Reunited

July 20, 2013

It has been many weeks since I've gotten to hang out with Rosa, and even longer since I last got together with Jennifer.  Loved hanging out with these ladies at Thai Fusion karaoke.  Jennifer even sang a duet--first time I've seen that!  She and I were 'table-singing' buddies for a very long time, and now we've both gotten up to the microphone.  Who'da thunk?

Saturday Night Poker

March 2, 2013

We had a quiet night at home with friends on Saturday night.  Jim brought over his poker chips and proceeded to teach the less familiar among us (me, specifically) how to play.  This is me when my newbie hunch paid off.  "Is it a thing if they're all the same?"  Yup--I got a flush.

Grad Nite

June 2, 2012

Lisa couldn't join me for Grad Nite duty this year, so I invited Rosa to join me as a chaperone.  This was the first year our school went from Disneyland to Magic Mountain for Grad Nite, so it was quite a different experience.  We had a blast going on all the rides--not much in the way of wait times-- and had a really nice bus load of kids we were responsible for.  I miss Disneyland as the last senior party, though--it's always been by far my favorite theme park.  There's really no comparison. 

Summer's Just Grand

June 25, 2011

One of the best things about summer is having more time to hang out with friends and family. Our local mall puts on a Rock The Mall concert series during the summer months, where families can come out and sing and dance to free concerts featuring local bands. Thursday's band was Midnight Run, a Journey cover band. Being a good 80's-bred mom, my kids have all been raised on Journey. We packed up the lawn chairs and drinks and snacks, and I texted some girlfriends to come and join us. As we sat around immersed in the sounds of pseudo-Steve Perry, watching our kids play and dance and giggle, it occurred to us that two of our kids are exactly the same age now as we all were when we first joined the high school marching band and all became friends. It was a very weird and somehow very satisfying deja vu sort of a moment.

Danielle

Nicholas
Nicholas and Lisa
Me, Lisa, Rosa, and Julie
Lisa, Rosa, Julie
Zoe

Pamela Henri and the Big Boss Band

May 15, 2011

My very dear friend Alicia is a fantastic singer, and recently she got the opportunity to join Pamela Henri and the Big Boss Band. We also found out that our good friend Dave, who is an awesome musician, is playing keyboards for the same band. When they played a Big Barn party not long ago, Doug and I and a few of our friends went out to support our friends and rock out. The band was a fun cover band that played 80s tunes (plus some more contemporary stuff, but you know I'm a big fan of the 80s!) and I loved getting to see our friends doing what they love!

Rosa, Alicia, and me

Doug, me, and Dave
Jim, Rosa, Alicia, Doug, and me
Go, Alicia! Rock it, Sister!
My buddy Dave
Pamela Henri and Alicia

Same Place, Same Time, New Additions to the Group

February 28, 2011

The karaoke party just keeps getting bigger and better each week at Thai Fusion. Who'd have thought that would be how we'd end up spending most of our Saturday nights? And yet, every time we go, it's such a great time we can't wait to go back. Even better, we keep adding to the group, so it's always new and different, even though it's the same. Last week, our good friend Brady was in town, and he invited his friend Danette to join us. Danette and I went to high school together, but she and my sister knew each other far better than I did. As usual, we had a fantastic time. This past weekend, she came back and brought her husband and a whole host of their friends, and we all ended up singing and dancing the night away like we were old friends, too. (Some of us, actually, are old friends. Danette's husband Brent was one of the first people I ever met when I moved here to Clovis in the 4th grade. He was in my class, and he was super-sweet even then. I had a pretty serious 4th grade girly crush on him at the time.)

The original gang--Me, Doug, Jim
Brent and Me

The Clovis High Gang--Jim, Rosa, Doug, Danette, and MeDanette and Me

Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

February 16, 2011

My good friend Rosa celebrated her 44th birthday with a gathering of friends at our favorite local karaoke place, Thai Fusion. What I love about this group is we are almost all former high school classmates who have found our way back to each other in recent years. There's just nothing like the friendship of a group of people who have all known each other for 25 plus years.

Drinks, friends, and lots of singing the night away? Sounds like a great way to spend a birthday. We might have to make it a birthday tradition for all of us!

The birthday girl
Bill and Nancy, our fantastic Thai Fusion waitress, belting it out
My hubby and me
Renee and Bill

Rick wowing the crowd
Doug and Mercedes singing Doug's favorite duet, "Paradise By the Dashboard Light"

Girls' Night In

January 24, 2011

My girlfriend Lisa (Alicia) texted a few of us last week letting us know it was high time for a girls' night in. We all have kids and it's not always easy to get away all at the same time, so we decided we'd bring the kids with us to hang out and entertain each other at Lisa's house, and we'd get a little chance to indulge in some girly chattiness. We each brought something to contribute to a taco bar for dinner (super easy, so no one had to stress out about cooking), and let the kids play on the Wii while we sat around the table to do some much-needed catching up. We're all smart girls, so I can't for the life of me figure out why we've never done this before, but we had such a great time that we've decided to make it a monthly event. We all went to high school together, so it's really pretty cool that all of our kids are friends now. Here's to old-school, long-time girlfriends!

Singing in the New Year

January 5, 2011

A little New Year's karaoke, anyone? We had a great turn out for karaoke on New Year's night. Plus, I've finally found a great song to duet with my sister. We're gonna polish it up and knock 'em dead next time!