Festivities

It was an extremely full and satisfying day for the O'Richey-O household.  We had two Events scheduled for today: TLG's School Picnic in the AM, and the Multicultural Festival in the PM.

For the picnic we signed up to bring brownies, and I thought it would be a good experience for TLG and I to bake them early in the morning, and then bring them to the picnic.  Pride in accomplishments, and all that.  So around 0900 (after a quick trip to the store to buy eggs, which he helped me check for cracks) we began the process.

He was extremely excited about the egg.

It didn't take too long to put the batter together (even including cleaning up the egg he crushed rather than cracked), and soon we were popping it into the oven.

Official Taste Tester

Which, uh, kind of decided not to work.  As in, it decided that 250 was pretty much it's default setting, consequences be damned.  I kept those brownies in there nearly 90 minutes (did manage to coax the oven up to about 335 for the last 10), and finally had to pull them out so they could cool for fifteen minutes before we left.

Those brownies were 100% not done.

Now, they were done enough.  Enough that I'd eat them, or give them to family to eat, and just enjoy the chewy rawness of the bottom.  But to take to a Class Picnic, where people might actually complain about salmonella?  No.  So on our way to school we popped into WalMart to pick up a substitute; "We already have brownies!" TLG shrieked in indignation (pride in accomplishment, sigh), but after I explained the situation (ie lied and told him I didn't think we had enough) he grudgingly agreed to their purchase, with the caveat that he got to carry them.

The point of the picnic was to celebrate grandparents, but since TLG's all live far far away, we instead brought my aunt and uncle to represent the generation.  TLG had a grand old time running his great uncle ragged on the playground!

Not nearly as death-trappish as they were in MY day.

I may or may not have indulged in some hokey pokey with him.  But there's no photographic evidence, so who can tell.

Fortunately for everyone he fell asleep on the way home, so he got an hour nap (and I got a chance to write some Severan stuff, which I'll share in a few days) before we had to get ready for Event Number Two.

I'd been so focused on the chance to eat delicious ethnic foods that I had totally spaced on the fact that we've got some multiculturalism in our household, too.  But fortunately at the very last moment it occurred to me, and I squeezed TLG into his vintage lederhosen (passed down through the family from the aforementioned great uncle).  I was bummed that I hadn't thought of it in time to have my mom ship me my dirndls, but there's always next year...

Ready to Ride!  Possibly for the last time, because he's just about outgrown that seat.

We rode my bike there (love being able to ride my bike to fun things) and TLG was an immediate hit with the police officers wandering around: they gave him a shield sticker and directed us to the bike corral.  Once we had it locked up, TLG made a beeline for the playground, but pretty quickly thereafter he caught sight of the hula dancers on stage and got mesmerized.  I eventually coaxed him back down, and we checked out some of the booths, until he told me he wanted food- but then on the way to the food he caught sight of kids with balloon animals, so we had to take a detour for "a brown monkey!"

He would literally bite his money's face off within five minutes.  Enemies beware.

Monkey secured, we got ourselves some delicious street tacos, and followed it up with a peach ice-pop to share.

Not necessarily multicultural, but a favorite from the Farmer's Market we were excited to find here.

We spent some time watching beautiful Mexican dancers, and playing with a little paper toy bus (TLG is enamored of city buses), but eventually we were ready to head home.

They looked like butterflies.

A burst of sunshine!

All in all it was a great time, and next year I'm thinking I'll wear my dirndl, have Nathan wear a kilt, and we flip a coin to see which of our 52 flavors TLG will represent!

Cultured!

Nice People Everywhere

Today Neeps and I walked to the grocery store to get something or other, and on our way back we fell into step with a Hispanic woman who was also walking home from the store, and we had a lovely conversations predicated on my child's friendliness.

This is not the first such interaction he as lead me into (not even on that outing), with his grinning and his waving and his general perfection, and I feel certain it will not be the last.  And every time we say goodbye to the person who has struck up a conversation with us, I say to my son, "See?  There are nice people everywhere."

I want him to grow up believing that.  I want him to be of the opinion that most people, given the chance, are just friends you haven't met yet, and that friendly conversations with strangers, wherein you treat one another like real, actual people and not just statistics, should be the norm.

It's funny how raising a child is sort of... bringing me back to my best self.  I feel like we can get so run down, so tired of trying all the time and getting nothing back, and so we get lazy and even shut down because what does it matter anymore?  We're not doing any active harm, we're just... not engaging.  But knowing he's watching me, learning from me and how I handle life... well, to be horribly cliched about it, it's forcing me to be the change I wish to see in the world.  It's revitalizing me, reminding me that there is goodness in the world and it's up to me to acknowledge and increase and contribute to it, not just withdraw when I get too overwhelmed with badness.  I have to give him this sort of running head-start before he launches into the world for his solo-flight, so that maybe he'll be able to go longer than I did before he gets sad and broken.  Maybe he'll never get sad and broken at all.  Maybe he'll just always be one of those nice, friendly people that smile and say hello, soaring gloriously on into the sunset.

I sure hope so.

I Am a Person in My Neighborhood

I've wanted to check out our neighborhood association pretty much since we moved into our house, but I just never seemed to get around to it.  I would forget and miss the meeting, or something would come up, or there wouldn't be a meeting that month, or I'd just be too damn tired.  For five years.

And then we had a kid, and suddenly I realized I needed to up my frigging Adult game and actually get my carcass to a meeting.  I wasn't able to make the one last month, but the one scheduled for this month promised a speaker involved in the Fourth Plain Forward project, a proposal I've been very excited about, so I 100% committed to being there tonight.

And I was.

It was my first time at that sort of thing, and it was very interesting indeed.  Well, most of it was.  There was also stuff that I didn't much care about- but that's going to be the case no matter what sort of gathering you're at.  It made me realize that I might need to start going to meetings on the City level, as well- which sort of makes me recoil in horror because it's not like I don't have enough on my plate already... but I also feel like I have a civic responsibility to be involved in my community.  So.

Baby steps, O.  Baby steps.

Stranger Danger

Nathan's parents got into town tonight, but they did not elect to join us on Isis's nightly PT walk.

it was a bit late

Old Habits Die Hard

Many of you are probably aware that today was the day that the first (legal) recreational marijuana shops opened in Washington State.  Well we here in Vancouver (aka Vansterdam) are lucky enough to have one of the (very few) shops (Main Street Marijuana) in our uptown district.  The shop didn't open until 1100, but I heard from one of my clients that there was already a long line at 0800.

I'm amused by the whole thing, but also admittedly interested in this little bit of history, so during my afternoon walk I went ahead and mosied on by, just to see if the line was persisting throughout the day.  Sure enough, even by 3pm there was still a line to get in:

Whatchoo Lookin' At?

I was tickled by this, and decided to take a photo- but knowing that people might still be a little twitchy about their faces being photographed in front of a store that sells (only recently legalized) drugs, I moved around to the back of the line to get the impression rather than the individuals.

As you can see, however, one guy did not trust the redhead with the camera phone, and chose to keep an eye on me, regardless.

My Unexciting Day

I woke up around 0430 this morning.  Not because I wanted to.

True Story.

Some jackass was failing to start his car.  Over, and over, and over again.  And I feel like, maybe, if you car is making noises like that when you try to start it, maybe you shouldn't try to start it, because maybe it is prying open a portal to hell.

I woke up again at 0600, when my alarm went off.  And I spent four minutes moaning to myself that I didn't want to get up, before the stronger part of my will won out.  (The stronger part of my will, by the by, seems to be directly tied to my inner Miser; the argument that actually got me out of bed was that if I didn't get out of bed and go running I'd have wasted the money I just spent on new running shoes.)

So.  Out of bed, did my yoga, released the dog from her cage because I figured hey- dogs like to run!

But not my dog.  Not this morning.  Normally she is all about some running-really-fast-faster-than-her-humans-can, but this morning she kept it to a very slow trot.  Behind me.  With lots of stops for sniffing.  I'm not sure if it was her earache (currently being medicated) or just that she didn't want to be up so early, either.

I had Nathan drive me to work because I was meeting up with KB afterwards to practice lead climbing, and my rope is too heavy and bulky for me to haul it on my bike for so far.  Which meant that after work I hauled it on my back for less far.

Which, as it turned out, was all for naught, because KB totally spaced.  Ah well.  I got in plenty of bouldering, and practiced clipping in and out until it felt like my arms might fall off.  Also I got the admiration of a newer climber, which was flattering but also embarrassing, because I'm not really that good, and I feel like a fraud when I say thank you (but it feels dickish to say, "Oh I'm not that good- you just really suck right now.")

And then I came home, and made a cucumber avocado soup for dinner.  I added bacon, which made it way more delicious, but next time I make it I think I'll be making even more tweaks.  Now the dog and I are hanging out on the couch, watching a movie which I picked because I thought it would be terrible, but is actually not bad, while I write a blog entry to warmup for some more world-building.

Ta da!

Meeting (one of) the Neighbors

Our First Night went pretty well, all things considered.  We weren't able to get the box spring up the stairs (we'll be picking up some plywood at a later date) so our mattress went right on the frame, which helped make our very large room seem even larger.  We sat in bed for a while just marveling.

We took showers, and learned which windows really need curtains ("Hi neighbors!").  We discussed the placement of furniture and potential future additions.  We decided that a ceiling fan is high on our list of "must-have" improvements.  It was all very domestic and good.

After I brushed my teeth I started hearing a strangely rhythmic clinking.  At first I thought we had a leak in the sink, but after about five minutes of me "Shhh!"ing Nathan (because it kept stopping and starting at random) and creeping around from place to place, I finally decided it must be coming from outside... and I could hear music, too, and maybe someone singing...

Suddenly Nathan announced, "He's practicing drumming!  That weird noise- that's the ride cymbal!"

Mystery solved, we talked about whether nor not we should go ask him to keep it down.  "After all," I reasoned, "It's almost eleven o'clock."  I volunteered to be the one to go down (I'm better at getting my way in such a manner that the other party thinks I'm doing them a favor), but as I got dressed we realized the noise had stopped.

"Maybe he only practices until eleven?"

Well with that problem solved I got undressed again, crawled into bed, and promptly fell asleep...

...only to be jerked awake a little after midnight by even louder (and, to be honest, more offensive-to-my-ears: I'm not such a fan of death metal) music, accompanied by correspondingly enthusiastic practice-drum noises.

Once again I pulled pants and shirt on, stumbled downstairs, fumbled my shoes on, and went over to meet our musically-inclined neighbor.  I went out through our front gate and walked over to their fenced-in-patio and said (in my best nonthreatening, adorable female voice),  "Excuse me,"

No break in the drumming.  So I turn up my own volume.

"''Scuse me!"  and a startled head pops up over the fence like a paranoid meerkat.  He's younger than us, and shirtless, and quite possibly... in an altered state of mind.

"Hi," I say, giving my best sleepy-yet-charming smile.  "Could you turn it down a little?"

"Oh!  Oh yeah, sure.  Sorry," and he disappears to do so as I'm offering up my, "We just moved in..." segue.  I trail off, because he is staying disappeared and obviously we are done here.

Possibly my charm is not as charming as it used to be.

But that's alright, because if nothing else, at least one neighbor is quite reasonable.