Eating massive amounts of cheesy potatoes and tofu chocolate peanut butter pie

 Mom making us big kids popcorn and hot toddies + secret undies from Santa

Loud, silly photo sessions with my cousins

Christmas poppers and goofy hats + my brother laughing so hard he spit water all over the table at Christmas dinner

Getting a little JamBox and a big Hello Kitty for Christmas

Waking up to breakfast in bed + finishing two site designs

Christmas cartoons + floors completely covered in paper

Meeting Pants’ parents at the casino where everyone lost money except me…the non-gambler + drinking too much & downing Taco Bell…a bad combo

Watching Pants get his hair cut at a cool little ’50s style barber shop +  seeing The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (SO GOOD) & getting started on The Girl Who Played With Fire + walking the piglet through big, wet snowflakes

Big curls and my new crocheted headband, teaching my first aerial class (it went really well!), pizza dates & sweating garlic, Pants and Nick teasing each other like 5-year-olds (per usual), brunching at a spot we’ve never brunched before, locating people by the sound of their laugh, raking lots of leaves, puppy walks, Pants and Piglet falling asleep watching football, being lazy on my giant comfy couch, mint chocolate cookies from mom, concocting outfits and playlists, roasting squash & making soup, rehearsing for our show on Friday, and a post-workout trip to Taco Bell.

Friday I met up with Lauryn, Megan and Mae at one of my favorite sushi spots to celebrate Lauryn and Mae’s birthdays. Ronin is this little gem of a restaurant in Royal Oak. With the low lighting and cozy corners it can only be described as dark and sexy haha. It was great to see Megan and Lauryn since we haven’t had a blogger hangout in a couple months. And Mae…well I see her all the time ;) Lauryn learned the art of the handroll and Mae ate a giant block of tuna while I had veggie rolls and miso soup.

P.S. The winners of last week’s giveaway from Se7en Deadly are…

Congrats to all of you – I will be sending information on your gift codes shortly!

PP.S. Giveaways will be sporadic from now on, but I have some cool ones coming soon ;)

Saturday Pants and I went downtown for a benefit show for my friend Drew (left). In December, at just 29, he suffered a stroke. He was partially paralyzed and in the hospital for two months. It was a scary situation for a while and now, while he’s back at home, he’s unable to work. So a bunch of friends got together and put on an amazing benefit show. Over 1200 people showed up and completely packed the venue. I felt like every person I ever saw at a local show over the past 10 years was there. They played a cover of a song from one of Drew’s old bands and he came on stage (rocking his panther cane) to sing, which immediately made me tear up.

The Suicide Machines brought down the house  – they make grown men lose their minds and it is the most entertaining thing to watch EVER. I won a gift certificate to a local tattoo shop in the raffle – totally paid off to write my name on 40 tickets! They raised a ton of money for Drew and it was great to see the local music scene come together in a way that only Detroit kids can do.

There are some fantastic photos by local badass Joe Gall here (seriously, his work is phenomenal) – I love that the majority of the pics have kids flying through the air. Pure magic.

Hangs with The Joker make bottles of wine disappear.
We’ve been on an SOA kick, watching seasons one and two before the third one starts.
Because it’s the best show ever.

Jason Vorhees is ready to party.

I realized I never have photographic evidence of our Wednesday night dance parties, so I made a point to take pictures this week. See that black shirt Jessica is wearing – it’s Miley Cyrus brand. Miley Cyrus, you are not old enough to be wearing clothes like that and neither are your fans!! But Jessica can because she’s a hottie :)

Of course Jessica was half-naked with her hair in rollers when I showed up, so I took some blurry photos in her bathroom while I waited. Shorts + tights + my Bronx goth stripper boots is my favorite summer dance party outfit.

J and I pre-sweaty dance party.

Yes, DT, I like this one better so I posted both haha

And then it was time to D.A.N.C.E!!

Just make your arm movements bigger so they fill the whole dance floor!

At one point in the night I was told that I’m Batman (the hot Christian Bale Batman of course) because I have my shit together…just like Batman.

And I also ended up with a date for Friday night ;)

At 2am we made a Sonic run…

and stuffed our faces with grilled cheese and the best pickles ever!

Look who our carhop was – The Hatter! He was adorable and said we were his best customers that night and yes, he was wearing a giant Mad Hatter style hat and could not skate at all!

Another best night ever – it’s that Double Trouble magic I tell ya!

Remember when my friend Royce texted me about a super secret show and I was soooo excited? Well, last night I got to see Alkaline Trio play in a tiny venue and it was not so secret anymore because that place was packed!

Jenn picked me up at 11 and we headed to Hamtramck. For all the AK3 sing-a-longs we’ve had (pretty much anytime we’re in the car together, much to the detriment of other passengers) we’ve never seen a show together. It was fantastic to belt out ‘My Friend Peter’ ‘Clavicle’ ‘Nose Over Tail’ and ‘Radio’ with her. The band didn’t have a set list so they were taking requests from the audience. At one point Derek came out from behind the drums, grabbed the bass and they did a cover of The Misfits ‘Skulls.’ They ended their set with ‘Radio’ and completely stopped playing while every person in Smalls sang the rest of the song. It was a beautiful moment.

After the show we stopped by a house party, had a mini dance party and then sat outside on the balcony for a bit. I’ve never been inside a Hamtramck flat and it was actually super nice. If only the houses weren’t two feet apart and the streets constantly lined with cars it might be a cool place to live.

Now it’s time to enjoy my day off by cleaning the house, watching True Blood and Friday Night Lights and stuffing my face :)

That’s to DT Jessica for the amazing iPhone picture – she’s the best blog photographer ;)

Ryan picked me up and we headed downtown, driving up the spinning center of a parking garage all the way to the top.

There was a line around the venue, so we opted to get a drink at Sweetwater’s while watching the line dwindle from the window. After an hour or so we walked across the street to the venue. People – I cannot even explain how hot it was in there. In all my days as a punk rock kid, fighting my way toward the stage, being crushed by giant sweaty dudes, I have never, NEVER been this sweaty. We found a spot on the balcony and by the time the band got on stage we were already dripping, but at that point I didn’t care at all. I wanted to witness all the kids down below (who are now in their late 20s, 30s and 40s) losing their fucking minds.

There is no crowd like TSM’s crowd in Detroit. Every person in that entire building, from the ones smashed up against the stage to the people all the way at the back of the building, EVERY PERSON was moving, skanking, pogoing around, hands in the air, singing every word. And they listen – anything Jay tells them to do, they immediately do. He is in the crowd 90 percent of the time and it’s thrilling to watch. Have you every been to a show where out of the middle of the moshing, skanking mess, a wheel chair crowd surfs and then right behind is the kid that was in the wheel chair?

Just a few songs in, despite the bar tenders using the soda guns to shoot water over the crowd, we were all soaked in sweat. I don’t think I’ve ever been this sweaty in my entire life. Every inch of me was dripping and any indication that I was looking cute before was gone. By the time TSM had finished their set my fingers were pruney.

After the show we waded through the crowd of kids spilling out into the cool air of the street, which was likely still in the late 80′s, but felt incredibly good.  We walked back to the parking garage and when the elevator doors opened the group of people inside would not let us in. We must have looked pretty gross and Ryan was not wearing a shirt. So we climbed a few flights and hopped on an elevator on the sixth floor.

Back on the highway with the A/C blasting, we stopped at Sonic for a bucket of tots and limeade and then called it a night. As exhausted as I was, I did manage to shower before climbing in bed, which I’m quite thankful for now.

This is the point where I wish I was a better writer, so I could accurately depict what I witnessed and how absolutely happy it made me feel. I’ve been going to see this band at least once a year, every year, since I was sixteen until they broke up in 2006. This was the band that made me feel OK for being a weird, gawky, teenager with spikey blue hair and giant pants. I have seen them in tiny 80 capacity venues and huge festivals. It would have been 10 times better if Royce and Dan were playing, but it was still pretty damn good.

And now I leave you with one of my favorite TSM songs, which still gets me a little every time I hear it:

You’ve got no friends and so you’re lonely.
It does not have to be this way
Just be yourself, the one and only
It takes some time but that’s okay…

(And also a note: Last time I wrote about TSM it got linked on a blog and there was drama and I ended up taking it down. So please don’t link this post with out asking first. Thank you.)

These pictures make me smile a whole lot.

Ria, Jenni, Mandy and I get a half painful, half relaxing head-to-toe stretch at yoga and then meet SuperGirl at my house for a late dinner and drinks. We crack open one of the eight bottles of wine and I serve Greek pasta salad and homemade pita (which got a thumbs up from everyone). We drink and talk until it’s dark and the mosquitoes come out and then I light citronella candles so we can drink and talk some more.

Ria brings out angel food cake and fruit and we eat while demonstrating tipsy yoga poses. Jenn and her roomies stop by and chat for a bit and then take Slayer for a walk. He was having a great night, getting fed under the table by a bunch of ladies AND getting a late night walk. Though by 11 he was climbing on to my lap, sleepy and ready to snuggle.

We only make it through two bottles before it’s late and everyone is ready to leave, so I tell them they have to come back soon and help me finish the other six bottles. It is the perfect night I imagined when I built my deck and bought that table.

Because I’m making a point to accept all invitations to go out, Mandy and I change out of our yoga clothes and into more appropriate bar-wear and head into town to meet her bf for a drink. Dunner is just getting off work and we hang out until the bar closes and then call it a night, which would be why I’m writing this at 11am instead of at aerial…hanging from a trapeze would be a bad idea right now.