How going out in your 20's differs from going out in your 30's

After the girls night out on the town this weekend for Mary Anna's birthday, it has given me reason to pause and think about how different a night out can be for the twinkies versus the thinkies.  Allow me to draw some comparison and contrasting thoughts.

In your 20's, you go out to meet men.  In your 30's, you have learned, probably the hard way, that a bar is so not the place to meet a man.  Instead you go out with your friends with the intent of actually talking to your friends (novel idea, huh?)

In your 20's you close down the bars without a second thought.  In your 30's anything past midnight is pushing it.

In your 20's you crawl in bed at any and all hours of the night with full makeup on, too tired to wash your face.  (College Roommate Stephanie will attest that I ruined her white pillowcases with mascara stains on more than one occasion.)  In your 30's, you are anal about skincare, and would never, ever go to bed without washing and moisturizing your face.

Broadway Brewhouse is a great twenty-somethings bar- it's loud, it's crowded, it's smoky.  You will wait forever for a drink from the bar, but that's okay because it gives you plenty of time to scope out the frat boys while you wait.  Of course you won't be talking to your friends because it's too dang loud in there.

Tavern was perfect for the older age group.  Groups happily chatted with their own tablemates.  The lighting was low, and the food & drink menu was quite respectable, because, you know, this generation comes out and enjoys a nice dinner.  If you want bar food, Tin Roof will suffice, but if you want a good meal And a good time, Tavern is it.  They had this smores dessert that we kept seeing that was all flambe and whatnot, and smelled delicious.  We had our cupcakes waiting on us, so we didn't try it this trip.  They played Radiohead.

Let's face it.  The 20's are about going out and getting drunk.  The novelty of drinking in a bar is so new you drink whatever drink has the most liquor in it, just for the heck of it.  By the time you've reached 30, you know what you like, and you can enjoy it in moderation.

In your 20's you wear makeup to cover up your acne.  The dark smoky eyes detract from the acne.  In your 30's you wear makeup to cover up your wrinkles.  The dark smoky eyes detract from your wrinkles.

You haphazardly go out in your 20's and figure out the driving situation once you're out.  In your 30's you are responsible and plan ahead.

In your 20's you pre-party with jello shots, and drink from plastic cups.  In your 30's you sip wine, from real wine glasses.

In your 20's you comment on your friends MySpace account about the evening of debauchery.  Now Facebook is the grown-up classy way for the 30's to casually mention their fun night out.

The 20's- You wake up with a headache from too much to drink.  The 30's- you wake up with a headache from too little sleep.

For the 20's and the 30's, the headache is worth the good times had the night before... guess some things never change!

Cliche a Day: August 2nd

Ok, I know, I know- it's not the Chicago recap! Nor is it the obligatory family blog recap detailing Michael & Missy's visit to the new and improved Chateau Bradley, seeing Garrick and Braedon, and my first encounter with baby cousin Addison Grace... but this post should be quick and painless to post at work, and thought it would be worth sharing for the restless readers tired of looking at my Chicago Hopes and wondering if they panned out. (Some did, some didn't.)

So here it is. Today's Cliche A Day calendar enlightenment. Enjoy.

Smart Aleck
someone who us very or "too" clever

In the 1840's, New York City fraudster Aleck Hoag and his wife, posing as a prostitute, robbed her would-be customers. Hoag bribed the police to escape prosecution, but ultimately paid the price for being too clever when he tried to cut the police out of the deal, leading to the pair's arrest. In describing Hoag, the police were supposedly the first to use the expression "smart aleck."

In a semi-unrelated note, The Cliche A Day calendar was a Christmas present from fellow DIVA Ariana, who just happens to be having a birthday today. So Happy Birthday Ari! I hope you have a fabulous day, and a wonderful birthday weekend with yo' hurrrsband. (I'm still not used to that!)

WHEEL! OF! FORTUNE!!!!!!

Ahhhh, don't we love it when everything connects? Yes, yes we do. As I've been a little, ahem, pre-occupied lately, it's become increasingly more difficult to find blog inspirations. I've also been swamped with rehearsals almost every night this week for the Nashville Symphony Chorus' production of Carmina Burana, in conjunction with the Nashville Symphony. Performances are tonight and tomorrow night.


So I figured it was time to educate the masses about this important work of the 20th century. Generally speaking, I have a distaste for most 20th century music. That's a broad, if unfair statement, but I do. However, Carl Orff's Carmina Burana is one of those classic and important choral works that every lover of choral music wants to perform. Based on 13th century Latin poems covering a wide spectrum of secular topics such as love, drinking, gambling, and the fickleness of fortune and wealth, I am finally getting my chance to sing about it all tonight!

So why the wheel of fortune reference in the title? Well, as it would happen, yesterday's Clinche-A-Day from the infamous calendar was



the wheel of fortune
the agent of change in human affairs

The term refers to the goddess Fortune, traditionally represented with a wheel in her hand, which symbolizes inconsistancy.


You'll notice the image of the musical score for Carmina Burana just happens to have, oh yes, a wheel of fortune, and right smack in the middle there is the goddess Fortune. The most famous movement of Carmina Burana, the one that starts and ends the work, the one that everyone knows, just happens to be O Fortuna! Literally, oh Fortune!


Much of the compositional structure of Carmina Burana is based on the idea of the turning fortuna wheel. Within each scene, and sometimes within a single movement, the wheel of fortune turns, joy turning to bitterness, and hope turning to grief. O Fortuna, the first and last poem in the work, completes the cycle, forming a compositional frame for Orff's masterpiece.


And the symetry gods are smiling down on us now, even though the Starbucks gods were not this morning when I broke down and got iced latte all over my white shirt.

a dog day afternoon

Yes, I know, it's not really hot at all today (Hansel. So not hot right now. Hansel) but today's Cliche a Day calendar provided some fantastic insight to the English language as usual.

dog days
the hottest days of summer
(why the calendar chose to include this phrase in the month of March, as opposed to, oh, I don't know, August when it is usually sweltering, is beyond my grasp)
The ancient Romans ascribed the apex of summer heat to the ascendancy of the dog star, or Sirius. The brightest star in the sky, it is located in the constellation Canis Major, meaning the "big dog."

It figures that this phrase would pop up on my desk calendar on the day that I lament the change in weather. For weeks now the weather has been gloriously, unusually warm for this time of year. And now that Easter approaches and everyone is pulling out their spring clothes, we have another cold snap and are expecting freezing temperatures for the rest of the week. Go figure. Why do you mock me so, Cliche a Day calendar?

Cliche a Day: March 30th

It's been a while since we've had one of these posted on here for your education/entertainment. Today's phrase is one I find myself using frequently in my writing, due to my obsessive compulsive nature to employ rhyming phrases. And also due to my nature to use cliches, which is perhaps why Ariana felt the need to give me this calendar. hmm...

in like Flynn
to be accepted by the group without question; to have a sure thing

Errol Flynn, a successful movie star/sex symbol of the 30's and 40's, was involved in a sensational trial in which he was accused of having sex with two underage girls on a boat. When Flynn was found not guilty, the phrase "in like Flynn" became part of the popular vocabulary, the phrase suggesting that his acquittal was based on his popularity and celebrity.

Cliche a Day: Feb 23rd

(it was) close but no cigar
nearly successfull, but not quite

"Carnival games of skill, particularly shooting games, once gave out cigars as a prize. A contestant who did not quite hit the target was close, but did not get a cigar."

Things that make you go hmm! Actually, my immediate thought was Carnies. Small hands. Smell like cabbage. There's always a movie quote lurking around the corner!

Also, following up on the latest Pac-man situation, Gerry House was talking about the situation on the radio this morning, and his co-host Mike reported that a Channel 4 news online poll revealed that 90% of the responders said that the Titans should send Jones packing. To which Gerry quipped, so it becomes a verb... "Pack, Man!" That Gerry is so witty!

Cliche a Day

Today's Cliche a Day is a phrase very near and dear to my heart; one that I grew up hearing my mother say, but have rarely heard anywhere else. Coincidentally enough though, a customer of mine said this on the phone the other day, and I couldn't help but laugh! Today's Cliche a Day phrase is (drum roll, please!)

Hunky dory
to be okay; everything is good

Huncho-dori was a major street in Yokohama, Japan, that was frequented by American sailors on leave during the Occupation that followed World War 1. To be in Huncho-dori was to be enjoying leisure activities and having a good time.

I wonder if "enjoying leisure activities" might be the PC term for hooked up with Geishas? Oh well, I Geisha had to be there! (Boo, Hiss, Throw your tomatoes!)

I am curious, Mom, was hunky dory a phrase you inheritated from Papa, who might have picked it up from his dad who was in WW1?? BTW, Ari, I am finding that many of these cliche phrases stemmed from war slang, and am enjoying the daily snippets of education. And for the record, yes, I enjoy the word snippet very much.

TGIF everyone!

Cliche a Day

Ari got me a desk calendar called "Cliche a Day" and every day you get a new phrase and the historical background behind it. Today's phrase I found to be particuarly inspiring:

In the Pink
in good health and ready to go

In traditional English fox hunting, hunters wore scarlet-colored jackets called pinks. If you were wearing your pink, you were ready to go hunting.

How cool is that? So the next time any of you single girls are on the hunt for a good man (Charlie Brown) you can say you're "in the pink!" ha ha

Weekend update

Why is it that I continually cram so much into my weekends that I am more tired on Monday mornings rather than being rested from my 2 days off? Because we live for weekends, not the week, so I suppose it makes sense that we cram more of "life" into those 2 short days. Anyways- as you can tell, this one was a busy one. Friday afternoon began with a fun shopping trip with the future roommies to Hillsboro Village where I purchased the Kate Spade book "Style"- an apartment essential for any DIVA- I'll let you know how it is once I flip through it more. Then we hit Metropolitan Deluxe over in Green Hills where Rhonda and I co-purchased more apartment necessities- fun coasters. Yes, that's right. I said coasters. I'm not going to spoil it and tell you what's on them though. You'll have to wait. (It makes you want to come visit the 3 Amigas and have a beverage so you can become coaster-enlightened doesn't it?) A little Moulin Rouge viewing rounded out the evening. Now Saturday night is the fun evening out on the town. I won't bore you with the details of my Saturday except to say that of course I made an appearance at the Bradley Beach & Resort (also known as my backyard) since it was sunny. Another girls night out in Nashvegas helped us celebrate Emmy Sue's birthday. Rhonda, Lana, Emmy Sue, Karla & Lauren (Em's friends) and myself went to the oh-so trendy Nashville hot spot, Chu. We gals felt like we had just stepped into an episode of Sex & the City, only with a southern twist ("Ohmygosh, YALL, look at those lights!") . The place was amazing, minus our waitress who got up on the wrong side of the tiki bar that evening. I proceeded to write her a little encouraging note with my bill at the end of the night explaining to her her that being rude to your patrons does not ensure you a good tip share. I've worked in a restaurant, so I felt justified in giving her some advice. If you do go to Chu, beware of the wall of beads. One way leads to the bathroom, the other leads you smack into a wall, or in Grant's case, another takes you to the kitchen. We took the party with us and headed over to the new place on Demunbreun, On The Rocks, where Emmy Sue got us the VIP treatment and got us in without a wait- she knew the bouncer. Honestly, I could have done without that stop for the night. It was more fun the weekend before- that night it was just too crowded. So we decided to get our groove on and head to Johnny Jackson's Soul Satisfaction. I mean, come on, where else can you dance to Usher, MJ, and sing along to Young MC and the Beastie Boys with a guy you just met? This is classic stuff people. We all got a good workout shakin it like a polaroid picture, and it was nice to have cutie-patootie Grant along to rescue us from the men who just could not resist our dance moves! All in all it was a great but late evening- especially for someone who had to be up 3 hours later, but totally worth it. Now it's Monday and we're already planning our next 2 day hiatus from work. 4 days and counting...