school's out for summer

so, this morning was my last annoying morning commute for a while (entice miles out of bed, keep maya from eliciting screams of "noooo" as she attempts to put on clothes laid out for brother, come up with creative arguments why we don't need a sugary muffin today, check pockets for car gum, carry giant squirming 16-month-old, briefcase loaded with work i carry to and from my job for no apparent reason, diaper bag, and miles' lunch down steep stairway while keeping eye on boy who is trying to skip every other step as he descends the obstacle course of junk mail, sand, shoes, a case of bottled water, and 3 toothbrushes maya hurled through the baby gate while we were busy[and i did fall down these steps once with maya and we ended up in the ER but we are obviously slow learners]. then take kids to miles' preschool, all out of carseats, grab maya before she grabs glass or other trinket off the sidewalk, read a story, extract paintbrush from maya's iron grip several times, maya back in the carseat, drive to kika's, out of carseat again, find lost pacifier in backseat junkyard, say goodbye. Then drive 30 minutes through the city to Argonne Child Development Center (check it out, my school is solar powered--sort of) and try and find parking. so maybe it would be nice to be my friend laura lee who just moved to Albany and can stroll both her little boys a few blocks to the neighborhood preschool). that was a lot of words to put in parentheses. anyway, we had our goodbye party, all the parents came and i will miss my little students but new babies will come in in the fall to take the kindergarten bound kids spots.

and now i am free! i can just sleep all day, and travel, and read big fat books and stay up late watching movies. well, maybe not, but i will be able to take a yoga class, maybe see a dentist, and possibly clean all those hazards off the steps. oh yes, and today miles and i went to our first swimming class at the Janet Pomeroy Center, formerly known as the rec center for the handicapped. yes, it entailed another drive across the city. this is a trippy place behind the zoo. it is a complex of a few buildings, and we took a while to find the pool, giving us a chance to mingle with a whole bunch of cognitively impaired, autistic, and physically disabled adults, all of whom seemed to be having a good time just kind of hanging out, especially one couple who were snuggling in the sun out front. no one there was obviously a staff member. the pool is mostly 3 ft deep and is about 92 degrees. miles did a lot of jumping and kicking and splashing one especially tense mother in the face, pretty much ignoring the instructor but we had a good time.

last night for a little light reading when unable to sleep i skimmed a little bit of jared diamond's Collapse. this is one of those books that explains in great detail how and why things are going downhill fast and can actually calm an anxious mother down in some ways. forget worries about public schools, paying for childcare, should we live in san francisco, pacifica, albany, fairfax, a treehouse, russian river, all these petty concerns are swept aside by images of miles and maya, strong and beautiful young folks, defending their last chicken and tiny well from a horde of starving people. should we be taking the kids somewhere they can survive global warming and societal collapse and chaos? should we be teaching them survival skills? how to desalinate water? i'm not kidding. does anyone out there know the best place to survive these upcoming events? are there communies that are preparing for big changes? this book did not help me sleep but did at least get me focussed in one direction for a few minutes. tomorrow i am going to research a little (by this i mean call my brother and suling who have already done the research) and find out where to buy the energy saving lightbulbs.

love to anyone who is reading this garbled mess. goodnight.