Pink Prickly Pear

Methinks someone lost a bet.

I hardly ever think to have my camera handy at the beach.  But this afternoon, something made me grab a zip-lock bag and pop my old point-and-shoot in there.

So there I was, sitting in my beach chair, minding my own business and this man walking along the shore caught my eye (actually, several did, but this guy wasn't one of those buff young men with surf boards in tow).  I squinted.  Craned my neck a little.  Double checked with Mr. Pear, "Hey, has that man shaved his chest hair into a bikini top?"

Why yes he had, as you can see from our surreptitiously gathered photographic evidence below.  Ignore my goofy face.  I thought Mr. Pear was only using me as a prop to get closer to our subject.

Right?  I know body hair comes in all shapes and sizes, but that's manicured in some fashion, no?

Sometimes it would be nice to do just nothing...

Mini-pear has a new friend who won't be going back to school next year.  Of course, the little girl's mom has a lot of questions and concerns.  She's particularly worried that her daughter won't get to socialize as often as she's accustomed.

I have to smile at that.  A wan, exhausted sort of smile.  Exhausted because mini-pear's social calendar is insane!  She'd never get this much time to socialize if she were in school.  Please stop talking to your neighbor or I'll have to separate you two!  Girls, we're not here to socialize!  I want to be able to hear a pin drop in here!

I haven't blogged all that much over the past couple of weeks.  Partly because I'm just not here all that much.  We are very busy socializing.  In the last week, mini-pear and I have:

Spent 8 consecutive hours at our local Unschooler Park Day!
Went to see her good friend's dance recital, with some other friends, followed by ice-cream (not to mention a sugar fueled exploration of the Whole Foods in La Jolla).
Had a friend over for a few hours of one on one play.
The whole family got together with several other families for dinner and to talk about the possibilities of hosting an Unschooling Conference in San Diego next year.
Karate, karate, karate...
More time at the park with friends!
Book club with 5 of her girl friends
A pottery workshop organized by another homeschooling family*
A picnic, sleepover, and all day play date with another friend and her family
Followed by another park day

And then yesterday, we met up with a different set of girl friends for the American Girl book club.  The girls are reading through the historical novels.  Yesterdays meeting had a Victorian theme in keeping with the Samantha series.  Everyone loved the elaborate tea party - crust-less tea sandwiches, fresh fruit and loads of dainty little cakes - charades, and making their tussie mussies.  Of course, I forgot my camera, but I managed to snap the above picture of mini-pear putting her bouquet into a bud vase at home.  Then she noticed the camera and ran away, having recently developed an aversion to the camera.

So, yes, socializing - I think we've got it covered.  We're trying to stay home all morning, but it's hot, so I think we'll have to accept that invitation to hang at the beach this afternoon.

_{*Actually, here's where I hit a wall and just couldn't handle the social whirlwind anymore.  Luckily, my friends noticed and shuttled me off home with promises to make arrangements for mini-pear to get dropped off later.  I went home and slept like the dead.  And then one of the friends from pottery asked if they couldn't just take mini-pear home with them and I could just reconnect with them at park day the following afternoon.  So then I got to sleep like the dead some more.  Which is something I was apparently in dire need of.}

Last Sunday I was in the parking lot of our local market, trundling some groceries out to the car.
"Whee!"  A forty-ish looking guy was riding his grocery cart down the middle of the lot.  As he reached his parking spot, he deftly slipped one flip-flopped foot out to the left, thus ensuring a neat little sideways slide ending at the trunk of his car.

This is not an isolated incident.  Happens all the time.  In fact, just a few moments later, an older woman with her grey hair pulled loosely back into a single braid (easily as thick as my forearm) rode her own shopping cart across the lot to her ancient hatchback.

People in this coastal community put a priority on having fun.

Nothing wrong with that.  I just need to get with the program;)

Today was the perfect beach day...

...so we stayed home with the curtains pulled over all the windows, trying to stave off the heat.

Actually, we spent yesterday afternoon at the beach as it was my mum's last afternoon here.  I thought I'd judiciously applied my sunscreen, but woke up this morning to find I'd missed a spot.  A very tender spot indeed - the previously "innie" part of my belly button which is slowly popping into something that looks a little more like an "outie".  I do have a maternity tankini thing I could wear, but it's black and the idea of wearing something destined to warm up in the sun against my tender little red spot didn't appeal.  Besides, I'd previously made some wacky pact with myself not to wear anything other than a bikini to the beach, no matter how much I morph into a hippo this summer.  The tankini I purchased strictly for the pool.

Plus Mini-pear was feeling a little sick-ish.  Her nose is streaming, so she's continually sniffing, and coughing.  No karate this evening and no going to see her friends in Midsummer Night's Dream.  There's one last performance tomorrow evening, which will mean missing the roller derby.  Pout. 

We did nip out to pick up some supplies for an upcoming camping trip.  One of the friends who is accompanying us forwarded a very comprehensive packing list, which is making my preparations so easy.  The list is actually a little too comprehensive.  It lists "dish soap" and then, later on in the same category of "cooking supplies" it also specifies "dish soap for the outside of pots and pans".  Am I missing something?  Have I been using the same old dish soap for everything when I shouldn't be?  Do I need a separate sponge as well?

At any rate, packing is something that usually has me pulling my hair out and second guessing everything.  This time around I have the very comprehensive list and the clothing limitations of my burgeoning belly to make it all a doddle.

Surf's up. Way up.

We dropped Mr. Pear off at work this morning and were lucky enough to get the last available spot in the parking lot.  Big waves.  Big traffic jams.  Legal parking spots along the coast?  Almost impossible to find.

An entirely different sort of traffic jam in the water at Swami's.

This guy did not have a good day.

But it looks like these surfers are having a very good time indeed.

woot!

The lifeguards don't usually staff the station here at this time of year, but they got quite a work out today.

One last traffic jam to battle through on our way back up to the car.