rainbow dresses and all

last night i reffed a CSz4kids show in buffalo grove. it was really fun and the kids were out of their minds, doped on sugar and rounds of tag. as the ref, you sort of have to facilitate a balance of "it's okay to be rowdy" and "hey, fucks, i'm still in control". i think this happened. at one point, deanna thought i might have been lord-of-the-flies-ed, just pieces of ref jersey and whistles surfacing out of the mob.

during a couple rounds of Kid Rap, the players made me laugh so hard that i knew the show would be fun despite the insanity and "off the rails"ness. (Martin, Deanna, and Dave Ries - um... created a new "beat" for this game that I really liked.) since i was sort of trying to maintain order and still appeal to parents, i was distracted and didn't notice a little girl, sophie, who had followed me each time i came down to the floor off the elevated stage to be closer to the kids. apparently she ran after me each time i walked about, all wide eyes and precious moments. she was three.

as i was running out the door on cast bows, one of the moms stopped me. "hey, you see that little girl in the rainbow dress? she's been running after you the whole show. could you go high-five her too?" i was all for it, so i fished through the swarm of kids to get to little Susie Who. i got there, got down on my knees and asked what her name was. "Sophie", she said. I told her my niece's name was Sophia and that she seemed fun and pretty just like her. She was quiet and wide-eyed. I held out my hand to high-five. She pawed it gently, but with gusto. Her mom, the woman who had approached me, told me that she was going to be an actress someday, that she was always performing. "You wanna be up there someday? Is that true?", i asked. Sophie looked at me with big eyes and said nothing, but bit her lip and kept focusing on my eyes, so I slapped on the best Santa-esque response i could muster. "Okay, you keep practicing. You always practice and be real brave, okay? I bet you're really great and you deserve to be up there." Sophie nodded, still silent. I asked if I could give her a hug and she nodded again. While I was hugging her, she finally spoke. "I wanna be like you," she whispered.

I nodded and smiled, said goodbye, and got out of the room as my uterus burst into flames.