just had the weirdest strangest coolest spiffiest experience, and so i just have to share....

it's a beyootiful day outside, very springy with a nice breeze...so i'm at the grocery store, wandering around while they fill my Rx, and i see it - a KITE!!!!! it's perfect kite weather!!!

so i got the kite and then proceeded to head over to the first wide open space i can think of - the elementary school near my house - 5 o'clock, all the kids will be long gone...well, i was wrong about that one, there must be an after school program or something...

then it seems strange - what are these people gonna think of a 30 year old butch dyke out by herself flying a kite near some children? will they instantly think "CHILD MOLESTER" and call the cops? of course, if i go over to the supervising adults and say "hey, just so you know, i'm not a child molester" they'll instantly think that i AM. so i just stayed away from the kids. the kids, however, could not stay away from me. or the kite, rather. soon i'm surrounded by 4 kids. so i just let them hang out, but don't ask names or anything that might make it seem like i've got any sort of intentions other than to fly my kite...

one boy 8 or 9 years old (didn't get his name), immediately asks to fly the kite and i tell him we'll take turns...he asks me "are you a boy?" and i tell him no...he asks me "are you a girl?" and i tell him yes...then he says "i'm sorry i called you a boy, it's just hard to tell." and i told him it was okay, i know sometimes it's hard to tell - he was very polite about it, so i didn't get pissed or anything, and i WAS pretty butched up today...so he takes a turn at flying the kite and then his dad shows up and he leaves...

then one of the girls proceeds to tell Kevin (another boy, probably 7 or 8) that what i have is called a kite - he doesn't know what that is, she tells me, because he's from China (mom had a good point when i told her this - "i thought that's where they came from!") so he's never seen one before, and doesn't even know the word for it. so we all take turns flying the kite, or throwing it in the air for someone else to fly.

of course, as soon as we go to actually fly the kite, the wind dies down, or we get short bursts of wind. the kids, however, were way impressed with getting it to fly 10 feet in the air - you'd have thought the thing was 10 miles up in the air!!! their giggles and laughs will beat a prescription for zoloft ANY day!!

in the midst of flying, i get introductions - i've met kevin, and with him are brianna and brittany - brittany even offers a handshake with her introduction!! these kids crack me up! it's brittany's birthday, she's 8 years old today. i think brianna's 9 or 10, but she didn't offer that information. it's obvious the two B girls are best friends.

brianna starts chatting with me, and tells me "i think i'm a tomboy or a tomgirl or whatever you call it - i like everything." ROFL!!! am i wearing something that is telling these kids, "hey, come talk to me about your gender identity issues!!!"??? first, the polite kid that can't tell if i'm a boy or a girl APOLOGIZING for presuming i was a boy, then brianna tells me this stuff, totally unprovoked...

it was really cool, but overshadowed a bit by the fact that i had to stop and consider the fact that people might think i had bad intentions - it's so sad that in this day and age kids have to be fearful of strangers - that everyone has to be fearful of everyone, actually. people really suck sometimes, but hanging with those kids for a while today gives me hope for the future...