A Brief Respite from the Freak Show

What a busy week! Really quick, just so you know, I no longer sleep. That's right! My beautiful Beans, in whose sleeping habits I took great relief for months and months, have joined the legions of the NonSleepers.

You know us. You see us every day. We're the parents of NonSleepers. We are the ones who laugh at inappropriate times and inappropriate things, like being denied coupons at Babies R Us. You hear the high-pitched, borderline hysterical giggle and watch as the "customer service reps" watch us warily, making sure we don't suddenly pull a weapon out of our freakishly huge diaper bags and take the store hostage. You hear something unidentifiably scary, something terribly unhealthy in that giggle. You know what that is? That is the sound of one of our precious few remaining gossamer strands of reasonability snapping, making our grip on reality and sanity ever more tenuous. The only thing that could strengthen our grasp is a decent night's sleep-- or maybe just a nap. But we know it just isn't going to happen. And we know we're almost crazy but we try to walk around pretending there's nothing wrong with us. Because if we can outlast our kids' childhoods, we might just make it after all.

So this weekend, Hubby took pity on me and we journeyed to a place with more crazy in it than my head and our house combined: Berkeley, where crazy abounds. It was almost perfect. The weather was beautiful and it happened to be Cal Day. In case you aren't familiar with Cal Day, it's the day of the year when everyone who has anything to do with the University of California is out on the campus and the town. There are a few professors and tons and tons and tons of students, their parents, activity and program and fraternity and sorority reps and everyone else with nothing better to do. Biscuit wasn't with us this weekend, so it was just Hubby, the Beans, I and Margaret the Starship in a Berkeley FULL of freaks.

It's funny. I knew in the back of my mind that the constant comments and questions were wearing on me but I didn't realize how much until we went all afternoon Saturday with hardly any. There were a couple of smiles and compliments (accepted and appreciated as always), but most everyone was so hot and sweaty and into their own stuff that we attracted hardly any attention at all. For about three hours we were as anonymous as we were before we got pregnant and turned into a walking freak show on parade. It was nice. So nice we rolled the dice and took the Beans into the Bear's Lair where they were fantastic, dancing to the music and chewing in their clothes and each other while Daddy and I refreshed ourselves for a few quick minutes.

The only downside was that since it was Cal Day it was next to impossible to find a parking spot. Ordinarily I have incredible parking karma (another post I'll write someday) but it didn't feel like smiling upon us Saturday so we ended up parking up in the north hills. The trip downhill to the campus wasn't bad, but by the time we'd had our merriment and arrived back to the patiently awaiting Margaret I felt terrible for Hubby. He so gallantly pushed the Double-Bean-Encumbered stroller up each and every hill in what had to be ninety degree temps with nary a frown. What a trooper! And even though we were all sleep-deprived to the point of frantic hysteria, some of us still managed to look like we were enjoying ourselves.