life in the fast lane

I have no idea what day it is and I am going to bed wearier than I can remember in years...it's been a long time since I took care of three little kids yet the non-stopness of it is coming back to me all too easily. Butter needs to be spread in a certain way, just the right pink shoes cannot be found and it is absolutely time to leave for school, and from the back seat of the car, "HENRY! STOP TOUCHING ME!!!!" I've also been reminded of the general unfairness of things on a regular basis.

No blue skies today... just clouds but still the sky reminds me that I'm not at home. The clouds spread across the sky and then congregate over the mountains where they are pleased to look like a picture postcard. There is a breeze bringing an aroma of lavender (which grows in great wild bunches around the bases of the light poles at the grocery store) and scents of I don't know what-all but it is without a doubt, sweet and tempting.

lemon trees and lavender

Are there blog police who snoop around to find out how often you are posting on your blog? I'm guessing not and it's a good thing, too.

So guess what. I'm in California! For a week! With three small children under the age of 9! While their mother and father are far, far away across the ocean! No worries, only 4 more days to go and besides, I'm in California! It is kind of the land of exclamation points, I mean, the weather and the friendly people and the roses and poppies and the lavender that leans waaaay over as you walk down the street just in case you didn't notice it as you rounded the corner. And get this, there are lemons ripening on a tree outside my sister's kitchen window. I'm pretty sure she didn't put them up there with twist ties to impress me.

The air here is shiny and calm and full of color and light. I'm sure if my life were really here, my job and my social commitments and all the rest, I wouldn't feel this faint sense of being drunk as I wander the streets, my 5-year-old niece's hand pushed firmly into mine. As it is, possibility seems to lurk in the way-up-there fronds of a palm tree, in the impossibly blue expanse of the sky, even in the smile wrinkles of a Chinese woman's face as she points us in the right direction, looking for all the world as if we just truly made her day by asking her the way to First Street.

Checking out my last post, the one where I discuss my personal attributes. Two paragraphs about character and four about domestic talents. I may need to reconsider my presentation.