writing day, co-housing

friday morning i met with a friend of a friend who is a writing coach. what i should really be doing is going to bootcamp and running 3 miles each morning, but instead i talked to this nice lady about finding some direction and focus for writing fiction. we will see!

that afternoon the kids and i went to a fundraiser write-a-thon at 826 valencia, aka the pirate store. maya ran to hug and hold on to her ex-pre-k teacher who had been there writing for four hours, and dictated a story to her which included jet packs and hot lava suits. miles sat down and went to work for an hour with a writing prompt to describe an alternative origin of the universe (he included a nice sensory description of a god's sandal). when maya and i went to look for a bathroom there was a little wait and a nice man told us there was a bathroom out in the back if we were desperate. i'm desperate! yelled maya. the nice man took us out back and chit chatted about 826 valencia and maya starting kindergarten and his own little girl starting kindergarten and we made some jokes and i was totally star struck because it was dave eggers! a real live famous writer!

last night we went to my brother's for a bbq with an old high school friend who now lives in a co-housing community in oregon with her husband and little girl. the focus of their co-housing community is sustainability and it sounded really interesting and good. along with sustainability and sharing resources there is also being able to walk out and visit a friend across the way while your kid is asleep, and to walk home safely after a few drinks. the kids go out and play in a pack kind of like the old days, but different. it brought up a lot of feelings about the people i love who have scattered and how i still wish i had this kind of community in my life, with these people i love. i guess it is not meant to be so i have to make the best of what i have...which is a lot.

haven't said this in a while, but i miss and love you, far away friends. wish you were a short walk away across a safe and quiet field of kids playing, waiting to have a drink and a laugh in the dark. maybe watching some fireflies on an end of august night.

report from the first week of 2011-2012 school year, snacks

well, we made it through the first week of school and are into the second. this is a wierd post, i feel it coming...

my daughter has sailed smoothly into kindergarten and says she loves it. maya has not questioned the fact that her teacher speaks chinese 90% of the day. today she was chanting "hong suh, lee suh" and when i asked her what it was she said that it was a pattern (of colors, in mandarin). her class is the SFUSD dream of diversity. she has two very good teachers. i helped a little at lunch today and saw maya just chilling out in the huge loud room, eating her lunch slowly, pretty smiley. outside in the sun during the too short recess she got to play an exciting game of cookie monster with her cousin and the fabulous coach d.j. of playworks. a few stumbles and trips but she is keeping up with the crowd.

miles' entry into third grade has been a bit bumpier. this is a public blog, so i won't say too much, but there have been some clashes between his new teacher and the kids and parents. i am trying not to get too sucked into the negative thoughts and worry, and be supportive instead. the principal asked if i would help make posters from the caring school curriculum for all the classrooms with some basic norms and rules and expectations. for kids AND teachers. how we all need to treat each other. we are all learning this stuff, but to get along in the same building, and really in any public space, there have to be some ground rules. poor kid also hurt his legs at soccer camp and i can tell he is deep down worrying about a possible damper on his professional soccer career. i am waiting to hear back from his doctor. we are all missing the very long and lazy days of summer.

this was an especially good and lazy summer and i need to hold onto those sunny memories as we move into the high gear of the school year.

(and let me say or the record that i am personally against benching kids unless it is a last resort, and even then it should be an opportunity for teaching and relationship building, not punishment. as in, let's sit down together and make sure you know why you are sitting on this bench and let's figure out a way it won't happen again. kids need to run around!!!)

as for me, i have a full caseload already, and there is a lot up in the air as to what will unfold at my sites this year. i guess i can't divulge any details as this is a public blog, but the special education redesign in this district really does seem to be happening. i think it is a step in the right direction, but hope that there is more systematic implementation of the next steps. one teacher was bawling on me at the end of the day, her class so full of needy kids, she loves them all and wants to teach them well but on the 4th day back was feeling it was "a cluster f**$#".

there is a lot being asked of people without many resources to support them.

today i cruised the bulk aisle at safeway and walked out with bags of whole wheat goldfish crackers, pretzels, cranberries, graham crackers. i made three big packages of snacks, one for my daughter's teacher, one for my son's, one for the after school program. i gave money to the teacher i work with to buy snacks for our preschool class. the food bank can't supply snacks anymore.

we are all in this together, this creation of every new day here, the kid raising, the kid feeding, the votes for parks and schools and clean environment. ask someone who takes care of other people what he or she needs tomorrow. don't eat any meat if you can. do what you can to spread the wealth.

sorry to be preachy and rambly. i promise my next post will not be so.

p.s. here are a couple of photos from the annual folsom street food festival. beautiful, fun, tasty. among the gourmet delights miles managed to find a cheeseburger (a REALLY GOOD cheeseburger)

first day

here is my little girl on her first day of kindergarten. she walked right into school with the line of cute little strangers. i came home and called my mama who recommended i watch the beautiful and cathartic documentary "the cats of mirikitani". i have cleaned and shopped like a good homemaker on my childless day off and i am itching to go pick up my babies.

end of an era

today was maya's last day of preschool. yes, i cried. partly it was sadness at the relentless march of time that has made my babies grow so big so fast. there was a party where the teacher read stories written by the big kids in literacy group ( all five of them) and the kids acted it out. it was an amazing creative collaborative, with kids just jumping in to take parts and no one fighting over who got to play who and how they should do it. they worked it out with just a tiny bit of help. and you could see the end result of two years of preschool--little kids who can cooperate, create their own narratives (with some elements lifted from movies, video games, and pop music--all gamely accepted by the staff which refused to let kids wear commercial characters on clothes), sing, dance, have fun, and express their feelings.

and now it is on to the world of public school, where i have been overwhelmed the past few days with the reality of the need to raise test scores, the need to be in compliance with special education law,and the grim budget scenario. mandates to do lots and lots of things with very little money.

but somehow the kids still seem pretty happy.

politics these days are so scary and the problems seem related to some real basics. not to sound like that person who wrote about all she needed to know she learned in kindergarten, but can't we have a little more creativity and cooperation in congress? if the preschoolers can do it, can't you guys?

at the end of the preschool graduation a beloved teacher (who will now forever be even more beloved) handed out candy necklaces she had made for all the big kids. we had advance notice, and had prepped our 8-year-old with some ice cream before the party. i expected the little kids and siblings to start dropping like flies on the floor crying and yelling as their big friends walked around with shiny candy draped around their necks. but nothing at all. and the big kids started opening their necklaces up to share. miles scored two pieces.

we will miss you very very much room to grow preschool.

xo

wildflowers, wood line

we managed to spend a lot of time outside this weekend, which is a very good thing.

saturday we all went to starr king to help water trees and weed the garden. even with a mild hangover it felt sweet to be in a garden with seven kids who were excited about pulling the most weeds, finding big radishes, and washing carrots to eat. walking through the starr king open space we saw all kinds of wildflowers. later maya and i went to the nursery and came back with a shovel, aphid eating ladybugs, and some geraniums to cheer up the deck. the compost pile was chock full of big roly polys and we spread them around. the garden has been a little forlorn lately, and needs some tlc.

today we met our friends at the presidio, and walked (on top of, only fell once) andy goldsworthy's wood line. very worth checking out, maybe it will become a birthday tradition. continuing on we saw a very big bird of prey we could not identify in the grass near the path. then we hit presidio bowl for a few hours of '70s rock, strong drinks, bowling (i was awful, boo hoo), turkey burgers and shooting and driving arcade games. we walked back up the wood line and i was pleased to see miles with his friend talking about different birds they had sighted, and dragon books they are reading. she is one of his few girl friends...i like that he has at least one!

tomorrow my summer ends, with professional development that starts at 8 am. i will really miss these wide open days and weeks.

ok it has been a while

hello friends

we are back in the city, and i have just returned from a night out with my starr king moms for our first friday night home in the mission. whiskey, wine, talk talk, and oysters and pate at a pop up restaurant in sugar lump cafe.

it was a fantastic few weeks out of the city. we were at camp mather for a week, where miles learned ping pong and we all got a healthy dose of RELAX. no cleaning, no cooking,no driving. we spent our days under tall redwoods, swimming and eating (and playing ping pong). maya rocked the talent show with it's a hard knock life. we swam (and played ping pong) and met friends and it was mell0w and beautiful out under the redwoods, climbing rocks and no traffic or crazy people. after that we spent two weeks in sonoma, just me and my two beautiful kids. ice cream, the bookstore, pizza, swimming,the chocolate cow. sun, trees, sun, blackberries,wine, reading, playing on the stage, grandma, wine, soccer. our dog ran free, the kids and i a happy threesome. i watched disfunctional tv all night. we looked at real estate ads before we bought lattes and baked goods on the square in the morning. we saw the stars every night. we caught crawdads and a tiny trout in a creek and swam and it was quiet.

now we are back. and i am thinking, why live in the city if you are not devoted to social justice, or improving urban ecology, or the arts. am i to be inspired by the city, or depressed by it?is it time to write my novel? today we went to the park and miles played soccer with a little boy who just moved from nicaragua. swam in martin luther king pool. and tonight i met my starr king mom friends for an awesome 24th st night of wine, whiskey, pate and talk, talk talk. we all flirted with the curly haired 43 year old waitress with braces. school will start soon.

my baby starting kindergarten.

so had some serious where should we live thoughts this weekend. should we live where it is calm and peaceful? quiet with no garbage on the ground, wine at the park and friendly faces? inverness and point reyes were so natural with trees and sky and beach all around. today we saw a woman lying on her side outside walgreens in handcuffs. was she an escaped murderer? miles wanted to know. i had no answer, only a clear image of her vulnerable back, lying on the sidewalk, a man slipping a hand into her back pocket, hopefully to find her identity and help her. a fire truck, police car and ambulance were soon on the scene, so i could tell the kids she was taken care of.

anyway, we are back. thanks to my starr king mom friends for this buzzed night. back in the city for now, with lots of plans for getaways to places where we are closer to the land, the plants, the animals, where the population is not so dense and intense. i need it, i want it, this time with nature.

love you guys,

j