Watching: Freaks and Geeks, which gets my vote for best new show of the season. The series is set in 1980, and I graduated from high school in 1979, so much in this show resonates for me: the army jacket the young female lead wore (I wore one just like it), the Star Wars quips, the Styx song at the school dance. The characters are endearing; the situations they find themselves in are as awkward and painful as high school itself.

Scenes From a Birthday Party

10:40 a.m. Laughter, shouts, and the thok thok thok of the air hockey puck. Muffled sound of running, shoeless feet and the insistently happy beat of "Whistle While You Work" blasting from the speaker. Those are the sounds of Romp Around, an indoor playground where the boys and I have come for a fifth birthday party for our neighbor's little girl, Rebecca.

All of the other guests are Rebecca's kindergarten classmates from her Catholic school, so we don't know anyone here except Rebecca herself and her parents. That doesn't bother the boys, though. As soon as their shoes were removed, they took off like three fleet arrows.

I just caught sight of their little blond heads: Daniel the leader, of course, with Stephen and Matthew trailing along after him. Now they're gone, lost in the labyrinth of the maze.

Rebecca's party is so large that the Romp Around staff have opened a divider, turning two party rooms into one. Three tables are set with paper plates and cups for pizza or hot dogs, and one large table is covered with gaily wrapped birthday gifts. We bought Rebecca a Klutz book of fingernail painting that includes non-toxic, peel-off nail polish and designs. Rebecca is a true girly-girl, and though I was never one myself, I take an odd pleasure in buying girly-girl presents for my nieces and my friends' daughters. I guess that is one of the strange effects of having all sons. I'm also a sucker for frilly little baby dresses.

10:55 a.m. I don't know any of the other parents here, and with a few exceptions they don't seem to know each other, either. I suppose that is because the school year just began. One woman is sitting a few seats away at the same counter I am sitting at. Her daughter is begging her for tokens so she can play the arcade-style games here.

"Not right now, Caitlin."

"Please, mommy, pleeeease," the girl begs.

"None of the other kids are playing the games now."

"But I want to!"

"After we have lunch, you can," the mother promises. "Now go play in the maze."

"I don't wanna!" Caitlin yells, with a stamp of her foot.

"Go play, or we're going home now," says the mother. The daughter goes away, but she knows the threat is an empty one. Ten minutes later she is back with the same request, and again five minutes after that. I have a feeling that Caitlin is used to getting her own way.

11:15 a.m. Stephen and Matthew are on their own now. Daniel has discovered a bar that slides back and forth over the padded floor and has become engrossed in playing with it. Standing on the steps, he can just reach the bar, but he doesn't have enough height to give himself a good kick-off. He grabs the bar and swings his body back and forth to make the bar slide to the other end. Then he swings back.

Another kid wants to try the sliding bar, so Daniel drops off. This girl can't quite touch the bar, and in her efforts to reach it, pushes it out of range. Daniel hops down off the step to retrieve it. Now he has to jump high to reach the bar, but he manages to brush it with his fingertips enough to push it back toward the girl. Once again she tries to leap for it but knocks it out of range. Once again, Daniel pushes it back. Finally, she gives up and runs off to play on something else. Daniel gets the bar into position and goes sailing off.

11:45 a.m. The kids have just finished lunch. My three were more interested in the bowl of popcorn than in their hot dogs. Daniel only ate a few bites of his. Stephen ate the hot dog, but not the roll, and Matthew ate the roll but not the hot dog. As soon as they could, they ran back out to play.

12:10 p.m. We're back in the party room. The Romp Around staffer, a dour teenaged girl, lit the candles on the ice cream cake and we all sang "Happy Birthday." The ice cream cake is still very hard; I have to help Matthew and Stephen by breaking off frozen chunks of it with the plastic fork. Rebecca's father is handing out plastic bags filled with eight tokens to each of the guests.

I am relieved to see the unopened presents have been placed in large plastic bags for Rebecca's family to take home. When I first attended a birthday party during which the presents weren't opened, I thought it was a strange idea, but I have come to see the wisdom in doing so, especially when there are more than twenty guests in attendance. It would take quite awhile for Rebecca to get through that pile, and the other kids would far rather be out playing than watching someone else open presents.

12:40 p.m. The party is officially over but we're hanging out here a while longer with Tab who arrived to pick us up. Daniel and Tab are playing a rousing game of air hockey. The air hockey machine seems to be broken: they didn't need a token to play, and the air doesn't shut off when the winning score of 7 is reached. Daniel still has nearly all his tokens left, but Stephen and Matthew have squandered all of theirs on rides and games. I used to be able to get more value per token by having them share a ride, but now they insist on riding alone.

1:30 p.m. Home, finally, with a raging headache. Even my energetic boys seem tired. Maybe the twins will actually sleep for their nap today.

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