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.