The public school kids started the math portion of their state tests today. I was sending a million good vibes to all of our little number-2-pencil-yielding friends. I'm glad that all of the thinking about it is about done for the year for them. Usually, it's not an actual event that is so very draining, but all the lead-up.
We spent a great deal of time outside today. In the morning we picked up where we left off when the weather turned cold, and resumed our running club outside. In the afternoon after completing an errand thirty-five blocks north, we decided to walk our two miles home via the park. We went to some birding areas and chatted with some birders (they always look at my Fellini-inspired eyeliner suspiciously, but once we establish ourselves as genuine bird-enthusiasts they decide that I'm not an other and we get all friendly -- like an animals-do-the-darndest-things TV special when the group of bunnies take in the kangaroo... or not like that at all...). We saw a handful of palm warblers, and heard the sweetest sounding bird ever... we have yet to identify it. And a lady casting about peanuts showed us a tree that had three baby squirrels running in and out of their nest and playing with each other. It was a really nice day.
And since it's still April, and we're still talking poetry around here:
From Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings":
The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
