me and julio down by the schoolyard

Summer nights we walk. We sometimes get a coffee or walk around the park. Lately we've been sitting in the bleachers of neighborhood softball games. M loves it, there are usually other kids on the grass and they all run around and J and I sit and watch people we do not know hit the ball well and not so well. Tonight was perfect, a nice breeze and a rousing game. The umpire took a softball in the groin and the players and fans alike all started cracking up. What is it about grown men getting hit in the nuts that makes everyone laugh, I wonder and yet it's true, we are all 12 years old.

M and I are headed off for a girls weekend of sorts, two girls on a plane and then my baby goes to my parents and I get to spend a weekend with my two best friends, women I see just once a year. We plan this weekend all year long, the one time all three of us are in the same country. This year we've decided to sit poolside and not lift a finger all weekend long. We'll catch up on the politics in the Middle East and who has travelled where and how long our hair has grown, one friend comes from Syria and the other has amusingly turned into something of a socialite so her house is like a fancy spa. But she's good to us and she'll pretend not to notice when we use all her fancy face cream on our legs and put our dirty feet on her expensive couch just like we always do because again no matter how old we get we are all still 12 years old.