Smeyesing and Rachel

Jessie went off on her own yesterday morning to get her hair cut and her eyebrows done (she is a true Canadian with the requisite unibrow, if left to its own devices). She called me on the bus on the way home, very excited. “Mom! The bangs were too short and in my eyes, so she curled it and braided it out of my eyes!” Jess is in heaven when her hair gets curled, a throw-back to her Shirley Temple obsession.

When she got home, she did indeed look beautiful, so I took out the camera and we sat outside for a photo. I wasn’t sure how long she would be able to leave the braid in, as she undoes anything physically put in her hair (as well as on her body, like jewelry or belts—I’m sure there is a sensory issue here, but have just learned to live with it)
“Jess, smile!”
“Mohhhhm!” She intones disdainfully. “I’m smeyesing!”

How stupid of me not to notice! Smeyesing is, apparently, smiling with your eyes! That’s what we learned yesterday from Rachel when she joined us at the local pool for the afternoon and dinner that evening (the girls, of course, wearing their tye-die shirts from yesterday). Rachel doesn’t travel very far without her camera, and she is a wonderful photographer. She also has the delightful capacity to play with it with her friends—producing everything from artsy film-noire portraits to kitschy, posed, America’s-next-top-model parodies.

Sunday was a parody day. Hence “smeyesing,” which Rachel (in her wry and witty observational manner) informed us was de rigour for all top models. She knows this because she spends her nights, when not out with friends, trawling internet TV and has spontaneous and short-lived obsessions with various reality, drama, and documentary shows. Her passions range from (of course) America’s next top model and House to gory realistic medical procedure shows and late night interviews with Nobel prize winners.

Sunday was a top model day and Jessie was delighted to play. . . right through to the ride home at night, where the girls photographed each other in zany poses with the wind from the open window blowing through their hair.

And as I sat in the front seat driving through the darkness with sudden flashes of light and laughter as they took pictures, I thought about how lucky we are to know Rachel—a fresh wind blowing through our lives and blessing us with random bursts of delight.