What It's Like To Live in Red State Capital City Suburb

Yesterday we had a long, hot family day in Red State Capital City. It was mostly fun, but we disintegrated a bit by the end. When we got home, M, E, and the girls next door embarked on a complicated game involving a hose, buckets, the baby pool, and the little slide. It was a good opportunity to escape, so I went for a walk.

First I stopped next door to give B and L (parents of said girls, and I keep meaning to blog about how much we adore them, but it's kind of a boring topic) (actually it's not, because in this stratified country, our cross-class, cross-politics, cross-religion friendship is really quite interesting, so maybe I'll blog about it sometime, but not now), anyway, I stopped to give them a bottle of margarita that the B's brought over last weekend when we had B and L and the B's over for a rowdy night of adult drinking and children running wild. I knew we weren't going to drink the margarita, because we are effete snobs who make our own ginger syrup for daquiris, but since B and L are rednecks who drink margarita straight from the bottle (when they are not downing our ginger daquiris), I figure they'd be happy. They were. In fact, B was particularly happy because L was about to send him out to get her another bottle of margarita. So I hung out with them for a bit, and B teased L and me about being lesbians, and L and I discussed how her next husband was going to be white-collar, and we all gossiped about the new principal, and then I went on with my walk.

I only made it half a dozen houses before D stopped me to talk about my girls, and painting their house, and how their dog was coping with the loss of their other dog (he doesn't really care). Then I went on with my walk, waving to R and S (different S) who were sitting on their porch swing.

Around the corner, I came upon S (another S) and P, kids in M's class who live next door to each other. They were roller blading, and their moms were sitting on P's front steps. I told them I was escaping my family and invited them to join me. They laughed. S wanted to join me, but her mother explained that that wasn't what I meant.

It was high school graduation yesterday, and you could hear the parties all over town. When I saw a teenage couple carrying towels, I said, "you must be going to E's house," and of course they were. E is the only senior in the neighborhood with a pool.

A car pulled up and asked me for directions to a street that I didn't know, which meant it wasn't nearby. I knew the woman was a mom in M's class, but I couldn't remember which kid. Then she said that her daughter had gone home with M (different M) and H, and I realized which street she was talking about and told them how to get to M's dad's house.

Then S (yet another S) and C stopped me, and I must have stood outside their house chatting for half an hour. S is the chair of the Arts Council at M's school and I'm a member. We met when J and J still lived across the street from them. While we stood on the sidewalk chatting, L and R passed by, and I said, "You must be going to graduation parties." L is the high school art teacher, and they were all dressed up. I introduced L to S, and we talked about art in the schools.

Then I went on with my walk. When I passed V and J's house, I saw S's car outside (still another S) and figured they must be barbecuing. Then I got home and put my exhausted fussy children to bed.

If you've made it through this post, you can see how boring and lovely life is in Red State Capital City Suburb. I will miss it.