Change

So many good things this weekend.

1. Dim Sum in SF with Tim the banjo teacher, Anna (his gf) and his parents (so cute) and some friends. We all left appropriately stuffed and happy.

2. Ginger cake from Crixa at Yerba Buena park.

3. Amazing weather. I am sure that we're having the best weather in the country right now. I've opened the windows and put all the heavy blankets back in the closet. I haven't needed a jacket in over a week. Beautiful.

4. SFMOMA. The SF MoMA always surprises me when they have exhibits by people I've never heard of. This one by Martin Puryear was the perfect mixture of earthy and whimsical. Almost all his sculptures are made of wood and I had the best possible viewing of it tagging along with Tim's dad with his thick Tennessee accent sniffing all the sculptures and pronouncing which woods they were made of. And wouldn't you know he was always right. On the fourth floor it was all about the art of participation. There were recordings of performance art, and microphones for you to speak into and chairs to sit in (to become a living sculpture), and other things to play with and touch. Touch! And of course, there is always my favorite Rothko in its spot on the second floor, so I paid my usual respects.

5. Wine and girl talk. Hajera and Erin came over Saturday night to talk about girly things. We all got quite drunk and had the best time. I must do this again soon, although maybe I'll eat a little more dinner first heh.

6. Getting my volunteer on at the Berkeley Aquatic Park. The Berkeley Aquatic Park is actually starting to be quite nice these days. I picked up some gardening gloves at Longs and biked over to do some tree planting prep. We weren't allowed to actually plant the trees because I guess the city of Berkeley isn't crazy about the idea of there being plants preventing them from being able to shine search lights Everywhere, but hopefully they'll confirm that we're not going to hit any utility lines and let us plant the trees in a week or two. It was so lovely and just heartening to see so many people come out (they were expecting 55, but 90+ of us showed up). I got to chat with all sorts of people from all over who came out to start making a change in their communities. Who were ready to take matters into their own hands instead of waiting for the government or anyone else to do the things we care about. There were kids and seniors and teenagers and parents and everyone in between taking some time out to mark this momentous occasion and it gave me hope. Change is possible.

7. A nice clean traffic island out in front of my house. I noticed on my way home yesterday that the island was filthy. Littered with trash, and I decided - not in my neighborhood. So, to do my part today for MLKJr Day, I got up and cleaned it. I brought out two empty plastic bags, and came in with four sacks stuffed with trash and one left over. And my island is clean now.

8. Spanish immersion. With Spanish music playing and Gmail in Spanish and Facebook in Spanish, it seems easy to work through my text book. I am going to speak Spanish by May.

And today it feels like there is a spot for me in the world. Like I can make a difference, like anything is possible.