I’m on my morning walk, I can tell the school year has started -lots of kids headed to school – some on their own, most on e-bikes a few on regular bikes. It’s a relatively brisk morning, 53° and of course most of the boys are in T-shirt and shorts. Just like when my son was in late elementary and middle school! I passed a group of girls I assume are sisters, probably 6, 8 and 9, all with blond messy bed heads, backpacks haphazardly slung over their shoulders looking half-asleep headed down the street to Tam Valley, the local elementary school, where I started to school almost 50 years ago! SUVs, minivans and a few parents on e-bikes with younger kids in seats on the back. I’m out earlier than the last few days when I saw parents coming back with empty bikes or in pairs chatting after drop off, yesterday I saw the crossing guard heading home after his shift.
I just realized that a lot of the books I’ve been reading or listening to have had to do with World War II, and pretty much all about women involved in the war effort. I don’t know if there’s just more of those books around or that it’s a topic I’m attracted to. The other thing that’s been attracting my attention are books having to do with living in France – eating, loving, soaking up the culture. Guess it’s part of my adventure phase. Today I pushed myself and took the ferry over to San Francisco, which wasn’t a challenge for me, but I went to a rhythm and dance class at Yerba Buena gardens. I haven’t been to a dance class in a long time and this one was very public because it was out in the middle of the gardens in the middle of the day and anybody could walk by or look out a window and watch. Most likely nobody would recognize me, and almost all of the other participants were women, I would say about half in their 30s or early 40s and the rest my age and older. It felt so good to move my body, the instructor was so enthusiastic and I found myself smiling and laughing the whole time even as I sweated and I’m sure looked ridiculous trying to follow the moves! But it felt really good to do it and I would definitely like to start taking some kind of fun dance class.
