A Visit

Yesterday when I went over to Jolly Woman's house to see Shmeen and Sa (and Jolly Woman herself), Shmeen took a break and we went to Laurel Hill park, a small park with a baseball field, a couple of basketball courts, and a bunch of climbing structures and swings.


Sa played on the structures and swings and Shmeen and I sat on the bench and talked. It was a very "mom" thing to do. It has literally been years since she and I have just hung out with each other. The last time we did was when I had gone to Long Beach for a Conference Committee meeting for the 2005 CASFAA Conference. I didn't notice this until late last night, but I suddenly realized why the visits when she's been up here with Shman and the kids feel kind of strange: We're always visiting at Jolly Woman's house, with our husbands and usually at least one of our moms. Not that it's bad that we're visiting with our spouses; we like each other's husbands and our husbands like each other. It just hasn't been just "she-and-I time."


After awhile Sara got bored playing with herself and insisted that we come and play on the structure with her. We slid on the slides and jumped up and down on the bridge, making it wiggle. Another family arrived, with a 16-month-old boy and a ukulele. The dad is learning how to play and plinked out "My Darling Clementine" and "Oh! Susannah." It was really charming.