Celebrity status

Remember that seen from the "Brady Bunch" when Jan was jealous of how much attention Marcia was getting?

"Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!" she whined.

Well, Saturday morning, I could have whined, "Jeff! Jeff! Jeff!"

Friday evening, a friend and I drove one town over to take a sushi-making class we signed up for. It was a lot of fun, and we learned a lot.

I showed Biscuit a picture of the sushi I made, and he said, "Mom, you did a really good job. But I'm not eating that. It looks yucky." At least he led with the compliment.

Anyway, Jeff and Biscuit decided to have a boys' night out by visiting our local minor league baseball team. While they were there, they ran into Biscuit's baseball coach and his family. They chatted for a while, and since Jeff was wearing his press badge, they asked him questions about his work.

The next morning, we got up, got ready and headed out to Biscuit's ball game. After missing two games because of vacation (he was only supposed to miss one game, but they rescheduled a rained out game during that same week), it seemed like forever since he had played.

At his first game, the coach asked for parents to go out on the field to help out. He wanted someone at first, second and third bases when the team is on the field and when they're at bat.

When they're on the field, the parents help keep the kids focused on the batter (instead of playing in the dirt, staring at the passing airplanes or spinning in circles), keep them from fighting over the ball when the batter hits it (during the first game, any time the ball was hit, every kid on the field rushed to toward the ball, then wrestled each other to grab it) and generally keep the peace (tamp down smack talk, keep the fielders out of the base lines and encourage whoever gets the ball to throw it to first base).

When they're at bat, the parents at each base remind the kids to run from base to base. You'd be surprised at how little it takes to distract them from their trajectory.

So at the first game, Jeff immediately started walking toward the field, but when I looked around, there weren't any other dads there. So I went out there, too. I had looked forward to meeting some new moms, but all of them walked straight to the bleachers and sat down. But ultimately, I was there for Biscuit.

But Saturday, there were five other dads there, not counting Jeff. When I saw that, I said to Jeff, "I'm gonna sit my happy self on the bleachers!"

I walked over to find all the moms already chatting with each other. Clearly they either knew each other before this season or have made fast friends.

I was waiting for my chance to start talking to them (because you know I'm such a shy flower!), but before I could say anything, the coach's wife said, "Have y'all met Griffin's Dad?"

One of the other mom's said, "Now which one is Griffin?"

The coach's wife said, "He's the cute one at first base. His Dad is standing behind him in the orange T-shirt."

The other Mom said, "I haven't talked to him, why?"

The coach's wife said, "Well, he is a sports writer. He writes about sporting events for the newspaper. How cool is that?!"

"Really?!" one of the other Moms said. "That IS cool. How did you find out?"

"We met him at the ballgame the other night," the coach's wife said, "and he was wearing a press badge on a lanyard. He writes about the games and interviews the players and everything."

I couldn't decide whether to feel proud or weirded out. These women were discussing my son and husband, and I was just sitting there.

Luckily, I got my chance to speak up.

A mom walked back from the bathroom and said, "Who are y'all talking about?"

"Griffin's Dad," three of the other Moms said.

"Griffin is mine," I said.

"Oh really?" the coach's wife said. "We were just talking about how cool your husband's job is."

"We actually met at the paper," I said. And as I said it, I was hoping it didn't come off as a jealous kid who wasn't getting enough attention. Like I was saying, "I work at the paper, toooooo."

They asked questions about my job, and I told them what I do. And several of them said they were impressed because they couldn't write a newspaper story if they wanted to.

It's funny because when people find out what Jeff and I do and where we work, they are always fascinated. Despite the fact that we don't make a lot of money or that many of the people who think it's cool don't even read the paper.

Anyway, I know it might sound like the 1950s, but I really did enjoy chatting with the other Moms while the Dads were out on the baseball field. And all the boys and girls on Biscuit's team seemed to have a good time, too.