Concerts, Mobs, Dinners, Dates, Girls With Brown Eyes

I feel so old. Taking an eleven-year-old to a Jonas Brothers concert doesn’t help. Isabelle wanted to get there early—it was her first big concert ever. So we were there at 5:30, for a 7:00 show, caught up in the frenzy that is 10,000 six- to eighteen-year-olds contained in one space. The opening act didn’t come on until 7:30 and the Jonas clan didn’t start for an hour after that. Such divas. The show ended by 10:30 and I was exhausted, but Isabelle wanted to go to the Virgin music store in Times Square for the midnight album release party, which the brothers said they would be showing up for. Since she plans on marrying one of the brothers, I figured we really should go. In my head, I kept saying “no way” but I knew in the end I would take her. How can you say no?

The release’s locale lead to an interesting exchange:

Isabelle: Virgin makes music? I thought they made cell phones?
Me: Actually, Virgin makes airplanes. But I guess you wouldn’t know that because you were born like two years ago.

OK, I didn’t actually say that part about being born two days ago, but I thought it in my head.

The record release (oops, there I go revealing my age again: I mean CD release) was a mob scene, literally. It was so crowded that Isabelle and I came up with a meeting place should we get separated, which was a horrifying thought but we needed to play it safe. We were up close, three or four people from the front of the barricade, but we had literally an entire city block of people behind us pushing. I really thought that there could be a stampede, one that we would read about the next day in the papers. I was pushed and pulled and jabbed and fondled and threatened. One girl in front of us was yelling to all around her “I swhair ta Gahd I’ll spit on yew if yew pash me again.” And she did. Nice.

We got home at 1:30ish. In the freeking morning. I didn’t get to sleep for almost an hour after that. We had to get up early the next day because I then had to drive Isabelle to soccer camp on Long Island. It was exhausting but she had a really good time and it was nice to see her so excited and happy and I was glad to be a part of this memory of hers. But I so don’t get the Jonas brother infatuation. The whole time I kept thinking of Lisa Simpson’s (yes, The Simpsons) and her Non Threatening Boys. That’s a reference we old people might get.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon at a friend’s house with the girls and then came back to the city and went out for dinner with two other friends and a restaurant that was too loud. See: Another I’M Getting Old Moment. We sat outside because without a pitcher of margaritas and a few beers and ten years slivered off my age, I couldn’t imagine screeching inside the restaurant to be heard or straining to hear. It was so nice to get out and we had a great conversation about lying, mothers, marriages, and very pale skin. We laughed a lot.

I enjoy watching the Olympics but I am beginning to feel Olympics burnout. And seeing all this greatness of athletics makes it easy to lose perspective that you are indeed watching the elite. I told Nicole that they should have side-by-side presentations of the elite with the amateur. So there should be a swimming lane with a regular person like me in it, doggy-paddling down the pool while being lapped sixteen times by Dara Torres. Then you would really see that she is unbelievably amazing. When you see her swimming next to other elites, it is so easy to not see that greatness. At least for me. You know it is great because she is in the Olympics, but where is the perspective? Show a regular person trying to walk on a balance beam next to the gymnasts. Show a regular person trying to do a vault. It might make is all appreciate the athletes more.

Was any one else disturbed that the USA gymnasts all looked the same? All blond hair. Are there not women of darker hair or skin in this country that are flexible and strong?

Above, if it works are two videos. After yesterday’s playdate the girls feel asleep in the car like two seconds after I started driving away. On the radio was Brown-Eyed Girl and I thought it was so fitting, as here I am, with three brown-eyed girls in my life (including Nicole, who will say her eyes are hazel but whatever). The second video is them sleeping still because how can you get enough of such cuteness? In that video, Just Like Heaven is on, which also seemed very fitting. And a third mini video because I am having fun uploading videos. In all, embarrassingly, you can hear me singing in the background. Please, no judgements. I now my voice is off key! After you get over the sugar shock of cuteness and the horrors of my singing, you can feel horrified that I was driving AND videotaping at the same time. I know.