One day when I was a young teenager, I was out watching my then boyfriend play in a neighborhood tennis team match. It was a few streets over at their community tennis courts and he was playing well. I sat on the grass outside the court and waited for him after his match. There were some other people he knew from the neighborhood that were milling around when this one guy wandered up and started gazing at the hill of grass in the then-fading sunlight and said, "Woah! Look at all the colors!"
"What colors," I thought? He was looking at a boring mound of green grass. It was green. One of the other kids there said that he had "dropped acid" and he was "tripping." Oh, well that explains a lot. I suppose ever since that day whenever there's a situation where someone seems entranced by colors and lights (even if there's nothing there) I think back to that unknown guy and the hill of monochrome grass.
Last night we went to one of those "family fun centers" that includes go cart racing, mini golf, video games, carnival games and one heck of a maze crawl that my son thought was sheer nirvana. We went to meet one of my childhood friends for her birthday celebration. She and I haven't been in touch much at all over the past fifteen years, but through the magic of Facebook we've reconnected and that makes me very happy.
It was a Monday at five o'clock and there were very few people there. We just put the children down and let them run around. My daughter went from machine to machine and banged on the sides, gazed at the flashing lights and sat on the lit-up bases. She climbed onto the seats and tried to run down the mini-bowling alley lane lit up with black lights. Her eyes were wide open and she looked so excited and mesmerized that it reminded me of the wonder that guy seemed to be experiencing looking at that boring hill of grass back when I was a teenager. Only without the drugs. And cuter. Definitely tiny girl cuter.
My son had a good time too. He and my husband went into the seventeen layer maze crawl play land thing I don't know the name for. They were in there for a good while and I hear they had a fantastic time. In between chasing my daughter around, I spent time with my friend and her friends that were helping her celebrate her birthday. And it's at this point that I want to mention how I almost titled this post, "I like nice people" because I met several new friends last night and they were just the nicest people you could meet.
Isn't it fun to go out, meet new people and immediately feel like these are your own personal friends? You're made to feel welcome and you can just be yourself and have fun with them? I hadn't seen my friend in years, but we had a great time together. I had promised I would buy her a birthday shot and so we all went to the bar and we toasted to her birthday with a shot of tequila. Tequila is strong stuff. I am glad daddy was driving us home.
Our children were tired and the party goers were heading off to the go carts so we parted ways. It was time to get home, have baby baths and get the kids in bed. I'm glad we stopped in though to help her celebrate her birthday. I think both children had a pretty good time as well too.
The Big Boy Update: I Spy. I don't know if he's ever played the I Spy game before, but my husband taught it to him last night. He got the hang of it pretty quickly. Well, he got the hang of saying "I spy some noun I can see" part of it. They took turns spying things until it was time to go to bed.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Elmo Shoes. We got her new shoes a while back and they've been working out okay, but not as well as her first pair that are now too small. We almost bought her a pair of Elmo shoes that are technically for the boys, but are much better looking to us than the gaudy, shimmery, purple and puke pink version available for the girls. Yesterday we went back and got them. She likes them and even knows Elmo is on the front of them. Will she keep them on on the way to school though or will she try and pull them off straight away like she does her other shoes?
Someone Once Said: As with any tool, merit or demerit lies within how it is used.
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