Because I'm crazy, I decided to take Harper down to the Kite Festival on Saturday. It was a beautiful windy day, so it seemed perfect. But this was demented thinking because Saturday was the start of the Cherry Blossom Festival (which the kites were part of), plus the National Marathon was going on. Fine, I thought, we'll take Metro. I never take Metro. I hate Metro. I avoid Metro like the plague. But sometimes ya gotta take Metro. I was pretty sure the kid would be cool with it, so I wasn't sweating it.
And she did. She LOVED Metro. She should be the spokesperson for Metro. As she watched people get on, she'd say, "Everyone wants to ride the train!" and occasionally she'd accost female riders and yell at them, "Everyone loves riding the train, lady!" She was a big hit, partially because she's very articulate for her age (that's another post) and partially because WMATA-weary passengers were amused by her gilded view of Metro.
The kite festival ... well, not so much. She thought all the kites were cool, but she apparently thought she was going to be able to chase and catch all the kites and keep
them. There was a breakdown when I told her that isn't how it works. (I blame Easter -- she got into a real "all the eggs are for me!" mentality.) Then there were a couple more breakdowns about other things. I think she realized that downtown D.C. during cherry blossom time is a shit bomb. Or maybe Metro WAS the best part of the day (dear god, no!). We still managed to have some fun, though. We didn't have a kite, but there was a station where kids could color and make their own using recycled materials. Bless you, kite station people! We made a little kite and Harper was able to fly it for a whole five seconds, which I think is pretty good for a 2-year-old. I had to fly it the rest of the time, and she chased it and then just danced under it. For that alone, it ended up being worth it.
Then we rode home on the train, which Mommy thought was a spectacular disaster due to some broken gates and the elevator only working on the side of Metro we didn't want to ride (we had the stroller) and one-way-only-today exits and massive overcrowding at the Smithsonian station. I was getting pissed. But Harper loved it all -- she was even good waiting in line for Metro -- so what can I say? It was a perfect day.
"I listen to the wind / To the wind of my soul / Where I'll end up, well, I think / Only God really knows" -- "The Wind" by Cat Stevens. Before Cat Stevens hated America, he sure made a shitload of money off of it. And, OK, he wrote some pretty awesome songs, like this one. These are good lyrics to illustrate every level of our day, but only because there isn't a song about how the subway is messing with my shi- ("my transactional shi-!") and crazy baby likes it.
