So Wednesday nights have become swim meet night. We signed the kiddiewinks up for swim team and it's been pretty good. They've both embraced it and they are both better than average for their first attempt at this thing. Jackson is on the full blown team and Maile-Mo is on the "development squad". The devo squad is more or less to get them acquainted with swimming and "racing" but they keep it fun and non-competitive. Mo could easily be on the regular team, but she doesn't want to yet, so we let her thrive in the devo group. That's Mo in the picture above (dark haired girl looking down at the water concentrating on the task at hand--the little blond girl next to her is Caroline and she joined us in our Uno game later on that night) doing her graduation swim across the pool before the meet last night. She won her heat and was basically the fastest girl. Not that I put all that much emphasis on her being great or anything.

For us parents, it's been an eyeopener. The whole scene is pretty crazy. There's a Stepfordness to the whole deal which is fine as long as I don't have to be sucked into it. Most of the time I can sit with the kids and play Uno or ConnectFour or I-Spy and I'm happy as can be. I remain mostly oblivious to all around but every now and again I can't help but notice the other parents "cliquing" up and going at it. They all drink from red plastic Solo glasses with concoctions brewed up out of sight. Most appear to be really enjoying themselves and that's great. Two weeks ago, I was at one of these deals and I had a woman come up to me and pull me out of my chair, ignoring the fact that the Mo was sitting on my lap. I was polite and joined in the "circle" and talked about vacations, and work and zip codes. I was somewhat shunned when I admitted that I didn't own a flat screen and that we didn't have cable even (a collective gasp--no doubt). I plowed on and admitted that we really couldn't afford Alamo and that the bank kept calling. I asked what everyone else did about this, and they all laughed nervously. When I left, or more or less was dismissed, I still got the feeling that they didn't know I was joking. This week they pretty much left me alone and I got to hang with the kids uninterrupted. And that was pretty damn great. It's a new routine for me, the scene and all, but Wednesday nights are definitely fun. Hope you are well.

Johnny GoFast