Halloween & High Schools - The Price of Festive

Halloween might just be the most festive holiday in this city.  
After observing this last year, the kids insisted we up our decor game....

As if on cue, fog rolled in right in time for trick or treating...

Lucky came along as our 'pooping peacock'...

The enthusiasm for the occasion is contagious - kids here get way into it....

And given our kids' school is an art school, the tendency is to homemade & wacky...

A scary clown...

A duct tape tree...

And a flat apple...

(here's what happens when you make a costume without a pattern)

OK, maybe not ALL the kids got into it....Q walking among some less-festive 7th graders in the school Halloween parade 

Staff enthusiasm offset any 'too cool' middle schoolers...

(Zoe's 2nd grade teacher as Captain Underpants)

Out in the evening, it was fun to also see so many adults get way into it

Logan even ran into his Ninja Turtle family

We were excited that the 'come get your candy if you dare' lady was back at it this year

(lowered candy in a cauldron - but also spontaneously dropped a big spider and bloody head down onto candy takers)

And found a new, cool candy delivery system - a Plinko game

(candy dropped into the ~8' tall game from above & bumped its way down, making it a surprise where it would fall out)

Given the housing density, it took no time to collect some serious loot...

That said - one price of SF festivity is navigating SF schools....

The public schools are 'lottery based' - meaning you have very little control over which school they'll get into.  The schools vary wildly in size, academic performance & personality. 

Thus, in addition to figuring out which public schools to include on our lottery list, we need to explore other options too.  

• The good news - there are a lot of options 
• The bad news - there are a lot of options!

Quincy & I have already started the intense & time consuming high school search.  
On Halloween morning, he attended a 2-hour open house...

A day later, we toured a school with a massive campus I didn't know was possible in the city...

As well as one with amazing architecture...

Luckily, we have some time to figure it all out & plenty of sugar to fuel the journey.

Here's to finding our way & keeping it festive along the way

Short on housing, but long on tents

San Francisco housing has become a national conversation.  Rents are now as high or higher than NYC.  The conversation is top-of-mind & visible all over the city...

Lots of debate in the November elections...

(Propositions to put a moratorium on market rate construction & limit Airbnb type of rentals were among the hotly debated) 

Even seeping into school conversations....

...with a homework assignment graphing the 'impossible equation' of it all:
Average salaries barely budging + skyrocketing housing cost = the math doesn't work

Maybe a surprising topic for 5th grade - but, maybe not, given our school has already lost several teachers fleeing to a cheaper cost of living

Meanwhile homelessness is up & families end up staying in tiny starter apartments they moved into way back when & can't afford to move out of (rent control keeps increases well below market rates - creating a huge spread in prices)

It is a mess & I honestly do not know the answer....But this is not supposed to be a depressing blog.


Uncomfortably related, just days before the elections full of housing measures, Xavier's class went on a camping field trip...

Being that the campground was in the city, we took the city bus + walked there...

Got an ocean view along the way......

And later hiked around amazing surroundings

(I wonder if these kids have any idea how lucky they are?!)

We stayed in an urban oasis of a campground

(I think the big red ball won vs. scenery with the kids)

So while we may be super short on housing, we have some pretty amazing parks - with even a campground in the city.


Here's to brave teachers willing to sleep out & hoping we find a way to solve the housing problem - so camping out can be a 'get to' for everyone & a 'have to' for none.

Quotes from San Francisco

The last few weeks have been that kind of busy that is 'I have no idea what has been keeping me so busy busy'.  6 quotes illustrate what has been going on:


I feel seriously under-festive
We'd been wanting to take the kids to a 'real concert'.   A cool Australian electronic music duo - who happens to have a song on the FIFA game - came to town.  We took Mags & Q...

As someone who loves all festive, I was sorry to have not gotten the memo about dressing like the band...

Despite our comparatively unimaginative attire, we had a fab time

I feel big
Upon turning 10 last month, Xavier reported he suddenly ' feels big'

We celebrated with breakfast in bed, donuts to school & a party at a trampoline place

And I'm still getting noise it wasn't as fab as expected.  

Attention all middle children: please go hug your parents & tell them you love them - NOW!

You're not allowed to spray away
Vermin have been an unfortunate recent theme....

Lucky chewed her butt raw thanks to some friendly fleas...

After 12 years of dodging it, we got the dreaded lice call from school...
 

Late one night, Logan witnessed something furry scamper through the kitchen, behind the fridge.  After Lucky & Inky (the dog & cat) failed to be of any use, Quincy jumped in with a solution - create a trap...

He made a ramp to a pot full of treats

We thought it a brilliant plan!

However, when the pot was licked 100% clean in the morning, we realized one key shortcoming to that plan...

With all this activity, we thought it prudent to get Terminix to come spray the @&#$ out of our house.  I was surprised to learn (and not really) that in our fine state, one cannot simply pay to spray...you need to prove its needed

With the 'no sign of live activity' report, we aren't allowed to pump in chemicals.   

While we may be taking a beating, we can also celebrate one win.  

Pigeons (evil vermin) used to sit on our neighbor's roof & poop into our yard.   
I heard about a tactic I never thought would work.  

Yes, a $6 kids' toy plastic snake has kept the pigeons fooled for a good 6 months

14 cents of saving cost me $400
Around here, there is some serious peer pressure to conserve, reuse & recycle.   So when a box of Kleenex exploded in my car, I did the responsible thing - saved the loose tissues by stuffing them in my glove box.

Turns out the victory for our planet was a loss for our car...

Apparently the back of the glove box leads to the car's fan.  
My half box of tissue was sucked into it

Moral: do NOT put loose tissue in your glove box.  Throw them away if you must


I don't give a schnitzel
About a decade ago we started hosting Oktoberfest parties - originally as a way to gather Quincy's preschool class of families.  Our love of the occasion - and decor- keeps growing...

(thanks artist Suzie!)

After multiple visits to the festival in Munich, Zoe maintains her 'kostum' enthusiasm 

The boys are a harder sell - luckily the German store near our house had a perfect solution..

(appropriate in so many ways)

On Sundays, when I'm a woman....
I've been taking a class at SF City College.   Given it is a community college serving ~90,000 students/year, there's a serious range of people there.  The classroom discussion is often entertaining.

One of my favorites was when a fellow student - a black man in his 40s with shoulder length braids - kicked off his comment with "On Sundays, when I'm a woman...."

Ironically, this Sunday I popped by the Castro Street fair - and saw several such examples:

A musical version of the Wizard of Oz

80s dancers

There were also a lot of PSA announcments

And one reminder that no matter how accepting the town is, we need to make sure our kids know they are loved no matter what

Here's to cherishing all of our children - the festive (or not), the dressed to their gender (or not) AND especially those who for whom it just never seems like enough