The New Road

Megan at Stanford

On Sunday, my one day off last week, I took Megan to Stanford in the morning just to walk around and get some fresh air. She really likes walking, so I figured she would enjoy herself.

I get her out of the car and we walk down the pathway to where some folks are playing volleyball. She shows immediate interest and starts walking towards them. With her infectious smile she is an instant hit. But she isn't satisfied merely watching, she wants to play. That wasn't going to happen so I took her hand and on we went. She cried and when I let go it was straight back to the volleyball. Couldn't let that happen, so I took her cranky self in my arm and on we went.

Up to the steps of the central Stanford complex, where there were some Falung Dafa (related to Falun Gong, which shouldn't be confused with Aum Shinrikyo, the doomsday cult behind the 1995 Sarin nerve gas attack in Tokyo) believers who passed out fliers to both me and Megan. We thanked them and moved on. I set Megan down after a set of steps and off she went back to the Falun Dafa folks. So we hung out there for a bit until I wanted to leave. I tried to get her to move, and nope, she wanted to hang out Falun Dafa style. Not excited was she by the prospect we head on.

To the church area where she found a kid playing with a little red cart. They got on well but Megan got a little grabby on the cart. So I took her in and and crankily she went forward until I let go and she went back to the little red cart kid. Now I'm starting to get the feeling there was a theme here.

And we went on like that distracted by one thing and the next, each more fascinating and compelling than the last. It was annoying, though I don't know why, since all I really wanted was some fresh air and sun. And it was also very cool since this was the first time for me where she really expressed a positive interest in new experiences.

I took some pictures.