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Hardly Strictly Parenting
There are many interesting facts around the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass music festival. For example, it is a free festival, given that it is subsidized by a man with a lot of money. The festival also attracts a lot of people (might be related to point #1), nearly equal in number to the entire population of San Francisco! And our family added four people to that number.
For the kids it is really mainly about eating snacks in the Golden Gate Park, play with random dogs and run up the hills to play in the trees, but nevertheless they are now officially music festival goers!
Talking Commute
I do very much enjoy my work. It is amazing to be able to be part of launching new products and services that generate so much attention. It does also involve commuting every day from San Francisco down south to Cupertino, which means about 74 kilometers (one way). Without traffic, you can make it under an hour. Unfortunately, there is always traffic. Always.
Luckily the company I work for is providing some pretty good technology to communicate with my kids. And my kids luckily are really good a writing now (Miss Cupcake does it better than me, Mr Bear does it with a lot of conviction and motivation). These are some examples of the discussions going on. A heads-up; the subject changes fast.
Crissy field is one of my favorite places in San Francisco, especially on a day like this. The Golden Gate bridge to the left, and Alcatraz to the right, and most importantly, water all around! Summer days in San Francisco is very much like in Sweden; they don’t happen very often, but when they do, they are pretty much perfect!
Throwback Wednesday
I have never really understood the trend of a ‘throwback Thursday’. Sure, posting photos from the old days is fun, but why on a Thursday? What about Tuesday? Or Sunday. Anyways, we have a phone at home that people who visit use. We realized that there were 10,000 photos and 1 million videos on it. So here are some of them, in honor of the throwback Thursdays. On a Wednesday.
On the Road Again
There are certain things you notice when you get out of San Francisco. We recently took a road-trip, and when walking out from the hotel in Chicago, my wife looks up and says: ‘Look, the clouds are not moving’. (Yes, San Francisco is very windy). Walking around in any city that is not San Francisco, you also realize that the streets are weirdly horizontal.
It was great to get away for a couple of days, just the two of us, driving down from Chicago to Nashville. Quick summary; brutal heat, barbecue, it is possible to drive straight ahead for 7 hours without one single curve, ‘you-all’, did I mention the heat(?!?) and sleeping the entire night without being woken up is highly underrated.
Sibling Love
I have an older sister. She is about three years older than I am, so the age difference is practically the same as between Miss Cupcake and Mr Bear. Let’s just say that seeing them now brings back memories. Because it might be true that I was a bit of a tease when I was younger, looking to push my older sister’s buttons whenever possible. Once or twice. Three tops.
I especially remember a big, round lamp that was hanging from the ceiling in her room. One day we were playing that I was throwing a ball into her room before she managed to close the door. She might be claiming that she was not part of the game, but she just hadn’t realized it yet. I obviously threw the ball on the lamp and it broke. And we both got in trouble. Maybe not what you would call ‘fair’…
Play Ball!
I still remember the first time I ever got to go to a sports event. My dad took me to see the glorious Bjorkloven (yes, there is only one Matti Pauna!), back when they ruled the Swedish Hockey League. It was probably some 30 years ago now, but I can still to this day remember exactly where in the arena we were sitting, feel the excitement of listening to the roar of a packed stadium when the teams came out onto the ice, and the special feeling of being able to eat popcorn and candy on a weekday.
The exact same feelings invaded me as I held on tight to Miss Cupcake’s hand while we entered AT&T Park for her very first sport event - a Giants game (baseball that is). I would summarize the experience in two ways; Miss Cupcake asking me when it is ok to scream ‘go giants’ (whenever you want honey!), and her telling me that she had a bit of a belly ache after the game (watching baseball is all about eating in case you have never been to a game). So yes, we had a hot dog… and another one just in case… and ice-cream… and popcorn.
As far as I can remember, the kitchen has always had a central place in my life. As a toddler, one of my favorite games was to play with a measuring cup in the kitchen sink. Whenever all the aunts and cousins got together as a kid, we always ended up standing all of us in the tiny kitchen instead of sitting in the spacious living room. The kitchen is the heart of the house, and same applies to our home.
The grandparents are visiting, which means new toys, including a play doh ice-cream machine, new personalized aprons and most importantly - 24 hour babysitters! And Miss Cupcake was very clear; time to do a cooking show! Have you been dying to make an ice-cream scoop 9.3? Well, then be attentive!
Artsy Art
I loved to paint as a kid. I would paint portraits, comic books, and even made a handmade map of my home town, which took forever to make, and included secret passages and hideouts that ‘only’ I knew about. It’s liberating in the end to paint as the only limitation is your own imagination and inspiration.
Inspiration can come from many places, and who knows; maybe Miss Cupcake got inspiration for her ‘art book’ from our visit to SFMOMA recently. Not sure what I like most about her art book; maybe the fact that ‘art book’ is spelt with a lower case ‘a’, making it way more artsy. Maybe the small preview boxes of the art work on the front cover, or the final ‘they end’, which is even more artsy than the lower case ‘a’. I guess I love everything about it!
Gardening
A little secret for you all; I love to get a haircut. Not so much the actual cutting, as just having someone fiddle with my hair. And when they wash your hair…!!! Heaven! It is (almost) better than getting a massage. Just to put it in perspective; getting a haircut relaxes me to the point that when I was a kid, my mother had to support my head as I would always fall asleep five minutes in.
The other day Mr Bear got his first haircut by a an actual hairdresser. Unlike his dad, there is only one thing he dislikes more than getting a haircut; to wash his hair. This might be related to the fact that it has been his beloved father who has been cutting his hair up to this point. Not surprisingly, he was much more collaborative when a (female) hairdresser did it. And he did not fall asleep!
App-Less
We went to a birthday party the other day, when little Mr Bear fell and hurt himself. He went straight to his mom for comfort, and right in that moment, this picture was taken. A perfect example that there is no place like in mommy’s safe arms. I obviously wanted to share the picture, and this is when I remembered that I am these days app-less.
I have worked in technology every since I started my professional career, so screens is a part of my daily life. On top of that is the constant need to check in on ‘feet on the beach’ photos and ‘who is eating what’ updates. So a week ago I had enough, and deleted three social networks from my phone (all of them that is). The impact is bigger than I thought. The worry of missing out has been replaced by a calmer me, and less neck pain. And luckily I have the blog for moments like these!
SFMOMA
The ‘San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’ has been closed for ages, as it has been remodeled. Now it is up and running again, and what better plan when both my wife and I had the day off, and Miss Cupcake had the first day of her summer vacation, then to go and check it out! Mr Bear? Someone has to earn money to put food on the table…
My favorite parts included seeing Andy Warhol’s ‘Triple Elvis’ (because double is not enough), seeing my wife walk around the museum with her bag from the local museum ‘Bildmuseet’ from my hometown of Umeå (only the best museum in the world!), and obviously listening to Miss Cupcake ponder around what should be considered art or not. Summary - most of it. Should not.
Portlandia
‘So when are you going back?’ is a constant question we get. Initially we did say that we would stay at least two years in San Francisco, and we are slowly coming up on six now. So my answer now to that question is that we have no timeline. This is home now, and we will stay until we decide to leave, or maybe not. Or maybe we will. Or not.
This obviously does not mean that there are not times when I get homesick. This memorial weekend was spent in Portland, Oregon. Small town, green as green can be, clean and with a river flowing through it. Felt like being back in my hometown of Umeå, Sweden. And it felt great, and I miss having the river so close by. For its beauty, to take the kids to so they can poke at stuff, and the spiritual retreat it is to me to just stare at it slowly pass by.
“The apple never falls far from the tree”, they say. In this case, I believe my kids were hanging off one branch and caught the apple before it hit the ground. Because I hardly think it is a coincidence that both my kids already show interest in poetry.
Just look at Miss Cupcake, delivering her first poetry open mic (which she organized herself after a poetry class for kids - ‘we are reading them, right?!?). She only needs a black turtle neck and she is ready for her first poetry slam. And Mr Bear is not far behind, literarily approaching poetry carefully, until embracing it completely, although in the shape of his mother reading at a poetry slam.
California Dreaming
It’s easy to get caught up in life. Monday to Friday. Drop off, pick up, dinner, clean-up, ‘don’t fight!’ and pass out in bed. The types of professional careers we have do not help to stop the spinning wheel. We have made a conscious decision to try and slow down and breath more often. Do the simple small things that really matters.
Like getting dinner and head out to the beach for a stroll. Nothing fancy. But all so important and beautiful. If you close your eyes and listen carefully, you can hear the words in the wind; ‘all the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray…’.