Time makes you bolder, children get older...

I'm getting older too.....
Oh yes, I'm getting older. I have never been more painfully (and I use that word quite literally) aware of my age than I am today.

Seriously.

The weekend was good....Friday night Sox game - Owen's name in lights. That was fun. I had to talk to the peeps at guest services to find out when his name would be up there so we wouldn't be in the bathroom or buying churros or something. We weren't. Thanks guest service ladies. They not only told me the inning (the 3rd) but the message number he was in the line-up (18). We had fans there cheering for Owen, but unfortunately they were above us and we never heard them. Bummer. Thanks cheering fans!

Saturday found us gardening and doing housework and general stuff...I got to sleep in a little which was nice.

Sunday Kev-head and I took the motorcycle to church. We have a contemporary service and jeans are appropriate attire, so we assumed bike leather was too. It's a fun thing, to walk out to the parking lot after the service and fire up the hog. Good times.

That night was the blues extravaganza at Bozley's. 13 headliners in as many hours. It was crazy insane. All of my favorite people were there! I got to see Jon & Laura, and jam with Killer Ray and Pistol Pete. Love, love, loved jamming that night. Weather was fine - even Owen came out to hang out for awhile. Of course, he was more interested in playing bean bags and eating a sundae...but hey, he was there!

Yesterday...well yesterday is what sunk my battleship. We knocked out some long overdue house chores (I filled 4 garbage bags with old clothes from Owen's dressers) and I called some friends to meet at the ball field for a little parent/child softball game. The kids of course wanted it to be parents vs. kids...oy yoy. I'm no spring chicken, lemme tell ya. And somewhere with my age came this fear - this fear of getting hit in the face with the ball. I was playing 3rd and shortstop at first...and every time I'd try to field a grounder I was *pretty sure* that thing was going to take a bad hop and square me in the face. I'd be a version of Marcia Brady coming to work with my nose all huge...would Davy Jones come and take me to the dance?? I don't think so. I didn't play completely horribly. I had at least one nice hit. But boy am I paying for it all today. My legs are sore. My shoulder is sore. My fingers are swollen like little sausages. It's not pretty. I was never an athlete in my younger days, and I'm sure not one now. But I tried! And we had fun. We're definitely going to have to do that again. A couple more families added and we'll have full teams. I better start practicing. We ended the game in a tie...13-13. The kids wanted extra innings, but we parents? We were licked. We didn't have the extra innings left in us.

So here I sit, very aware of my nearness to 40. Trying to pretend that I don't have to live on anti-inflammatories today.

I think I like it better when I'm just screaming from the stands...

Trying to save you all some feedback...

So I probably emailed a lot of you the links to my videos out on google video...I'm posting the least offensive of the set here. Unfortunately it's the same song from them that I previously posted. So to offer a little variety, I've also posted a vid that includes a snippet of war pigs....good stuff...seriously....

Liiiiiiiiiive from the Andrean Battle of the Bands...



And War Pigs:



ENJOY!!

And the winner iiiiiiiiiiiissssssssss....

Circe Media.

Which, for those of you paying attention, does not look anything like That's Right.

It was a good night for the boys. They took a MORE than respectable second place finish. I had kind of suspected as the night progressed that it would go down like that. The t-shirts were a HUGE success and I have more on order. Anyone interested in a That's Right T-shirt, please let me know. They are $20 and all proceeds benefit That's Right.

The boys went on 4th out of 6th - a good place to be. The first 3 bands...well...let's just say they did a fine job for what they were doing and leave it at that.

Our boys? Completely rocked the house. Had the crowd jumping and clapping from note one...I'm not even remotely exaggerating. And then...the gig simulator kicked in. Bobby's microphone stopped working, feedback all over the place, Josway's amp intermittently cutting out. Stuff that was completely out of their control (as there were sound guys, but whatevs)...considering all of the tech difficulties, and there were PLENTY...they still came out fucking fantastic. I was so proud of them. Alex turned in one hell of a personal performance, I might add. His response after the gig? "Ummmm, yeah...girls are talking to me now."

Yes, dear...yes they are. And so continues the circle of musicians getting the babes. It's fun to see the musical baton (and I mean that figuratively folks, don't turn it into something DIRTY) passed from one generation to the next. The band that won was good, I guess, they did all original stuff that was kind of like a cross between Linkin Park and System of a Down - lots of slow build into screamy something-or-other...I dunno, not for me...Alex LOVED them and the mosh pit was a good time. They were the seniors, they were the favorites, and it's better to walk out having everyone tell you that you got robbed than to walk out with everyone telling you that you don't deserve it.

But between you and me? They TOTALLY got robbed and I swear someone was sabotaging their young talented asses...no one else had the tech problems they had, and Circe Media went on RIGHT after them and had not ONE problem....

hmmmmmm...

Saturday Owen had a personal best, too...another inside the park grand slam and an excellent pitching performance. The other team gave him the game ball...pretty good stuff.

I'm now an honorary member of a biker gang, I think. We had a gig for the grand opening of the new 'clubhouse' for the scorpions. If I'da spent 15 more minutes with those guys, I'm pretty sure I would have had a jacket and a new tat. You guys know me - I'll chat it up with anyone, even scary looking guys with names like Redbeard and Cowboy and Killer...they're my new supergay best friends and I'm welcome at the club anytime. Such nice boys. Like Kev-head said....they're just misunderstood.

Don't you know that you are a shooting star....

So tonight's the night...I'm sitting at my desk typing away wearing my "That's Right" t-shirt...fanastic. Can't wait to see the boys do their thing tonight. The set list is good...they're more than ready.

Owen's baseball team is 4-0 - starting to look like last year. Owen is kicking it hard on the mound. The last two games he's had at least one inning with 3 up, 3 down and something like 11 pitches. He really hasn't pitched more than 2, 2.5 innings per game. Kevin's keeping him under 40 due to some new rules. So far it's working out.

He also got to go on a field trip to Amish Acres with the "high ability" student program. They used to call it gifted and talented, but apparently not anymore. He loved the trip, especially since he got to room with his best friend...but the cutest part? When we were packing, he told me he was not packing anything with buttons, because buttons are a high commodity for the Amish and he didn't want them to think he was bragging by wearing buttons. Are you kidding me? How compassionate is this kid...he's worried about offending the Amish. Adorable.

Kev-head shot some video of me last weekend at a gig. It's not great, because I'm dying from allergies this season. Seriously, I haven't worn make-up at all this week, my nose is stuffy, my eyes are watery and my vocal chords are shot from the drainage? The inflammation? I don't know, but I sound hoarse all the time. I was better for about a day...and now, not so much.

For better for worse, here's a little clip:



Have a great weekend everyone!

That's Right, baby, that's right...

So the boys had their first official gig on Thursday night...they did so well it literally brought a tear to my eye.

I told them they can't post the vids to their myspace, because I don't want them to shoot their wad too early if you know what I mean. :)

But I can post them here, because I'm *pretty sure* no one at their school is reading my blog...

If you want to see the rest of them, click on the "go to google video" button in the bottom right hand corner, that will take to you to the google video website for the vid and you can click on "more from this user" or something and see them all. Happy viewing....wish the boys luck on Friday....

Hello my (stranger) friend, hello....

So I got to meet some of my stranger-friends last night live and in person...I mean, we're all friends here, right, but a lot of us have never actually met, so technically we're like strangers, too...but not anymore!!

I had dinner last night with Eileen from Oregon, Colleen from Arizona and Kristen from Canada last night - all of whom regularly read this little blog...and some others who will hopefully START reading this blog: Sue from Houston, Amy from DC and Joanie from Alaska. Smart, beautiful, funny women who are so much fun it hurt to leave them. The night was definitely too short, and we all connected out of the box because, well, they know everything about me, despite the fact that I'm so timid and guarded on this blog, and because we all communicate here and on some other "professional" networking sites. (and I use that term very loosely!)

Upon arriving at Socca - a wonderful restaurant in Wrigleyville, I walk in and see a familiar face. Yeah, that's right, sitting there having a glass of wine is someone I KNOW!! I had the pleasure of meeting Jackie and her husband Kevin the previous week at the Toast of the Town last week and there they were, sipping a nice red in the window. Unbelievable!!

The evening was filled with so much laughter and cross-talk and multiple conversations...it was just fantastic. I introduce you to...the "Women of Like Mind":


Eileen my adorable 'surly' BBFF, Kristen (her hair is even MORE fabulous in person) Katie (yes, my bowling girl) and Colleen (who found me through BUMPTIOUS!!)




Amy and Sue




The peach crostada dance (the mood lighting in the restaurant did not make for good video...)
Eileen actually offered to pay me off for this video and all copies...which just cemented it's addition to the blog....Come on Eileen! What did you expect??)

So much to say, so much to say, so much to say....

OMG - There's so much to tell since Friday - went out for Tigger's birthday on Friday night - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIGGER!!! A good time was had by all - there are flip videos of the evening that I'm pretty sure people will bribe me not to put here...not that we were doing anything horrible, mind you...just funny...

But prior to that was Thursday...the Wine Entusiast magazine Toast of the Town...or as my children call it..."Christmas for Mom". It was brilliant as always...but this time, for the first time, Kevin and I got a hotel room and stayed downtown. So I *think* we indulged a bit more than we usually would. Oy yoy. I used priceline.com to find the hotel - it was awesome!! I got a 4-star downtown Chicago hotel for $125...with taxes I paid HALF! Hooray me!

Saturday was opening day. I rocked the national anthem Tina Turner style and Owen's team won their game in 4 innings. They won last night, too - in 4 innings. Owen looks GREAT on the mound. So very proud.

Yesterday was Alex's first day on the job at DQ...he seemed to like it and said the people were nice. He learned how to make waffle bowls and arctic rushes and whatnot...good times. He's looking forward to going back tomorrow.

Tonight I'm going to the city to hook up with Eileen, Colleen and Kristen who check in on this blog!! We've never actually met face to face, we've only ever been bbff (blogging best friends forever)...we're going to the house of blues - I can't wait!!!! I should have a lot to report tomorrow, kids....

I can't even talk about election day...how exciting that Indiana actually MATTERED...and I went to the Hillary rally that was behind my building...and interesting experience to say the least. I still don't like her, or trust her...but it was still cool to go....

Did you vote? Didja??

ya-ya's of the world, unite!!

Okay, okay, okay, Suz - I'm on it...I've been busy, dammit. I clearly have to write this blog or Suzi will drive out here from Wichita and beat my ass. Her words, not mine.

Last weekend Suz came into town from KS...she was supposed to be here on Friday...ummmmmm...notsomuch. Instead she got drunk...and by drunk I mean blotto'd in the Wichita airport and listened to my son's band compose a song for her over the phone. It really sucked, too, because when I found out her flight was delayed, I hatched a fantastic plan where Julie, Sher and I would hop hook up in Mville and jump into one car and drive out to fetch Suz from ORD. Ahhhh, the best laid plans....

shit.

So she ended up getting here Saturday morning and CLEARLY needed a break from her mother by Saturday night, so we arranged to all get together at the Village. Because Alex had a birthday party in Winfield and Kevin was living at the baseball field all weekend, I had to pick him up on my way out there and tuck him away at Jul's while we went out. As long as he has his laptop, he could care less....

Al and I picked up Suzi at her ma's and trucked on over to Julie's house. When we pull up, Julie and Chris are replacing the storm door. The storms last week did major damage to the existing one. The problem was that it had no handle. Apparently that's something you add later, and Chris hadn't gotten to that part yet, so they had to leave the top window down so you could grab the thing and open it. In hindsight it's really not that funny - but in the moment it was hysterical. We started thinking that maybe he shouldn't put the handle on, and that we should devise some sort of remote control....or maybe they could rig it like those commercials..."Door OPEN" and of course it wouldn't and we'd all go crashing into it accordion style. Again, hilarious last weekend...as was the fact that the arm thingy that is supposed to a) keep the door from flying off and b) bring the door back to closed slowly...well, it brought it back slowly all right. So slowly that we were pretty sure if we didn't push it closed that it still would have been sloooooowly closing when we got back from the Village.

While at the Village, something very strange happened. I've seen less than favorable men try to pick up women in bars before, but this guy took the cake. Now keep in mind that Suz was hot-flashing her ass off, so she's sitting in the Village in her tank top, bra straps a flyin. This guy walks by our table and gives Suzi the up and down...visibly, noticeably and then stands not too far away just STARING. It was creepy. Creepier yet was when Suzi got up to go to the bathroom and creepy guy comes back, sits in her seat and says to me...
Drunk Guy: "You're friend here...is she single?"
You gotta give the guy credit for being direct, I guess.
Me: "Um, no"...
DG: "Oh, really"
Me: "Yeah, she's very married"
Julie: "And she's not even from here"
Me: "She's not remotely single and she's not remotely from here"
DG: "Well, I guess that happens."
Me: "I guess it does."
And off he goes.

It was weird, and creepy and ....ew.

We were supposed to leave at a decent time...because Suzi made me promise...and we weren't out too terribly late, but it was late enough, and Suzi was a little intoxicated...which made the car ride with Alex hilarious. Alex LOVES laughing at my friends when they're drunk. And Suzi gave him lots of great material that night - like asking FIFTY-TWO TIMES if we could go to McDonald's to get cheeseburgers, to which I responded yes every.single.time. but it didn't stop the question. And telling me and Alex that she was going to beat some ass...and I can't remember all of the ass-beating reasons, but I do remember this: Suzi was talking about how she's really at the top of her game and says "Right now, I'm the most intelligent I've ever been" and my response? "Really? Right NOW? Maybe right now in general but not...maybe not right NOW" as Alex cackles from the back seat in response and Suzi blames HIM for her drunkenness because if Alex had just come WITH us...he would have stopped her from drinking so many beers. Ummmm, yeah...

There were so many fun things from that night - but I can't type anymore...I have to get some work done...this will have to do for now, Suz - the sunflower story will have to wait....