Black Wednesday

Well, it's happened. I am now a Soccer Mom.

Sigh...

Graceful has been wanting to play soccer for a few months now, but we missed the sign ups for spring soccer -- it's not intuitive, but SPRING soccer registrations and early practices are actually in the dead of WINTER. Go figure.

Anyway, we got information yesterday on summer soccer camps, as well as preliminary info on the fall season. I signed Graceful up for a week of camp in late July. It's actually a pretty easy schedule: Five days of camp from 5:30-7:30 p.m., which is just enough time to teach some soccer, wear out the girls, and then send them home to sleep soundly. I've emailed another Soccer Mom to find out what I need to buy and where I need to buy it. Might as well deal with it now.

And Graceful is already talking about playing soccer in the fall too. I am really (not) looking forward to those practices at the butt crack of dawn on Saturdays. There'd better be a drive-through Starbucks on the way to the practice field.

So now I'm a Soccer Mom who drives a minivan and is actively involved in the PTO and Girl Scouts. What other cliches can I dive headfirst into? If I had preschoolers, I'd say I need to get some Wiggles CDs, but we are mercifully past that stage. (The Wiggles are just no fun now that Cute Greg -- the Yellow Wiggle -- has retired.) I suppose I could put Elegant into dance classes just to make my misery complete. A ballet recital would pretty much finalize my MOM-ness. (As if the extra flab, stretch marks, and grey hairs weren't strong indicators...)

As a way to counteract being a Soccer Mom, I'm going to put some really non-kid-friendly music into the CD player, such as the Black Eyed Peas, vintage Prince, and the soundtrack to "Pulp Fiction" (those sound clips are definitely R-rated).

I'm off to mourn the passing of my youth...