Chemo perm for Jeffe, the beloved

Dearest El Jeffe, I have neglected you lo this many weeks; I forgot to mention that I have CURLY HAIR now.

Now, I think it might be my natural color/s. Gawd knows what THAT color used to be! But anyway, it's all curly and, after a period of shock, I'm begininng to sort of maybe like it. But it IS an adjustment!

I mean really! What product to use? Do I need to change brushes? hairspray? hello?? Hair is urgent business. Well, now that I have some, anyway! But, thanks to my new hairdresser (my oncologist) it is thicker and softer. A whole different texture. Tough way to go for a new hairdo, though.

Oh, yeah, and...

Oh, right. Forgot to mention. That was the summer that, after all the clubs the night before, I'd get up bright and early (verrrry early), get on the Metro, and queue up to get into House Ways and Means or Senate Finance Committee hearings. (I took notes.)

I understand I've been seen on CSPAN nodding off.

Personal archeology

While cleaning out boxes in the garage, I found a datebook from when I was in college. It covered the second summer while I was interning in D.C. also. Big fun!

Browsing through, I found that I spent a lot of time at a bar called Cagney's in Dupont Circle. I googled it. It came up under "Clubs of the 80s:"

Cagney's Washington Dc
Early 80's. Right off Dupont Circle, this club's line would stretch blocks. The music was 80's amazing (The The, The Cure, New Order, etc.) Great scene too. Lots of cool people. One big party night after night.

Here's another club I went to. I think it was by Ford's theater:

9:30 Club Washington DC
80s. OMG! Hands down the best club I ever went to. It was at 930 F St. It was an apartment transformed into a club. You sat on wooden boxes covered with carpet. Some of them were built up like bleachers, but you couldn't move them. When you walked through the club you could visualize where a living room was, a bedroom etc. It was small in there. They had TVs mounted all over the place and showed "videos" which could be old movies to actual videos set to music. The basement was where the restrooms were and the club store. I bought a "Reagan Hates Me" shirt there. The cover was about $3. I saw The March Violets there. I also saw Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds there. A friend who lives in DC says that there is a 9:30 Club which is big and recently Good Charlotte has played there. But I am talking about the club where if you sat at the side window, you could see bums sleeping in the alley and drunks peeing in the alley.

I LOVED this club. It was in the WORST neighborhood and there were the strangest-looking, awe-inspiring club kids there. But the description is accurate: there were boxes piled up everywhere and you just sat on them with your cocktail and watched the video and listened to the FAB-U-LOUS music. I recall sitting on top of a really tall pile of boxes a good 2 feet above the heads of the passers-by, sipping a vodka collins. That was "my" drink that summer. Did you know it glows it black light? Part of its allure.

Apparently I lived on happy hour food. We seem to have eaten a lot of $.10 oysters.

Ah. The good old days.

Awesome day, week, possibly month

So...today I made a new friend. That in itself should make it a banner day, and it is. But our kids get along great, too-- they're in the same class at kindergarten. We spent the afternoon in the park-- it was a blast. We're talking about taking a Zumba class together!

Then, to top it all off, some friends got their 171 from Homeland Security this afternoon-- one step closer to adoption! I swear I'm almost as excited as they are. Then one of my breast cancer buddies got a CLEAN bill of health!! Wheeee!

Tuesday I did "roadrunners" (laps) at Liv's school and taught power aquacize, tomorrow morning I teach abs class. Saturday? The last home Cardinals game with Tony and Tracy!

Again, my cup runneth over. Wish I'd taken some pictures. I hope to get some last shots of My Boys on Saturday. *sigh*

My daughter is the next Kurt Cobain?

This is an excerpt from one of El Freddo's emails to a buddy.
Liv has been DYING to play. So we set her up on the mic, Stacey on drums, and me on guitar to play "In Bloom", by Nirvana. I figured I'd save my 'star power' (or whatever it's called in RB) to rescue her when she failed out. Well, it turns out she DIDN'T fail out at all. In fact, when we finished, I had 93%, Stacey had 96%, and Liv, who has probably heard the song less than a dozen times in her life, got 79% with an 8 phrase streak. Stacey dropped out to work on dinner, I did drums and Liv sang it again, and got 83% with a TEN phrase streak. I'm not sure if this says more about my daughter's AWESOME ability, or something about Kurt's vocal talent... fbr

Another class and fav tunes

Gawd help me, I agreed to teach another class.

This next one is one half-hour of pure, uninterrupted abdominal workout. It's called "Abmazing." Right up my alley. But that means I take a class Monday and Wednesday and teach a class Tuesday night and Thursday morning.

And, yes, Cap'n Canuck, I do have favorite songs on Rock Band. Thanks for asking!! Gimme Shelter (the Stones) and Green Grass and High Tides (Outlaws) are awesome on the Wii. Also Say It Ain't So (Weezer) is, I think, the song on which I broke the drum stick. BIG fun. You'll have to come over and try it out. You'll LOVE it!

I am a rock'n'roll goddess

Yeah. We bought Rock Band for the Wii. Here's the set list.

I'm the drummer. In fact I may never let anyone else be the drummer. Ever. This is the most fun game in the history of games.

I broke a drum stick on the first song.

(Image courtesy of wikipedia.org)