Tonight

It's almost 3:00. At 6:00 Justin, Story, Holly, Hayden, and I are supposed to be in Little Rock for the Arkansas Travelers game. You've never heard of the Travelers? Neither had I. They're Arkansas' minor league baseball team and they're playing at Dickey Stephens Park tonight. Napa is having their summer company picnic there. This is exciting to me because I've never worked for a place that cared to have company picnics, much less ones to which the kids were invited and where there was more on the menu than pizza and more to do than pretend it's a party when it's really a meeting.

I can't tell if Holly and Hayden are excited or not. They keep asking what the Travellers are. Justin is getting more than a little irritated at having to explain that they're not major league ball players as if the shame of Arkansas not having a major leage team is a reflection on him as a person and the perceived failures of his lifetime. "I can't even live in a state with a pro ball team!" He keeps saying, "it's the Cardinals' farm team!" and "Mark McGuire played for the Travelers!" I don't make it any better when I refer to our outing tonight as "going to see those kids play."

I don't know if I should be ashamed or not, but I'm excited about tonight. It will be nice to take the kids out to do something that's not a movie, I'm excited to meet the people from the other stores whom I a fuss at on the phone for always stapling their invoices together and never checking the ink in the printer, it will be a new experience for Story, I won't have to cook dinner. Justin's sister says there's even a place in the park where people yell insults at the players, and Hayden is looking forward to that. Like the family road trips, I know that a family night that is easy and fun is a pie-in-the-sky dream, but that doesn't stop me from dreaming it. I'll keep you updated.