parks and people

we parked it up this weekend. cortland street park sat am, glen park canyon in the afternoon(where we climbed to the top of the rock, surrounded by wild mustard and radish, miner's lettuce, blue sky, and friendly dogs. miles and jonah were wild animals, people with stick crutches, and wanna-be baseball players.) today we hit the amazing golden gate park playground by the carousel. call me a freak, but i could live here. big trees all around, big swings and slides and sand and cool sculptures and a sky high climbing structure that inexplicably doesn't worry me. kids are laughing and calling for mommies and daddies and babies are toddling around gripping the play structure. miles finds a buddy from school to climb and kick a soccer ball with , and emily and rebecca are there to chase and play monster. maya goes to the top of the slide and there is a 10 year old boy goofing off and blocking the tunnel. i whisper to maya, "tell the big boy you are next" and she yells "maya next, boy!!" later she is terrified by a police horse and confides in me "maya scared horse big nose." good to know. soon she is bouncing and kicking with excitement about the carousel. "yay, yay maya ride carousel, yay!!!" she makes a lot of strangers smile and this makes me feel proud.

we see our neighbor at this park, and also our friend narasu. this people tally always makes me feel a little better.

in our neighborhood i carry maya past three bikers at an intersection who look vaguely familar and then we see each other--it is john kennedy and his new wife and james. friends from the distant san francisco past, who came on some of the road trips and crazy camping. my most vivid memory of john kennedy is being astonishingly naked in a sauna with him and cassie and nat and hugh maybe? other steaming drunk people being very loud and fast-talking and straight in a kind of calm and quiet gay resort on the russian river, the willows (i highly recommend it). i ended up doing a handstand on the edge of the dock, which blows me away since these days i can barely do a somersault.

anyway james is back in the city after being in europe and came and checked out our bottom flat for sale. i am telling everyone i know looking about it. i still have my fantasies about a little intentional community, still fantasize about how it could have been here with friends who moved away. i guess it would be smarter to focus on what it could be like with people who move in.

i talked to gradiva about this at the park--if she and the other jonah and little ernie had not moved we would have 4 cool little 4 and 5 year old boys with compatible families on one block. if i had convinced any of my friends planning to have families to buy the apt below we would have a rocking house with kids up and down the steps and pets and chickens in the backyard.

i still have my fantasies. pathetic as they are.