Bad Girls! (7/3/06)

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying a long holiday weekend! My husband went into work today, so my weekend got cut in half. Today, we're running our usual errands. As soon as Eli gets up, we're off to Aldi and Wal-Mart. I think we could go there every day of the week. It seems like we always need something!

You know how you get a song stuck in your head, and you just can't get it out no matter what you do? When you're a mom, that happens annoyingly often with children's songs. I took the kids to Gymboree on Friday and ever since, I have had the Gymbo song stuck in my head. For those of you unfamiliar with Gymboree, Gymbo is a stuffed clown, and you sing a song when they bring him out. When I first heard this one, it really made me laugh, and I think all you Gen-Xers like myself will appreciate it.

Everyone knows the song, "We Will Rock You." Come on, get it going in your head. Boom, boom, clap. Boom, boom, clap.

"We want, we want Gymbo!
(gymbo)
We want, we want Gymbo!
(gymbo)
Gymbo is a blue clown, red clown, yellow clown,
Gymbo is a clown who never lets you down.
He's got a smile on his face;
he rocks this place,
Giving you kisses all over your face.
We want, we want Gymbo!
Who? Gymbo!!"

I had to share. I hope to God I hear something else soon to replace that in my head. With my luck, it will be replaced with something by Barney . . . I would rather have Gymbo!

After my long day on Friday, I enjoyed a rare girls' night out. I was invited to a jewelry party, to which I drug Amy along with me. We quickly discovered that we wouldn't be spending $89 for a necklace anytime soon, so we didn't stay long. Let's see - $89 for a week's worth of groceries, or $89 for a necklace. Hmmmm . . .

Afterward, our plan was to go see The Devil Wears Prada. Amy had been talking about nothing else for two days, and desperately wanted to see that movie, because like me, she doesn't get to the movies that often.

When we got to the theater on Friday night, disaster struck! Sold out. Double crap. Not a problem. I quickly told Amy to just buy tickets to something else. Apparently, she did not get my telepathic message, because I was thinking we would just buy tickets to another movie, and then slip into the movie we really wanted to see, something I did a lot as a teenager.

This was a plan, however, that I did not want to share with the 100 other people buying tickets, so I listened to Amy loudly talking about how sad she was, and that she really didn't want to see Click. My constant nudges and whispers of, "Amy, shush!" didn't seem to calm her down. When we were walking in, I said, "You're not getting it." She just looked at me, then whipped out her cell phone and called her husband to tell him how sad she was.

Finally, I just yelled, "AMY!" So, she hung up the phone, and said, "What?" I said, "You do realize we're going to see The Devil Wears Prada, right?" She just gave me a blank stare. Apparently, she lacks that aspect of criminal thinking, which is probably a good thing.

"But it's sold out," she said. "Yes," I said, "and that's why we bought a ticket to something else, but then we'll just go into the other theater."

I have never seen a look of such panic wash over someone's face. "What? No. No! I'm not doing that! We can't do that!" Oh, you want to bet? I thought to myself. Amy had talked about nothing else but seeing that movie for two days, so I was damned if I was going to sit through two hours of Adam Sandler. I just walked to the other theater, and started to walk in.

Hastily grabbing my arm, Amy gave me one last plea. "Neila, we can't! They'll check tickets! We'll get thrown out." I said, "Amy, do you honestly think we're going to get thrown out of the theater by a 16-year-old usher? I don't think so."

"Well, I'm not going in." That was her ultimatum. But, I thought to myself, what will happen if I walk into the theater. Either Amy will follow me or she'll stand out here in the hall by herself. My bet was on her following me. So, off I went. Quickly I heard her behind me, "NEILA! Neila, wait!" But I went in and sat down, and she sat down next to me. Even though she was so nervous that people probably thought she was either carrying a bomb or had a serious cocaine addiction, I was proud of her.

Then she spotted the ushers. I was right - about 16. "Oh my God! They're going to come around and check tickets." Now, I have snuck into movies many times in my life, as I told her, and not once have I seen them bring up the house lights so they could randomly start checking peoples' tickets. I didn't think that was about to happen. I asked Amy, "Didn't you ever sneak into an R-rated movie as a kid?" She looked at me wide-eyed, "NO!"

"Well, I did. How do you think Stacey and I got into see R-rated movies as teenagers. You buy a ticket to something else, and then duck into the movie you want to see." I'm a little embarrassed at how many times I actually did that. But, Amy kept eyeing those ushers until the lights went down. Only then, did she finally breathe a sigh of relief. And after the movie was over, what did she say? "I'm so glad you're bad." *sigh* That's me, the bad influence.

I figure you have to do something naughty occasionally before going back to the life of a responsible mommy!