Bit O' Nostalgia and A Band

But first, the funny stuff. Tomorrow is a big day for our family, more so because of what you’ll read later down the page, but it’s also a big day because Mr. Manic and I have a date.

A nine-thirty a.m. date. At my health club.

I am taking him to his first-ever yoga class! Can you believe it? I decided this today because he’s not going to work tomorrow, and I thought it would be a fun thing for the two of us to do. I cannot wait to see him on that mat, doing some moodras and some warrior poses. It’s going to crack me up. He agreed whole-heartedly when I told him I planned on taking him. I think he’s looking forward to it. To the stretching. To the inner-introspection (ha, that’s funny, inner-introspection!). To the hot moms doing the downward dog. Oh geeze, I just thought he maybe should wear his I HEART HOT MOMS T-shirt to the class.

Another Mr. Manic tidbit. He was on a flight tonight…

(Yes, of course, I DID NOT TELL YOU Mr. Manic was out of town. Because we all know I would have had pool boys and suitors of all sorts knocking down the door. I have to be discreet about this stuff you know!)…

Back to the flight. This part is kind of going to be backward, but when he got home, he and I were discussing the fact that he sat next to a pretty sorta famous person on the flight. He heard the guy talking on his cell phone before take-off and it appeared he was talking about a gig he was flying into Chicago for that he had to play. Here’s how Mr. Manic relayed the conversation, after he did some serious eavesdropping, but how can you not when you’re sitting next to the dude about to take off on a four-hour flight?

Mr. Manic: You in a band?

Dude: Yeah.

Mr. Manic: Anyone I might have heard of?

Dude: Maybe. You know the Gin Blossoms?

Mr. Manic sings this next line:

JEALOUSY!... Hey Jealousy! (Listen to this while you continue reading.)



Mr. Manic actually STARTS SINGING (thanks to some lunch-and-then-more-pre-boarding-the-plane cocktails) to the dude who is in the band, and it’s like the only song Mr. Manic knows from the band, even though they are a really cool band. It’s just that Mr. and Mrs. Manic are not that hip to the cool tunes lately (unless of course, it has to do with Cranking That or Smacking This).

Anyway, so, this is where the story goes backward a bit. While Mr. Manic is on the plane, before they take off, he sends me this email:

Flight on time. Sitting next to the drummer of the gin blossoms!!!!!!

(Yes, with that many exclamation points; he musta been excited.)

So I quick-send him this email back:

DUDE!! … Tell him I LOVE that one song they sing that I know! Get his autograph... I will auction it off on Manic Mommy! Tell him that! Is he hot? Does he have a big package?!?!?!? Bigger than yours?!?!?!?

Sadly though, Mr. Manic did not share the email with the Gin Blossom dude, and, I guess I’ll have to do a quick Google search to find out how hot he really is, cuz Mr. Manic said he was pretty hot. In a non-gay way, of course.


Yep. That'd do! How YOU doin?!

So, didn’t get an autograph, but here’s something. Any reader out there who lives in or near Chicago – the Gin Blossoms are playing at Medusa’s tonight (well, it’ll officially be tonight by the time this gets posted – Friday, October 26)… apparently, Mr. Gin Blossom Dude got Mr. Manic’s business card and said he’d put him on the VIP list for the concert. If there’s any reader out there who wants to try to see them and lives in the area, email me at manicmommy@comcast.net and if you wanna try to get in, I’ll get ya the info. Seriously. I think that’d be cool.

Oh, sidenote though: If Swishy wants to drive out here, since she is my BBFF I think I’ll have to get her in first and foremost. (I just tried to IM Swish, but knowing her, she’s maybe outside trying to kill a snake (read all about that fun Swishy Snake Stuff here! or maybe she’s watching a Grey’s Anatomy rerun or something so she’s not responding to my IM.

ANYWAY, am totally serious about if there’s any hardcore Gin Blossoms + Manic Mommy reader fans out there who want to go to that concert! Email me! I’d LOVE for someone to be able to go!

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OK, so, let’s pretend this next part is a completely separate post, because it really is kinda, and I actually wrote the following BEFORE I wrote the Gin Blossoms part, and this part is the nostalgia-I’m-sad stuff, but in a happy way, if you get it, and no, I have NOT BEEN DRINKING, much to my mother’s dismay, who’s in town, with my dad, for the reason below…

In 36 minutes, I will have been a parent for a DECADE! My baby, AJers is turning 10! I cannot believe it. When they say it goes by so fast, they don’t lie, those jerks! Way, way, way too fast. I miss those days where he’d fall asleep on my chest as a newborn and I’d get so sweaty from the heat of his little teeny body, and I’d doze off, and I would be too scared to move for fear of waking him or making him uncomfortable. Just can’t believe it. My baby. Ten. I only get eight more years with him at home. He will now officially need me less than what I’ve already had him for. This breaks my heart. I’m crying right now, hadn’t intended to, but wow. It is unbelievable this parenting thing. I don’t have the words. I ALWAYS have the words. But not right this minute. I wish I could sit and watch a movie of the past 10 years, to remember every little moment, every last detail, like how he was so scared the Halloween he turned two, and ran from the door, screaming when he’d see a masked face. Or the time he was also two, and he got his finger stuck in a bike chain at Target, and Diva was six months old, strapped into the cart, and I screamed for help in the Target, because I thought my little boy would lose his finger, right then and there, and I remember thinking, “OK, if this happens, it’s just a finger.” And then some nice man came and helped him free. Or the time we were at the mall and there was this elevator, a glass one, like the one in Willy Wonka, ‘cept it didn’t smash through the ceiling… well, this elevator was ALWAYS full. There were always people, and moms and kids and grandmas and the occasional dad getting on it. Well this one time when he was NOT even two yet, we were waiting to get on and he jumped in, and I had Diva who was about four months old… he got in and the doors slammed shut with my baby AJers stuck inside, all by himself! How could he have gotten into that elevator with no one else!? I seriously threw Diva at some nice little looking granny lady, and thankfully, there were stairs on either side of the glass elevator and I ran up to the top, all the while seeing his poor little face through the glass of the elevator, him scared to death, and I got to the top and got my baby out. He didn’t ride an elevator for months and months after that.

And now, he’s ten, and he just played his last football game of the season, and he’s a big boy. But he’s still my baby. He begs me to cuddle still, and I have to remember, CUDDLE WITH HIM WHEN HE ASKS! There IS enough time. Other stuff, mindless stupid crap, can wait. He needs me now. He wants me now. I have to be there for him, my baby, who will someday look at me like he wants nothing to do with me. I need to be there when he wants me. He hugs me and he’s practically as tall as I am, and I’m 5’9”. I look into his hazel eyes and wonder what he’s thinking, what he’s going to be like at 14, at 17, at 25. He is a kind and sweet boy, my absolute joy.

Happy birthday AJers. Thank you for making me a mommy ten years ago. I love you.

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