My ROCKIN' Friday Night...

I remember the olden days. Friday nights were chalked full of possibilities. I would spend hours primping getting my purple eyeshadow just right. I would emerge from my bathroom in a cloud of Salon Selectives Hairspray, Liz Claiborne perfume and grab my EXTRA green minty gum, my photo key chain and head out for a night on the town. This would consist of a home football game, laughing a lot, dancing to the band's rendition of TEQUILA!, leaning back in the bleachers into some guy's lap and not paying attention at all to the game. Then, I'd head over to the cafeteria for the big dance where at some point in the night we would all go down down down to Rock Lobster. After the final song, we'd head over to the McDonald's parking lot where we would get out of our cars and hang. There were skateboard dudes doing tricks, some kids were drinking, some were making out, some were probably buying or selling pot, some were just cruising by in order to be seen. Sometime before the stroke of midnight, I'd head home. It was policy at my house that I would be grounded one day for every minute I was late after midnight so I was never ever ever late. I'd talk on the phone, spread Oxy10 all over my face and fall asleep with my walkman and Depeche Mode tape on sometime in the wee hours of the morning just to be awakened at 8am by my Mom blasting classic rock because it was Saturday morning and that meant cleaning at our house which meant a lot of Doobey Brothers, Boston and Earth Wind and Fire. I miss those Friday nights.

Tonight, I spent 12 minutes getting all dolled up which meant choosing a shirt with no stain and was relatively unwrinkled, slapping on some Bare Minerals, cheek stain and deodorant and throwing my hair in a scarf. During this 12 minutes I was instructing the girls to strip naked. Strip. Take off your clothes. No your clothes. Stop jumping on my bed. Stop jumping. Stop. Take off your shirt. Your shirt! Now your pants. Gooooood. Put them in the hamper. Now. Stop running around naked. Stop running. Stop. Stop. Then, I proceeded to get them dressed and left the house at 4:57 pm which was 3 minutes ahead of schedule. Oooops, we forgot Sofie in the house. Screeeech, turn around the van, go back to the house and get Sofie. And cups of water because certain people were THIIIIIRRRRRSTYYYY. Now, we are 6 minutes late. But we are going out tonight so help me. We head to the fine dining establishment of "On The Boarder" Mexican Restaurant 30 minutes away from my house where we meet my Mom, Dad, Grammie Bea and my Grandma Houlie. An order of steak fajitas, chicken strips for the girls and an entire basket of chips later, we head to Grandma Houlie's for dessert. After several attempted conversations with totally DEAF OLD PEOPLE (i love these old people but there were 3 deaf people there - sorry Dad - and they can't hear anything so conversation is like huh? repeat. huh? repeat.) I left with Mom and drove to my parents house where the girls were going to sleep. I was told several times they did NOT want to sleep at our house and I could come by tomorrow and PICK THEM UP so I took them there and hit the road. What would I do when faced with the rest of the evening to myself? I noticed parked cars lined my parents neighborhood - there was a home football game just finishing. I drove by that same McDonalds parking lot and wondered if it would be the site of some teenager's first beer, or kiss, or fight later that night. As for me....I headed to Nugget. Our local grocery store. I slowly walked down the aisles savoring a Diet Coke and the opportunity to look at greeting cards and different cheeses and olive oils. Then, I headed to Blockbuster thinking I would rent a great chick flick. I ended up with six kids videos and Made of Honor starring Amber's boyfriend but they are still out in the van and I've been home for like two hours. Instead, I was dying to watch the debate that I recorded. What a SNOREFEST!!! (Except for the part where my Barack O'Boyfriend spanked McCain about the Iraq war.) It was like two people who have the same stand on the same issues trying to find something to fight about. The low point came when McCain said "I looked into Putin's eyes and I saw a letter "K" a "G" and a "B"." huh???? I was thinking I was looking into McCain's eyes and I was seeing it was time for his old guy meds.

In any case, that is how I've spent my Friday night. It's now five minutes past my old curfew so I think I'll go to bed with the 80's station on in the background just for sentimentality sake. Nighty night.