That in Which the Hapless Heroine Goes in a Bounce House

Saturday me and my party crashing budding, Maximus, went to a birthday party.  The birthday party was for the son of this guy that used to be in band with me and my sister and with whom my mother had some kind of friendship.  They are people I once used to have daily contact with in school, but who are not my friends.  My mom and dad, having gone to Hemet on purpose in the motor home, left me to take Max to the birthday party.

We were late because somebody was busy taking a nap and when I walked in you could see all the family like "who the fuck is that?"  I announced myself loudly, "I'm Shirley's daughter.  I brought the baby!"  As it turned out Max and the birthday boy were the only small children there.  We came in and I suffered through the same awkward conversation I probably had at Max's birthday party a year ago.  "Are you still teaching?"  "And what are you doing?"  "How are the boys?"  "What are your kids doing now?" We were all raised properly and so we all pretended to care about what we were saying to each other.

Then there was the bounce house and the grandma said, "You can go in there with him- show him what to do.  If I could go in, you could go in."  I've never been in a bounce house in my life, being a person who generally does not like to fall down I'm sure I wouldn't have like it as a child and I knew the bounce house was probably not a smart idea as an adult, but I didn't want to be weaker than a grandma and also I didn't want Max to be bounce house ignorant because Aunt Beth has back issues.  The guy's got so many challenges already it hardly seemed fair to add to them.

Max is not a good jumper yet.  At gymnastics he does some kind of foot shuffle thing when he's supposed to be jumping on the trampoline.  He met the bounce house with a good dose of caution and whining, but quickly took to bouncing and even got the big kids to bounce him super high.  I was super vigilant because Max throws up easily and his father said he had thrown up his breakfast and all I could see was that guy barfing all over the bounce house.  Gross.

Max did not throw up and was by far the best at hitting the piñata with the stick.  Probably because my mother bought him a T-ball set which he uses in the backyard.  We had a great time at the birthday party and then we came home and watched Sesame Street and I wanted to take a pain pill, but thought that was reckless in case I needed to have my wits about me in case of emergency in the middle of the night.