Mehndi.

Say it with me. Mehn-di. Henna painting on the palms and backs of hands. I think this is my calling in life. Let them lay me off. I'll just paint lovely designs on ankles, arms, backs, feet and hands.

I bought a Mehndi kit at the awesome Indian store in Fort Wayne. When my daughter had a sleepover on Sunday, I painted everyone, the girls, their little brothers, another mother, and me. Deep, deep henna designs. We wrapped 'em up in t.p. and taped them so we could sleep with them on and deepen the tones. (This is what the Mehndi woman instructed me to do in her artsy book accompaniment, aptly titled "Mehndi.") In the morning we scraped off the mud and admired our designs. Then the girls designed themselves some more. My palm design is quite striking. Gasps of awe arose from my third graders when they saw me on Tuesday. "What is that? Can you do that for me?" Alas, at $19.95 for three-quarters of an ounce, and fearing the wrath of their parents, I turned them down. Today, my palm design is as dark as ever. Very geometric with lots of dots and curvy lines to accent it. When summer finally comes, I'm thinking anklet. Would you like one?