Big Hair and Valentine's Day

As those who know me know, I am against Valentine's Day.

Quite frankly, I think it's the stupidest holiday ever created.

I don't really understand why it's even a holiday.

However . . .

This year, since it's no longer just the 2 of us and nights out are few and far between, I decided to suck it up and embrace all the nauseated-ness that comes with Valentine's Day (gag me now).

Which means I gave Mike this: And in return, he took me to see this:
Boo-yeah! It was RAD! (To quote some venacular from the '80's.)

Now, being only 21 years old, I, of course, was not alive when the songs in this show first came into circulation. But Mike was. And I thought he'd be excited to see a musical with songs from Poison, Guns N' Roses, and White Snake. He was slightly put off by the Starship and REO Speedwagon numbers. I think he groaned loudest when they started the opening bars of "We Built This City." (Can you blame him?)

So, we're sitting there, having a grand time (I'm singing at the top of my lungs and head-banging with the rest of the audience (Mike just sat there)), when . . .

Let's just say we could smell him before we saw him.

I don't know if he was trying to combat the greasy, dirty, smelly image that the rock stars of the '80's tended to put off, but the actor who played Stacey Jaxx came strolling right by us - and he was wearing so much cologne, we could still smell it by the time the show was over and it lingered until we left. Bleech! And we both agreed that the girl who played Sherrie wasn't that great.

But all in all, it was so much fun (definitely NOT a show for kids - there's some swearing and Sherrie becomes a stripper (I think Mike enjoyed that part the most))! The show definitely has some flaws (the book isn't all that coherent and it makes fun of itself as a Broadway show way too often), but if you were a child of the '80's (again, I'm too young), it's a riot!

I was most disappointed in the audience: I didn't see a single leopard skin tube-top or a head of big, crimped hair in the whole crowd.

Why?

It's been nearly a month since I've enlightened the blogsphere with my latest crazy antics.

Why the silence?

Because I've got nothing.

Just life.

(Oh, I could go on and on and on about our little girl and how amazing and wonderful and beautiful she is, but that would bore you, right? So, no. Nothing about Lucy. (Although I took her to her first movie yesterday, Beauty and the Beast in 3D. She was very good. And she loved singing along. AND she is nearly walking! She takes a few steps every now and then, but she doesn't understand why she should bother when she can get there faster by crawling. She's so silly. Okay, there, now nothing about Lucy.))

Lately, my life is full of "why's."

Why can't I eat chocolate with every meal? (Who says I don't?)

Why can't I buy those $600 shoes? Why can't I sleep as long as I want?

And most especially, Why can't I have the one thing my heart most desires? Why?! Why?! WHY?! (And that thing has nothing to do with chocolate, shoes, or sleep.)

WHY?!

In the meantime, while I ask my "Why's" and wait patiently (I'm trying, Lord, I promise!) for an answer, I'll just try to continue to enjoy the things I do have.

Namely, this beauty:

Oh, yeah.
And this year we will be celebrating Valentine's Day. (GASP! WHAT?! NO!) Yes. I told Mike that since our nights out are now few and far between and even though it's still the stupidest holiday ever, he'd better get on board and prepare to celebrate to the utmost grossiest extent possible.
Because I could really use a little romance.

Lucy's First Battle Wound

So, the other day, my mom calls me. And she says the most frightening thing I've heard in a while:

"Lucy got hurt."

Panic immediately enters my brain and I start calculating how fast I can get to Lucy and how many laws I'm willing to break to do it. (Answer: All of them.)

"But she's fine."

Okay . . .

"She didn't even cry."

Apparently, my amazing little girl (who is days away from walking), was showing her cousins how good she is at standing up all on her own and fell over and hit her head on my sister's hearth.

So . . . Lucy has her very first shiner!

Sorry the picture is so blurry. We wanted to tell everyone she got into a fight with the cat (believe me, if that was true, Lucy had it coming), but the real story is better: That Aimee gave her the black-eye. (Well, Aimee's house, technically.)

Hopefully, there won't be too many more of these incidents.

(As I knock on wood, throw salt over my left shoulder, and stroke a rabbit's foot.)

Christmas 2011

How was your Christmas? Ours was really good.
Lucy was really spoiled. She got lots of new toys.
But this one was her favorite:
Yes, she played with the box more than she did with her new toys. Why we even bothered to buy her toys at all is still a mystery.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Today is Mike's Birthday.

His 30th birthday. The big 3-0. As this is a huge milestone (and one that totally SUCKS, by the way (not that I know, being only 21 myself)), I was going to throw him a party. But . . . alas . . . life and promises made to others happened instead. (Plus, he told me he didn't want a party. The big party-pooper.)

So . . . I took him to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse last night. Yeah, that's the steak we ate last night (half-finished). The thing was bigger than my face. (Face? Try bigger than my whole head!) We got the Porterhouse for 2. I've never seen so much meat in my entire life. Although, Mike told me he could have finished it himself.

Have you ever been to Ruth's Chris? We never had before and we were very impressed with the service. (The food was good too, but not really worth the $$$$.) (Although, I highly recommend the Lobster Bisque.) I had made a reservation and they had asked me if we were celebrating anything special. So, when we arrived at our table, there was a little birthday card from Ruth's Chris sitting on the table for Mike. How nice.

So, we're sitting there, enjoying our 600 ounce steak, and all we can hear is the lady at the table behind us talking. LOUDLY. Seriously, a the fire alarm wouldn't have drowned her out.

So, Mike and I are pretty much sitting in silence, because it is impossible for us to talk over this lady. And I must have had a weird look on my face or something, because one of the waiters came up to our table and said to us, "Don't worry, I think their leaving soon."

It took me a minute to process what he was saying.

I was mortified!

I felt awful that my face must have registered my disdain for this loud woman and the staff felt that they needed to say something to me about it!

Although, Mike might have been right, that the wait staff was probably making fun of her too, so they were just letting us know that they felt our pain.

I was still mortified, though.

Anyway, since it was Mike's birthday, our waiter "bought" Mike dessert: He wanted the chocolate bread pudding. YUMMY! Although, we discussed it and we think Ruth's Chris needs to serve this dessert with whipped cream. It is really rich and we needed something to cut the sweetness.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

(If only this were true from Mike to me.)
P.S. Congratulations to Ed & Jen on the birth of their beautiful new baby girl! She's gorgeous!

A Christmas Tradition

It's my favorite time of year! I love, love, love Christmas time. Love, love. LOVE.

LOVE.

Lucky for me, I grew up in a family who loves Christmas as much as I do. My mom always turns the house into an absolute fairyland! (And some years that is literally a fairyland. My mom does "themes" for Christmas. Each Christmas, she picks a different theme for the year. Santas, snowmen, nutcrackers, gingerbread men, and her favorite, fairies. (YES, she has enough Christmas decorations to decorate with just that one theme each year. YES, storing all those Christmas decorations drives my dad nuts.) And my mom loves glitter. To her, glitter is her prozac. Mike always says he knows when Lucy has been at Grandma's because she comes home with glitter on her. And her Christmas decorations have tons of glitter! My dad always says everything is glitter-covered at their house until July.)

Anyway, one of our traditions has been to visit the Festival of Trees. And this year, it means that Lucy met Santa for the first time! We had a hard time getting her to smile, because she really needed a nap, but she didn't scream, so I'd say it was a win. I've got to say (and Mike will laugh when I admit this) the trees were a little disappointing this year.

Except for this one: The "U" on top lit up. It was awesome. I must try to find one for our tree. I'm betting Mike would prefer that to the purple butterfly that adorns our tree now.

And this "Tangled" Gingerbread House was pretty impressive: But, mostly, it was a disappointment. Seriously (and I'm not sucking up so Santa will bring me more presents!), my mom's Christmas trees are a lot better than most of the trees we saw.

I'm so excited to be able to share my favorite time of year with Lucy this year (yeah, because an almost 8-month-old really knows what's going on, right?!)!

Right.

Something To Be Grateful For

The fact that Lucy will sleep in the car. (And sometimes that is the ONLY place!)