that's me...the creepy lady on the bench

i love to sit and watch the People. give me a latte (or diet pepsi) and a bench at the mall, or any other place people congregate, and i'm a happy camper! today i was parked in the line to get The Girls from school, and was in the best people watching spot...all the people who parked in the lot had to walk directly in front of me to get their kids. it was facscinating.

first, my personal favorite (and where i hope i would fit in, if i were walking past my windshield), were the fierce & fabulous women. put together clothes, heels, great hair, makeup & lipgloss - strutting down the short sidewalk full of confidence. just as a note of honesty, the vast majority of these women were african-american. i actually had to stop one woman to tell her how beautiful she was. and, now that i think of it, all of the dads that fall into this catagory are african-american, too. handsome men in well tailored clothes, though, not in heels or lipgloss! :)

next, one i don't fit into quite so much: the Mom. you can tell these women by their solid color polo shirts, sensible walking shorts & sneakers with not-socks. they are very companionable women, though, who know the names of all the other Moms and their kids, as well as the teachers. they invariably are in conversation with one another. these women are the least likely to wear lipgloss, but the most likely to strike up a conversation with you, and are really very nice. there are Dads in this catagory, too, and they are wearing pretty much the same uniform...but for men. these parents are also most likely to be "field trip chaperone".

then are the sloppy, "i-just-got-up-from-my-nap-and-realized-i-had-to-get-the-kids" parents. i must admit, Kyra's first year of school (or first 2 years) this was me a lot. they get no judgement from me...being a parent is a tough gig. you've got to sleep when you can.

then there are a sprinkling of the rest - some trendy parents, some tragic parents, many that fall in between.

i've never felt like i belonged in the parent section of anywhere...i don't really fit in. or maybe it's just that at any given time, on any given day, i fit into all the groups. somedays, i know i've offended the Mom's with my sweats & "gettin' lucky in kentucky" t-shirt. other days, i've noticed that no one will look at me, because i am dressed fabulously and wearing eye liner. usually i fall somewhere in between tragic & trendy... and that's just fine with me.