That's it, I'm wearing my leotard next time.

Last night, my friend A and I went to the Lady Gaga concert. Having never really gone to one of her concerts before, I wasn't quite sure what I'd find there, but I knew it would be interesting to say the least. Since I'm not super involved in the Little Monsters fanhood (like I am with the Glamberts), I wasn't familiar with sayings such as "paws up", or with the ways that her fans like to dress when attending these Monster Balls. I got an inkling that there would be sights to see when I read the dress code for the concert. It mentioned no masks or broken glass, but beer/soda can hair rollers were A-OK (as long as they were empty). Hm, interesting. I guess my cute little headband just didn't cut it, not there anyway.

After paying way too much for a beer, we took our seats and they started playing MJ songs to keep the crowd entertained. I had to fight every inch of my being to not stand up and dance when they played Thriller (but I did dance in my seat). A was trying to dare me to get up and dance to it. I had not consumed enough alcohol to take her up on said dare, so you will not find videos of the crazy Thriller lady on YouTube (sorry folks, maybe next time).

At one point, they were flashing a phone number on the jumbo screen. You could send text messages to that number and they would come up on the screen. A was thinking of something to text so she could embarrass me and she was holding her phone ready to type, when all of a sudden she glanced up at the screen and freaked out because it said "Claudia Mylastname put your paws up!". She and I started cracking up and freaking out. It was so funny because here A was trying to surprise me and somebody else had beat her to it (I figured it was my friend M who was also going to be there). It was pretty cool because we were quite lucky that I actually got to see it since we both weren't necessarily paying attention to the screen at all times.

The opening act was OK (don’t even remember the name). A and I kept wondering, is that a man or a woman? and making commentary on the wardrobe (A said, I've got a pajama like that). Then Lady Gaga took the stage. She's such a show-person. She's got great stage props/backdrops and she really knows how to work the audience. She seemed really nice up there. She interacted with fans that were close to the stage (giving them stuff, playing with their costumes, accepting/wearing their gifts). She even grabbed her phone and called a fan in the audience during the show...lol, that was neat. The dancing was great, the costumes were crazy and the pianos were pretty cool (one was shaped like a car, the other one was on fire). There was a huge monster on stage and at one point, and even her clothes were shooting off sparks (Gaga's, not the monsters; monsters don't wear clothes silly!); never a dull moment. She doesn't lip-synch and she really gives it her all (no half-assed performances there). It was lots of fun, too bad I was sitting so far away. Unfortunately the tickets were so expensive that I didn't really have a choice.

A and I found out the hard way that when you reach a certain age, you just need to buck up, start shelling out the money and get closer seats. For starters because you can't see. My little glasses weren't cutting it especially since she and I were sharing them in order to see, you know, details, like whether the opening act singer was a man or a woman. Then at some point Gaga starting singing a song with the line "show me your teeth". Poor A was wondering what body part she wanted us to show her. She kept asking me, what did she say? Fortunately A did not comply with the request of showing what she thought Gaga had said..... Feet or Teet, neither of which would have been appropriate.

There were lots of people dressed up in crazy outfits too (painted faces, soda cans in the hair, wigs, tulle, leotards, bows made out of hair, hair made out of bows, crazy looking heels that I would so never wear, beautiful eye makeup, jazzercise clothes); it was fun to look at. I think there were even two lost Glamberts in the crowd because they wore mainly sparkles and peacock feathers. A was appalled at how many women looked like hookers...lol. I would've liked to have done that too (dress up crazy, not look like a hooker), but since I went straight from work, not really an option; perhaps next time. Yes, we both felt very old-ish and overdressed (as in wearing too much clothes, apparently pants were optional), but we sure had a great time!

Girls Night Out 2008: Circus version

On Saturday night we gathered the girls and headed out for our 2nd annual girls night out. This time we went to the Seminole Hard Rock casino. Neither of us had been there and it seemed like a good place to go with one stop shopping if you will.

We were going to go to Tatu for dinner, but the 90 minute wait dissuaded us and we chose to eat at Tequila Ranch instead (which probably ended up having a 60 min wait anyway). They had some live entertainment which I'm sure is fun and wonderful if you're not sitting right next to the speaker. Fortunately I had my trusty Tylenol in my purse with me (that my doc said I could take), but when the ladies at the table started telling me that it was too strong and that I was going to irreparably damage the child by taking that dosage, I kind of felt bad and didn't take it.

The only good thing about being close to the stage was that we were also close to the dance floor where we witnessed a small old man getting frisky with whichever female was brave enough to step foot on the dance floor. During dinner I passed out some bachelorette dare cards (it wasn't a bachelorette party, but nobody else had to know that) that we could do throughout the night (to spice things up a bit...OK fine to entertain me since I wasn't going to be drinking), but unfortunately, half of the girls don't drink enough for me to persuade them to do the dares...and only a few of us are crazy enough to do them without the alcohol.

After dinner, the bull rides began...no don't think nasty, literally, they had a bull there. There was a bachelorette having a party and she was the first one to get on. I didn't really see any guys trying to ride the bull, but there were lots of ladies having a go at it. It seemed to me like each one was wearing fewer clothes than the last, but I think it's because the bull operator was making the bull shake in such a way that butts and boobs were being flashed at an alarming rate. It seemed like fun and I really wanted to go, but I didn't want to unhinge the child within, so I refrained. Boohoo. None of the old ladies that were with me wanted to ride the bull (and the one that would have, was wearing a skirt....I think she did it on purpose if you ask me), so we headed off to check out the clubs.

Our first stop was to chat it up with the door guy of one of the clubs to ask him about cover charges and which club plays what music and which clubs were good and by the way, have you done any modeling and do you have a twin brother...oh you do....and does he work here too and how old are you and I tuned out about halfway through the conversation because I couldn't handle knowing that there were two of him.....must walk away. I'm such a goody-goody.

So we went to Spirits first and that lasted a whole 5 minutes while we went to the bathroom en masse and quickly departed...we hadn't brought our fake grillz with us that day, so we kind of felt out of place. After that we headed to Passion where Lisa helped us get into the VIP section. We picked a lovely couch and sat down and later noticed there were some old decorations still hanging there from a baby shower (um...a baby shower in a club? erm...ooookay). They all thought it was a sign...I told them yes it was...it was a baby shower sign...they also have "it's a boy" signs too in the stores. I guess only time will tell because I've had about 3 dreams about little wiggly and demented as all the dreams are (oh my god are they crazy dreams...I don't remember having crack is whack dreams with Christian), it's always a boy baby...so isn't that a sign too?

Anyway, we partied like rockstars at Passion...well, if rock stars wear wigs, do the robot, the egyptian, the running man and the cabbage patch while partying that is. I guess we were 80's rock stars. Take note: the only one that hadn't had a drink is the one with the clown wig. Judging by the pictures it looks as if I'm the only fool dancing (no, but you were the only one dancing like a fool), but that wasn't the case, we were all dancing at some point or another. It just happens that Lilli (the photographer that night) was specifically very amused by my dance moves, either that or I'm a camera hog.

Around one-ish, 2/3 of the group decided to call it a night. I was in that 2/3rds because I was exhausted (from all that dancing perhaps). The following day though, I felt like a train had hit me. I never knew you could feel hungover without actually having had a drink. I need to accept that fact that I am no longer in shape for this sort of thing. Remind me to never go out and party while pregnant, or old, or pregnant and old.

Pirates Gone Wild!

Aha...the long awaited girls night out (GNO) post has arrived. Cristy wrote a wonderful post about it on the girls blog, so I may steal borrow some of her words and pictures for this post.

After much deliberation (2 weeks) we finally decided to go to dinner for GNO. Those that were feeling up to it, could continue on elsewhere.

We settled on P.F.Chang's because it's "unique and magically delicious", but we'll get to the leprechaun's later. We all looked fabulous especially since we spent so much time primping specifically for this event. Because I didn't get to wear my pirate patch and hillbilly teeth on my anniversary dinner (I forgot them at home by mistake...can you believe it?), I decided to bring them along with me for the girls night out. I also decided to up the sparkly dressy factor by wearing a bow tie. A little early for St. Patty's, but really, who cares when you look this good.

After dinner we headed out to Martini Bar at Sunset Place. We had a couple of drinks and had a fun time dancing. Cristy "got to meet the shark guy!" and I had to pull out my costume props because when I go out, the men are always swarming around me. I usually have to beat them off with sticks, so I'm glad I thought of bringing my props along. It was fun watching everyone do a double take that night. Usually the Miami dancing spots are packed with people that are full of themselves, so it must have been odd for them to see someone that was deliberately trying to look ugly and unattractive. We even ran into a couple of friends who declared me to be "insane" for having such beautiful teeth (and large healthy pink gums).

When the music started to get a little too youthful for our tastes, we headed over to Vice/Soho (whatever it's called). My brother told me that only weird people go there, so I guess we were definitely in the right place. The dancing and drinking got better continued there. Everyone was going crazy on the dance floor, but I was subdued and demure. They were showing off their skills and having fun dancing, but then I decided to show them how it's really done (Lisa was probably wishing she had gone home after P.F. Chang's at this point).

Fortunately for her we decided to call it quits around 3 or 4 am (I forget). When we couldn't hold our drinks anymore (literally), had no more energy and were too pooped to party, we finally stumbled headed out.

Thanks for a wonderful night out ladies. I can't wait for the next one; I'm already getting my costume ready!

{special thanks to Marilu, Amanda and Lilli for the photos}