All That Is Seen and Unseen

I met one of my closest friends because we showed up to school wearing the exact same dress. It was our first day of teaching college and since we had zero experience, we were assigned a mentor to help us along with the finer points. In her office dressed like twins, we couldn't stop laughing and looking at each other. The dresses we had were unusual -- long and brown, with printed flowers all over them and short capped sleeves. What can I say -- the early nineties were not kind in matters of fashion. I was also terribly attached to a hideous pair of maroon-colored leggings made of material so thin you could see my cellulite through them. I thought I looked smoking hot wearing these godforsaken pants until I saw a few pictures. Reality hit -- so cruel, so cruel! Fortunately, I saved all my leggings for home. We made a vow not to be seen together that day since we looked like deranged Holly Hobby twins and went our separate ways. When we saw each other in the hall, we shrieked and scooted away.

Turns out, we had lots of clothes that were alike, so much so that we took to calling each other before wearing certain outfits so that we didn't match. Teaching became like the Academy Awards -- God forbid we had the same dress! Although we looked nothing alike, our department chair called us the Gold Dust twins since we were always together and had our own language that we used to scare other people. And there was the matter of clothes --we sort of dressed alike no matter how much we worked against that impulse. Now I wear mostly black, a decision I made because it is slimming and flattering, but I like to say it's for the Johnny Cash reason, wearing a little darkness on my back for other people's suffering. And if I meet someone dressed like me, well, I'm sure we'll become the best of friends.

Michelle's Spell of the Day

"I wouldn't let anybody influence me into thinking I was doing the wrong thing by singing about death, hell and drugs. Because I've always done that, and I always will. " Johnny Cash

Cocktail Hour

Drinking music suggestion: The Man Comes Around Johnny Cash

Benedictions and Maledictions

Happy Monday! And thanks to everyone for the incredibly kind words about the first few videos! And AP, Grouchie has not been fed any crystal meth to keep him awake. He's an integral part of the filming process and is limited to Red Bull and Red Bull only!