Election Day

Take your kids and vote today. Teach them it matters. Remind them that no matter how bad the candidates and, in California, how corrupt the props, this is our chance to educate ourselves and have a say. If we do not step up our state, and our country, will be hijacked by angry people and corporate interests. Vote.

Meanwhile, down LCW way, there is an election today, too, for Student Council. Above is the picture of Theo that he put on his campaign poster. Something like 10 kids in second and third grade will be elected.

When Jonathan and I heard there would be student council races at school we inwardly groaned. Isn't this too young? They always turn into popularity contests, no one ever does anything, and it brings out the Tracy Flick in everyone. Save our sweet children a little bit longer.

But here is what I love: out of 88 kids in second and third grade, 38 of them ran for student council. They all designed posters and they all wrote speeches. Yesterday they all read/spoke them from a podium made of a cardboard box, with a real microphone.

There were rules. No negative campaigning, no promises you can't keep. Focus on what you can do, not what you can't. That means concrete ideas (Crazy Hat Day! Pajama Day! A Trip to Somewhere!)

If only real politicians had to follow those rules!

Theo wrote his speech himself, and at Jonathan's urging practiced it nearly nightly.

It was good.

It went like this:

Hi. I am Theo. I am running for Student Council and I was thinking it would be fun to go to Descanso Gardens to see the nature, the flowers, the trees, and the animals. I love LCW. Do you love LCW? I can't hear you. Do you love LCW?
If you have any ideas or concerns I will listen and I will bring them up in Student Council.
Vote for me. Thank you.

On election day I worked lunch and there was a palpable buzz. One boy was wearing a white button down and a red and blue striped tie. He looked like a real politician--third grade style. I felt a pang in my stomach. I hoped my boy would be OK. I did not want his heart to be broken, his ego damaged. OK, a little projection here. But I worried for him. I prayed his speech delivery would go smoothly.

When I drove up to get the boys yesterday the principal, who has trained all of us not to talk in line to any of the walkie-talkie clad herders, spotted my car and rushed up to me.

She stuck her head in my window.

"Theo had the whole school cheering," she said, giggling for joy.

"What?" I was disoriented.

"During his speech! He got the whole school cheering!"

Theo climbed in. I asked him how his speech went.

"Good," he said. That was it.

"Did you get the whole school cheering?"

"Yes."

He does not even know how cool that is.

I think I am just from a low self-esteem, uncool generation. I never could have done that in second grade. Not what any of them did.

I told Jonathan about Theo and he was so delighted he asked me to tell him the story over and over and over again. I should add here that my brilliant husband is a rousing speaker and does have some latent political ambitions. I think he felt pride in Theo's speech the way I felt when Theo got up on a surf board. A little "That is my boy! He got that from ME!!!!"

And there is no doubt about that.

At dinner, just like all the weary politicians across America, we toasted Theo for doing his very best in a tough field.

Now there is nothing to do but wait.

I will keep you posted as the votes come in! Polls close at three, Pacific time.

Stay tuned. You will hear it first here!

My Adrenaline Junkies!

On Monday we went to Disneyland for Benji's 5th Birthday.

We have made it our family tradition. When you turn 5, no party, just a fun trip to Anaheim. This was our second trip ever.

Last time Theo was 5, so Benji was only 2 1/2. We pushed Benji around in a stroller, and Theo skipped around bewitched. We headed to Toontown (the plasticky, cutesy park with no trees or flowers) and stayed there too long. Even "It's a Small World" was closed.

This time was different.

We never even made it to Toontown. And my boys were fearless. We started with the Pirates of the Caribbean. When the boat swoops down a mountain of water in the dark Benji whooped for joy. When we got off he wanted to do it again.

When we went in the Haunted Mansion, and the ghosts hitched a ride in our "doom" buggy Benji wanted to do that again.

In the afternoon, after Benji had picked about 16 rides, everyone else got to pick a few. I picked the Matterhorn, which I remembered as the best ride of my life when I went to Disneyland at 11. Benji was tall enough, but I still felt a little guilty strapping him into the bobsled. What if I left him with lifelong nightmares? But, if he was terrified, I would hold him, snuggle him, and we would proceed to Toontown and "It's a Small World."

Boy, was I wrong!

When the ride ended--after screaming by fluourescent crystals and hairy yetis and riding through water falls and whipping up and down--the boys jumped out of the bobsled, kicked up their heels and started dancing, and yelled, "Again! Again!" We rode again. Then, to get them off the Matterhorn, we lured them to the Run-Away Train--longer, wilder, swoopier.

They finished that one and danced out again.

I was startled. They are true adrenaline junkies. It alters them. Shifts their mood. Makes them want to dance. Like me.

Jonathan and I marveled.

Jonathan looked at me.

"That is not from my side of the family," he said.

A Dry Run

Here are the boys practicing for camping. They are curled up inside their fabric igloo, warn and cozy and, most importantly, inside.

We were supposed to go to the Channel Islands today, but the temperature dropped to high forties at night, low sixties in the daytime, winds, and rain. So we pushed our island adventure off for three more days. The day dawned wet and cold, but now, as the ferry would have been pulling up the pier at Scorpion Ranch on Santa Cruz Island, the air is clean, the sky is blue, and the breeze is spring sunshine. Gorgeous!

This is our transition trip. We have done endless car camping, and I long to do back packing with my boys. On the Channel Islands we will be a million miles away from civilization--in a world that feels like California before the white man--but we take a boat there, and only have to drag our stuff a half mile. That means we can still bring our big tent, our heavy sleeping bags and an unwieldy camp stove you wouldn't dare to take into the wilderness. There is water from a pump, and latrines for campers.

I have been reading the boys the Swiss Family Robinson, and a great book sent me by my sis in law, about a sailing trip around the world. Sometimes we read inside the igloo.

If the weather gets too rough out on the Channel Islands you can be stranded. Boats are cancelled if the waves are high or the currents too strong. The National Park service tells you to pack for an extra day, just in case that should that happen. The prospect of getting stuck out there only makes the trip more exciting!

Last time we went the island was lush like Ireland, and monarchs fluttered through the eucalyptus grove where we will be camping. We saw a whale and a bunch of midden sites. It will be too cold to swim, or kayak, but the ocean will be wild and beautiful. We also saw 25,000 dolphins on our last trip. Our boat got caught up in their migration. It was one of the most magical things I have ever seen. I pray we will see them again. But there is no way to predict, you can only hope. And if they come, those dolphins and their baby dolphins, leaping around the boat so the whole ocean is alive and we humans are NOTHING, and you can imagine the ocean before we harvested everything to dangerously low levels, then my heart will sing.

If it doesn't, that is OK, too. The wildflowers will bloom. The little island foxes will sneak up to our tents, and the wild pigs will snort around our tents and try to eat our food. The rats have hanta virus, which is a little scary, but the rats are mostly on Anacapa island. Still, that means the threat of disease, too! Pigs, hanta virus, foxes, whales, beauty and seclusion will be adventure enough.

Oh how I long for some time in the wilderness. I am counting down the minutes.