Happy Is - Diving In

Happy is kicking serious ass in her History Class! by doing a photo shoot dressed as a girl from the 1940's who becomes a nurse during WWII. Happy has also coerced her dad to dress in period costume and appear in said photo shoot as a soldier stationed in Pearl Harbor circa 1941.

For me, happy is having a babydaddy who is not only willing to do this for his daughter, but who also happens to be a fantastic history buff. He gobbles up big books of it...knows dates and shit....timelines by heart.

Happy is doing the extra credit, even. Inviting her classmate named Tess (isn't that a sweet name?) along for the photo shoot. Also providing her with a costume Happy herself put together. Location: Camp San Luis where they have wartime planes and other military crap.

And again for me, besides the momming of it all...I get to take the pictures! How much fun is that going to be?!? A month of Happy Tuesdays, let me tell you. We get to be a part of history...all black & white con todo gray areas. As I am plotting on making this an anti-war experience for my little girl....Think I can do it? Can it even be done? Seriously, I'm a little worried about glorifying war, here. And we can't have that. War sucks.

Random Deliciousness

My mom knows how to cook white people food, too. A potroast to die for. She was sitting at the table telling me, "Oh mija, come and eat....this is Sooo good, mmmmm! even if I do say so myself."

It used to be a cathouse but nobody lives here anymore

I built this a long time ago from scrap lumber. It was for Happy and one of her kittens only she didn't really like it so it ended up outside. I really do love arches. And a good pivotal jigsaw...See those scratch marks? Zoe the pearliest dog did that. But only because Pop-pops put her tennis ball in there.

Back In The Saddle and/or Don't Fence Me In

Gimme land lotsa land and the sunny skies above...I love sunny California! Nipomo or Nipas (as the cholos say) in particular. I think it's the prettiest little town wherein my family and I could ever live. For real, aye.

Cheeky Pop-Pops & the streets of San Francisco

San Francisco takes a lot navigationally. And that is an understatement.
So we're @ that stage where we can only hope that we will soon learn our way around. It's going to take something better than the dome light & mapquest....A GPS system would have been so futuristically bitchen. Only we rented the economy car. I think it cost more to park it overnight ($33!) than to rent it. The hotel was fun, especially the 16 trips on the elevator. G.'s audition went very well, especially the first song, so he said. G. also said the second song coulda went better but it sounded a lot smoother than the guy who went before him. Which is about as competitive as it gets around here. Anyway I look @ it, my kid's a success. Already.

Here's G. Lookin' All Citified

When we stopped at the Embarcadero I had a bi-polar experience. And Happy Earthday to you, too.

I saw the happiest homeless guy I've ever seen in my life! He was wrapped in a baby blue blanket, sitting Indian style, smiling to beat the band. He just seemed so happy, looking up at somebody and talking (only nobody was there). His whole being was exuberantly childlike & he was rocking really fast, back and forth, full of some crazy ass glee. Then the light turned green and we got a few blocks further down. This poor guy had a sign that said he wanted to get a job and could you please help him out. He looked so uncomfortable and ashamed, like he wished he was anyplace but there. His head was down and his face looked hot & sweaty even though it was San Francisco cold and windy. It was painful to watch. And in a frustratingly-futile-symbolic way, I wanted to give him some money only he was two cars away and the light wasn't red anymore.

Tonite I will lay my head down in San Francisco

We are headed up North for G. to toot his horn and carve himself out a place in San Francisco State's music department. He's already been accepted, much to his relief and my I knew he would. He auditioned for the Conservatory (we went up there a month ago, pre-camera losing/getting back which made the losing part so jacked because that pic of my Poppity was in there!!) and while they don't even Know what they are missing out on ( he got a dratted rejection letter), it's SFU's turn to get to know my G. Who, as a matter of fact called me on his lunch break to tell me he Won Nipomo High School's $500 arts scholarship! We'll get him there, come hell or high water. I have been looking for hotels just today because I am a fly by the seat of my pants kinda girl....and I do believe we will be staying at the Hotel Milan....they had the funnest reviews and it seems like it will be the quietest place for us to get a good night's sleep so G. can be nice and fresh for his musicality manana. I must say I really enjoyed reading hotel reviews and/or I am easily amused today. I liked the ones that said the hotel was in a "ruff neighborhood, the wife and I were scared to go out at night." Hee heee. Scaredy cats. I stayed at an old army barracks in SF, Fort Mason turned into a youth hostel, when I was in high school. It was such a good experience that I encourage G. to do groovy stuff like that all the time. Get on the train. Destination: Hot Springs Ark. or even just a local Pismo Beach. He's a good traveler....and I'm going to keep on urging him to go. Even though I'm scared of something happening to him. Even though we live in a world where innocent students get mowed down in their classrooms. I cannot let the mentally ill dictate where my son can and cannot go. So today I am going with him...on a trip he will soon be making alone....San Francisco, here we come!

You've been a good ole wagon, Daddy but ya done broke down.

Did you know this famous picture was taken in Nipomo? Well it was. By Dorothea Lange. A huge version of it hangs at our library and there's even an elementary school up on the mesa named after Ms. Lange. I've seen this picture a gazillion times. Only the other day, it hit me like a ton of bricks. She was a migrant farm worker w/7 kids and a husband dead of tuberculosis. Nobody knows what happened to her after this picture was taken. I used to feel really bad when I looked at this picture. In a detached historical kinda way. Upon closer inspection, I got all weepy and shit. I fully recognized that look on her face. That look of "What the fuck am I gonna do now???" because it's all up to her. So I looked a little closer. At her baby's full and rounded cheek. At her older children's sweet hairline with their sturdy, clean necks.
I think I know what happened to her. I like to think she went on to kick some ass.

Alive & Kicking!

While I haven't gotten to the point where I am fulfilling any of my busking fantasies....mi vida loca has been fallin to pieces. The First to fall was the computer, then the washing machine, the cheap-ass DVD player joined the dump pile, then in an amazing sequence of breakage, the front of our Jalopolicious Blazer got smashed & is non-operable. Oh, it was just a little accident and nobody got hurt except for our dear old workhorse with the droopy headliner and the passenger door that won't open from the inside. A goner. Oh well, it had a good life.... Pop-pops really digs public transportation, namely: the bus, the Bus, the BUS the Bus the Bus! We got a new washer and now the damn dryer won't get hot. At all. The jogger stroller has a flat. Right in the front. G. lost my camera in Sacramento at the Queer Youth thinger he went to. He became an activist. And a vocally gay student at his highschool. And the president of the GSA (gay straight alliance) club. But I don't want that getting lumped into things that are breaking down 'round here. The opposite is true. This is what fixes me: my son G. came out w/calm bravery and forthrightness. He is like a shiney new star going all the way to our state's capitol, staying in a youth hostel. Standing up so early for what he is and what he believes in. G. and his little sister and brother are what keeps me out of complete Loserville. Where I really missed my camera the most. I missed it something awful. Oh, it was a Good thing I put a little piece of blue masking tape on the bottom w/G,'s name and number....So yesterday, I got it back. I can take all the pictures I want. Hah! What do you think about that?? And I can hang the clothes out on the line I strung from tree to tree. And anyways, I'm back. And I missed you all very much. I hadn't realized how much this here blog is a part of my swing of things.

And I feels like swangin'!