do you have an extra 600,000 dollars?

sonoma weekend. we called the clydesdales and they came right over to say hello. met kids in the park and miles and rich played football for a lonnnnngggg time. we drank red and white wine and ate salami and cheese and tomatoes from The Patch and even made it through a grandparent brunch without driving grandpa david nuts. my mom fed us tidbits from her training as a sonoma county naturalist--vultures are the only bird that can smell. yellow jackets are wasps. she tells us about a dog chasing a deer through nathanson's creek behind their house.

the way home was pretty for a while, with rolling hills of grapes on vines, and a stop at the beautiful stanly farm to pick pumpkins and run between tall sunflowers and corn stalks and pretend to drive rusty old tractors.

then we hit the traffic on 80 and the world started to seem not so nice. sitting in a mass of barely moving cars for two hours gives you time to think about all things wrong: from too many people to collapsing economies to oil wars to unsustainability to people just being jerks as they honked and shoved their ways from lane to lane. and the bridge, the bridge, well if you know me you know how i feel about that. suspended so high in traffic i bit my lip and felt my hands go numb as rich drove and i silently begged my children to be quiet and happy and patient. miles put his new yoda mask on to make our neighbors in the traffic jam smile as we eased our way down into our tall city.

i want to take the ferry next time.

back in sf we dropped rich off and went to the friends of potrero hill at i.m. scott raise a roof benefit. maya and i rode on a bike to provide pedal power for blenders and spin art, and we all pedal powered the bluegrass musicians amps. as kids ate treats, poked at weeds growing through cracks in the asphalt, played with hula hoops and rode things with wheels we heard educators plead for money. friends of potrero hill has found a home in the i.m. scott building owned by sfusd. sfusd will lease to to foph for $1 a year, and in return friends of potrero hill will build a new little sustainable beautiful place in which to teach preschoolers. all the preschool needs is 600,000.

it is time, time, time, time, time, time, time for some big changes. is it crazy to think that in these very scary economic times there is hope for donations of $600,000 to build a little neighborhood preschool that wants to teach kids about peace and sustainability? just hearing the plea, amongst the rock the bike people and joyful kids, was in a strange way inspirational. like, it's insane, but it is gonna' happen anyway.

i hope so.

night night