You Are Here

When I started this blog, the idea was to write about various random strolls through San Francisco and other non-baby-related topics, while also commenting occasionally on the fact of being an older new mother.

In recent months, however, this has become more like the typical "mommy blog" in which I discuss the trials, tribulations and occasional triumphs of new motherhood. And I'm bored with it. I'm bored even thinking about it, much less writing it.

Rather than give up just yet, however, I think I should pull it back to the original themes. The trouble is, I almost never stroll anywhere any more. With a young toddler who can hardly walk two yards without trying to open a door, touch a car or chase after a dog, and who hates sitting in a stroller or a carseat unless he's completely exhausted (and even then...) I don't foresee a whole lot of strolling in the near future.

Today, however--for the first time in months--we did find ourselves in unfamiliar territory, for a nanosecond. We went from the Cow Hollow Playground to Lombard Street, then to Chestnut Street, and walked down it for a couple of blocks, stopping in a cafe where I bought my son a bagel and some apple juice; then we turned around again and headed back to the car. He wasn't thrilled to be in the stroller during that fifteen-minute journey, but when I did wheelies with it, and made it race around in a zig-zag pattern, he stopped fussing and started giggling.

This means, of course, that I was too exhausted to absorb much of what I saw in my immediate surroundings. I did get the feeling, however, that Chestnut Street is a more inviting little commercial strip than Union Street--the shops feel more down-to-earth. They're less about personal and interior decoration, more about buying food and relaxing. But as I said, I was only there for a nanosecond--not enough to comment on anything, really.

With a toddler in my life, I realize that my inner sense of space has dwindled down to a series of points--has dwindled down to one point, perhaps: I now live according to a strange map which only shows an X and bold letters spelling out "YOU ARE HERE." Because that's a toddler's sense of the world, and it becomes the mother's sense as well...and even trips across the country don't seem to change that fact.