Things I Learned This Weekend

This weekend Olaf and I went to a Halloween Party. It was thrown by our favorite DJ and we, on a whim one day, bought tickets. We haven't been to a Bar/Party since we've had kids. I learned a few things that I'd forgotten in the last 17 years.

1. Several days after I bought the tickets I looked at them. I quickly texted Olaf "The party doesn't even start until 9pm! In downtown SLC!" I had forgotten that nothing of consequence starts before 10pm in the Party World.
2. We tried to get there fashionably late but left early because with the highway construction you never know when they're going to shut the whole thing down and wind you through town, making your trip twice as long. Unfortunately we were on time. A big no-no in the Party World.
3. We weren't the only middle-aged, responsible, babysitter-at-home, type. We weren't even in the front of the line for the party. 
4. They carded us at the door. I've never had my ID looked at with such scrutiny and I used to go out with my friends back in college (they needed a driver).
5. Once the doors opened we were faced with the possibility of actually hitting the Dance Floor. Something we were never good at before and a 17 year absence makes you feel even more insecure.
6. All we had to do was wait an hour for people to get good and drunk and then it didn't matter what we looked like on the dance floor.
7. There's No Smoking in bars anymore!
8. There are a lot of Boob Jobs out there, and they like to show their assets off to the world. Hence the costumes: Slutty Pirate, Skanky Cowgirl, Bad Angel, Delicious Devil, Sexy Kitty, and of course Black Leather-Clad Go-Go Dancer.
9. I left my cell phone in the car, I didn't want to lose it, drop it, break it, get it stolen, etc. But I learned that the Cell Phone is an accessory to the dance floor nowadays. People were taking pictures and videos and posting them to Facebook, Twitter, their blogs, and anywhere else they could. Apparently if you go to a party and don't document it, it didn't happen. So sorry, no pictures of us in action.
10. 12:30 with an hour drive home is really late nowadays, we were both so tired the next day. And we didn't even have a hangover the next day to nurse.

We had a blast doing something completely out of the norm for us. We might even go next year if there's another one. We'll have forgotten what it was like by then. Maybe I'll even take my phone for dance floor pictures.

Halloween Costumes

So what did you wear for Halloween? Since we were in Disneyland for Trick or Treating I made a costume for me and Sister-in-law Nurse. I got the idea from the California Gurls video by Katy Perry.

I went out on a limb and made these daring outfits for Sister-in-Law Nurse and me. Since I didn't have the body of a 25-year-old Pop Star I made ours less risqué. That and I didn't want to be kicked out of Disneyland. We were quite the hit with all the 20-somethings and younger. Most anyone older than that didn't know what we were.

Here's the whole family. Middle Child's coat zipped up with a funny face and Baby wore a Ghillie suit.

We had a ton of fun trick or treating and made out like bandits in the candy department. We shouldn't need to buy any more candy for at least the rest of this year. And don't expect me to wear this outfit again. Once was enough for a lifetime.

Day 2 and How We Had Way Too Much Fun in a Museum

The second full day in NYC found us waking up early, again! Wow, we must have had a lot to do to get up early so often. The night before we had Grand Visions of going to the Ticker-Tape Parade for the NY Mets who had just won the World Series Wednesday night. But as we were watching the Thursday evening news to find out location, time, etc, we saw scads of people sleeping overnight in order to get a good seat for the parade. Then it hit us, We are in a City 10 times more populated than our whole state. Like we would ever get close enough to even see anything! We quickly changed plans and decided to avoid Downtown at all costs. So we headed North. First stop was the LDS temple in NYC. The cool thing is that not only does this building house a temple but also a meeting house.

Then we walked to the American Museum of Natural History

We were greeted at the front door by this giant, headless skeleton!

Oh, wait, he does have a head! It's just way up in the clouds. "How's the weather up there?"

MiL by some Ancient Tablet

Helkp! We're surrounded by Roving Elephants!

And monstrous tusks!

Dum Dum wants some Gum Gum.
Sent this to Middle Child and he violated every cell phone rule
at school and was a big hit with everyone who'd seen Night at the Museum.

Hopefully this guy won't eat us! He's pretty big!

Giant, extinct turtle about to give me a kiss!

MiL & SiL amongst the Mammoths

I told them not to get so close, it's spearing them like marshmallows!

Hope I don't see any of these monstrous moose in our mountains!

Giant Scary Shark, please don't eat us!

Ginormous crab walking our way!

Then we went and stood in a freezing line to get tickets for Mary Poppins. Afterwards we got Pizza to warm our chilly bones. It worked. Unfortunately this is the only pic we got of the place. It was huge and busy. Help! I'm not in Kansas anymore!

Mary Poppins!

The theater was so cute!

Look at all the pretty details!

SiL & I enjoying the show

Then, since we were already in Times Square we got some more cupcakes. Yummm......

Aren't you jealous? If I could bring one thing home with me for keeps.
Then it was off to bed with full tummies for another busy day tomorrow!

Memories

I recently had a friend ask "Why did 'I Kissed A Girl' get moved down to slot number two on my playlist? Honestly it was technical difficulties. But I had been thinking about my parents and how they probably didn't want to hear that song. I can see my Mom raising her eyebrows and giving the computer that Look that she gave me when she caught me in miniskirts in High School. I can hear my Dad saying "What is wrong with that girl? Didn't we teach her better?"

It did remind me of the time in High School when I left the song by George Michael 'I Want Your Sex' in the tape player (I'm old!) of the station wagon (and sooo cool). My Dad brought it in after him and my Mom had been out and I knew immediately what was wrong. He was carrying the tape and I thought "Crap, I left that tape in the car!" I had never meant for them to find it in the first place. He said "I don't approve of this song." Yeah, I already knew that! "I really think you should throw this tape away." You just don't argue with my Dad when you're the young, irresponsible, misguided teenager. I said "You're right, I'll do that." So, I did what every good teenage girl would do. I hid the tape in my bedroom and was much, much more careful about what music I left laying around.

Oldest Child also likes the song I Kissed A Girl. My husband tried to hide it from him. I'm not sure how he thought that was possible. I have had several conversations with my son about how music does not define who you are or what you do and if it does, then that is a problem. Last winter he told me he erased a song from his ipod. I asked him why and he told me a friend told him it was a bad song. That really irritated me because he should think for himself. Because we live in Utah with all our fellow Mormons I am really stressing to my children that they need to make decisions for themself and to not just follow the religious crowd, they are not always right. I probed a little further to find out the real reason. He finally admitted he didn't like the song. I told him that was a perfectly good reason for deleting a song but he shouldn't let others judge his music. He also then said it was about sex. I laughed out loud! I told him that Rock 'n Roll music is about Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n Roll! That was when we had our first discussion about music. We've had several since then and as long as he is not afraid to share his music with me I am not too worried about him.