Music I'm Embarrassed to Love

Some of my oldest music memories are of sitting in my room listening to this Journey album. I had the tape! I wanted to share my favorite song on the record with you. To me, Journey is not a band to be embarrassed about, but some of my girlfriends are, in fact, embarrassed to love their songs. Silly girls!

Some of the other tapes I remember listening to at the time were Bon Jovi, Slippery When Wet (another embarrassing song choice!), Duran Duran and Michael Jackson's Thriller - I actually had the record....you know, that big, black, round floppy thing that you had to play with a little needle?

And so, this song is dedicated to all my girls out there...who still rock to Journey...when they're alone in the car...with the windows rolled up. :) Go ahead and sing along. I won't tell anyone!

"Send Her My Love" by Journey, circa 1983

Deep Thoughts

Do you have those days where you look at your body in the mirror and decide that you don't look too bad, and those thighs look pretty firm...

And then the very next day you look again and feel like a fat turd?

Today's one of those fat turd days for me.

How can we swing from one extreme to the other in just 24 hours? Why do my eyes trick me into thinking I might have actually lost a pound or two...until I go to try on my pants and...well, it's fat turd time! Tasha! Break it downnnn!

Or how can I bust my ass at Zumba for two weeks, eat well (high protein, low carbs, no sweets, no soda, no beer) and still gain weight?

And why did I have to be blessed with pale, Irish skin when pale skin just makes me look more like a fat turd and less like a skinny, shapely woman? Why does being tan make me look thinner? I think I've made the tan-in-a-bottle makers very, very rich. I've tried a spray tan, too, and it was ok. But knowing me, I'll eventually fuck it up one day and come out as orange as a Sesame Street monster.

I guess I'm just having a lonely, grumpy, fat turd kind of day. So my question to you is, what do you do to cheer yourself up...when you're having a turd kind of day?

Conversations With Ava

Just the other day, out of nowhere, Ava says to me "Mom, I figured it out! Kids grow up, and then they have babies, and then those babies grow and become more kids!"

And I'm laughing thinking yesssss, my four-year-old has realized the circle of life!

So today, she blurts out "Mom! I cant wait to have a baby in my tummy! And then I'll have a kid..."

Oh shit. Um, NOT so funny. So I nodded and said yes, someday you will. (please GOD...wait 25 years...)

Then later today she said "Mom, I'm going to give kitty to my baby when I have one..." Kitty, a little orange stuffed cat, is her most precious toy. Kitty goes everywhere with us and I consider Kitty a member of the freakin family. We almost lost Kitty once and I had nightmares about it the whole night. Here in this picture you can see Kitty is on her way to the restaurant with us... iPod and Kitty; Ava's staples!

We've decided now that we're going to Petsmart to make Kitty a real cat's collar, with our phone number on it, so that if it happens again someone will call us. Nowadays, when Ava takes Kitty places, she sticks her in her shirt and pulls her head out the top - she reminds me of an attachment parent carrying her baby on her chest.

I told The Hubs that I'm going to invent a stuffed animal collar so that we parents won't have to worry so much about those precious, stuffed toys when they get lost...I'm such a freak!

Growing Older is Weird

Getting old is weird. It's like my brain doesn't realize I've aged 10 years. But then something happens and the mental shit hits the fan and forces it (my brain, that is) to realize it ain't the spring chicken it once was.

I swear my brain still thinks it's 24.

What the fuck, brain? Why confuse me so?

I had mental shit hit my internal fan today.

I was grocery shopping - one of my most favorite things to do...not. Anyway, I'm checking out and the checker is a young, early 20-something cutie patootie. He's jabbering away to the bagger who, after listening to their banter, I took to be his roommate. This bagger/roommate kept talking and the checker cutie patootie turns to me and says

"You should complain to the store that he (the bagger) keeps interrupting us."

I knew he was just being a smart ass, and I can play the smart ass game pretty well myself, so I quipped back

"That's ok. I have kids, so I'm used to it."

Okay, okay, not exactly what I'd call funny or smart assed. Throw me a bone - I stay home and converse with a four and a six year old all day. My smart-assms are rusty.

But here's where he drops the big shit bomb on me.

He doesn't miss a beat, laughs at my joke, and says-

"Yea. Haha! That's exactly what my mom would say!"

Oh dear God. Did he, a boy who is probably only ten (or so) years younger than I, just compare me to....(hard swallow)....his mother.

Um, duuude. I'm not that old.

Sweet Jesus, Mary and Joseph. I'm being compared to a 20-something's mother.

I had to check myself and just smiled at him. I'm not the cute, unwrinkled, charming, natural blond 24 year old I once was.

Um yes, can I add some anti-wrinkle cream to my shopping cart?

Damn you, brain.

Music I'm Embarrassed to Love

I don't know a woman over 30 that doesn't love Heart. Anne and Nancy showed all of us that we could rock as hard as the dumb boys - and look hot doing it.

Lucky for me, I had to opportunity to see Heart live at the House of Blues in Mandalay Bay a few years ago. It was a great show - I was right up against the stage, and my girlfriend and I were invited by some of the "crowd boys" to party with the band after the show. I got to meet the whole band - their current drummer used to play for another favorite of mine, Alice in Chains.

Most of Heart's songs are really good - not anything to be embarrassed about. But there are a select few, this song for instance, that are painfully cheesy. But I can't deny that I LOVE this song. It makes me want to slip on some hot pink legwarmers, put on my lace headband and dance around like Nancy Wilson!

Rock on, ladies.

"There's the Girl" by Heart

Deep Thoughts

Have you ever had so much beer piled in the front passenger-side seat of your car...that the car thought it was a person...and the car starts beeping at you, asking for that "person" to put their seat belt on?

Have you ever put a seatbelt on a case of beer?

Um yeah, me either.

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My birthday cake was sooooo yummy. So yummy, in fact, that the hubs caught me eating it right out of the box. Me don't need no stinkin plate!

Speaking of this picture, don't you love it when someone takes a picture of you holding something, and your arm is pressed tightly against your side, which makes your arm look three times as big (fat)? Yea, I love that too. Crap, I can't pose all the time - especially when I'm eating a ten-pound cake straight out of the box...

Ten-pound cake...fat arms....maybe this picture is trying to tell me something.

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My lovely mother just bought me the Zumba DVDs for by birthday - I asked for them. I've tried out a few and well, I have LOTS to say about them. Ha - I have a lot to say about something? Imagine that! It should make for a pretty funny blog post, because I spent an entire hour yesterday giggling at the toolbox dude who created the videos/workout.

Stay tuned for that blog - you won't want to miss it.