i should have just jumped in the car with the roadside assistance guy

perhaps the total tire blow out on the way to the cardinal game was an omen. if you shred the tire on the interstate, just cancel your evening plans because i assure you that even if you think positively and be thankful that "at least i wasn't by myself", "at least we weren't on vacation", "at least we aren't in the ghetto" etc. the rest of the night is already shot to crap.
it is predestination at its greatest.
but i will get to that.

two days ago, aaron asked the very benign question, "you wanna go to the game on wednesday?" and without hesitation, i agreed. he has two standing free tickets to almost all the games, which is admittedly a very great perk of being a high school baseball coach. we are still coming down off of the child induced insanity of road trip 2011 so i figured we could both use a night of togetherness and maybe beer, even though it feels like the depths of hades outside. (it seriously does by the way- this is the 7th 100 degree+ day this month)
who would have thought he meant ALL of us? because truly, what kind of masochist takes two squirming whiners to a game to warm your lap to a balmy 900 degrees?? that would be us folks- turns out, for this very special occasion, he had four tickets- woot woot!

so anyway. we got ready for the game- and i briefly questioned my decision to wear white shorts to a game with my children but moved past it because a) i like to live dangerously and b) they are my longest pair and will allow me to avoid the disgusting sweat slicked seat scenario....

then we left. all went well until the tire situation. i will say again- thank goodness i was not alone! though i feel confident in my tire changing abilities, my car is a different story- you should really have to pass a test to own it because it was unlike anything i have ever seen before! aaron is a rockstar tire changer and car pusher and overall damsel in distress rescuer so i left him to his own devices as N asked me about 460 times, what was going on and if we would be late for the game as if that would be a bad thing. as soon as the last thingamajigger was tightened, roadside assistance showed up and assisted aaron in deciding that the spare needed a little more air. phew- crisis averted. back on the road.

fast forward to the game. our tickets were at will-call and we had to walk all the way around the stadium to retrieve them which frankly was like crossing the river styxx to descend into hell. as soon as we were seated (good free seats actually so thanks for that) N had to poop and A decided she had to eat the cracker jacks that belonged to the nice family next door. thus began the up-down, sit-stand, eat-spill cycle that is america's favorite pastime kid edition. i still do not know who won the game.

at one point the little girl behind us offered suckers to both my kids- though they were sweet pacifiers, A was completely covered in sticky by the time i ripped it from her hands. to make it interesting, we also had a giant tantrum over ice cream, pooped our pants and puked on mommy... i will let you decide who did what, but none of them were me. eventually we kinda ran away from the stadium to avoid dropping the kids off at will-call to say thanks for the tickets. aaron mentioned it being the worst game experience ever but honestly it is not so different from the last time so i guess we'll never learn. some disgustingly marred articles of clothing MAY have been left in various bathroom trash cans but miraculously my white shorts are still unscathed- take that universe!

N's "gesture" which is actually the way he points :/ really truly!