Harvest Moon Festival

Nora attended her first Harvest Moon Festival yesterday.  We packed up raisins, bananas, crackers, pears, apples, water, diapers, and picnic blankets and set out for the old ranch house nestled into the gated community near the college.  We walked in as the drum circle was in full swing.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nora was mesmerized...she couldn't be bothered to drum or shake gourds or talk to her little chums...she just stared.  Bobbed up and down occasionally...and stood fixated.  Drums might just be her instrument.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the trance of drum circle, it was time to finger bumpy gourds, hay bales, bamboo trunks, and giant tree trunks.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, of course, the lion costume came back out.  You can't miss any opportunity to dress up with such a fantastic shiny jungle cat outfit at your disposal.

 

Here's the menacing shadow of one Ms. Lulu Bell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dancing to Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, and Beach Boys covers...mixing with leather-skinned women donning skeleton earrings and skirts far too short for their wise years.  I even got a view of the orange underwear of a grandmother who enjoyed dancing with Noodle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have started to feel very connected to some of my "Mommy & Me" friends...certainly, most of us only share a common birth month of our children, and teething advice and conundrums about tantrum throwing; however, a few are falling gently into friends-beyond-motherhood category.  Last night, as I sipped white sangria and scraped the side of an oreo mud pie with Margie, it struck me just how magnificent it is to once again have girlfriends close by...with whom to share my musings, my worries, and my hopes.

As much as I still miss my friends caught in LA, the geography of this So Cal urban sprawl causes distance far more than the mere 28 miles on a map.  There are job schedules, day care, missed time with husbands, freeways, traffic, naps, and errands to contend with.  These 28 miles turn into an hour drive each way...and since Nora still screams bloody murder during car rides, this keeps me bubbled in my beloved Long Beach...thinking of my old friends...and gratefully making new ones.  

 

 

**Just in case you need reminding, Nora is now dispensing post-it flags.  Helpful little bugger, no?

 

 

Comments

[Daniela]

Awww, Nora is so so darling...it looks like she is really enjoying herself! I wish we weren't so far and could meet up more frequently. I miss you guys!