Beads

I have these seed-bead bracelets that my friend sent me when I lived in China and she was in Africa. [She and I have been friends since middle school when we would braid each others' hair in science class.] When she sent me a couple while we were both abroad, I wore them all the time and told my students where they were from and who had sent them. Then I went and visited her in Africa and bought a few more. Here are the bracelets:The blue and white ones are those which my friend sent to me and are the colors of the Senegalese flag. When I went to Africa, I got the other three. I think I bought two of them and then was given one, or traded for a couple. I forget. My favorite part about these bracelets is how it is okay for them not to match!

I wore these bracelets for a looooong time and then took them off for some reason.

I saw my old roommate (the owner to the two black kitties from yesterday's post) over the weekend. She noticed that I am wearing the bracelets again. Then she asked if I had "the others" on too, in a conspiratory manner. "The others" are waist beads. She said how she always thought they were so sexy and she was jealous that she did not have a reason to wear them, but I did. She says she can not wear them because she has not been to Africa. Like I earned them, I suppose. Here they are:
The pink ones I got in Africa and have been broken and remade; I just redid the orange one with the same stretchy thread I have used to remake all of them so that I can take them off and put them on (rather than just leave them on all the time); and the wood one with the blue bead I made at my friend's house in Vermont after she returned from Africa. I like the wood one the best.

I have, in fact, put these waist beads back on too. Just a day before I saw my old roommate actually. They make me stand up a little straighter, I suppose because maybe they do make me feel a little sexy. All part of my attempts to stay happy and think of things outside of grad school. :-)