Well, that was a pleasant day...
...which is particularly surprising given that I went to the dentist today. (Well, but my teeth were doing beautifully--I have fabulous teeth, don't you know? I am quite sure I mention it constantly every time we meet!)
Mark took Daisy to ballet while I was at the dentist, and then I picked her up and met Robyn, Rene, Eli, Tita Alex, and Vincent at China Beach. What a great idea, guys! It was a beautiful day--sunny but not too hot--and we had picnic lunches and frolicked on the beach. I am not the beachiest person, but for some reason it was superb today. We found some huge starfish and crabs and explored various rocks with sea life clinging to them. We spied a little boy and his mother digging in the sand near the water and making their own little tidepool, so we did the same a few yards away. Then a little girl saw what we were doing and she and HER mother dug a tidepool. Then the little boy came running over and tested our pool, and we tested his, and he very excitedly proposed that we should create a creek system connecting the pools. Now, this took a lot of effort--do not laugh. Suddenly there I was digging these canals to connect the pools, and the other mother was doing it, and then the mother of the little girl did it, and we had some lovely creeks flowing that connected all the pools. Eli's daddy Rene added to the system by creating an alternate route with an island stuck in the middle of it, and all the little kids were running up and down and splashing in the pools and having the best time.
AND, I was so proud of Daisy because I got to watch her confront and defeat a fear. For most of the time we were at the beach, she was afraid to go near the waves. I had to talk her into letting me carry her down by the rocks to see the starfish, and the whole time she was clinging to me and talking to herself, saying, "Be brave, Daisy! Be brave!" Okay, that was pretty cute. But she insisted on running back any time it looked like the waves were encroaching. At the end of the day, though, she suddenly got extremely brave. Don't ask me why. Holding either my hand or Mark's, she wanted to go running into the waves, and we made a game out of it where we pretended to be afraid and went running back after a little while. She was laughing and jumping in the waves at that point, and I think she could have gone on for hours.
I often have a critical feeling about living in San Francisco, but today was one of those happy days when I enjoyed living in this city and in my neighborhood particularly, where we are so close to a place like China Beach. I enjoyed meeting strangers and their kids and digging canals with them; there was almost a jolly small-town feeling to the whole thing, and when we walked away up the big hill I was happy to see that some other kids and families had taken over the pools and canals and were digging in them.
Then we had Eritrean food at a cafe we really like on Clement, Cafe Mereb (go there, San Franciscans), and then Mark went to play a show, and I am here. Don't feel sorry for me-- I really feel too tired to go jump up and down in a bar.
Mark took Daisy to ballet while I was at the dentist, and then I picked her up and met Robyn, Rene, Eli, Tita Alex, and Vincent at China Beach. What a great idea, guys! It was a beautiful day--sunny but not too hot--and we had picnic lunches and frolicked on the beach. I am not the beachiest person, but for some reason it was superb today. We found some huge starfish and crabs and explored various rocks with sea life clinging to them. We spied a little boy and his mother digging in the sand near the water and making their own little tidepool, so we did the same a few yards away. Then a little girl saw what we were doing and she and HER mother dug a tidepool. Then the little boy came running over and tested our pool, and we tested his, and he very excitedly proposed that we should create a creek system connecting the pools. Now, this took a lot of effort--do not laugh. Suddenly there I was digging these canals to connect the pools, and the other mother was doing it, and then the mother of the little girl did it, and we had some lovely creeks flowing that connected all the pools. Eli's daddy Rene added to the system by creating an alternate route with an island stuck in the middle of it, and all the little kids were running up and down and splashing in the pools and having the best time.
AND, I was so proud of Daisy because I got to watch her confront and defeat a fear. For most of the time we were at the beach, she was afraid to go near the waves. I had to talk her into letting me carry her down by the rocks to see the starfish, and the whole time she was clinging to me and talking to herself, saying, "Be brave, Daisy! Be brave!" Okay, that was pretty cute. But she insisted on running back any time it looked like the waves were encroaching. At the end of the day, though, she suddenly got extremely brave. Don't ask me why. Holding either my hand or Mark's, she wanted to go running into the waves, and we made a game out of it where we pretended to be afraid and went running back after a little while. She was laughing and jumping in the waves at that point, and I think she could have gone on for hours.
I often have a critical feeling about living in San Francisco, but today was one of those happy days when I enjoyed living in this city and in my neighborhood particularly, where we are so close to a place like China Beach. I enjoyed meeting strangers and their kids and digging canals with them; there was almost a jolly small-town feeling to the whole thing, and when we walked away up the big hill I was happy to see that some other kids and families had taken over the pools and canals and were digging in them.
Then we had Eritrean food at a cafe we really like on Clement, Cafe Mereb (go there, San Franciscans), and then Mark went to play a show, and I am here. Don't feel sorry for me-- I really feel too tired to go jump up and down in a bar.
posted by Sarah Goss at 9:05 PM
1 Comments:
This is good preparation for her years at Ridgemont High.
Gompy
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