Mi-Careme

Mi-Careme. Halfway through Lent. When I was parked in a French boarding school 'way back when God was a child, we celebrated Mi-Careme by breaking our Lenten fasts and having a grand old dress-up costume party. This French custom is fast disappearing and that's too bad, as it was an awful lot of fun. Whatever we had given up for Lent, we got to resume for one evening and whatever we had lying around constituted a "costume."

They were actually pretty clever, considering that we had virtually nothing to work with. That's me in the upper left corner at age 16, dressed as a black cat. (Click on the photo to enlarge). You can also see my pal Sunny in the middle of the front row of chairs, the harem girl with her veiled face, dramatic eye makeup and updo. Bonnie, my other Cours Maintenon friend who also landed here in the Bay area, had already departed, so she's not in the picture. One of Picasso's daughters was there, too - I think she's the shorter of the two skiing accidents at the top right. We had French poodles, clowns, togas, skeletons, devils, gypsies - you name it, these girls dreamed it up!

So, we are at Mi-Careme today. Break your fast, dress up in a goofy costume and have a great day! I gave up Facebook for Lent - does this mean I get to check in?