Much-Needed BFF Fix

Angie made a spontaneous trip down from Chicago to spend the weekend with us, and man did it make me realize how much I miss having close friends nearby. We stayed up until 2 a.m. talking. We watched movies together. We took Asher to the playground. It was very low-key, and very, very nice. And, I can't even begin to describe how much of a relief it was to have an extra set of eyes to help watch Asher Bug. I am currently working on convincing Angie to move to the area so I can get my BFF fix whenever I need it, but in the meantime, I hope she'll come back and visit again soon.

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Life Sure Has Changed Since I Was Ten

Friday, we headed up to Chicago so I could get a much-needed dose of nostalgia with my BFF and so Stephen and Asher could enjoy taking a road trip. I was wary about dragging my ten month-old baby, Mr. Squirmy, along on a three hour car ride, but he surprised me. For 95% of the ride, he was either sleeping or a happy boy. I think it helped that Stephen's parents let us borrow the mini-van so we could more comfortably transport all of our crap and not feel like we were in a sardine can. If I wasn't yearning for a van before, I really am now.

We arrived at the hotel with things seeming to be beyond perfect. We were literally a block away from the Allstate Arena, so Angie and I could just walk over for the concert. There was a Target right next door, which was great considering our tradition of always forgetting to bring something along. When we checked into the hotel, we were upgraded from a suite with a sofa bed to a two-bed, two-bath with a full kitchen. Score! And, as I'd stated in a previous post, Angie won our tickets from a radio station. How much more good luck could we have?

Apparently, not much. We got in the arena to have our tickets scanned, only for them to come up as void in their system. The nice lady nonchalantly told us to go across the street to the box office, where they would reissue them for us. We didn't panic; she was making it sound like this had been a common issue. It was when we got to the box office that we panicked: we were told that the radio station had reported the tickets were lost, so they'd been voided out in their system. AND THAT THEY WERE NO GOOD. After making an angry call to the radio station, Angie decided, dammit, we're GOING to the fucking show! And, not only are we going, but we're sitting on the floor! Her trademark bad luck wasn't going to spoil her night, NOT THIS NIGHT, NOT WITH NKOTB! So, for my early Christmas gift/her share of the hotel cost, and with the hopes that the radio station would compensate her for at least the cost of the tickets she won, she bought both our tickets and off we went again, just a bit more pissed than excited this time.

The show was AWESOME, though. Our seats were great, we were to the left of the stage and only maybe thirty feet away (I made eye contact many times with The Kids, that's how close we were). Natasha Bedingfield opened for them, and she put on a pretty good show. I tell you what, I didn't realize how excited I was for the concert until the New Kids actually came out on stage. Within a snap of the fingers, I was ten again. And I wasn't the only one. The place was packed with screaming, giddy thirty-year-olds. They played all the old hits, with a few of their new songs peppered in. My favorite, of course, was "Please Don't Go Girl," belted out by my love, Joey, but Angie and I also thoroughly enjoyed Jordan's, "Baby I Believe in You," which he sang with his shirt open and next to a wind machine. As Angie would say, it was cheesetastic! They played for about two and a half hours. At the end of the show, I noticed they hadn't sang "Step by Step" or "Hangin' Tough." Sure enough, those were their encores!

At the end of "Hangin' Tough," the tall, dark-haired, gorgeous, skinny bitch a few rows down from us decided to get the band's attention by showing off her boobies. I'm sure she was after a backstage pass and a piece of Donnie's ass. I'll never know if she obtained her goals, but she did get their attention. Joey asked her what took her so long, while the rest of the guys pointed and slapped each other in the shoulders like, huh huh, BOOBS. Me, being in ten-year-old-girl mode, screeched at Angie, OH MY GOD, SHE'S SHOWING HER BOOBS!!! She can't do that! It's not a rock concert, this isn't Poison or Whitesnake or whatever crappy hair band was popular back then! It's funny because the majority of people around us had the same looks on their faces. It kind of cheapened my nostalgic moment, but, on the other hand, if I didn't have deflated mom boobs, maybe I'd have whipped mine out, too. Because, you know, the last time I was listening to "Hangin' Tough," I didn't have boobs. The one thing I really was pissed about, though, was that I didn't bring my camera. I do this at every concert. They say NO PICTURES! And then I get inside and EVERYONE has a damn camera but me. Of course, if I'd brought my camera, I'm sure I'd be the one and only person to have it confiscated. I took a few pictures with my cell phone, but they're absolute crap and basically worthless. I searched online for pictures, but can't find any! Boo!

So, despite Joey and Jordan practically begging Angie and me to come back to the bus with them, we were good girls and declined and were back at the hotel by 11:30. The boys were already in bed, so we stayed up for a few hours talking. You just can't go to a New Kids concert without ending the night with some girl talk with your BFF.

The next day, we did our usual Schaumburg shopping at IKEA and Woodfield Mall, and went to Chevy's for lunch. Asher was a very good boy the whole time, despite running on empty from a lack of napping. We were sad to leave Aunt GieGie so soon, and we were sad that we didn't spend a lick of time downtown, other than driving through to drop Angie off at home. Next time we go up there, maybe in the spring, we'll have to go to a museum or something touristy that we never do.

Long story short, to reference the title of my post, life sure has changed since I was ten, since I was last listening to The New Kids. I was so in love with them back then, I had like a trillion posters on my wall, I had a stuffed animal who I'd pray every night would turn into Jordan Knight. I would have killed to have gone to an NKOTB concert, but I was very young and we were poor. I remember when I was in fourth grade, staying up "late" one night to watch Disney Channel's big airing of one of their concerts. So, if nothing else, going to this concert on Friday was sort of like a gift to the little girl I was twenty years ago. Not to mention, it was great to go back in time with my best friend...I think it made us feel both really young and really old at the same time. Like, wow, twenty years feels like yesterday, but, wow, I'm old enough to know how twenty years feels.

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Wired and Not Tired, so I'll Post an Angie Update

At around midnight we got home from taking Angie back to Chicago, after she had spent a week and a half with us while she recuperated from a very bad infection she had obtained following her recent appendectomy. She is doing a hundred times better than she was when we brought her down here; she still has a rather large gaping wound in her side for which she has to care, but she is mobile and able to function on her own again. I think I'm already experiencing a little bit of empty nest syndrome from her absence in our home, but I'm so relieved that she's healthy enough to go back to her independent life. Unfortunately, she still has a lot on her plate right now - aside from her own health problems, her dad was just admitted to the hospital yesterday due to an illness he's been struggling with for the past few weeks. When it rains, it pours...and Angie is experiencing a freaking monsoon right now. It was really difficult to leave her up there, knowing all of the stress she's having to deal with, and if it weren't for our darn cats who think they need to be fed or the darn jobs we seem to think we need to go to in order to pay the bills, we probably would have just stayed up there with her indefinitely. Like we could really do anything to make things better, but sometimes just being there for someone makes you feel like you're doing something.

On a positive note for her, however, she did get to reclaim her dog, Bailey, whose little nub of a tail I feared would fly right off of her with all the butt shaking (attempted tail wagging) she did at the very sight of her long-lost mommy.

During the drive home we stopped at Starbucks for some coffee. As usual, I opted for decaf, knowing that caffeine would keep me up through all hours of the night. And wouldn't you know it - I was up until 4:00 a.m., heart pounding and unable to sleep. I stayed up until two drafting this post, then spent an hour playing Sudoku, and finally another hour practicing the insomniacs' old fashioned method of tossing and turning in bed. Once asleep, I still managed to wake up about 150 times until I finally gave up on sleep around ten. Although my coffee was sweetened with the natural stuff, sugar doesn't affect me strongly enough to keep me up like that. Needless to say, I called in and am only going to work a half day this afternoon. Is a sugar buzz a good excuse for missing work? Probably not, so I'm going with the story that some punk kid barista at Starbucks spiked my supposed-to-be-decaf coffee with the real deal. Because you know, that's so much more an excusable reason to call in.

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Get Well, Get Well Soon...We Want You to Get Well

Reading the most recent post on Angie's blog makes me cringe. In it, she has some pretty rotten things to say about the year 2006, and was thrilled that 2007 is here. Surely it will be a much brighter year; after all, a year with butt surgery as one of its highlights shouldn't be too hard to top.

And I thought I was the only one with the special powers of jinxing myself.

Though it wasn't surgery on her rumpus, this past Tuesday she had to have an emergency appendectomy. As if that wasn't bad enough, she got so sick after the surgery that she had to make a second run to the emergency room yesterday. I spoke with her this evening, though, and she sounds 200% better than she did when I spoke with her last on Thursday night. My fingers are crossed that this is an indication that she's going to make it, because I really wasn't looking forward to having to take the poor gal out back and shoot her Old Yeller style to end her suffering. That would just be quite the bummer.

I feel just awful that, being several hours away, I can't do anything to help her. I am thankful that she has a few good friends up there who have been taking care of her, but then my territorial side also rears its ugly head whining, Hey, that's supposed to be MY job! Because, once again, you know it's all about me. How dare she get sick when I can't be there for her! Doesn't she know that makes me feel like a bad friend? The nerve of some people.

This is a picture of me and her from last month when we went to Chicago to visit her. Ang, I hope you'll be in good spirits again soon, but in the meantime, when Becky and Sarah are taking care of you, I hope you're picturing it's me.

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Trip to Chicago Was a Memorable One

On Saturday evening we drove up to Chicago to spend a day with Angie. We were looking very forward to our trip, as (a) we love Chicago and (b) we love Angie. Angie lives downtown in Lincoln Park - her neighborhood is absolutely darling and complete with a bazillion things to do within walking distance. We went to a little authentic Mexican restaurant on her corner for dinner (which was muy delicioso), and afterwards we took a cab over to The Second City. I'm very sheltered - this was actually my first cab ride ever. (Gee, and it was just like riding in the back of a car, imagine that!) We were privileged enough to be seated in the theater right in front of the stage (we were sitting so close that Angie was literally using the stage as an armrest and the actors were only about 10 feet away from us). The show was hilarious. At the end of the performance, they announced they would perform some improv. As they started their first skit, without any notice or forewarning, Jim Belushi walked out on stage and began performing. It was so cool - of all the nights for us to be there! Mr. Belushi and his son, Robert, were the special guests of the evening (probably because Saturday was the theater's 47th anniversary), so they performed for 30-45 minutes with the cast. During one of the goofy skits, Mr. Belushi was acting like a horny dog and actually crawled onto our tiny, wobbly table and humped it! It was so hilarious, and we truly felt so honored.

Sunday, we met Angie's friend, Becky, at a local cafe for brunch. Again, I couldn't help but feel a little jealous at how cool her neighborhood is - brimming with people, little shops, cafes, restaurants and bars. Then we made the trek to Bolingbrook to go to IKEA and Chevy's Fresh Mex restaurant, because to us, a trip up there just isn't complete without going to IKEA and Chevy's (since we don't have either in Indiana).

To sum it up - we had a fabulous time. It's too bad Stephen has to work weekends so we couldn't spend more time up there, but on the other hand, had we been able to spend more time there, we possibly may have never came back!

Unfortunately, we only took a handful of pictures. You can click here if you wish to see them.

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Birthday Wishes to Angie

Angie, I hope you're having a great day. I hope Will was well-behaved, I hope Sarah made you some delicious chocolate cake, and I hope you received lots of birthday cards and not just lame shout-outs on people's blogs! I can't wait to visit you in Chicago this weekend. I know your biggest birthday wish is to go shopping at IKEA with us, and gosh darnit, it'll be my top priority to make your wish come true! Happy birthday!

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