Oh What a Night. . .

(you can find this on a t-shirt here)
A long, long time ago, Mary Alice tagged me for a meme about my most memorable nights. This tag happened so long ago, I can no longer find Mary Alice’s original post to see what the heck I am supposed to do. But, I am not a slacker! Procrastinator? Yeah, but no slacker!
So here goes: Fairly Odd Mother’s Most Memorable Nights, Part I:
The Year: early 80’s
The Age: 16ish
I was young and ridiculous. So with three other young and ridiculous friends, we decided to really act up and STAY OUT ALL NIGHT LONG! Woo hoo! We were twits.
My accomplices were as follows: 1) a dear childhood friend who was flirting with the wilder side of high school life; 2) a sweet and innocent friend who always told her mom the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; 3) our “new” friend who had a tough older sister (the kind that smoked, swore and got into lots of fights); this new friend also had an older boyfriend—about 35 (gag!), who owned a nightclub in the nearby city.
We were four women on a mission—-kind of like ‘Sex and the City’ without the sex, or ‘Desperate Housewives’ without the hot housewives.
Upon arriving at the club, we ran up to the bar where I committed a major sin of underage drinking.
Bartender: “What can I get you?”
Me: “A beer.” (phew, I did it!!!!)
Bartender: “What kind?”
Me: (what kind?!?!? trick question!!!) “Oh (trying to be nonchalant), just a beer–any kind.”
I’m pretty sure he poured me a glass of urine.
My girlfriends were so much more sophisticated, as they ordered Sloe Gin Fizzes, the drink only consumed by girls under the age of 18. They should just handcuff anyone who orders this drink because you cannot possibly be 21 and ordering this stuff.
I don’t recall much about the bar itself other than the noise of the music and the feeling of being w-a-y out of my league. I was not a ‘hip’ 16 year old who had seen the world. I was wide-eyed and dazzled and confused.
Our friend with the much older (cough—molester—cough) boyfriend disappeared into the back of the bar for quite a while.
When we finally left the bar, it was late, but not late enough. Since we had all told our parents we were sleeping at someone else’s house, we now had to stay out all. . .night. . .long. This sounds so much more fun at 7pm than at 2am.
We first went to an all-night diner for pancakes and eggs. Then, we drove around for a while until we were tired and cranky. That was when we pulled into the back of an apartment complex, lowered the seat backs and covered ourselves with some blankets from the trunk of the car—it was winter, and it was cold (what were we thinking??)—and went to sleep. . .until 6am, when the sun woke us, and we made our way to McDonald’s until it was late enough to head home.
Did we ever get caught lying to our parents? Well, the ‘new’ friend’s sister found out about her sister’s way-too-old boyfriend and threatened each of us with bodily harm if we ever helped arrange another rendezvous (hey, I went for the beer!). Then, my sweet-and-innocent friend broke down and told her mother everything.
But, me? I never confessed to my parents. But, I did learn how to order a beer in a bar, and never again slept all night in a car.
And, now, as a parent, I know to ALWAYS call the house where my children are supposedly sleeping, just to check.

You Have to Pay to Play

I’m playing a new game this week.
One of the nicest bloggers out there, nuttnbunny, got involved in Pay it Forward which is described as such:

“. . .a promise to make something handmade, a gift of the heart, for another blogger who is also a crafty person. We’re not talking about knitting a sweater or making a large quilt for someone, something small and meaningful would be fine, and probably provide a big boost when it surprises someone in the mail. . .The first three people that leave a comment and pledge to pay it forward to three others on their blog will receive a handmade gift from me within one year of this posting. I will read your blog and get the essence of who you are to come up with an idea. It may be knitted or quilted or embroidered or……”

I have loved seeing nuttnbunny’s creations for a while, so I signed right up. And, she picked me! Yippee! I can’t wait to see what she sends.

And, then I realized that I hadn’t really thought about the ‘small print’ in this contest. Sure, I’m happy to pay it forward, but. . .with what? I don’t knit, sew, decoupage, make jewelry, do origami, write music. . .my attempts at cake decorating are novice at best (plus, how would I mail a cake???) and I doubt too many people would want to receive baked goods from a relative stranger.

But, by golly, I will pay it forward! What you receive from me will be truly a surprise to both of us (and may take me the entire year to fulfill), but go ahead and leave a comment if you’d like to play. Rather than follow the rules to the letter, I’ll put all qualifying comments into a hat and draw three names from that. Remember that you must agree to also ‘pay it forward’ to three people on your blogs!
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Also, thank you from the super-nice Whirlwind for bestowing another “Nice Matters” award to me. I really needed to hear that, so thank you!

Isn’t She Lovely?

Like the new look? My new banner and bloggy style comes from none other than the marvelous IzzyMom. I feel so grown up now! It seems fitting that I’d do this shortly before my one year anniversary, which falls on October 9th.

Now, if I could only figure out what I’m supposed to do on this site, I’d feel like a ‘real’ blogger! I was really excited that my Technorati Authority Number was 39, but I think the higher numbers are better—so, in other words, I actually suck.

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In other news, it seems sadly ironic that this past week, Belly picked “Meerkats” as the creature she wanted to study (for science she picks a new creature every week). We read Meerkat books, colored Meerkat pictures and even watched Season 1 of Meerkat Manor, a show we had never seen before.

And, now, tonight, I get word that Flower, the feisty and brave leader of the “Whiskers” family, is dead (she actually died in February, but the news just aired). Fairly Odd Father sent me this link to an E! News story about her death.

Yes, of course, I cried.

This week, we’re learning about beetles. Ain’t no way I’m crying over a beetle.