Tinkers

Mary handed down this slim volume with the appealing cover the night before I boarded my flight back home from Cali. I managed to read a few pages here and there since then, but delved into it a bit more this afternoon as I sat and DEARed with the kids (Drop Everything And Read).

(Yes, sometimes it takes the intention of instilling the life of my children with some goodness to create the opportunity for that same goodness to bloom in my own life.)

The book has an interesting back story of its own which you can read about here (the first novel from a small publisher to win the Pulitzer in 30 years, the author a first-time author to boot).

There is some breath taking prose in this book.  It is meditative and beautiful.

What are you reading these days?

Live and learn

#1: Next time I travel, I will bring a flash drive into which I can upload my photos...ooh, unless I have my very own laptop by then (I have serious laptop envy after hanging out with Barbra and Erika's laptops).  I thought I had things sussed out, but couldn't upload into Picasa using my Dad's PC laptop and fell behind.  Once I was in Cali and back on Apple laptops, I could use Picasa, but, man, it takes a long time to upload photos this way.  I haven't had the time to get them all uploaded.

Here are a few uploaded tonight, mostly from Sacramento, the last one is back in Oakland taken today at the comic book store where we returned to pick up plane reading.

I'm off to bed, I actually feel sleepy at bedtime!  (Tomorrow we head to Mary's in Berkeley, Thursday she will drive us to SFO at 6:30am...)

Back in the fold

The kids and I had a lovely day in Sacramento, they are feeling much better, and we took the train back to Oakland late this afternoon.  Erika almost made it through saying good-bye without crying and for a startled moment I thought: she doesn't feel the same way anymore...  Silly me.  Waterworks ensued.

The train ride was lovely as ever.  The scenery is really varied and soothing on the stretch between the Bay area and Sacramento.  I love the ride.

We had a cozy dinner of leftovers plus a bacon and broccoli frittata.  The kids enjoyed some episodes of Pokemon on Barbra's laptop and Barbra and I caught up.  Then the kids read in bed and B and I watched Community and Parks and Rec on Hulu.  *Big smile*

It feels good to be home having returned from a new home away from home (we'd never been to Malachi's new house) and our thoughts are slowly turning to heading back to NJ on Thursday.

But, tomorrow we'll have our last day with Barbra before she goes back to work on Wednesday.  We will go back to the wonderful comic book store for airplane reading material, meet up with Mary and her kids, and enjoy the predicted near 60º temps.

Peace and love.  And to subsiding coughs and viruses.

Still

...as in quiet.

Gem's immune system has kicked into fighting mode.  He's running hot and is exhausted, sleeping a lot, waking mostly to take sips of water.  I'm making some chicken broth for him as I type and will toss in some garlic and ginger when Jerry gets back from the market.

Sag is in bed napping.  He has been having jet lag the worst of all.  He is so tired at night but his system is set to "go".  Lying awake in the dark unable to fall asleep?  Not fun.  He has also become quite constipated and last night we were up every 30-60 minutes between 1:30-5:30 because his gut hurt and he needed to poop (with little to no "result").  I will dose him with some more olive oil when I wake him up.

Malachi, Erika and Jerry have been amazing.  Generous, loving and flexible.  They are all out now enjoying the sun and going about their days for a bit.

...as in unchanging despite shifting.

We became friends with this family when we moved to Sacramento and the kids were in preschool together.  Since we moved five years ago, the kids had not seen each other in person until yesterday.  I saw them when I visited a couple of years ago on my own.  But, they came down to Oakland and so this is the first time, for all three of us, to spend time in their home, which they moved into a few years ago.

Though time has passed, time is a funny thing sometimes.  Because, really, nothing seems different between us.  The energy is the same.  The connection is the same.  The feeling is the same.  Call it clichéd, but I'll take it.  It is as if no time has passed and I appreciate it and feel so grateful.

P.S.  Jerry recently returned from a trip to India.  He makes chai at home now.  So very, very restorative and yummy.  (I came at a good time ;-)

Blur

I guess it comes with the jet lag territory.  Last night was brutal.  The kids could not fall asleep and it was upsetting for them.  We finally fell asleep past 2am.

Today, we met Mary and her family for lunch at Picante where Sag declared his burrito the best he's ever eaten.  We met S for the first time and he's a sweet baby-toddler.  Big sister S is blossoming beautifully.

From there we went to the Lawrence Hall of Science and had a blast.  It's a really great space for kids of all ages.  Even in the dismal wet and cold weather we've been having.

From there we went to dinner in Oakland's Chinatown.  Lana came across the Bay from San Francisco and we had a "small world" gathering.  I know Lana from Hunter and we have reconnected via Facebook.  She is close friends with Elena who is good friends with Audrey, who is Barbra's wife.  Barbra, is a BFF of mine from college.  Lana and I had no idea we had this friends connection until we started planning to get together while I was in town.  But, we did find out with enough time to allow for all of us to get together :-)

And now, Barbra sits next to me, the kids are playing Pokemon on DS and we are sipping our tea.  Hopefully, sleep will not elude us till 2am again.  Tomorrow I have a massage in the morning (yay!) and Rachael is coming over for brunch.  Then the kids and I head up to Sacramento in the afternoon for the long weekend with Malachi, Erika and Jerry.

Phew.  So, it is a blur when I think on it, but each moment is being lived and savored.  We are lucky to be here and are really enjoying ourselves.

Back on native soil

The light hit my brain and I knew the definitive answer to a question Gem had asked me the day before in Japan: do I have a home away from home?  I do.  It's northern California.  Especially the Bay area.  I feel it every single time the light hits me.

We are here in Oakland at Auntie Barbra and Audrey's house where the dogs have greeted us with love and taken us in stride.  The flight was smooth for the most part (the kids slept through the turbulence) and they slept for between 2-3 hours.  I got about 2 hours of on and off dozing in.

I crashed for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon, the kids impressed me with their wakefulness as they powered through the day without napping.  We hit a great comic book store, Sag and I had doughnuts (his request for lunch and once I saw how good they looked, I had to have one) and dinner was sushi on the water where Gem, finally, sated his salmon sushi jones which had been sorely unmet while in Japan.

Sorry no pics, the camera cord is buried in my suitcase and the kids are still, blissfully, sleeping.  I was ecstatic to wake and find that I'd slept eight hours straight.  They are now into hour eleven.

It is raining here this morning and so cozy.

Peace and love, people.