fidget

You know, even though we’re stuck inside during a solid week of rain, we’ve been sustained by a bunch of new music. Have you heard of Pandora? Not the irresistable box of Greek myth fame, but a free Internet radio service. It’s pretty cool. The way it works is you tell it a musical artist or even just a song that you like, and it sets up a custom “radio station” for you with similar sounds. You can rate each song, like or dislike, and it’ll take that info to keep “tuning” the station. And you can have a ton of different stations, up to 100. (It beats the real radio by far, because there are no commercials, just ads on the web site, and they play much more than the same 20 songs!) It’s totally made my week, and if you’re bored over there with your same old tunes, check it out!

…specifically, things from the 80’s. The buzz is that the 80’s are coming back in fashion, in a big way. I’m a little apprehensive about this, having been a pre-teen in the late 80’s, just starting to look around and notice styles and care a bit more about how I looked. I think some of these bleed over into the early 90’s when I was in junior high and I hope they don’t come back either:

Pegged pants. Also those ridiculous zipper-with-bow contraptions at the ankles…

“Paper-bag waist.” this only looks good on tiny children, like 3 or 4 years old. Proof of this is the model in the photo above – she’s obviously very tall and slender but those pants make her look, well, like she’s wearing a bag!

Shoulder pads!

Acid-wash denim: I think this looks very ugly, even in moderation. But especially on top as well as bottom – picture this: parachute-style jeans, with a jean jacket featuring shoulder pads. Both acidly loud. It’s like static you can wear.

Big hair – long, poofy perm with huge spiked-up bangs. Remember those girls who had like a peacock-fan thing on their head? What were they thinking?

Florescent colors

Puffy sleeves

I’m somewhat opposed to jumpers, jumpsuits, and overalls. I think overalls look kind of cool in some cases (not shortalls, though, see photo above), but they were not a good fashion choice for me, who looked childish enough in my teens without wearing OshKosh.

Here are some things I don’t mind:

Leg warmers… but not those puffy “slouch socks”

Colored tights… maybe even leggings, but NO stirrup pants and only under something that covers the derriere. I have to admit I loved that long-sweater-over-leggings look when I was 12. And now I love tights in colors and even patterns such as stripes – I wore my blue and white tie-dye tights just this past Sunday.

Scrunchies! But no side ponytails.

And I just have to say, I absolutely adored jelly shoes and jelly bracelets. I don’t think I would wear them much if they came back in style (and I have seen them around once in a while) but I’m so glad they were in while I was a little girly-girl.

Oh, and one thing that’s back and I’m happy about, but I haven’t gotten around to wearing, are long dangly earrings. I loved dangly earrings because I could make them myself so easily. I made them out of beads, “Friendly Plastic” – honk if you remember that! and even small toys like those thread-wrapped worry dolls. aw, yeah, ha-ha!

Last Friday night BN took me to the theater for my birthday outing. We went to the Very Little Theater, which is a small (duh) community theater very near to our home. We’d both been there before, to see December Bee, a play that was very similar in some ways to the one we saw this time, Enchanted April. Both are about women having somewhat of a mid-life crisis. December Bee had surreal, tragic ending, but Enchanted April ended very happily. But it was not at all sappy or sentimental – it was quite clever, funny, and all the characters were very interesting. The four women who take a vacation together to Italy are 4 very different personalities, and then adding 3 men – two of the women’s husbands, and the host/landlord; plus the housekeeper who speaks only Italian – makes for all kinds of entertaining interpersonal scenes. It’s set in the mid 1920’s, and this production managed to gather lovely period “frocks” for all the women. I love the look of the 20’s. It seems there’s a movie version, and it’s based on a novel – I’m going to have to check those out.

My beautiful and talented little sisters performed in HMS Pinafore this weekend, and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to see them on opening night. I flew into town on Wednesday, and have been having a lovely time here with my family. I do miss my BN, and I’m sorry that he missed the show – it was quite a show!

14-year-old GC has been taking voice lessons with our sister-in-law, SW, who was the musical director of the production. GC absolutely blew us away with her confident, flawless and spirited performance. She sang 4 or 5 solos, technically challenging music, in such a professional and beautiful voice that I could hardly believe it was my little sister up there with her flowing gown and operatic technique. I am so impressed with GC’s progress in vocal skill and how much SW has taught her. Bravo, encore!

I am also extremely proud of my littlest, HN, for throwing her enthusiasm and effort whole-heartedly into the play. She played a prominent member of the “sisters, cousins and aunts” of the Admiral Sir Joseph. She performed her moves, choreography, and singing with focused precision. She sacrificed her comfort for days leading up to the performance, spending the night in curlers.

I was so impressed with this talented group of kids and thoroughly enjoyed the performance.