Days Go By

At home, I am on a personal, one-on-one crusade against what my Mom would describe as "the house's bad breath." I have swept a dog's worth of fur off the floor and finally washed Bella Noche's bedding and then removed a dog's worth of fur from the lint dryer.  Awesome, I know.  I  again culled our books for the sale at the Strawberry Festival.  This is something that always takes longer than I plan.  It's like meeting with old friends-- Taro Gomi, Patricia Polacco, Robert McCloskey.

At the gym-- I said goodbye to a sweet group of Mormon mamas.  And already a new crop has shown up.  Fresh-faced, all-American, in some stage of pregnancy.  Pregnant, and yes, doing Cardio Step with an easy, delighted expression.

Everyone but me is still in school.  Geoff in his summer class.  He's watercoloring, drawing from nature, even screen printing.  It sort of takes me back to U Arts in the late nineties.  It used to be  him sitting intently drawing a shirt draped over a chair, with Bjork in the background while his noodles simmered on his hot plate.  Now, he is on the front porch, watercoloring the Crepe Myrtle branches in the front yard.  He is accompanied by Benicio, who is certain he can get college credit for his watercolor interpretation even though he is nine.  And also Calliope, who is mixing her paint with sidewalk chalk dust and grinding it into rocks.  And then Manny on his scooter, sailing by quoting the Last Airbender.

The kids have one more full week.  The boys actually have final exams.  They are such good sports about them.  It's still new for them-- having such structured and explicit expectations before them.  We're all about love of learning not grades, yes?  Clara and Calliope are savoring last days at each of their schools.

 Goodbye May, hello June.