Note of Clarification

I really like this video. Can't buy the music on itunes yet, but hopefully soon. She pronounces words in an unusual manner, but she's inspiring me to a higher level of glamour.

I questioned the Girl yesterday about grizzly bears again, and she pulled out her science book. It turns out that the MEXICAN Grizzly Bear is extinct. And Bald Eagles are endangered, not extinct, but she claims that she didn't say "Bald Eagles."

I swear she did.

What's Important

This morning, I woke up and tried to focus on my day. I tried to figure out what I should do first. I took the kids to school and sat down to watch Regis & Kelly. Then I heard the phone ring, and when I heard the machine pick up and it was my long-time friend JJ, I ran upstairs to get the phone.

It was true, she said. One of her three-year old twins was diagnosed with cancer. And not just one kind of cancer. It was so many places, they were trying to figure out what kind the other cancer was. One kind seems to be genetic, the other, they don't know yet. They've been at Children's Hospital in Hollywood over a week now, and she rarely ever goes home now. She just stays there with her sick boy.

Suddenly my day was focused. I finished a few things around the house, then I went over to the hospital. It's a large facility, but I found my way inside fairly easily. Everyone there was SO nice, and they've got it light and bright to look as cheery as possible. The parking lot was SO full, and it was amazing to think that there are so many sick children.

I found my way up to JJ, and she looked beautiful as always. She has a natural beauty, but she takes care of herself too. She looks like Jennifer Anniston, and it's hard to believe she has 7 children. She was dressed in white, and is as positive and caring as a mother could possibly be. She's hoping, because that's all she can do.

I took a spiderman toy for her son, but he pretty much slept the entire time.

She's really an inspirational person. She's the most positive person I know. She's trying to balance being realistic with being hopeful and without ruining whatever time is left. Now.

She said they have rooms for the parents to sleep there, and bathrooms with showers for them. They have toys and movies for the kids, and even bring dogs around to visit them.

I don't know why I'm telling you this, but I guess I want people to know what a good place Children's Hospital is, and that they're doing really good things.

I came home and picked up the Girl, and later took her to soccer practice. On the way home, I heard a big sigh in the back seat. I asked her what was wrong, and she said that too many animals are becoming extinct. She claims that the Grizzly Bear is extinct, but I questioned if that was true. "It's true!" she claimed, "And also the Bald Eagle!"

She asked if I could write her a note to get out of Science class, because it was upsetting her. I told her no, but that maybe we could find some small way that she could help.

Later, when we were watching "American Idol", she sighed again. I asked what was wrong, and she said, "Not enough people are using solar power!"

I told her that it's much better than it was when I was a child, and probably more people will use it in the future. I care about these things too, I just have to get her to stop worrying and enjoy the present.

Because, after all, it's all we really have.

Disturbing dream

The other night the wind kept blowing, which always disturbs me, even in my sleep. So I had a disturbing dream, where I was waiting for K to go with me to the Prince concert. He'd wandered off somewhere, and it was getting late. I needed to go to the Prince concert! It was pretty upsetting.

I was so troubled by this dream, that I woke up annoyed with K. Why didn't he make it back in time to go with me to the concert?

K protested the logic of my being annoyed with him because of a dream, but feelings like this are not easily reasoned away.

So I remained kindof cranky until I remembered another part of the dream. Because I was worried that if I went without him to the concert, I wouldn't be able to find him, K did something to make it easy for me to find him. He wore a dress!

And not just any dress, a dress that would stand out! It was the dress he wore in college when he dressed up for Halloween as Little Bo Peep! (his roommates had gone as sheep). It was funny because he's such a big guy. So you know it was a dress with a big skirt. He had on a bonnet, and may have even had his staff with him in the dream.

When I told K about this part of the dream, that made me feel better, he was not amused. I'd bring up the dress and start chuckling, and he'd say, "Yeah, uh huh." Every time.

And this made me laugh even more.

He's a funny guy.

Complaining is draining

So I won't bore you with the details. I'll just say this: Teenagers are unbelievably difficult, systems break down, and mothers of Girl Scouts should set an example in working with others.

So, concentrating on the good things The Boy has to say, the other day he was grousing about morality tales. "Take the Tortoise and the Hare," he said, "The moral of that story was NOT "Slow and Steady wins the race". Why did the Hare lose the race?"

"Because he stopped to take a nap?" we asked.

"Yes!" he declared. "The moral is don't take it easy once you get ahead! Don't get a good lead and stop to take a nap!"

I think he's right about that one.

3121

When I was wondering what to do for my birthday, a friend told me that Prince has a club at the Rio in Las Vegas, where he plays on Friday and Saturday nights. We kept checking in Feb, but the Purple One didn't let the Rio know if he was playing in March until March was already here. I sent a silent request to Prince in February that he please, please, PLEASE play there another month!

When K called in March, he found that Prince had extended his concert there another month, but the ticket prices had doubled to $250! Each! I guess I should have been more specific in my silent request...

Nevertheless, he booked the tickets and we had a spot to see a very expensive show in Las Vegas. The rooms were not cheap last weekend either, the only deal we got was on a rental car for $35 for all weekend, but that was a good deal. But we bit the bullet because, after all, we're not really going on vacation at all this year (other than visiting family in August). This was to celebrate BOTH our birthdays!

We arranged for the kids to be in various places overnight, but that morning I woke up early with the clear signs of a bladder infection. Bah! So before we could leave for Vegas, we spent the morning at the doctor, getting meds for my malfunction. Maybe they heard about my performance last time, when I started crying because the whole ordeal took so long, because the doc gave me a prescription and said he'd call about the lab results. Yay!

And so we were on our way! We made great time and got there in about 4 hours! We didn't leave until about 3 and got there around 7.

I didn't feel like eating much, so we just got ready and headed over to the Rio around 8:30 or 9 pm. They'd told K on the phone to dress up and "no jeans or t-shirts", so he was wearing a tie and a jacket. He looked wonderful. I curled my hair so that it was fabulously curly.

We found our way to the "Club" because we thought we should pick up our tickets, but when we got to the line a lady put a wristband on us, and told us Prince wouldn't be out until midnight!

So we walked across the casino and got a little something to eat and drink while we waited. We looked at gambling, but nothing caught my intrest. I looked at the roulette table for awhile, but I never like to see the green "house" slot come up, as it's not a very good sign.

Around 11 we got back in line, picked up our tickets, and made our way inside. While waiting in line, we noted that K and I were probably the ONLY people not wearing jeans. About shirts, we heard a girl working there tell someone "As long as it's a button-up." Clearly, K was the best-dressed man there. He looked fantastic!

The interior is a big circle, with two rows of booths with tables around the top. Those were the $500/each tickets that include a meal. The rest of us got to stand around in a smaller circle right underneath the stage. We got a pretty good spot near the right side (stage left?).

Once I went to the back to retrieve my boots, which I'd taken off because they HURT from so much standing, but seeing the bottles being dropped on the floor, decided I'd better brave. But making my way back was a bit difficult, as people didn't want to step aside for me to scoot by! Finally they looked at me and recognized that I had indeed been in front of them, but they weren't moving aside for just anyone!

There was a video playing around the sides of the interior, with dancing scenes from old movies combined with scenes from Under the Cherry Moon, and various Prince videos. The closer it got to showtime, the more Prince songs they played, along with other jams from the past. I figured that when they played the video for "When Doves Cry" that he wouldn't be playing that song.

There was quite a mix of people there - all ages (over 21!), lots of different ethnicities. Two tall lesbians were providing a good show for awhile, as they danced energeticly to the soundtrack and stared into each other's eyes. Another lady looked familiar, and now I think she must be New York's mother, from "I Love New York." She had taken her shoes off and was taking up a lot of room.

I took a moment to feel grateful that we had the ways and means to go to something special like this. I appreciate the fact that K and I like a lot of the same things.I felt pretty lucky to be there.

Finally it got to be midnight, and they raised the curtains for the first song - which sounded like the riff from "Soft and Wet" but sequed into another tune. We were close enough to see the little hairs on his chest, and the mole on his cheek. He played a Sly and the Family Stone song, and some other songs I didn't recognize. It was a "Las Vegas" style show, in that he sang some jazzy tunes, and covered some tunes from other people (i.e. "Love Roller Coaster"). He has twin girls sing his backup, and they are just beautiful. Plus they danced up a storm, and were definitely working hard up on stage.

Prince looked like he was having fun the whole time, flirting with the audience as he played. After awhile they brought some people up from the audience to dance along with the band. One guy in a purple hat picked up a guitar and started playing, and the band acted surprised, but we later recognized him as being from the band "Sly and the Family Stone." A white guy in a red hat sang "Play that funky music, white boy" and Prince acted surprised he could sing, but the whole thing was clearly planned all along. It's a show, right?

Then, from out of nowhere (somewhere to my right), OJ Simpson came barreling into the crowd and stopped right next to me! I turned to K, and asked, "Iis that...?" and he said, "Yup." I asked, "Can I kick him?" and he (uncharacteristicly) said, "Yup." I actually even looked down at his ankles, but after awhile I wasn't sure it was him. When I looked over at his face, he looked so old... He was having a great time tho, and dancing to the beat. His jacket was really scratchy against my bare arm. Was it wool?

Then Prince walked out on our side of the stage, and OJ was right in my way! I jumped up and down some more to see over him, and then Prince moved back to the middle and I was OK. Some older guys around us were shaking OJ's hand and slapping him on the back, but me, I was just trying to make sure OJ didn't get in the way of my seeing Prince! Then, just as suddenly as he'd appeared, OJ ran off and was gone. Whew!

Prince looked at his watch and said, "So many hits, so little time..." and the crowd started yelling their requests to him. He played "Let's go Crazy" and of course "Purple Rain", but not many of his old hits at all. K recognized a guy in the expensive seats that looked like George Lucas - he just sat there the whole time wearing a T-Shirt.

Soon it was time to go. Prince had played for an hour and a half, and his dancers needed to rest! He came out for one encore I think, and that was it. After standing and dancing for several hours, we were about ready to go anyway. On the way out I took off my boots again, and walked the rest of the way in my socks. My hair had completely flattened out - either from humidity or the stress of my dancing all night.

It was a great night.

I was glad to see that Prince looks happy. I know he's had some changes and challenges - his little baby died and he got a divorce and became a Jehovah's Witness. So I guess he doesn't believe in drinking or anything anymore. I was glad to see that he's still enjoying making music, and that he seems to be in a really good place.

I think he keeps his show fresh by incorporating people who happen to be in town, etc. My friend's sister went to a show in Feb, and that night he had some players from James Brown's band, and so they played a lot of James Brown songs.



The next day we got up and went to the buffett at the Paris hotel - which I LOVE!! (the buffett, not the hotel) The scrambled eggs are even creamy and light. We filled up, then headed over to UNLV to take some pictures for the Boy.

Then we drove home, and made good time despite a bit of traffic.

Happy Birthday to us!!

Over and Out

Well, the girls played their hardest, and that's about all you can ask out of a bunch of little girls. Our shots were just not falling as they had usually done all season, and one of the best players on our team got really frustrated with herself. I think all the parents on our team were happy, as all the girls played a lot in that game, and had some good chances.

The other team was playing great, and scored some crazy shots from way outside. There's not much you can do about shots like that. We really wanted to win and we deserved to win, we just didn't play our best game last night. The green team had only lost twice during the season, and both times was to us. Both times were close.

They went out of their way to be good sports though, so it seems like they'd either thought about their behavior or had a good talk with all the parents.

There were some game high points, like a girl scoring who hadn't scored in a long time, or the 3 blocks another girl had. We had a nice ceremony afterward, when the Boy said something nice about each girl on the team, and handed them a trophy.

Then two parents brought snacks, so the girls got extra snacks. Then we had everyone come over our house and have a swim in the heated pool, so they ended up having fun, which took some of the sting out of the loss. The Boy even joined them in the pool, which is amazing because we've had the pool a year and this was his third time to get into it!

I think the parents were happy to come away with second place, as they didn't have any expectations at the beginning of the season. Some of them even gave the Boy a parting gift, and gave the family a gift certificate to have a good meal at a local restaurant we like.

Even though it was tramatic at the end of this season, I think it had some unexpectedly good consequences. I think it showed the Girl how much her brother loves her, as he defended her from the negativity of Saturday's game. Maybe it showed him how much he loves her, too. I think it brought the whole team closer together, and helped us to win Tuesday's game.

I genuinely like all the girls on the team and their parents, so it's a little sad that we won't be seeing them regularly anymore.

Meanwhile, what happened to Duke? I had them picked to go quite a long way!!!

Sheesh. Think how THEY must feel!

Lucky Us

Well, we won by 3 points Tuesday night, so tonight we live to play again.

Wish us luck (again!)