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Just went to my first event for sons elem. school since last March. In a courtyard between 5 semi-upscale restaurants in suburban Texas. Yup. I still fucking hate these things.The other moms all have that Texas shade of blonde hair & that well-off white Texas suburbanite mom vibe
There’s maybe two masks visible, and they’re on kids, & pulled down. I get the looks immediately. We ate in a corner & boy went to try to social for the first time in over a year.
I started to feel as though, if I sat there alone w/my ouija board mask & Jack Skellington leggings w/my blue/pink hair fade for much longer someone was sure to come by and “Bless your heart” me,
So, after alerting the boy to my plan, using the excuse of taking the leftovers to the car, I snuck around to the parking lot with the goal of sneaking a cigarette away from the prying eyes of judgy alpha moms. I slipped around the building and
As I rounded the corner, walked directly into a group of 6 cops, standing around, half on the sidewalk and half in the road, in a circle, apparently just... trading gossip. (And maybe.. drinking? Said the beer smell-but they were all in uniform so I’m sure that I’m mistaken)
They unanimously gave me a simultaneous “wish I could arrest you on the grounds of your Antifa hair & satanic mask” look, which I took as my cue to toss the food in my car as fast as I could, taking a route back that happened to be the opposite of the way I’d come.
I lit a cigarette on the part of the sidewalk furthest from the gaggle of armed men, but I could see and feel them doing the cop-watch thing that they do. Where they shift slightly & you know every single one has eyes on you, despite their position in the circle
And how casually they do it. I decided it was a good time to quit smoking and I put out my cigarette and ducked into the nearest between-restaurant alleyway that’d lead me back to the courtyard where I’d left my kid.
As I entered I found that the alley was adorned with ‘murals’-presumably done by local talent. I hadn’t noticed on the way in, either because the other alley wasn’t worthy of the effort, or, more likely, because I’d been preoccupied w/not dropping the food.
Or, on not tripping on someone’s unattended toddler that was lying on the concrete walkway, throwing an epically melodramatic tantrum.
(There had been more than one.) This alley seemed to be free of screaming children, & also of cops so I decided to take in the artwork. This could be just the improvement the night needed.
I imagined that perhaps they’d chosen a diverse group of artists, to do murals, tasking each with decorating their panel in some unique style or theme or... oh.. okay...well.. I mean. Texas is where we are, so this could be..helpful...in case someone perhaps had...forgotten.
I mean the ponies are kind of cute though. I kind of feel bad for the orange one though. He’s like every..and my kid, out there in the courtyard, with the herd, but not really a part of it. That pink asshole is totally talking shit about him to the green one, I’m sure.
Sigh. This is the exact moment where my “maybe I’ll see some cool art at least” hopes died. Strangled with that rope, I think. Yeehaw.
I gave up & went back to the courtyard, where I was glad to discover that my boy had finally found someone willing to play with him.
Earlier, he had been nearing an anxious breakdown, after arriving & not seeing a single kid that he knew. The unfamiliar kids were all already cliqued up & ignoring his attempts to join their game of football.
So I was actually very relieved when I returned to find him engaged in a game of soccer w/a younger boy. Wouldn’t have to listen to him talk about how he sucks and has no friends all the way home. Again-it’s his first socialization in over a year, so:Yay! He’s playing with a kid!
A kid who had also been left out-possibly due to the fact that he appeared to have T-21. A fact which, I later learned, my son hadn’t even noticed. He told me “Brian seemed to have social anxiety- like me, so it worked out well.”
And that made the night worth it. I love that all he saw was a kid who, like him, didn’t have anyone to play with. It gives me hope. The next generation, at least a decent part of them, will be better than us. Already are, actually.
