Different Planes

Twice within the past week I have gotten stuck in the middle of conversations in which I have absolutely nothing to contribute.  Nothing.  Funny - both these conversations occurred on the bleachers during Jack's baseball games.

Now, let me preface this by saying that the people who were having the conversations were all friends of mine, parents of kids on Jack's team, all very nice people who I have absolutely nothing bad to say about AT ALL.  I am not mocking these people for their conversations - I am just making an observation.

The first conversation took place last week during a very hot, sticky afternoon - we were all dying of heat, fanning ourselves, spraying ourselves with water, etc.  One mother started talking about her son and how she really had to keep an eye on him in the heat because he needs to be constantly reminded to drink.  Somehow this led to the topic of his severe allergies and all the things she has to do to keep him from having an allergic reaction and how she has to be super vigilant 24 hours a day.  So another mother sitting right behind me piped in and started talking about her son's allergies and all of a sudden these two mothers were off in a very detailed conversation involving nasal sprays, anti-histamines, nose-blowing techniques, peanut-free environments, epi-pens, pollen, dust mites etc.  I had absolutely nothing to contribute to this conversation.  Since I wasn't sitting near anyone else I was basically just sitting there fanning myself and feeling very thankful that my children do not have severe allergies.  The lengths that these parents have to go to to keep their children healthy was just astounding.  Both mothers went as far as to say that during pollen season their kids have to shower IMMEDIATELY after they come inside after playing.  Crazy!! Jack was diagnosed with some allergies a few years ago - but they never became full blown and basically as long as he stays away from tree nuts, he's ok.  I think I'd go nuts (no pun intended) if I had to do all the things these mothers were talking about.

So then today - at another baseball game, two mothers (one was one of the same ones from the last conversation) began talking about the fact that they are both vegetarian.  They went into great detail about what they eat, what they don't eat, etc. etc.  Then the second mother from the allergy conversation piped in with a recommendation for a great vegan restaurant in the area and suddenly we had three vegetarians talking restaurants, food restrictions, where to get vegan pizza, etc.  They were all sitting in a triangle around me and I happened to be holding an umbrella up providing shade for everyone - so basically I was holding the umbrella over them while they had their vegetarian pow-wow.  Again, I had nothing to contribute.

Now if someone had sat down next to me and started talking about eating kobasa and herring and how their kids play outside for hours and then don't shower til the next day, THEN I'd have something to talk about!