Locomotion

Through A's efforts entirely, Birdie has grown accustomed to biking in the chariot (trailer attached to his bike). I have come through a fog of cluelessness and come to realize that this city is brimming with bicycles and thus, I intend to be a part of it. On weekends, at this point, the three of us have been heading down from our home via bike lanes to False Creek. The bike lanes are streets in the city that have been designated as bike lanes therefore, vehicles are permitted but do not have the entitlements/preferences to drive like the bicycles do. It's sheer brilliance. Yesterday, some areas of the bike streets were clogged since there were so many bikes. Granted, it was a true sunny, summer day out.

Often Birdie calls out, "Mamma, eh-ah-you (where are you)?" It's more a hide-and-seek game than the fact that I'm that far behind, really.

We've ended up at playgrounds peppered along the route or recently, at the beach at Stanley park just beyond the Burrard Bridge. What a win - bike, often sans cars, beauty, and beach! Add to that a wee picnic and we're pretty much cured of any travel abroad. This new (but old) king of locomoting is pretty great.

I had a post up about Palm Springs... I deleted it out of frustration. I've come to acknowledge, again, that life isn't like it used to be. I'm not ticked about it anymore. I felt the only authentic thing to do was to delete the blog and reevaluate.

So, between 60 and 65% of the time A, Birdie and I were in Palm Springs, we had a great time. For those of you that know me, that's a poor passing grade. That said, I give us 100% for effort and 110% for traveling the entire day yesterday (delays and all) like we are pros. Birdie fared very well yesterday. In conjunction, I expected it to all go to hell at any minute. That balanced itself out very nicely in the end.

Okay, so I've been authentic now and it feels... better.

PS was a good choice for our place in life - no need to make any big decisions, hot, wonderful hotel and pool and relatively inexpensive. Culturally, no shockers, but amusing of course. The economic downturn is palpable, maybe making people seemingly more eccentric. Speculating, of course.

Birdie liked her Dora swimmer diapers since everytime she put one on she would dance around and sing "Gaya gaya gaya". I guess she knew that special diapers meant that it was poolside time. She doesn't even watch Dora - I really don't know how that all came to be. She also likes cones, which we made a journey for on a daily basis - across the street.

I made some attempts to run in the heat and I'll say I made it. I locomoted through some really beautiful homes, landscaped in desert cacti, rocks and palms, of course. We found a wonderful restaurant nearby that was California vegan called Native Foods. This, too, was a highlight since we ate heavenly food in the nearest possible location away from the hotel.

For future reference:

- I will travel again,
- I will travel realistically,
- I will let myself off the hook
- I recognize that this stage of parenthood and my limited autonomy will not always be as it is now
- I like A because he is more compassionate than I
- I like Birdie because she forgives my grrr