maya's art, rock photo by our budding photographer

this weekend flew by. i took miles out saturday night to watch the chinese new year parade. it was exciting to be down there surrounded by stone mountains of buildings, kids huddled together on the curb eating sugar while dragons and fan dancers and tigers and firecrackers went by. on the way home we saw some awful graffiti on the bus which miles read out loud very accurately, and i listened to a very deep conversation between some intense young religious freaks (nod to TWB, there). today we ventured south to brisbane, for the silverpalooza, a fundraiser for a preschool in a bar, with limbo, cakewalks, face painting, giant hot dogs, bloody marys, a make your own guitar booth, and cheetahs on the moon, an awesome band all dressed like cheetahs. i was proud of the kids as miles shot movies and psychadelic stills of the band and maya expressed her inner self by dancing in her very unique way through the entire set.


maya drew a clown and a little dog standing on a horse,

i was lucky to spend a little time talking to my friend in illinois, and the kids went to bed early.

i case i don't write again, there is a big march to raise awareness of the disastrous budget cuts in the schools. march 4, look for it in the news, i will be there with miles' school. the teachers are walking out an hour early and we are heading to civic center. i have never been much for marches, but right now it seems like the thing to do. tell your friends--think about what is going on with the state and education funding and do what you can to help. i will be a broken record about this for a while.

time to try and plan another birthday party. all this growing up the kids are doing, it is tiring me out.

catch-up post

it has been a long time, i know. this is a photo of the infrequently seen underside of the bay bridge, taken from the peaceful and comfortable oakland-alameda ferry. yes, i have been avoiding this bridge lately. i will say no more.

what has been happening?

trip to the snow:

sledding, sledding, and more sledding, check

maya and natalie bickering over an extra-special snowball, check

big brother accidentally smashing an iceball in little sister's face, check

snowman and snow unicorn, check

amusing crowd of non-drinkers plowing through free hard liquor during the manager's special at the embassy suites, check

insane hotel pool scene with 10 children per adult, many near head injuries, check

much lamenting when we had to leave early because of incoming snowstorm, check

fun last frolic in the fresh snow on the side of the road as rich crawled in the muddy slush trying to put chains on our tiny car for 45 minutes, check

sign half mile later telling us to remove the chains, oops

what else? insane budget cuts to the san francisco schools which many people still seem unaware of. miles and i will be marching to city hall next week! what do we want? money! when do we want it? now!

rich is now 42. chocolate brownies with icing, homeade kid cards and a crazy expensive long awaited new computer.

the garden is getting going. blossoms on the peach and plum trees, lots of little seedlings starting on the deck, and a few attempts to build some wind blocks. we will see what happens this season. maybe we need an all carrot and onion garden, but i will keep trying to grow some greens.

basketball games. snake books all over the place. miles read his first chapter book. kids coughing, coughing, coughing, coughing. maya becoming a very equal opportunity player at her new preschool (boys and girls with a reduction in princess obsession). she even has a freckled and red-haired little boyfriend she plans to marry. phobia therapy which seems to be making things worse. my growing awareness of the inequities in sfusd special education and the people and processes that create them.

and a weird hopeful feeling about the future, i guess it is the arrival of spring.

california cousins

my little brother is 40 years old! just returned from the birthday party. miles and rich were in the hospital clinic because miles woke up sick with gooey eyes, so it was just me and maya over to uncle mike's. surprise. then people began to trickle in, our old bandmates, julia and family from back in delaware, rebecca and emily, mike's old roomates from new orleans and ucsf and their offspring. one, two, three...9 kids taking over the living room dance party, maya shaking her booty in her cousin's yellow dress on the coffee table, then calvin with his pants down, emily being a nine year old ukelele rocker. there's maya being examined by edison the doctor, russell staggering around in his sister's tiara, mike making the same drunk joke to his friends "let me show you my big deck" as he escorts them outside. i am confiding with old friends about phobia therapy and the trials of motherhood. chris is single again and wearing glasses he says makes him look fragile and vulnerable and kim f makes an offensive joke and we stay too late surrounded by mounds of lasagna, sausage and garlic bread from lucca, crappy george thoroughgood on the stereo.

on the way home down 24th street, full of a huge number of people just walking around, tipsy grownups pushing each other on swings in the water park in the dark,people buying drinks and donuts and laughing at each other, maya has her first realization of growing up, and gets a little sad. "i don't want to be an old woman" she says with tears in her voice and i know how she feels but we talk it out. she says daddy will be her brother when she grows up and is surprised to hear that she and miles will grow up together. just like me and uncle mike.

lately all the california budget craziness and fears of being on bridges and tunnels and cliffs in earthquake country have been getting to me, making me imagine living in a quiet flat place with no earthquakes, a slow mellow land somewhere, but tonight it felt very right to be here, to have my kids growing up with their cousins, me getting to watch my brother's and some old friends' kids growing up, being just a drive across town from my little brother's 40th birthday party.

random street images

whew. party weekend baby. friday night i took the kids to our friend's beautiful potrero hill home for a dinner with 9 starr king adults, 12 starr king kids, an amazing view of the city, margaritas, not 100% school talk, and at one point 12 children sitting and eating nicely at a huge oval wooden table.

yesterday was beautiful sun and blue skies. i pruned and weeded in the garden, and the kids even spent a little time out there with me, finding snails and making little snail climbing structures out of tiny sticks. last night m and m slept over at their aunt and uncle's, not at all sad to see their mother leave. miles reminded his uncle to spoil him rotton (he did) and maya came home with painted toenails and natalie's clothes on. alone, out at night, i stopped at a hair salon i had never heard of and had a haircut in a salon for the first time in 6+ years, discussing the public schools the whole time with my chinese hairdesser, lisa (lisa's on church near clipper, she did a good job). then in a blast from the past i got in a van with rich's band and various girlfriends and spouses, some beer and tequila and lots of dumb dumb jokes. we spent the night at slim's watching successively better cover bands raise money for doctors without borders. i did my part for the cause spending lots of money on jameson and cokes, and did some i love you guys bonding with several people including a few i had never met before. at one point i emerged from the downstairs backstage area to see a bouncer removing rich from the stage where an iron maiden cover band was playing but as they say out here it was all good. there was a robert palmer cover band in suits that made me feel strangely ecstatic and the night was capped off by a guy rich had met long long ago in new jersey buying our crew about 10 shots of a foul tasting liquor to celebrate meeting up again and the fact that we were both from new brunswick new jersey.

this morning was, as rich put it, odd, very odd. the house quiet, no one waking me up, asking me for anything, needing discipline and guidance. very nice. very... different, but soon i wanted to see my babies again.

i am much too old to do this often, but i think a weekend like this one does clear out the mind for new thoughts. my brother mentioned an old friend who has become very green and lives in a modern-day type commune now in oregon. i am very intrigued by the path she has chosen and of course it set me wondering what that life would be like. less distractions i think. less bridges and highways and cars.

here are some photos from 24th street last weekend. some ads and some from the empty store fronts for art project. they are shots from the path i am presently on.