The country mouse goes to town...

I like being in my own element - my suburban city where denim rules, my little yellow house in the neighborhood that is surrounded by the city but not of it, so that my neighbors have chickens and goats, and a goddamned rooster that starts his thready little crowing around 3 AM every day.  And today, off I went to that lalaland to the south known as Marin County.  Now, it is not really more urban - the cities down there are smaller than mine, but, somehow, it is just more trendy, more au courant, more MORE.  The occasions was my daughter's sister-in-law's baby shower.  They have registries now for baby showers.  All the things on this darling girl's registry were 1. expensive 2. impractical 3. designed to within an inch of their lives.  Really, $30 for little pants (black and white, for a GIRL), that she will grow out of by the second wearing.  Not doing that.  So I chose my own gift.  Like, don't tell ME what to do.  I got her the manual, a book on What to Expect in the First Year.  And some little undershirts with long sleeves and mitties, that she can wear home from the hospital and not scratch her face.  And four of the most adorable glove puppets, a litter of little dogs, that I encased in pink tissue like little roses peeking out of the box.  She loved them.  And I did a painting just to reproduce it on the card, a pelican and her chick.  Not expensive.  Not chic.  But fun and funny.  Things have changed.  When I had my babies, I bought a second hand crib and painted it.  Or I borrowed a crib from an in-law.  Our strollers were rickety little things that folded up to the size of an umbrella.  I bought my little girl PINK clothes.  Well, things have changed, for sure.  And did I mention that this festive occasion was held in the magnificent garden of this amazing house in Tiburon that overlooks the whole of San Francisco and Sausalito?  I could see both bridges and lots of tiny sailboats.  Beautiful.  Way over the head of this country mouse.  I was happy to come home to the fur people and my tiny abode.  Think I'll get myself some flowers tomorrow.  Elegance on a budget, from Trader Joe's.