a day in suburbia

a quick one hour flight landed me back home in VA by 10AM saturday morning. i was greeted by mom, sister, and tj and wes who begged me to sit between their carseats in the rear of the car. they had both grown a few inches since the last time i'd seen them. on the way to starbucks to caffeinate me, wes pointed out his new basketball shoes and played with my bracelets (elephant! forest!) while tj told me she preferred my longer hair to my short hair but liked my necklace (it looks like a chocholate heart!).

after coffee, we stopped by trader joes where we all stocked up on snacks. while i purused the wine section and filled my basket with assorted jerkey, luna bars, and fish oil- wes took turns patting my belly, telling me he was going to eat me up, and latching onto my right leg. funny kid.

next was sam's club- otherwise known as the senior citizen's buffet-a sampling heaven for my niece. hot pockets, salad, pork roast, deli wheels, buffalo wings, yogurt- you name it, they had it. my mom bought some beef to go with the bun bo hue that she had made for my dad who was actually home sick. we dropped my mom off home, then my sister, the kiddies and i went to chck-fil-a for lunch and to pick up a party platter for the gymanstics birthday party at 2:30PM.

by 3PM, i was surrounded by a gaggle of 3-6 year old kids running around, jumping in a pit of foam, swinging from ropes, and working themselves into a frenzy. i tried to make conversation with the anxious mothers who kept an eye and intermittenly yelled warnings to their respective children. after an hour of carefree playing, the kids were gathered to the party area to feast on fruit, pretzels, chicken nuggets, doritos, nilla wafers, and cake. the mothers all discussed the point values of the different foods (apparently they had agreed to start jenny craig together) and deliberated about partaking. . . in that moment, amongst the random kid meltdowns and momspeak, i felt entirely out of my element.