Finding Balance in San Francisco

To fall back or not to fall back? Is it even a question?

Daylight Savings Time ends Sunday, November 2, and we can all "fall back" into bed for another hour of sleep if we want.  Well... those of us without kids may be able to do that, anyway.  I'm sure my own kids won't recognize the legitimacy of Daylight Savings Time.

Actually, my kids are in decent company on that score.  Many people intensely dislike Daylight Saving Time, and it's been fraught with controversy since its inception.

The history (and more history here) of Daylight Savings Time is kind of interesting... who knew that it's the brainchild of our own Benjamin Franklin and that they used to change the clocks 8 times a year? 

Ol' Benjie said that “if people adjusted their schedules to earlier in the day during summer months, when day length is longest, an immense sum of tallow and wax could be saved by the ‘economy of using sunshine rather than candles.’” A couple-a Scientists from the University of California, Santa Barbara turned Wall Street authors recently came out against Daylight Savings Time, arguing that Mr. Franklin was wrong, and that DST actually leads to an increase in residential electricity demand (in Indiana, anyway).  So much for Franklin's wax theory.

According to Webexhibits.org, depite all the grumblings about DST, most of the world (except for countries around the Equator) has implemented DST at one point or another.  Today, approximately 70 countries utilize Daylight Saving Time in at least a portion of the country. Japan, India, and China are the only major industrialized countries that do not observe some form of daylight saving.

Another interesting tidbit from Webexhibits: mort than 70 percent of Americans rise before 7:00 a.m.  Is that really true?

Also, pedestrians beware!  Recent research indicates that pedestrian fatalities from cars soar at 6:00 p.m. during the weeks after clocks are set back in the fall. Walkers are three times as likely to be hit and killed by cars right after the switch than in the month before DST ends. This research corroborates a 2001 study by researchers at the University of Michigan, which found that 65 pedestrians were killed by car crashes in the week before DST ended, and 227 pedestrians were killed in the week following the end of DST.

Good thing Halloween is this week.

Quinn's goal

Being a mother is sometimes lovely, sometimes exhausting. On Saturday I got a little of both.

I want Quinn to be active and exposed to athletics, so I'm willing to put in the effort to get him to soccer... but sometimes it can feel like it tests my limits, especially with Jordan in tow and if it's an early game. My husband often has to work weekends, so I'm pretty much on my own for soccer practice and games.

I knew all of this when I signed him up, but the knowledge that I willingly did this to myself doesn't keep the silent grumbling from running through my head come Saturday morn.

Sure enough, at what felt like sunrise on Saturday I sleepily got the boys up, fed, Quinn into his soccer gear and Jordan dressed, packed water and snacks, buckled them into their carseats, fought traffic over to the fields, finally found parking, and lugged the boys and our stuff across a busy street then down a bunch of stairs and through some very muddy fields until we found Quinn's team.

Just getting ourselves there was exhausting enough (always is). This was going to be one of those days that tested my patience.

Then while trying to keep one eye on Quinn's game I was simultaneously trying to keep the other eye on my 2 year old, Jordan, who wasn't making things easy for me. For one, he kept taking his shoes and socks off, running away and throwing them onto various soccer fields. At one point, Jordan demanded my shoes and after I relented he proceeded to unsteadily walk in them straight over to the ubiquitous mud.

Quinn was subbing in and out of the 2 games his team had going on, and I was really trying to watch and cheer him on, but I was also very much dealing with his brother. This same, relatively frenetic drill with Jordan marching to the beat of his own drummer at Quinn's soccer has been going on since soccer started in September... and well beyond that, to other soccer teams Quinn's been on in the past.

So I caught bits and pieces of the games. The kids in this division are only 4 and 5 years old, so they don't even keep score... and in some ways it always feels like I'm not going to miss too much anyway. At one point, I saw Quinn and his friend Luke run right off the field after some pigeons, thus taking 2/3 of Quinn's team out of play until the ref. caught Quinn and Luke and herded them back onto the playing field.

Then, in the last couple minutes of the game, it was as if the heavens opened up and sunlight shone a spotlight into our lives.

Quinn got the ball by the other team's goal. Parents on the sidelines were unusually attentive to the game at that particular moment for whatever reason. All the stars seemed to line up- even Jordan was really watching to the action on the field right then.

I heard myself yell

    "Go Quinn!! Kick it to the goal!"

and then Jordan looked up and me, caught my excitement and yelled enthusiastically

    "Get it in the goal, Quinn!"

Before I knew it, other parents were cheering and yelling for the Mighty Quinn, and he was dribbling the soccer ball all the way down the field. Other players were running after Quinn and behind him, but he was running fast and able to stay ahead of them.

I kept cheering louder and louder, other parents kept rooting for my little man too, and the excitement built and built. By the time Quinn was in front of the goal, Jordan was absolutely jumping up and down, screaming for Quinn.

Then, with one decisive kick, Quinn scored.

In a slow-motion type moment, he turned his shining, smiling, delighted face around, looked at me and yelled

    "Mommy!! I did it!!"

and, in that one lovely, blissful moment, Quinn managed to magically erase all of my grumbling and reward me in spades for my efforts.

I would have been the first to hug him, but Jordan was already several steps ahead of me. He practically tackled Quinn with a hug as he was laughing and cheering and high-fiving his older brother.

And in some ways, that was the sweetest moment of all.

Be on the right side of history- Vote No on Proposition 8

Well, it's official... I just voted.

I'm a huge fan of absentee voting for a couple reasons: (1) I don't have to worry about voting at an inconvenient time; and (2) I'm not in danger of being swayed by the torrent of political advertising that happens in the final few weeks. 

I was recently sent a funny video that actually had my name included in it, lampooning people who wind up missing their opportunity to vote on election day.  I'm proud to say that if the election is indeed lost by one vote, that vote won't be mine.

Of the Propositions on the California ballot this time, none is more heated than Proposition 8.  I just got an email from Gavin Newsom, directing me to the noonprop8 website in the hopes that little old me could do something to defeat Proposition 8.

I've written about same sex marriage twice already this year, and I've made it no secret that I support marriage rights for same sex couples.  So I figured what the heck- third time's a charm, right?

If Proposition 8 passes, there would be a constitutional amendment to the California Constitution, limiting marriage to heterosexual couples and taking the right to marry away the from gay couples.  In May 2008, the California Supreme Court struck down a law banning gay marriage, making California the second state (behind Massachusetts) to allow gay and lesbian weddings. The court likened the law to bias in gender and racial discrimination. Those supporting Proposition 8 are trying to undo that progress.

I don't see any reason to vote for Proposition 8- discriminating against same sex couples wouldn't keep people from being gay- it would just create unnecessary misery.

California has already created domestic partnerships for gay couples that grant them all or virtually all of the rights and benefits of marriage under state law (federal law being, of course, separate).  Forcing gay couples to call each other "domestic partners" rather than spouses smacks of 'separate but equal.' 

In other words, a rose by any other name does not smell as sweet in this case.  Please vote, and when you do, vote NO on Proposition 8.

The never-ending birthday

Our little man Quinn has really squeezed the most out of his 4th birthday.

He started getting presents last week

Then we had a nice party for him Sunday

and his actual birthday was yesterday, for which he received a bunch more presents... including 3 whole sets of Star Wars action figures from when Ryan was a boy

the boys were particularly amazed and delighted that Darth Vader was in the set

Knowing that Darth Vader is such an important figure in our lives these days, I picked up 2 cheap costumes at Walgreens that the boys wound up loving. As it turns out, Batman is on par with Darth. Black is.... well, the new black.

and then today was the finale... Quinn's "birthday walk" at school. They have a nice little ritual where the birthday kid holds the earth while the teacher talks about his baby pictures.  Then the kid and makes as many trips around the sun as s/he is old.

as an added surprise, my parents came (the little Mighty was delighted)

After the trips around the sun, Quinn blew out the candle in the middle (the "sun") and everyone sang happy birthday. I made some organic pound cake, which we'd cut up into tiny slices for each kid (and inserted into environmentally friendly cups).  Quinn then went around and served each kid some cake

I love how green Quinn's school is... at the celebration's end he went around with the compost pail, and all the pre-schoolers unquestioningly put their biodegradable stuff into the compost pail. Very San Francisco-esque.

and now... Quinn's officially 4.  Ahhhh.

To my knight in shining armor

4 years ago today, my darling son Quinn was born. I am already so proud of him and who he's becoming. To borrow a phrase from his pediatrician, he's "an affable, good kid."

We had a 4th birthday party here at our apartment for him yesterday, and he positively sparkled.

He was nice to everybody and he seemed to really glow with all of the attention.

We got a jumpy castle: a no-brainer home-run for 4 year old birthday parties.  One of the best parts about jumpy castles is that it's fun for all ages- I had a great time jumping, too, and so did my mom!

Jordan and Quinn seemed to both be in their element, and are already wing-men to each other in a big way. We're in a huge Star Wars phase right now (thus the light saber and Jordan's Darth Vader t-shirt)

-the light saber is currently a ubiquitous presence in our lives

and as we all know, Halloween is just right around the corner. 

Quinn made so many wardrobe changes during his party yesterday that he might as well have been on the red carpet.  After cycling through capes and astronaut costumes, beads and hats, he landed back with his current favorite - the knight in shining armor getup he's going to wear for Halloween

I love my little Quinn so much, my heart runneth over.  Happy birthday, Mighty Quinn.