I Dream of Genie? Not Really.

We are a fun-loving group of friends. We've known each other forever. We've worn ridiculous costumes (why, we just dressed like grannies and mooned our friend with diaper-covered adult butts that had letters that spelled out her name). We've partied. We've puked. We've laughed. We've cried. All together.

Each year we attend the school auction. We've dressed in sarongs, togas, wigs, cowboy garb and more. We are a spectacle. We are spirited. We have a wild and crazy time.

This year, I was hoping for a little black dress, some simple shoes and passing the torch to some other crazy kids. Nope. I was just informed that my husband and his friends are dressing as sultans.

My friend turned to me and said, "You know what that means..." No, I'm not sure what that means. I kept quiet. "We have to be harem girls."

Yikes. A harem girl? Seriously, I am waaaaayyyyy too old for this. A genie? A scantily clad harem girl? I am 42 for goodness sake.

Part of me can't refuse the challenge. Part of me is quite sure that there ain't enough Spanx in the world that can make this old gal fit for a harem. Jinkies, Thelma, what's a girl to do?

She goes out and finds a harem outfit. Stay tuned for pictures of our 9th school auction. Still crazy after all these years.

Driving in the Dark: Chocolate Shakes, Fancy Shoes, Loud Music and Bright Lights

I remember a long time ago, when I was driving somewhere with my kids.  2 year old John said, "Mommy, we are driving in the dark."  

It never dawned on me, how much we didn't drive around with the kids after sunset.  Bedtime was as early as we could set it and there was rarely a reason to be out after dinner.  We were a little bit like a reverse vampire family.

Last night we had our school auction in the city.  The ladies got their nails done and tweaked their outfits.  The men wore suits and we hit the town in a big way.  

This year, a group of us begged our friends or parents to take our kids overnight, so that we can book a hotel room and enjoy a get-away.

Free of our normal parental constraints, we let loose and bid, chatted, cut rugs to the booming music and pretty much had to be kicked out at the bitter end.  

Not ready to end our one night of freedom, the rumor spread that anyone still awake was heading to a speakeasy.   A speak easy?  What? Password?

Why not?  It isn't too often that we get to drive around in the dark.  Sometimes the answer to deciding to stay up late is: because we can.  So we speakeasied and then kept going to a local diner.

We ate onion rings and scrambled eggs and club sandwiches and slurped chocolate shakes.  We chatted and laughed and taxi cabbed it back to our hotel at 4:30 in the morning.  We were parents set free from our normal routine--we were finally out, driving around in the dark.