First impressions of Austin: The kids are alright.
I wish I were a little kid.
I mean, throughout this whole move from San Francisco to Austin, my wife and I have truly struggled. We miss our friends, I miss my parents, we miss the kids' school, I miss Hyde Street Studio C. The list is so long: the cool air, the sea, the clang of the cable cars, the energy of the city, and on and on and on. Sure, there are things we don't miss, but why focus on all that, right? Anyway...
I wish I were a little kid.
Because throughout this move, my kids, Avalon and Amelia, have treated it all as it all should be treated: as a great big adventure. They don't see Austin's aesthetic missteps, they just see new. Every playground is to be thoroughly explored. Novel flavors tried (only once!). Sidewalks scooted on. Big box stores to be raced through, again and again. Just wait until Daddy gets his gas grill!
There's a lesson in this, I know, it's blindingly obvious, and I am doing my best to learn it, to close my adult eyes and reopen them as those of a child. It's not often in life you get to be somewhere truly new, unexplored, full of surprises. Maybe it's the closest I will get to being a kid again.
Damn.
I wish I were a little kid.