Long day

We went downtown just after 10 am and just got home a few minutes ago and it's 11:30.

First went to bank and PO to pay important bill. Then went to Farmer's Market, then Michael rode his bike over to another bike team parent's house to get the solar bike and ride it back downtown. During this time I went to the Arts Fair on the square and shopped all the stores on the square that I enjoy and don't often get to shop. I went to two cooking stores and THREE bookstores. I had in mind to find the original Moosewood Cookbook to get some ideas for more vegetarian main dishes. All I could find were the new editions and specialty ones, however. At one bookshop the owner is ordering one that she thinks might be the original and she said she won't get mad if I don't buy it when it gets here. At that particular shop I was shopping with my neighbors John and Elaine and their boys, Hud and Speck. I kind of wanted to tell Elaine the funny story about when John saw Michael at the mall when he was a baby and was all googoo over him because he was so cute and then a few months later I heard on the news that she was pregnant with her first hooligan. I don't want to be one of those people who bothers celebrities in public, though, so I didn't do it. After all the shopping (didn't buy a thing!) I walked back down to the plaza where the Taste of Bloomington would be to help set up the table for the solar bike team. Three other bike team moms were there and they were all really nice. We had lots of good conversations while the team members explained to people about the bike and how it works and how we're trying to raise more money for Japan next year and stuff. We took turns going around and getting food to taste and taking breaks and walks. Some of the vendors fed the team members for free so the students got to try some different things.

Debbie who usually cancels whenever we make plans actually SHOWED UP! I could hardly believe it. SO after we closed down the bike team table we went over to listen to the bands. "Here Come the Mummies" I actually liked. They were kind of funk and had a horn section, which I love (remember how I like Blood Sweat and Tears? Yeah ) . But Debbie was acting all depressed and sad and it was kind of a bummer. So then Michael left to go to the emergency I-69 protest march that was called because some tree sitters were forcibly evicted from their posts in an allegedly dangerous manner.... By then Debbie wanted to leave because she was so depressed, so I followed the protesters back to People's Park because I decided it was so dark I didn't want Michael to ride home. But then Michael just disappeared! I saw him marching, his bike was still there and he was nowhere to be seen! So I sat there a long time and he just never came back.... Finally I borrowed some guy's cell phone and tried to call Michael, because he had my phone... no answer. I tried to call Debbie to see if Michael had called her phone, no answer.... I was starting to freak out a little bit. This guy James knows Michael from the war protests (yeah, I'm not just kidding about the hippie boy thing) and agreed with me that it was totally unusual for Michael to leave his bike and not come back, so James started walking and riding his bike around looking for Michael while I stayed right by Michael's bike. James came back to report and Michael came walking back, finally! He had walked all the way back over to the taste... for some reason he felt like he had to leave the park until the cops were gone because the marchers might get arrested for having blocked the street with the march... I told him I thought the cops were following the marchers more to keep them safe from random traffic and that they didn't seem antagonistic at all. They just stayed and watched the park until everybody started to disperse and then left. Michael is still an inexperienced protester, except for his weekly war thing, but it doesn't really involve any civil disobedience, jut a peaceable assembly holding signs. So he will learn more as he goes what the police are usually willing to put up with and all that. I kind of had to learn as I went, too ( in my days it was Apartheid and hey! it's over!). I had expressed to him at other times that I didn't want him to go to Washington for a protest because if the adults he was with were arrested it could cause trouble and maybe even custody trouble for me, so maybe that was in his head... So anyway TWELVE long hours or more downtown, with miles of walking. I wish I had worn the pedometer today! My new one resets itself all the time, though so it really sucks and I need something different. That's why I quit talking about my step numbers. So boy am I tired, feet hurt, and guess what , my stinking bed isn't made because I had to wash sheets today and then we were gone all day. I may sleep in here with the damn fleas and hope I don't get too eaten up by morning.

Happy today for: I think I was especially happy to meet the other bike team moms, and a good horn section.