No, I haven't been posting much recently. I know. I suck. Sorry about that.

Anyway, last night after going to the polls (I decided at the last minute NOT to wear my lesbian shirt, as Jeremy so kindly provided me with an article about a pollster beating up a voter), Kevin and I went out to playgroup, following our normal Tuesday evening routine.

We got there and the crazy lady was already there. I almost turned around and left again, but Jess would have been disappointed, and there are certain things that I ought to learn to deal with for her sake, and fucked-up bitch-crazy ladies are probably the least of them. I suspect in a few years I'll have to learn to put up with fucked-up, bitch-crazy teachers, or psychotic principals, or something else even less pleasant that will be able to have a lot more control over my child's life.

Oddly enough, she was being mostly quiet for a change. The daughter-spawn was sleeping in the stroller while the two boy-menaces were running around.

There weren't very many people there, either. Two sets of twins - the unfortunate Britney and Avril, and the even less fortunate Cloe and Cleo (I shit you not. Some people are insane) - were there, plus the Cleo/Cloe's mom's two sisters and their kids. (Aime and Katrina. I know, because Cleo and Cloe were yelling for their cousins the entire time.) There was also a tiny brunette girl wearing a brushed blue velvet outfit who was a terrible tattletale. She ran back to her mother every 15 seconds in tears because: someone broke in line, someone touched her, someone looked at her funny, someone breathed in her air (yes, she really did actually say that.)

So, I thought maybe things would be ok. I sat down with Kevin (coincidentally as far away from the crazy-lady as possible) and let Jess loose on the world. Or at least, a small, plushed fenced in portion therein.

About twenty minutes passed peacefully enough (or as peacefully as it can, with nine 6 and unders running around like lunatics). Mostly Jess avoids the crazy-lady's kids, as they're older and faster than she is. Tonight, the younger one (Damien Alexander) is hanging around Jess a little more than normal, and on at least one occassion, the two boys are attempting to play "ring around the rosey" with her. Jess is... confused. Eventually, Jeffrey Allen (crazy lady's oldest son... you know, she never actually calls them Jeff or Jeffrey or Damien or anything, it's always Jeffrey Allen and Damien Alexander) did this pile on thing where he and Cleo and Katrina all went down the slide in a heap (the tiny Cleo in the middle between 6 year old Jeffrey and 5 year old Kat, there was 3 year old Cleo).

"Jeffrey ALLEN!" I groan. There she goes again... she immediately starts screaming at her sons, detailing their crimes towards humanity. No going down the slide like a layer cake. No tunnels. No pile ons. No. No. No. Every time she screams No at the top of her lungs, Jess stops and nervously looks around before continuing to play.

The other children, who were being rather well behaved up until this point - well, aside from the tattletale, who was back sobbing in her mother's arms because Jess had a sock on inside out (she did, actually, but why this was necessary to cry about, I've no idea) - start getting a little rowdy. Cleo and Cloe start pushing each other off the slide. Aime keeps going up the slide after Jeffrey Allen and grabbing him around the middle before they go down the slide together (which is causing his mother to yell at him MORE.) Other parents are starting to get involved, hauling the children away to various time-outs.

Crazy-lady's daughter wakes up and starts to cry. Rather than comforting her, Crazy-lady starts yelling at both her sons for waking up their sister. Finally, Crazy-lady says they're going to leave, and tells the boys to put their shoes on. Both boys start crying, wailing, screaming, and promising to be good. Crazy-lady relents, and then continues to yell at them for another 10 minutes. At one point (and I couldn't see what was going on because Crazy-lady was blocking my line of sight) she yelled at Jeffrey Allen to stop scratching someone, that he has sharp nails like a girl and she was sick of being yelled at by other parents about it.

We leave. We've had just about enough.

A new resturant has opened up in the mall's food court; Filipino food. (There's also a sushi bar that's new, but Kevin can't eat sushi.) We inquire about ingredients and get a sample plate of food. Cabbage stuff and noodles: not too impressive. Spring rolls are spring rolls, mostly. But these chicken wings? Yummy. They were so good, I got back up and ordered another eight of them. The manager of the Filipino place was nice, friendly, and pleased to see me again. We chatted a bit.

I get back to our table and Jess is merrily eating one of the chicken pieces. She tilts her head to look up at something. I blink and look closer. Bruises. All around her throat under her chin. And fingernail marks. She looks like she's been throttled. I point them out to Kevin, who promptly goes into a slow burn.

I didn't actually see when this happened, but you know, I can make a damn good educated guess...

Sigh. I don't really know what to do, now. I don't want to take playgroup away from Jess. She doesn't get out of the house often enough as it is. But I also don't think these kids and their mother are anything but a bad influence...