preschool and hippies and beaches and pools

this morning when i took timmy and ethan to preschool, ivan was clinging to his mother and not wanting her to leave. miss brooke was out with her sick baby, so miss trilby was alone with the class and ivan is shy . . . so ivan's mom and i walked out together.

ivan's mom is heidi. we've told each other our names, but we've never really talked. i'm maybe even more shy than ivan. but i've always wanted to introduce myself and talk to her. partly because we have children the same age and she doesn't appear to be 25 years old like some of the other mothers.

so today, walking out together, she made a comment about michael's chubby cheeks or other general cuteness and i replied. from there sprang a conversation about what we'll do for preschool next year (since ours is going to all daycare and no preschool), the all-day kindergarten our school district adopted a couple years ago, the ymca (and our lack of visits) . . . and . . .

she grew up in hawaii, living in tents and vans and on the beach. her parents were hippies. hippies! she said if you're going to grow up poor, hawaii is the place to do it, because everyone is poor. she (like her mother) is an artist. she has written comic books, she sculpts, before having children she worked for a japanese cartoon (noruto? i think she said noruto...). she's been thinking of doing murals. how cool is that? well, i'll tell you - very cool.

she seemed interested in me, too. even though my parents were not hippies (although i have always believed my dad would have liked to have been) and i am not an artist and i think i am basically a very boring person.

we are already making plans for the summer. taking the kids to the splash pad, swimming in her pool, maybe going to the ymca. lord knows one of the first thoughts that popped into my head as we discussed it was that i really, really need a workout partner.

i've always been interested in talking with people who have different backgrounds (or opinions, or religions, etc.) than i do. i look forward to developing this new friendship.