Henna Hands

I missed my friend Hetal's wedding this weekend in Tennessee, but Cuch sent over photos so I could see what the festivities were all about. Absolutely gorgeous. It would have been my first authentic Indian affair, and I was looking forward to buying and wearing a Sari, but Israel called.

I met Het a few years ago through the Cuch, we had an off-the-hook time at the Cuch/Kess nuptials in Arizona. Plus. the times Het came to NYC to visit were legendary. Remember that night at Link? Enough said.

I posted the photo of Hetal's hands the morning after the wedding, and I think that the henna for a bride is absolutely gorgeous. One of my goals while in Israel is to get invited to a Persian henna ceremony, for the free henna of course.

Last night, I went to the boardwalk to do some writing. I was pretty tired from the 3+hours at the gym but still had some energy to burn and felt it was a good time to write. The Tayelet at night is a bit like Times Square in the summer. Crowded, smelly, a mix of tourist and natives trying to get from one place to another, kids enjoying summer off from school, bums, panhandlers and stray animals. I felt right at home and kept looking for the pretzel pushcarts to show up. I walked a while up the Tayelet until I found one of the seating areas that were empty. I knew it wouldn't empty for very long but hoped to get some private time at least initially.

I got as far as plugging into my iPod and taking out my notebook before I had company. I noticed the gigantic, electric blue hookah first, before the pre-teens that carried it. One of them asked me if I minded the smoking and I thanked him for being so kind to inquire and said no. I was fascinated and wanted to watch them. Now, it's not the first time I've seen a hookah. I actually went with Jules and Jenny to Kush when it was next door to Breakbeat Science on the LES, but I've never smoked from one. The whole sharing of this plastic tubing that lord knows when it was cleaned isn't my thing.

Anyway, back to the boys. They were all 17 and had come in from Jerusalem for the night, to smoke their apple flavored tobacco and pick up girls on the Tayelet. We tried to chat but their English was pretty bad and my Hebrew was worse. After a while, we grew bored of each other, and the boys picked up and moved a few feet down to cluster around a woman panhandler. She was strumming an acoustic guitar and singing in Hebrew, and at that point, had attracted quite an audience. With the pre-teen girls swarming, the boys knew exactly where the action was at.

It really inspired me, and I began working on a new short story. The runt of the bunch especially, he was the stereotypical mouthpiece/joker and I've named the character in my short "Popeye" in his honor.

Mind you, I never got their names, but the 20 minutes of interaction was all I needed for character development. It was great.

Today is going to be busy too. I want to go to Dizengoff and walk around looking for TV's and bedding, I want to buy a couple of pillows too, the one I'm using now is pretty bad and stinks like smoke.

Song of the day: Playground Love by Air.