keeping busy not taking the yearly trek back east and trying not to be sad about it

the peach tree is dropping about 25 ripe peaches onto the ground every day. on saturday maya and i took two bags out on a walk. we gave the first one to a speed freak guy who is almost constantly in motion around the neighborhood. we went into the little take out deli place to see if they had mason jars to seal up the peaches and they didn't, but the counter guy offered to trade us, which we did, a bag of peaches for a big delicious chicken tarragon sandwich and curried cauliflower salad.

we spent saturday night in brisbane celebrating julia's 40th with naked children dancing, margaritas, water balloons, maya and natalie disappearing for hours to play complicated pretend games while miles and edison happily beat on each other and the grownups got nostalgic. little russell did some head-banging to a thin lizzy song rich played on guitar. where should we live decision of the moment: if we flee the city it will be for brisbane. we can trade in what we've got for a terraced view of the bay and beyond, safety, quiet, christmas light stars and sports and sports and more sports.

sunday i took miles for some culture downtown, the sf free theater festival. we watched lots of adults entertaining kids--psychotic clowns, storytellers, physical comedy, pirates, jugglers. but what i loved where the kid entertainers. we saw our acquaintance isabel singing excerpts from the sound of music, an amazing grease with long-haired drummer and teenagers from the mission singing and dancing, but my favorite was a group called the habit project from petaluma. they were from about 10-17, all beautiful kids in white shirts and black pants, full of joy but somber, singing and playing guitar, very adult songs about being fucked up, being in love, making stupid decisions. while listening i didn't know what the theme was but knew it was deep and the kids were special. i was ready to sign miles up, even if he would be learning about drinking and bad relationships and adult stuff. somehow it all worked, it was beautiful.

we crawled home on two buses. my little big guy has taken to wanting to hold my hand again lately. he does a little skip thing most of the time instead of walking.

today he wore his school uniform to the park. the kids climbed, were friendly enough with strangers to play soccer with them, maya scored a little baby and stroller she took care of for a long time. maya and miles were on the seesaw for a long time, moving the weights back and forth, going up and down, up and down, some bumps but mostly laughing.

tomorrow we head up north to point arena. miss you
love, jamie