c'mon!

there was a long string of weddings for a while there. sorry of i missed anyone's wedding gift, it really did become hard to keep track! then things slowed down for a while.

today two of my favorite people i have met since moving out here got married. they are a solid enough couple that they rebuilt their entire house together, while living in it, with many pets. amazing. and now they are legally wed. maya and miles and i went across town for a little reception to congratulate them (one of us was mainly focused on the cake).

some $&^$%)( folks want to ban marriages between two people of the same sex. oh no, the institution of marriage is threatened! hasn't the institution of marriage had multiple flaws since the beginning of time? why shouldn't people who love people of their own sex have the same civil rights as others? even the same rights as other not so nice and smart and cool people who think they know better than anyone else how we should all live our lives.

i'm sure i am missing something and hope my stepdad never reads this as he will roll his eyes at my simplistic thinking. but there is just no argument here, people!!!!!! let anyone who is old enough to make their own choices marry whoever they want!!!!!

yay kim and kimm.

we love you,
all of us over here even the ones who didn't make it out to your sweet little reception tonight. i hope you drank a lot of tequila for me and rich.

music in the hood

this morning we went up potrero hill to the annual fair. we started with a pancake breakfast at the neighborhood house. i kept thinking how much my dad would love this as we ate homeade pancakes and eggs while an incredible jazz band of what looked like 75 or more year old musicians (stand up bass, trombone, drums, keyboard, trumpet, sax, woman singer in big floppy hat) played jazz. all was free, with jumpy castles, sugar skulls to decorate, pumpkins to paint, an obstacle course to run wild on, cookies to top with icing and sprinkles.

later we walked, pushed/sat in the stroller or rode a batman bike through the mission to see some friends play in a new version of an old band at the homestead. they are called the mummyshots, and awesome. maya drank a shirley temple and miles cavorted on the sidewalk outside with edison and emily while his dad watched him and drank PBR. i heard someone say that having kids in the bar made it seem more wholesome. we even got blessed by a visit from the tamale lady herself.

right now there is a crazy LOUD noisecore (i'm guessing at this description) band playing in a house party nearby, unless someone is blasting a concert album i've never heard. feedback and bass and angry unintelligible screamed/shouted lyrics and drunken cries of joy and all are floating into my window. i can imagine the crowd and keg and sweaty smells and moshing in a little space because i've been there before.

rock on, my neighborhood!

love, me

big buddy

miles told me excitedly today that he had a new friend. his class is teamed up with a 3rd grade class and they met for the first time today and drew pictures of each other. i think this made miles happier than any school activity so far. he recreated the picture of his buddy, and then drew about 250 happy hearts to show how he felt. procratinating bedtime, sure (new and baaaaad trend around here), but so sweet.

"is this your favorite picture i ever drew?"

"i like it because my favorite art is art that shows how you feel."

sorry if this post is nonsensical and/or agrammatical, i am on vicodin for my painful mouth.

at least some folks still have their sense of humor

part of halloween decoration on glen park home.

there was a george bush bat also, but i didn't get the photo.

trick or treat!

i don't wanna work

I am a terrible procrastinator. i have tons of work to do--work there is no time to do anymore while i am at work, and even though the kids have gone to bed beautifully early (7:40, haven't had one of those in a while), i just don't want to do work work at home.

instead i will mention the inspiring conference i attended part of this weekend, coordinated by the green schoolyard alliance. on friday night i took the bus to gough and geary and met many people whose mission in life is kids and nature, and heard a talk by richard louv, who wrote last child in the woods. i won't say he is an amazing speaker, but by the end of the talk my mind was zinging with ideas and inspiration. he talked about how there are different rings when it comes to giving kids more time in nature (where they really need to be). the first ring is programs, the second the volunteers and low-paid workers who run the programs. the third ring was more interesting, more about a big cultural change, and that is what would really make a difference. things really seem primed for this cultural change--mass awareness of environmental problems, consumer economy bombing out, and kids who need to feel that the future is not a big hopeless mess. so i left and dragged rebecca walking with me all the way down to the mission and we had an eco-warrior talk and i was definitely feeling fired up!

we met an old friend nat visiting with his new phD homeade autumnberry chocolate, and a big plastic boot on his leg, and sylvia who i last saw playing walkie-talkie games at burning man and who now has her MFT. my friend at zeitgeist gave me a double jameson and coke for free and then we went to delirium where my other old old friend was djing. i felt so popular, how delightful.

yesterday miles and i walked the alien and brand-new but actually beautiful new neighborhood of mission bay, high-density condos along the channel full of funky old houseboats. we went to a benefit for friends of the urban forest and listened to the sippy cups rock out some covers including a kid version of i wanna be sedated, handled some giant bugs, snakes, lizards, played some old-fashioned games like tug-of-war and, inevitably, miles got his face painted.

enough of this.

did i mention i went to the dentist for the first time in 13 years? i have to get two root canals.

buh bye

anxiety, greening

yesterday my son's teacher mentioned that he seemed anxious, which is what i have been noting for a while, and which makes me very sad. so, we will try harder to make him feel secure and confident. time to amp up the calm and happiness around here, and keep adult concerns hidden away from little people.

walking down the very steep hill from miles' school today we heard a crazy loud noise. it was two middle schoolers zooming down the middle of 23rd street sitting down on skateboards. and then one more came by, i dunno, maybe at 40 mph? is that possible? really fast, with huge serious smiles on theire faces and i had to laugh out loud in amazement. they were flying. sledding. rocketing.

this morning i and 2 others from the starr king greening committee put up a display of photos from other schools around the city showing various ways to green the schoolyard. composting, butterfly gardens, synthetic grass, vegetables, dry creek beds, goldfish ponds, outdoor classrooms. we pasted up a background of green and blue construction paper while maya roamed the school cafeteria finding books and spilling milk, and eventually drawing what looked exactly like a fish skeleton on the asphalt with chalk. we put a sign up saying "schoolyard greening, what do YOU want to see?" along with a flyer for a community meeting next week. i found myself feeling inordinately proud of this little effort. i will be a small part of moving things forward towards health, fun, nature, sustainability for this group of kids and it is a good feeling.

i keep reminding myself that miles was shy when he started preschool. they said he was a quiet observer there, as is right now at school and at his after school program. i see so many kids playing happy and relaxed and i want him to feel that way too. he was the wacky loud and happy king of preschool by june of last year. but it might not be so easy. his daddy was a very shy kid. my dad says he was too. and i remember that excruciating feeling of switching schools and wondering what everyone was thinking about me, the new girl. yuchhhh.

maybe the green schoolyard will help a little. and time, of course.

bye

potrero del sol again

sorry dear readers, i mean mom, shannon, and cassie, for my absence

there is plenty to write about but i have been thinking instead. lying at night, awake, awake, thinking of huge amounts of stressful b.s. at work (tied to school budget problems, mostly) and fantasizing heavily about quitting. still awake, visions of economic and ecological collapse, simultaneous solutions (growing plants to eat in our yard) and doom (someone stealing the plants from the yard, kids starving). still awake, wandering to thoughts of rearranging our furniture to make our nest better so that home will be a happier place (think what you will of this one).

so anyway, i will write what i tend to write about on this blog, another day at the park.

potrero del sol has become our second backyard, 2,3,4,5 times a week i find myself there. today we met cousin natalie and she and maya rolled down the hills, picked and blew dandelion wishes, ran shrieking from miles on his batman bike, and attempted to climb the climbing tree. another perfect sunny day. the two tiny puppies from down the street show up and the kids play with them. someone lets miles borrow his skateboard for a long time and he rides it down a steep hill sitting down, over and over. we hear the wheels of the skateboards constantly now, going by the house, down the sidewalks, bump bump, bump bump, over the cracks. when it is time to leave we pause near the exit. maya, exhausted says my want to listen to the drums, just a tiny bit. they are playing congas, three men sitting down, and one playing another percussion instrument, i don't think i've ever known its name, like a gourd you scratch with a stick. my smell fire says maya. and it is a bbq near the drummers, full of charcoal black chicken. the man with the bbq asks us if we want some, and although my first thought is no thanks i think of how much my little boy loves dark meat, and bbq, and say yes. the man gives us a drumstick on a paper plate, sizzling, but then makes several more trips, another leg for maya, a napkin, two more pieces for me and rich, 2 corn tortillas.

maybe someday when we have a bbq we can offer him some chicken says miles.

and this is good and important, right? this is not an endless meaningless cataloguing of what my kids do and say at the park, right? because they are the future, and we are here in a city, and cities are the future, and won't it be good if we could all share backyards in that future? and listen to drums on the wind? and eat food from a stranger and hope to see him again to pay back the favor? so for all the scary stuff happening in the world right now, all these fine little moments in our lives are working to negate some of that scary bad future. not ignoring it. not really. not hiding or running.

i don't know if any of that makes sense. the benadryl is really kicking in.

gotta go lie down and think some more.
miss you dear readers. wish you could come to our lovely park and we could feed you some chicken and brazilian drumming. we could come up with a plan to make things even better. make our own music in the park.