blargh

i realized too late that the glass i just took a large swig of water from was housing my daughter's newly lost tooth.

It's not the first thing I think about when I think about Christmas, but we took a really lovely walk on Ocean Beach today before getting down to business on the ham and turkey.

I will take a few days of from blogging, to eat, drink and be merry with the family. I wish everyone out there a very merry christmas and a happy new year!!

Love
Cecilia

You know you're in Sf when....

.... you turn on to a one way street in your car and nearly hit a guy on a mountain bike playing the ukulele.

It's a sign of times when I get a Christmas card from the realtor who leased our house to us more than two years ago.

Gym locker room conversation

Two women in their later middles ages:
- So he needs more play-dates.
- I can imagine.
- He's not been around he's peers very much.
- That should be good for him.
- He's used to snatch things, and is not really behaving.
- That would all change with more interaction. Like my Randy. He's very good.

How sweet. They are talking about their grandchildren.

- Oh, Randy is good.
- Maybe we should swap.

???Swap kids???

- He could spend a few days with me, he will learn the ropes.
- That's not a bad idea.
- I trained Buster extensively. After that our home was changed. You have to keep him on the leash at all times at first, though.

Oh. They had me fooled there for a minute.
Dogs. Of course.

The Burberry terror of San Francisco

While the climate conference is going strong in Copenhagen, the "I don't give a f***" attitude is alive and well in the wealthy and affluent Pacific Heights area of San Francisco when a middle aged lady is making phone calls from her car in a parking lot, while the engine is running. When I return 15 minutes later, she's still there, on her IPhone, engine running, not a care in the world.
I shoot her an angry look so she rolls down her window,.
- Is there a problem?
- Well, yes, actually, why don't you turn your engine off?
- Why? Does it bother you?
- Yes. It does, actually.
She shakes her head and returns to her phone call.
Engine still running.

And just like that, I have become one of those people who butt my nose in, but I don't care.

The rain brings out the worst in all of us, but-

I take Holly to her ballet lesson, which is located right by the theatre and all the pre-show restaurants. It can get quite busy around there. To drop her off we use a sheltered drive-way exclusive to the school so students don't have to look for parking. Tonight it is raining and a Land Rover is blocking the drive way. I wait on the street, indicating to drive in. Nothing is happening.
I carefully tap my horn.
Nothing happens. Eventually, someone leaves the car and walks towards the theatre. Nothing else happens. I tap the horn again.
Another woman, all Burberry scarf-ed up so not to ruin her nicely done up hair, comes out and checks something in the boot. Goes back in the car. Still nothing.
Since I am blocking the lane for cars behind me, there is more beeping now. The woman comes back out, checks the boot again, paying no attention to anything else, and I honk again. She turns around and cries out: Jesus, Jesus, don't be so impatient.
Other cars are honking.
A skater guy walks past, looks through my window and shouts:
- Shut up, bi***!
To me.

Burberry woman walks off, umbrella and hand bag in hand and finally the car drives off.
So I'm impatient. We need to get to our ballet class on time (the ballet class that eventually, I might add, will present their students to the very theatre she is going to visit tonight) and they are illegally blocking a drive way, but still. If it hadn't been raining, if I hadn't had a cold, if I hadn't been home taking care of my sick 2 year old recovering from his cold for the last three days and if my daughter wasn't about to get late for her lesson, I might have been less anxious to get to where I needed, I might have given Burberry woman all the time in the world. Absolutley.

But in which parallel universe is it OK for grungy skater guys to but their noses in where it doesn't belong, mouthing of rudeness and general filth to women in cars?
During the cold rainy season, it is easy to fall out of love with this city.

Healtcare in this country is fantastic....

If your child is sick outside of office hours, you call the pediatric after hours service, and before you get to talk to a nurse you pay $2.50 which will be charged on your credit card. So you better not call in an emergency as this takes time, and you better make sure you have a credit card.
Not everyone does....

Interim

I haven't much time to blog right now, nor does anything exciting happen in my life.
I'll be back soon, though.
Meanwhile, enjoy:

Page turner

I have just finished reading Sarah Water's Booker nomination The Little Stranger. Coming from the school of the Bronte sisters, I do have a soft spot for a good gothic novel and this one lived up to all expectations, it's probably the best novel I have read this year.
Please, please, if you have read it, email me - let me know if you came to the same conclusion as I did towards the end of the book!!! I need to know.

Dog days.

Isn't it funny that we are experts on other people's kids and when it comes to passing judgement, we do so, loudly, visibly and without the slightest trace of empathy.
Finn has hit the terrible 2's with a crash and it is making my life pure hell. (Sure, I had it easy first time around, honestly - it was a breeze - so I guess it's my turn to feel the force of loud tantrums.)

The thing with tantrum's are, they don't usually make any sense, they have usually been set off by something completely irrational, there is no obvious reason for why they're throwing them - they simply do it to p**s us off - and if you've decided to be one of those parents who do not give in to every whim and fancy because you want to hold on to the very last crumb of dignity you might have, there is usually nothing you can do to make them go away (and by being that parent, you still loose the last crumb of dignity so it's a loose-loose situation anyway).

But whilst trying to deal with a tantrum in public is bad enough, what makes it even worse is that everyone around you will look at you as something the cat dragged around before leaving it to rot. They look at you with pity and scorn and it's written all over their faces: YOU'RE A BAD MOTHER.
In case you didn't already know it.

So as the kids eat their cheesy pasta at Pasta Pomodoro's, I nurse a glass of white wine since it is after 5 o'clock and I have had a dog of a day with my beloved 2-year old. I have tried to get him to open his mouth at the dentist whilst he's been kicking and screaming on the floor, making the nurse look at him and say: Really, buddy? Is that how we behave? and the turning to me: Why didn't you schedule a morning appointment? They're usually more co-operative then. (Spell it out: YOU'RE A BAD MOTHER!)
- I honestly don't think it would have mattered, I say, sitting in the dentist's chair with a bib around my neck to show my son how fun it might be to wear it while he is screaming NO! and throwing a toothbrush on the floor.
The dentist comes in and says:
- Maybe for his next appointment, you could leave a note at the reception that he has a short attention span, so I know.
She has already pointed out that it is wrong to let him go to sleep with a bottle, to use the wrong kind of tooth-paste, or no tooth-paste at all and that I shouldn't let him suck on his fingers (which he doesn't, but she's throwing it in there for good measure, just in case - YOU'RE A BAD MOTHER!)
- I did! I say. I checked every bloody box on his chart that read "anxious", "stubborn", "un-cooperative", "suspicious" and "highly strung".
Don't you read the bloody chart, I want to say (YOU'RE A BAD PEDIATRIC DENTIST) but instead I un-clip my bib and scoop up my son.
- This is enough for one day. We might be back in 6 months time.

So as I nurse my glass of wine and try to avoid getting my hand run over by a Duplo fire-truck, the whole place is enjoying the sound of loud, high-pitched shrieks from the 2 year old girl at the table next to us. She screams as soon as someone comes near her. She screams when her sister looks at her, when her mother tries to feed her and when the waiter brings her ice-cream. Her parent's try, very gently to tell her that "we need to use our quiet voice in here, other people might want to eat in silence", and all around them are other parents, all looking at them in shock-horror, raising their eye-brows and shaking their heads. As I meet the other mother's exhausted looking eyes I give her a reassuring smile, pointing at Finn and mouthing: "Him too. Join the club!"
She returns my smile.
So now we know there are at least two of us out there.
It's us against the rest of the world.