Hibernation

I suppose January was a pretty low key month... or at least I wasn't toting my camera around so I don't have much to show for it. After the holidays, I usually feel like hibernating and making my way through the pile of books I received for Christmas and just not really doing anything. So, I tried to keep January pretty unplanned to allow time for a lot of play dates and visits with friends. I spent a Saturday morning drinking tea and holding a friend's new baby. Grace and I stocked up on books and movies at the library while Steve was out of town. We worked hard at potty training (going pretty well!). We hit Taco Tuesday at Beach Chalet with the other fellows and families. We had a game night with some friends while the kids ran circles non-stop. We caught up with friends that live close but we never see. Steve and I saw a couple of good movies and I read several good books. Unfortunately, I also spent a lot of evenings working - it's going to be like that till we hit our huge milestones in April and May. All in all, though, it was a good month.

The last four places we've lived (Bethesda, San Diego, Boston and now San Francisco) have all been likely temporary and one or both of us was a student so we feel like we need to really maximize our free time with site-seeing and exploring or just getting out of the routine of working or studying. But, I'm realizing that when we're always doing and going, we don't have time to be spontaneous. This last month we've had time for last minute visits to the playground with the neighbors, blowing bubbles, riding bikes, drawing with sidewalk chalk or just spending a few hours doing nothing but being together. When we take time to just be, we feel rooted in our community. We have made it to the year/year-and-a-half mark in San Francisco, which we have found is the point where we start to really feel like we have a community.

Our future in San Francisco is uncertain. We might be here for the long haul (the original plan) or we might be moving next year or. . . who knows anymore. Either way, we have a bucket list of SF and California things to do and see. But, I'm realizing that I need to make sure there is plenty of doing nothing on that list as well.