6 year olds w/ a camera

Friday night I babysat for the P' neighbors whose charming children - J and MK I had meet previously. Of course, when I arrived S and J (see bowling blog) were over visiting. MK and Sare dolls, but VERY active six year olds. After racing around the house with them on my back for 30 min it was time to find a different diversion. Luckily one of them grabbed the camera out of my purse. The entertainment could have gone on for hours but the battery did eventually die. "One more" "One more" - I think I took about 60 'one more' shots. My favorites where when they brought out the props and decided they wanted photos of them holding swords as if they had been stabbed - this lead to a whole series of "death" photos with one dead and the other standing over her with mournful expressions.
MK and J were great. I love their mom, B, we started discussing books as I was leaving and I found her just throwing bestsellers I had not read yet into my arms. Talk about hooked! I don't think there is any quicker way to win me over. I am house sitting for them at the end of the month - and I even liked their dog! Shocking, I know.
Here are some highlights:

Fender bender

Over half a year ago, while backing up, my mother scrapped my fender on one of those cement blocks at the front of our parking space. Sadly it came unhinged and had to be reattached. Since then I have been VERY careful about not scraping it on anything. Today, Friday the 13th that luck ran out.

It started at about noon, when I was driving the university car to run an errand (I had just finished some meetings at the Law School and was swinging by the store on my way back to the office to pick up sandwiches for me and my coworker C). As I am driving down F Street in Davis I notice a guy walking down the street grab his girlfriend to start pushing a car that had died one or two cars in front of me. By the time the two cars between us had moved on I was laughing because it was C's car.

Hours pass.

At 4:30 C and I left work to go pick up his car. I was on the phone with AAA arranging for towing so C drove us in my car to the parking lot where the lovely couple had pushed his car. Of course we had to wait over 30 min, even though the tow company that arrived is based in Davis - ridiculous!

As I was backing out of the parking lot to follow the tow truck my fender hit cement - hard. When C parked it I didn't remember is scraping - but coming off it sure did. I had forgotten about it by the time we reached the auto shop, but sure enough as we rounded the corner to return to the car I had to laugh because the edges of my fender where hanging, almost dragging on the ground. C did screw them back on - but it is not quite the same and I was in such a rush to get to my babysitting appointment (as the towing had taken longer than expected) that there was not really time to ensure the fender was actually flush.

As this is the second time my fender has been ripped from its bearings it is starting to get a little warped. In combination with the insane day at work - totally ridiculous, though not as ridiculous as Thursday - I had a very stereotypical Friday the 13th - for the first time in my life - the kind of day I loath where nothing seems to go right.

Okay...

Drum roll - the hair. The sweater makes it look a little redder than it really is, but you get the idea. In the sunlight it glows bright purple.

Life is a funny thing

“In a better-ordered Verona, Romeo and Juliet would have grown up to be just another couple at dinner.” – Adam Gopnik

Today I am grateful for feeling, loss, confusion, unpredictability and all inexpressible emotions and events that convey poetry in life.