The day after I got back from Harbin, I picked up my Little Sister at her granny’s church and we went to the beach. She ran me all over the sand, up and down, in the water, out of the water. Marveled at everything; the seaweed, “How come it’s like that? Yuck!” asked a million unanswerable questions, and was very brave, I thought, in trusting big white strange me for a few hours.

She held my hand tight when the waves came crashing in (Alameda Beach is like a bathtub compared to Ocean Beach,) and cried, “Why do the ocean want to pull me in?” as the sand sucked under her toes. Every little thing was a wonder to her.

I bought her a happy meal—I know, I know, next time I will pack something healthier—and we went to a pet store and looked at every fish, turtle, gecko, hamster, bird and guinea pig in the place. Brought her home exclaiming, “We had so much fun!”

Much easier for me to hang with a 7 year old rather than a 14-year-old who keeps texting boys she met on the bus yesterday while I’m trying to have a quality date with her.

I’m writing this as C plays piano downstairs. He’s working on some new compositions. The last week has been packed; yesterday we went to Ikea and bought furniture (including rug) for the whole guest room—bed/futon. Cushions, table, mirror. We worked efficiently as a team and got in and out of that cavernous suckhole of a mart in record time. It was kind of mind-boggling. Got everything loaded into the back of C’s car and drove off down the freeway with the trunk popping open and me twisting around in my seat eyeing all our loot anxiously to make sure it didn’t scatter all over 580.

Today I did the training to become a volunteer assistant at Impact Bay Area. S usual some of my resistance came up: “These will be long days! It will take time away from writing! I can’t handle all these details! It’s too hard!” I will be working some of the areas that are not, shall we say, my strongest suits: practical details. But I want to get better at that stuff. I already have leadership skills and teaching skills and group speaking skills. I need to get better at the physical world.

Speaking of which, tomorrow is Lisa’s wedding. I was honored to be asked to hold one of her chupah poles. Bring on the waterproof mascara!