Everywhere But Here
You know it's been a hell of a weekend when your Monday happens on a Wednesday and yet you're still gazing longingly at the weekend on the horizon because you need a few days to recover from all your hardcore, take-no-prisoners recreating. Except with a kid, of course, the weekends aren't really the recovery days of late lounging and laziness they used to be because I don't know about your kid, but my kid at least seems to be dialed into the whole Daylight Savings madness and has been prematurely auto-adjusting for the last few weeks, waking up earlier and earlier each day, the cause of much self-pity (mine) and caffeinated beverages (also mine). If he keeps this up, I'm afraid his waking-up self is going to be able to high-five his going-to-bed self as they pass each other in the nursery doorway, which will eventually morph into a soul-sucking wormhole, which surely bodes misfortune for us all. Kids! In my day they had more respect for the space-time continuum.
So, this weekend my parents were in town, and we dragged them hither and yon all day every day they were here, and thank god they're young and hearty because not everyone can spend nine straight hours on a picnic blanket on the ground and then walk a mile uphill, loaded like a pack mule, in the dark, in 50-degree weather, and still come out smiling when it's all over. I suspect the baby and his infinite supply of extreme adorability had something to do with it, and also the healing powers of trail mix and beef jerky because if my parents are connoisseurs of anything, it's processed snack foods.
Saturday and Sunday we spent all day at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, an annual three-day free concert festival in Golden Gate Park. We heard Guy Clark and sorta kinda heard Steve Martin (yes, that Steve Martin), and then we had better luck finding places to both hear and see the Old 97s, Aimee Mann, Booker T (yes, that Booker T) and the Drive-by Truckers, and Rodney Crowell and Todd Snider, and some random not-even-in-the-same-universe-as-bluegrass Latin dance band called Malo featuring a guy in a skin-tight black tanktop who couldn't stop doing the salsa, and also Simon's favorite band in the entire world, Little Feat, who I'm contractually obligated to say was awesome. It was kind of intense at times maneuvering our party through a crowd of thousands with all of the supplies it takes to support a family of five for a full day (food, extra clothes, toys, and CAFFEINE), but it was also really great to have spare hands on deck, enabling me to lay back and close my eyes and work on my sunburn while someone else was in charge of keeping pinecones and bottlecaps out of my son's mouth. Hooray for grandparents!
More photos here.
On Monday we got up early again and went back to the park for a visit to the California Academy of Sciences. It was mine and Simon's third and fourth trips there, respectively, and this time we finally got to see the planetarium show, which is off-limits to babies. What a treat it was to spend thirty minutes in a darkened room holding hands that are not Wombat's, even despite Whoopi Goldberg's valiant attempt to narrate us into oblivion with her script of statistics detailing how very vast the universe is and how very annihilated life on Earth as we know it will be when our sun burns out in approximately 500 billion years. Who knew planetariums could be so depressing! Good thing Wombat wasn't exposed to such apocalyptic projections and instead spent that time dangling precariously over the crocodile pit.
More photos here.
And photos from our trip to a park in Berkeley are here.
All evidence points to my kid being very lucky to have so many people think he's the cat's pajamas, wouldn't you agree?
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In completely unrelated news, have you heard of the newest place on the Internet to see and be seen? It's called Style Lush (get it?), and it's devoted to all things style and design and just making life more awesome all around. It's the brainchild of Jennie (shelikespurple) and Elizabeth (Princess Nebraska), and you just might see someone you recognize on the roster of regular contributors. This is an exciting venture that has been months in the making, so go check it out, click around, leave comments, and make a cheap, lazy, trashy girl's day.
There is no one in the world I would like to make out with more than Todd Snider. Even if he is a dirty hippie.
P.S. Wombat looks more like Simon every day.
The Wombat is just getting more handsome by the day. Geez! He's not going to have anywhere to go pretty soon, as I don't think it's possible to get cuter.
Sounds like you guys had an adventurous weekend; my favorite kind!
I KNEW you guys would be at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass! I had a friend from WA come down and go with some of her friends. I would have made more of an effort to go myself if I hadn't signed up to watch 2 more kids in addition to my own later on Saturday. Plus Superman works weekends. Sounds like it was awesome.
Also, re: your DIY articles, I request DIY baby carriers/slings/wraps/etc.. Thanks. =)
Emily (Hambone): None of us had ever heard of Todd Snider (which is crazy because he had the biggest audience of anyone we saw that day), and he was hilarious. Great storyteller, great songwriter, a great example to dirty hippies everywhere, but then you already knew that, didn't you?
Beck: Baby carriers/slings/wraps/etc. are already on my list! Lots of baby-related stuff, actually, so stay tuned. (And if you have any DIY tips to share, email me!)
if your child gets any cuter my heart will actually explode, and i dont have insurance.
man though - he's a peach for real. nice work parents! :)
Sorry we missed you when we were out west - we had a great time at Lyle Lovett on Friday at the HSBF, I couldn't believe the crowd though, holy... wow.... SF's a great city. Maybe we'll catch you the next time around?
J
OMG, WOMBAT IS SO CUTE!!!
I haven't been here in a while, busy being a new mommy myself. I used to keep up quite regularly as you were about a month ahead of me, we shared an early love of maternity pants. Anyway, Little Man is growing like a weed and so painfully cute, congrats on everything!
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