)

love always,

gina

tasty tooth powder!

O.D. MOM, momming hard since 1983 --

today, i regale you from far, far away with yet another a cherished topic that will make you put down your coffee, scramble for your dollar-store glasses, re-read this post in perfect 20/160 vision and yell "what in god's name!"

like it or not -- betting on not -- here's a recipe for some tooth powder i just made:

• 1/2 c. baking soda
• 10 - 15 drops peppermint oil*
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon (or more, depending on your love of spice)
• 1/2 - 1 tsp. sea salt (optional, used as an abrasive.)
• a pinch of bentonite/green clay

add all ingredients together in a clean, dry jar. mix well. at this point, you can just dip your dry toothbrush in. or pour a tiny bit of powder in the cap and swish the brush around. water will make your tooth powder get all clumpy, so add water AFTER the tooth powder is already on your brush.

* other possible oils are tea-tree and clove...  or you could opt for fresh herbs. whatever your imagination/budget permits!

this has never not been a good idea, so i must insist you disregard this rare lapse in judgment:

exercise caution when smelling your tooth powder!

otherwise, you may end up looking... incredibly stupid.

truth: i've been using tooth powder plus home-made mouthwash for about a year and have noticed a LOT fewer problems -- particularly with my gums. my teeth feel nice and clean afterwards. there are no plastics or detergents or words with too many consonants involved. plus, one batch lasts, like, six months. in case you are quaking with worry, i sometimes still use regular toothpaste. but not often.

oh, and while we're on the subject, i'm really interested in testing a new tooth-care concoction using neem-leaf powder... early birthday present? 

................

what?! um, of course i expect to get birthday gifts forever. what's wrong with that?

mint-flavored kisses,

O.D.G.

ps: i'd love to send you some, but the post office would probably mistake it for anthrax. sorry.

found treasure and the chain of connection

to my one and only DEAR MOM (unless there's a secret explanation for why you're so tall and i can't reach a can of beans without a step-ladder),

i present... a little treasure i found at the flea market! (stop making that face.)

i'll be wearing it... often.

it is a tiny address book that i put on a chain. it's at least fifty years old and traveled all the way from Argentina before finding its way to me!

inside, there are little tiny pages to keep track of your loved ones.

and who's my first entry?! why who else....

nombre, nom, name: i keep track of you in multiple languages.

since it's about an inch big, i had to write really, really small to get the information down... in fact, i might have to buy a tiny pencil to note those who are NOT you.

and before you get started on the folly of this finding, my dear friend alicia sully used to walk around with mini-pages of notes clipped to her belt loops on binder rings -- and that seemed to work out just fine for her.

and on that little note...

 M oh M!

with love and cramped fingers,

g

the art of shampooing without shampoo

dear mom,

in this loving post from October (which you read last week because you 'forgot' about my BLOG of which you are only the very NAMESAKE but no hard feelings), i alerted you that i'd be transitioning to a shampoo-free haircare method. five months have since passed. so six months from now, you'll definitely be wondering: how in heaven did gina's bizarre hair experiment turn out?

(i like to plan ahead.)

initially, i decided to use the baking soda wash method, which goes something like this:

1. put a tablespoon of baking soda into a bowl.
2. add a few drops of water and work into a paste, like so:

3. bring paste into the shower and apply to the roots of your wet hair. work in thoroughly, then rinse!
4. condition with a glass of water, mixed with one teaspoon apple cider vinegar. leave on for two minutes, then do a final rinse with cold water.

what could be simpler? no packaging, no plastics.... no problem? my hair -- it's just like your hair, if you turned time back thirty years-- was often oily. but it became soft, supple and full like... hm, someone you would know...  barbarella's?

well -- not quite. it really looked like this:

i even went so far as to simmer fresh herbs -- rosemary and lavender -- to create a sumptuous herbal rinse, which i kept in a sport bottle in the shower. which was all fine and well, until one day, haha, after getting caught in a flash flood ---

'Come on and get to the point, Gina. I've got a prayer meeting in an hour and --- stop pulling on my bathrobe, you goddamn mother-loving dog!'

 --- well then.

the problem came when I moved to Geneva and the water quality suddenly changed from country soft to city hard. my hair became stiff and waxy... and i was full of despair. i tried everything: changing measurements, using sea-salt rinses, channelling mystics, all to no avail.

but i was loathe to go back to 'regular' methods.

the answer? for the moment, shampoo bars. so far, i've used them to great and surprising success. also! they last a long time and are pretty inexpensive.

my bars:  honey, egg and beer, mud and clay & ayurvedic herb.

mine come from a little company called Chagrin Valley Soap. they are detergent-free, stuffed with herbs and they really, really work. they give my fine Irish hair (thanks again) fantastic body. and yes, i still use 'salad dressing' to condition my hair....

... but other than that, consider your pantry safe.

je t'aime! lather. rinse. repeat.

until next time,

Gina, freshly-scrubbed

a brief holiday spent with YOU!

dear mom,

wow! hard to believe i am back in europe, after spending TWO WHOLE WEEKS with you! let me start off by saying that i already miss you. i'm sure the Kindle i received is the only one ever to be given with a spiritual note attached and printed on authentic amazon.com stationary. though Kindle is a worldwide product, there's only one 'sacred literary bond of blessings' between us!

also, i want to thank you for buying all those 'crazy vegetarian things' for me, even if they weren't used perhaps as you had imagined. "is that... my olive oil? my GOOD OLIVE OIL you're spreading all over your face, gina elizabeth? i could BRAIN you!"

being back with the family was full of action -- actually, it was as charged as a cage-fight! but a verbal one, only. we're a family of story-tellers. maybe this comes from our Irish roots, for which you of course are to bl -- thank.

it usually happens like this: someone brings up an embarrassing anecdote about X, who objects with a wounded 'HEYYY!' but alas, poor X, it's too late. everyone's already gotten really excited. they're cutting in with impressions, embellishments and voice-overs. don't look now. i said don't -- why'd ya hafta look! they're STANDING UP and staggering around, pretending to be you that time you got so drunk you drank the mossy pool water. everyone is slapping the table like it's a collective knee! and then one of the animals gets spooked and starts running around the room in circles.

i noticed this happened a lot this christmas. i admit that i, in the usual endearing fashion, began by saying, "hey everyone! remember when Julie had that weird condition and used to sit in a cardboard box all day?" soon, however, it was YOU who began doing actual physical impressions of her flopping over. "she was the cutest little thing!", i distinctly remember you saying as you raised your arms and let them hang first to the left, then the right, head lolling like the dog when you've forgotten to give him his medicine. (note: you remember the medicine 'almost everyday' now and that's great!)

but everyone had their turn. our family is nothing if not democratic. and we obviously get our flare for the dramatic from you... gifts don't always come with amazon.com stationary, but that doesn't make them any less precious.

enjoy the tea and cookies!

love always and till next time,

gina

Shampoo: Preparing to say goodbye..

...and feeling really confident!

On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 2:44 PM, gina palazzo wrote:

just wanna let you know i've decided to forego shampoo! baking soda and vinegar, plus rosemary and lavender, are my new best friends.

xx

On Sun, Oct 3, 2010 at 11:37 AM, eileen mcmanus wrote:

uh-oh!