Friday, June 08, 2007

But they're not yours, they are my own*


At the request of my third favorite feline, Patches, here is a picture of my hands, with Em's hands thrown in for good measure.

Random meno hand facts:

  • Note my Swiss Army watch, 5 years old from Costco.
  • Ring with BFR (Big Rock) I got this "engagement" ring after we had been married for 12 years. Ladies, if it's supposed to set your man back 2 months salary, wait until that salary is worth it. Actually, i now think that the diamond business can go fuck itself, but 13 years ago i didn't know any better.

  • Em and i have matching $4 silver pinkie rings, because i wuv her werry werry much.

  • I have strong thick nails that i chop off because otherwise they annoy me. This upsets my mother so much that she once cried over it. "You have such nice nails, why can't you bother to take care of them." I swear i am not making this up.

  • Em's fingers and toes look like the Mister's.

  • I don't know if you can tell, but my hands are two different sizes. This is because of a laceration to my left wrist when i was 11 involving a fish bowl, 5 hours of surgery, over 200 stitches, 2 weeks in the hospital and 6 months of physical therapy. The scar looks like i tried to kill myself and extends halfway down my forearm.

*Jewel from Hands

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

I see freckles...

Girlplustwo said...

i love those hands. the strength and history of them.

and the matching pinkie rings. love it.

jaded said...

*Thank You*

Em's hands remind me of my sisters, petite and slim. You have strong hands. I probably wouldn't have noticed the difference in size if you had not mentioned it. I can tell by the length difference in middle fingers. If I had that type of an encounter with a fish bowl, I'd prefer cats too.

flutter said...

love the matching pinkie rings, that is really amazingly sweet. When my mom and dad split up my fiance and I bought her a little diamond to wear on that finger so she would know that someone always loves her. Hard to look at a naked finger after 35 years....

meno said...

mrs.chili, yep, you do. :)

jen, how much i love my daughter should be illegal.

patches, happy to oblige my dear. Remember, Those hands of Em's are 16 and mine are not.

flutter, and that is amazingly sweet too. You probably saved her life.

luckyzmom said...

Left without publishing my long fabulous comment. So I will just give you the jest. I thought the two pair of hands looked remarkably similar. Then I read what you said.

Anonymous said...

Em's hands look SO young. They look like Fiona's to me. I guess youth does last a while, but we just don't notice.

Mother of Invention said...

I have my dad's huge expressive hands (ah! flashback to Seinfeld's "Man Hands" episode!)and my ring fingers are size 9 1/2! My engagement ring was a little grain at .23 C and I don't even wear the set now since I like silver better now and just switch around...and if my fingers are swollen, they don't fit right. I tend to bite my nails and have never had a manicure.
I can't get used to wearing a pinkie ring. Am getting my mom's liver spots too!

Hands can say a lot!

Special K ~Toni said...

That's a neat idea! Maybe I will do this with the boys...

Lynn said...

I never knew that a fishbowl could be so dangerous.

Joan said...

Love the matching bling...like daughter, like mother.

Cagey (Kelli Oliver George) said...

Love this pic.

I have the same issue with my nails. I go through periods where I'll let them grow and take care of them, but mostly I just clip them. I like to type with short nails anyway.

re: diamonds - I agree it is ridiculous the sort of pressure that is put on young couples today. What a marketing scam. That said, I did want a nice ring, but I wanted a certain cut and quality. I didn't care about size. I told my husband it would be nicest piece of jewelry he'd ever have to buy me and it would be the only diamond purchase we'd make (which happens to be my birthstone). I doubt we'll do anniversary bands and such.

P.S. I did look at diamonds at Costco when I did the research. I have to admit that I would have LOVED telling people my ring came from Costco! But alas, we found a loose diamond elsewhere that was the right cut and quality, thus shattering my Costco Dream.

shara said...

oh I was just thinking about hands, last night was it? or the night before? lying in bed, clearing all the thoughts out of my head before I fall asleep and I though how I'd love to do a photograph of three generations of hands, the child's curled like a bud in the middle, supported by the mother's, open like a nest, and then a grandmother's hands, the ones I saw on an older lady who lives on our street, gnarled like branches with arthritis, supporting both the others, or a series, starting with young hands nesting a old blossom gone to seed and continuing through to old hands with an unopened bud, maybe someday I'll do that, in any case just the idea pleases me, and I love this picture of yours :)

Unknown said...

You know, I didn't notice the size difference.

Two weeks in the hospital? Wow.

meno said...

luckyzmom, i HATE it when i do that, hit the X button instead of post. That her hands look like the Mister's is most apparent in the thumbs.

de, I know, they look so soft. And they haven't had years of exposure to the sun.

moi, you should post a picture, your hands sound lovely and interesting. I have fairly large hands for a woman too.

toni, you should, it's fun.

lynn, i can make almost any household object dangerous.

joan, i like it too.

cagey, yeah, i just can't handle the maintenance involved in long pretty nails. My diamond isn't all that big either, especially nowadays when the number or carats required to prove love seems to be going up.

shara, i love that idea, you should do it, it sounds like it would turn out really well.

nancy, it's not all that obvious unless i hold my hands together. Yeah, two weeks. Got me out of 3 weeks of 5th grade.

Anonymous said...

I have thick, strong fingernails that I don't like because they get too sharp when they're long. My sister in law said the same thing to me about my nails. Go figure.

QT said...

This picture is so touching to me.

And I noticed the size difference right away. For a split second, at first glance I thought the hand on the left side of the pic was the Mister, and the hand on the right side of the pic was you!

Wow, who knew a fishbowl could be so dangerous is right!

Scott from Oregon said...

My pinky ring size is bigger than your thumb...

thailandchani said...

What an interesting idea! :) I never would have thought of such a thing. It never ceases to amaze me, the ideas people come up with.

Your hands look different than Em's... but also very similar.

:)

Peace,

~Ch

Anonymous said...

I don't know which I like better, the hands together or the stories behind them. Great idea. I would not dare put mine out there. I do not have strong nails!

Schmoopie said...

I keep my nails short too. Ever since I learned how much bacteria is harbored under the nails in a nursing class!

Dick said...

That is a nice post. I pretty much gave up wearing my wrist watch when I retired, except when I have to have it along. The cell phone pretty much tells me what the time it on the few occasions that I need to know.

Bob said...

excellent post.

I always look at hands.

Laura keeps her nails just to the ends of her fingers too.

meno said...

deb, bizarre isn't it? I hope your SIL didn't cry at least.

qt, you are very observant, most people don't notice unless i point it out.

scott, you big strong man you!

chani, i thought that patches idea was pretty clever too, and i like the results.

ortizzle, unless you wear gloves, you put your hands out there every day. So it can't be that bad!

schmoopie, a little knowledge like that can change your habits. I just do it because i'm lazy.

dick, i'm so used to wearing a watch that i don't know if i'll ever give mine up.

bob, thank you. :) Laura is a practical woman. Do you keep yours short too?

Liv said...

what a fun endeavor to take a moment to think about hands. they're with us all the time and oft overlooked!

GEWELS said...

My friend and photographer, Chuck, is going to do a whole book on portraits of hands. I'll send him over- maybe you can model.

I'm with you on the nails. Mine are so thick and grow so fast that I can't keep on top of maintaining them. I like mine short, too. They're well-groomed, just short.

Anonymous said...

Lord that picture is so very moving. I have a thing about hands. I love how Em's hands have a faint trace of baby pudginess left to them. Snif. They grow up so fast the little buggers.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

And now we would like to give the lady a big hand.

lu said...

You have lovely hands, comforting.

meno said...

liv, and they do so much work.

gewels, i've always wanted to be a model. :)

caro, i know, they look so young and and tiny and pale and untouched.

hearts, i have one big hand (and one medium one) already. :)

lu, they look everyine one of my years, and for some reason that doesn't bother me one bit.

Bob said...

It has been bugging me since I saw this picture, where had I seen your hands before and just now it struck me - they remind me of one of Laura's sister's. She too is taller than is the norm for women and her hands are correspondingly longer.

young hands are pretty to look at, smooth and unmarked by the passage of time. older hands are beautiful, they show the life that has been lived (and in some cases suffered). They tell the stories of our lives.

Susanne said...

Ah. I love those hands pictures. And I especially love strong, big hands with short nails on a woman.

One of the reasons is that I would like to have bigger hands (mine are the size of an average twelve-year-old's) because a) mine are to small for my body, and b) piano playing would be easier, and c) playing bass would be possible.

And I also find that Em's hands look like yours.

Tink said...

I have a deep fascination with hands. Mine are all wrinkled like an old womans, especially in the palms. Well used and well loved.

meno said...

bob, maybe i am Laura's sister. heh.

susanne, if both my hands worked, i would probably have been able to cover some good amount of piano ground. Oh well.

tink, can we see please?