| This past Christmas, Hal and I got to spend time | | | | soccer mom. The horror! The horror! When did |
| with some of our favorite people in the world, | | | | my battle cry change from, "I am woman hear |
| Owen and Jodi Egerton. Just their names alone | | | | me roar!" to "I am mother, watch me bore!"? |
| are cool, don't you think? Owen is an old college | | | | As Owen and Jodi showed us around the town I |
| buddy of Hal's. Well, buddy doesn't quite describe | | | | used to know, I felt myself tighten. How could |
| Owen. "Pet" might be a better word. Owen used | | | | these brilliant, strange, curious people find anything |
| to live in a VW van while he was just out of | | | | interesting in me anymore? I not only enjoy vanilla |
| college and writing his first novel, Marshall Hollenzer | | | | latte, I AM vanilla latte! It was then that the |
| is Driving, but I digress. | | | | words of the great poet, Dylan Thomas flashed |
| Owen and Jodi are this amazingly quirky and | | | | before my mind. |
| funny couple who live in Austin, Texas. They met | | | | "Do not go gentle into that good night. |
| while both working on a comedy improv team | | | | Rage, Rage against the dying of the light!" |
| and they are ridiculously in love. We spent the | | | | Thomas was right. Even though the end may be |
| weekend with them recently and they | | | | inevitable, I must go down fighting. I must resist |
| reintroduced us to world we had almost forgotten | | | | the tractor beam of suburbia and all of its |
| ever really existed. A world full of Jazz clubs and | | | | numbing paraphernalia. I knew then what I must |
| late night pancake stops. Of laughter late in the | | | | do. I must rise up and boldly call out others just |
| night and early into the morning. Of philosophical | | | | like me. |
| talks over lingering cups of coffee. Real coffee. | | | | Oh, yes, there are others. You just have to look |
| The kind that holds up your spoon once you stop | | | | in the right places. They lurk in the classics section |
| stirring. The kind that Captain Quackenbush's | | | | of Barnes and Noble, carrying a copy of Dr. Phil's |
| Café used to make when I was in college | | | | latest self-help blather as a decoy in case their |
| at UT-Austin. | | | | daughter's girl-scout leader turns up around the |
| Quack's was wonderful. On any given night, at | | | | corner. You can see the desperation in their eyes |
| any given time, you could find anything there. | | | | as they try to follow the conversations of other |
| Cozy couples lounging in the corner, desperate | | | | mothers at playgrounds about which preschool |
| students poring over notes, wannabe street | | | | program offers the most mental stimulation for |
| messiahs hailing the rapture, and one heck of a | | | | their precocious geniuses. |
| cup of joe. There was a bookstore of sorts | | | | I will form a new kind of mom. Our motto will be, |
| attached to the café where you could | | | | "They may take away our free-time,but they will |
| borrow books on any subject imaginable and | | | | never take our freedom!" |
| peruse its pages while some local kid casually | | | | We will not resign ourselves to scrap-booking |
| strummed his guitar on the makeshift stage. It | | | | clubs and Bunko nights as our sole source of |
| was really something. | | | | sisterhood. We will refuse to throw our full selves |
| I used to live at Quack's. I used to read | | | | into the lives of our children. We, instead, will have |
| philosophy. I used to be hungry for knowledge. I | | | | lives of our own! |
| used to see live music, even if it was bad. I used | | | | As shocking as it may be at first to the soccer |
| to. I used to. Now, my days are filled with | | | | mom legions, we will strive to set them free |
| attending practices and checking homework. I | | | | from the tedious existence that binds them to |
| spend more time in my minivan than I ever | | | | their babes. Instead of merely settling for |
| thought possible, driving to birthday parties for | | | | repulsive reality TV, we will venture downtown to |
| kids I don't even really know. | | | | see real theatre. The ultimate reality shows - live |
| Don't get me wrong, I love my life. I have an | | | | entertainment, art, music, CULTURE!!!!! We will |
| adoring husband, two beautiful children, and a | | | | schedule time alone doing only adult activities. |
| quaint, brick house with a fenced-in backyard. I | | | | During such time, no talk of children's |
| live just down the street from a nice shopping | | | | accomplishments or interior decorating feats of |
| center with a Super WalMart where I can go to | | | | strength will be allowed. We will resolve never |
| find anything I could ever want. I can even drive | | | | again to send out those annoyingly chipper |
| through the Starbucks next door for a Vanilla | | | | Christmas update letters that self-servingly gloat |
| Latte on the way home. And then it hits me like a | | | | about our harmonious families. We will again |
| dirty load of laundry. I only go to chain | | | | experience life as it was meant to be lived. With |
| restaurants. My subdivision actually has a white | | | | passion! With vigor! With real coffee!!! Yes, as a |
| picket fence. Adventure is wondering if tonight's | | | | sign of sisterhood and solidarity, we will say no to |
| CSI episode will be new or a rerun. People actually | | | | the siren call of Starbucks. We will hunt and we |
| refer to me as "Hannah's Mom". It is official. I | | | | WILL find a coffee shop like Quack's. Owen and |
| have become one. I am a minivan driving, | | | | Jodi will be so proud. Now, get out of my |
| cell-phone wearing, bland, boring, suburbanite | | | | way…I've got carpool in 10 minutes. |