Past and future

I have a friend coming over tomorrow afternoon to take an assortment of art supplies that I've collected over the years to the school where she works, for the teachers to use. In the course of this I've been sorting through piles of paper, some of which are decorative art papers, and some are three-ring binders, and other sorts of things. I've found some of my juvenalia (oh, the horror!). My stories were brilliant, of course, when I wrote them. The poetry flowed off one's tongue. Sheer genius, I tell you. Now...I have carefully stowed them away in my office closet, the one that Mac is trying very hard to open (but not succeeding). I hope he doesn't sense there is a monster inside he needs to conquer.

However, the more interesting part of the day was when Chaz's goddaughter-equivalent Ruth and her husband Dennis came by for lunch. Ruth has, in the last few months, received her doctorate in a branch of marine biology that I don't begin to understand, gotten married, and moved to Santa Cruz. (Dennis received his Ph.D. last year and is here on a post-doc.) Ruth is also pregnant with her first child, and is many thousands of miles away from her family. Even though I have no children of my own, I've certainly taken care of babies, and I have many friends who have children, so I'm going to have a baby shower for Ruth. I'll be inviting many of you who are local who have kids, because I'd love it if you could come give some sage advice. Also, if you have baby things you no longer need and haven't found a home for yet....

In other news, Chaz now has a bike helmet and lock, and has ridden through the neighborhood with the helmet on and pronounced it good. (He wouldn't let me take a picture of him with his helmet on, though it looks very good.) This is going to open up a lot of new places for him.