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2002-06-15 | 11:13 p.m.

A long and winding day. First thing this morning I played softball in the mothers-and-daughters game. I had hoped that all the sportif mothers would cover for me and I could hide out in right field until it was over. Actually, I tried to get out of it completely, but Duff guilt-tripped me into going. But when we got there, only two other mothers showed up, and one of them not until halfway through. And the other mother was a total ringer--she had played softball in college, for God's sake, and she was totally skinny and hitting balls into the next ZIP code. It was awful. I mean, cripes, I compare badly to regular mothers, let's get the Bionic woman in my face. I felt so inadequate.

But I think Felony was proud of me anyway. So I guess it was all worthwhile. And it's not as if I didn't get hits, too, they just stayed in the same time zone. And when I had to run bases I ran just as fast as I could make myself go, which to everyone else probably looked like I was barely moving. But oh well. Regardless of how it looked, I am a competitive person and I was trying.

Then we had the closing ceremonies, and a potluck, and a dunking tank. And Jasper threw a world-class fit because I wouldn't let him go into the dunking tank. I expected my kids to be experience junkies, but sometimes even I am surprised. So what could I do? I let him get dunked. He can't even swim, but his father is tall, so it all worked out. Criminy went into the tank once, but Felony went four times. I could hear the other mothers saying, "Look at her shivering! Oh my goodness!" and I knew they wouldn't have let her do it. But I did. I let the kids try things because I figure, how else will they know their limits? Yes, sure, she was shivering but that's only because there was wind (there is always wind at that ball park, it's uncanny--even the trees grow at a pronounced angle). It was still June and warm enough to get dunked.

That wind always makes me tired by itself and what with playing softball in the morning I am feeling creaky and sore. Time to go to bed but I had to make note of Jasper not taking no for an answer. He tried to blackmail me, too! He said if I let him get dunked, he'd stop complaining. But it wasn't true. He is three years old and forgets every promise he ever made. And then if you get cross with him, he says, "But I still wuv you."

Forgot to say that one of the reasons I didn't want to let Jasper into the dunking tank is because he fell into the water fountain at the library yesterday and came up furious. The water went right up his nose, of course. But that was at least partly the fault of another kid--someone we know because he went to the same school as the girls last year. The kid has a reputation as a troublemaker but I didn't see it happen, and he's never caused any problems in front of me. I think part of it is that problems just seem to happen spontaneously when he's around. Such that Jasper falling into the fountain at the moment they passed each other on the wall above won't seem all that unpredictable.

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