HOW THE 70's ARE STILL AFFECTING ME

It's time someone explained.

I am very aware that if someone were to type in the name of this blog, chances are 9 to 1 that there could be a misspelling and the person would end up with a message like this:

Believe me, I have thought of this, and have been racking my brain for another name to name this thing, but either I am not that witty/clever/creative


(one of my favorite blogs is named 71toes.com--there are seven people in the family and one daughter was born with 6 toes...is that not clever and cute all at the same time??)

or my quirks are not very attractive

(i.e. one of my front teeth IS dead, due to a 2x4, my brother and a bratty 7 year old (that's me) and if you look closely it IS a little darker than the rest (even after the cosmetic tooth surgeon) and I like to call her Pirate...)

but piratetooth.blogspot.com isn't the ring I'm going for...

Then again...now that I write it...

Anyway, there is an explanation for this name, and one explanation only.  Here it is:

Meet Hippy Mom and Hippy Dad.
(Hippy Mom's mom is on the left.)

Look, here they are meditating--
transcendentally, if that means something to you:  

They were vegetarians.  

My mom attended the very first Earth Day in Washington DC.  

And made her own clothes.
And taught environmental science at the Audubon Society.
They were into recycling before people knew what recycling was.

  

They were also into beating the tar out of each other-- in a dignified way.  

My mom was captain of the women's fencing team and my dad was captain of the men's fencing team at the University of Maine.

"Awww...!" 

(they're kissing, in case you couldn't tell)

To make a longer story shorter:  they met, they liked each other, and then my mom almost left the U of Maine to attend a new transcendental meditation school--the Maharishi International University, founded by the Vedic sage Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

My dad claims she stayed because of the woo-ing power of his classical guitar playing, more specifically because of how he played and sang "Stairway to Heaven."

I think it was his hair.

A few months later they got married in my mom's backyard.
Here they are dancing to folk music:

Two years later, my brother was born.  They named him Hael (pronounced like the hard stuff that falls from the sky).  Another two years and I came along.
One of the names they were considering was Caeli, a name my mom had made up in her Latin class in high school.

Hael and Caeli

'Caelum' means heaven or sky, and 'caeli' means belonging to the heaven or sky or from heaven.  She pronounced it 'kay-lee.'
Another name they were considering was Ocea, pronounced 'o-shay-ah,'  which is 'ocean' minus the 'n.'  One day my mom read the names they were considering to my dad and Ocea came right after Caeli.  He loved how it sounded, and they named their first daughter Caeli Ocea.

Fun Fact #1:  I was not the first family member my mom named Caeli.  In high school she had a canary she named Caeli first.  One day we found a tape that was labeled "Caeli singing."  We played it and I wasn't on that tape at all.  But there was a bird singing.

Fun Fact #2:  Other names they were considering for their daughter:  Leif (pronounced 'leaf'), and Tigh or Tai (and it's a darn good thing they didn't name me that because my husband's name is Ty and that's confusing)

Fun Fact #3:  My two sisters are named Hannah Masai and Cedar.

So there you have it.
This is why it is what it is.
This is how the 70's are still affecting me.
And although I'm not in love with the idea of naming a blog after my own name, this is all I got.

Let's finish with an adorable picture of Hippy Mom and Hippy Dad.

Dad, your tie is so vintage it's back in style.  :)

Love, C