I have a great visit with the family we used to live with in Richmond. Somehow Derek and Tara Jean make suburbia a hip choice. As artists, they are being counter culture to their counter culture. Dave Sims and Rene Joshi pull this off too in their sweet little Winnipeg home. Tara Jean can openly celebrate a holiday in a motorhome and TOTALLY get away with it. Rene can do giant paintings of festive cheese balls. How? I am not that strong. I see a white picket fence and my sense of self starts to shrink to the size of a Timbit.
Tara Jean’s little boy Ozzy reaches his chubby toddler arms up and gives me a big hug. I am so surprised, a little worried I had been away too long for him to really remember me. When I pick him up he pats my cheeks lovingly like I am a kitten and then he kisses me and kisses me and kisses me, then buries his face in my neck a little shy that he just did that, then sits up straight and beams at me with joy again. Oh man. My heart just bursts. Such a dear little fellow. As I drive home I fantasize about mail order sperm and possible gay male friends who’d like to be a father, or handsome donors who are feeling charitable…(that fantasy lasts at least three blocks) Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a son? I can still do it. Sure I can. I’m a clockwork Crossfit goddess of fertility. By the time I cross the Knight street bridge I am in full “Nahhhhh…”
We have brought little Violet back to our place for her first friend sleepover EVER. I am happy to report she’s very brave and hasn’t asked to go back home once. I am a little startled that I can pull together the following playlist:
Gangnam Style, What does the Fox Say, Baby, Big and Chunky, Wind it Up, Moves like Jagger and Roar. But it makes for a rocking pajama dance party for those between the ages of 5-44.
I put them to bed and then fold the laundry. Imagine the luxury of just being a Mom all day? Some of those women exist out there. Wow. What would I do if I didn’t solely have to pay the bills? I would volunteer to teach drama at the school, I would join the PAC, I would maybe find a progressive new church and teach sunday school, I would hold unwanted babies at the hospital, I would read to the elderly, I would do all those things that all those mothers currently do so that I can have the luxury of time to be me. 
