Memories

This post is not about the girls!

Once in a while, it's fun to do something for me. And I got a LOT of that this weekend. Major thanks goes to my amazing husband for completely taking over with the girls for the entire weekend...AND managing to re-organize the kitchen and clean out the closet in our bedroom.

I know. I AM lucky.

I spent the majority of the weekend sitting in a cold, plastic cafeteria chair at the craft show. It really was a great show. Although sitting by yourself with nothing to do but drink iced tea and read through magazines for a combined 13 hours can get lonely.

On the other hand, it was sort of like a weekend spa getaway. Without the spa.

The best part was, as a reward for all of that sitting, I got to go to the New Kids on the Block concert on Sunday night!!

Yes, my sister and I shamelessly spent real money and got ourselves some tickets to see The Kids.

A little background: My pre-teen years were completely dominated by New Kids mania. It would absolutely be fair to say that I had an unhealthy obsession that lasted upwards of 3 years.

Not one inch of my bedroom wall could be seen due to the wallpaper made up of posters pulled from all of those teen magazines.

I wore the shirts to school, proudly. And occasionally the 8 inch button given to me by my best friend for my birthday. Best gift ever.

When we heard they were back together for this tour, there was no question that we would go see them in concert. Although I was hoping it would be a more positive experience than the last concert of theirs I attended. I was 12 years old and cried the entire time.

Like I said. Unhealthy. Obsession.

We went to eat at Macaroni Grill before driving over to Dallas. Here's me and my little sister!

After spending almost as much on parking as the actual ticket, we made our way through the parking lot. You know we had to stop and take a picture of this person's car. Hilarious.Due to the fact that we love the New Kids, but we love groceries more, we had just about the worst seats possible. But that's what big screens are for.

Needless to say my little camera isn't able to capture images 2.4 miles away, so I have no actual pictures to document that we were there. Other than this one.

You'll have to trust me when I tell you that that little "halo" of light above our heads is the actual stage.

The concert was amazing. And not in the way you would hope a concert would be. They sang lots of new songs from their new album (which I don't own *gasp*) but mostly they sang the oldies. The ones that made them famous. The ones we all came to hear. Of course they can definitely carry a tune, but everyone knows they aren't the absolute greatest vocalists out there. Natasha Bedingfield was the opening act and I was more amazed at her live vocals than the actual group we came to see.

But I wasn't there for the vocals. And clearly, no one else was either.

One thing I quickly realized. We're old. A bunch of moms in their mid 30's walking around that arena. Some were wearing "vintage" t-shirts (I recognized at least three different ones that I owned at age 12...WHY didn't I keep those!?) A girl sitting in front of us was wearing a shirt that said, "Still Hangin' Tough with three kids and a minivan." Awesome.

We were all "bonded" by this experience as kids and that is what brought us back there. Unless you were part of it, no one can explain how seeing the group onstage brought back incredible memories. Images and feelings that I hadn't thought of in close to two decades came flooding back. Being a pre-teen and adoring a teen idol. I had forgotten what that was like!

It makes me look at this new generation of Jonas Brothers fans in a whole new way. Now I won't be annoyed so much at their image being everywhere I turn. The Jonas Brothers are someone's New Kids! I'll have to remember that in the future when Lauryn and Allison beg to plaster their walls with posters of dorky teenage boys wearing strange clothes.

Last night I had an opportunity to re-live part of my childhood. And, if we're being honest, to act like a child for about 2 hours. I haven't heard those songs in close to 15 years, but as soon as they started playing, we were right back there again screaming singing along.

Everyone should find a way to revisit their childhood. Forgetting about our adult stress and worries for a few hours was well worth the ticket price.

And so was seeing 5 middle aged men re-live their own childhood memories! I think they had just as much fun as we did!