Seventeen

Well she was just seventeen...

Since 2 of the Beatles are still alive, I won't sing for you.  But you know what I mean!

This pretty lil blog started in 2008, a whopping 17 years ago.

Wow. 

(Incidentally, do you remember being 17? It was pretty awesome. Picture 1990, I was a senior in high school zooming around the suburban streets of Pine Brook, NJ in my white Volkswagen Jetta, hair fluffed high from the 80s while belting out 90s alt rock starring Depeche Mode, The Smiths and The Cure on mixtape. Ahhhh goodtimes.)

Anway, I really believe if I keep blogging, it will come back into fashion like it was in the early 2000s. Just like my jorts.

And my perm and scrunchy socks.

Okay, okay, let's not get crazy.

So, as we've done in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 - 2022, 2023 aaand 2024, let's take a look back at the past year...

Total Posts I've Written (including this one):
359

Average Number of Posts I Write Per Month:
0.4 (SAME as last time)

Average Number of Unique Visitors Per Month:
523 (UP from 466 last time)

Average Pageviews Per Month:
1,996 (DOWN from 2,059 last year)

Most Traffic Comes From:
Google or direct

Most-Read Blog Posts in the Past Year:

2025: Brave New World

Most-Read Blog Posts Ever (in order of popularity):
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Pinterest (December 2012)
Which Christmas Cookie Are You? (December 2015)

20 Apps I Adore (January 2012)
A Gluten-Free Holiday Feast (December 2014)

Election Eve (November 2016)

Farewell, Crawleys (March 2016)

Grease Is the Word (January 2016)

Dear Stores that Close on Thanksgiving (November 2015)

To Date or Not to Date (October 2008)

Freedom (July 2016)

Post Nobody Gave a Crap About:

2025: 5 Years Post-Covid

Most Comments:
Ummm, nobody comments anymore... better luck next year!

Most Popular Poll:
20245I didn't do any this year.
All-Time: Up in the Air 

Most Frequently-Used Tag for the Posts I Write:
Pop Culture

Most Popular Search by Visitors:
Dating

Lastly, My Favorite Posts I've Written in the Past Year:

2024: Seasons Eatings

So, there you have it.  A look back to remind myself -- and hopefully you -- that I really do love this blog.  I am still writing about TV shows when the mood strikes, but this one has a special place in my heart.

Thanks (as always) for reading!

A Prayer

What a profoundly sad week.  

It started with a viral video of a random, brutal killing of a young woman on a train. Then came a horrifying political assassination of a young man on a college campus. And yesterday, there was a high school shooting on the 24th anniversary of 9/11, always a gut-wrenching day.

My heart is so heavy.

In moments like these I turn to writing.  So, here goes...

We are living in a time of massive political unrest, much like the 1960s, I suspect.  A powderkeg ready to explode with wars, protests, riots, violence, and assassinations, where the sanctity of human life comes a distant second to the blind pursuit of ideology, regardless of whether or not it is rooted in reality.

People casually toss heated words around like grenades: Oligarch. Autocrat. Fascist. Socialist. Marxist. Communist. Does everybody who uses these radical labels even know what they mean? Can they explain the differences?  

I know I can't. 

But we all know they are bad. Labels you don't want. Designed to hurt and dehumanize people with whom you disagree in order to justify awful actions. 

Words like these -- and worse -- when repeated ad nauseum and amplified by politicians, celebrities, the media, teachers, and your next door neighbor can hypnotize you into believing they are true and motivate the mentally unstable to act in unthinkable ways.

Ultimately, I think fear got us here. 

Fear of inconvenient truths. Fear of speaking up. Fear of opposing ideas. Fear of losing a deathgrip on absolute power. This fear has led to rage.  And hollow condemnations of the exact violence that gaslighting fearmongers have inspired makes it all worse. 

Inbetween my sadness, anger and shock of this week, I have to wonder... when did we stop agreeing to disagree? And when did the ideas we disagree with stop being simply WRONG and start being EVIL?

I mean, you'd do anything to stop someone truly evil, right?  Even something as extreme as taking a life feels justified when the stakes are that high.

But what if YOU'RE wrong?

There are no do-overs in life and death.

Whether it is the last gasps of a woman on a train, or a man on a stage or thousands in burning skyscrapers, death seems like the ultimate silencer -- quieting the deafening voices floating inside someone's mind or firing out of someone's mouth. 

But voices are stronger than bullets. And knives. And planes.

There are countless examples throughout history, from Joan of Arc to John Lennon. When someone attempts to unjustly silence a voice, it becomes an echo.  

On the surface, it may look like our country is divided left vs right, but I think the existential battle we are facing today isn't political, it's spiritual.

Good vs evil, hope vs hate. Could a belief in something bigger and better than ourselves fix this frightening state we're in? Maybe. Faith steps in to right our path when we've lost our way or swallows us up into the darkest hole when we turn our backs. 

Faith. We need more of it.

My faith is usually private. Quiet. And strong. Even as a Catholic, my faith doesn't expect me to sit in a church pew every Sunday to be considered a good person -- doing good things does!  Especially when they are hard or unpopular. 

On their worst days, people of faith don't look down, they look up. Anybody who thinks otherwise doesn't really get why people pray. It isn't the same as a wish you make on a birthday cake or a dandelion. It comes from your soul to ask for strength and courage in the dark.

Today is dark.  So this is me, asking.

We are at a tipping point. This experiment called America feels fragile and wounded, but I still wouldn't want to live anyplace else. Sitting here in the long shadow of 9/11, I never thought I would want to go back to that time. But amidst all that numbness and horror, a beautiful light emerged as our country united, as AMERICANS. 

Stitched together by what we had in common, not ripped to shreds by what divides us. 

Tonight, I pray to God that the brave souls who lost their lives 24 years ago and the precious lives lost this week will join a chorus of angels who will heal our nation.

We need it now more than ever.

Amen.

5 Years Post-Covid

Today marks 5 years since I last set foot in NYC, the place I spent most of my life.

Five YEARS? 

Wow.

Thinking back to February 2020, I remember taking trips to Orlando, LA and Chicago. And I thought nothing of it. I flew ALL the time -- at least once a month, usually more.  But in hindsight, you could feel the winds of change... 

On my way home from Orlando after visiting my parents for a few days, I snuggled into my window seat on a JetBlue flight to Newark that was typically packed with people, pets and personal belongings that did not fit in the overhead bin.

This time, I had the whole row to myself.  

How nice, I thought.

Next, in LA, at a women's business conference that I was working on, all of the conversatons drifted towards health. At the hotel, every morning and evening, we met up in the lobby. It was fairly empty, except for gaggles of international flight attendants rushing by.

All wearing masks. 

How odd, I thought.

A week later in Chicago, my brother and I took the kids out for my nephew's 9th birthday. We went to a movie theater to see Sonic the Hedgehog, and talked in hushed tones at a nearby restaurant about this mystery virus that was hitting the news, while my nephew and niece colored.

The restaurant was half-empty. So was the movie theater.

Should I be worried, I thought.

By mid-March, things escalated.  Quickly. 

Back in the office, Covid talk was EVERYWHERE so we came up with a plan for the team to work from home in shifts as a test run, on the off chance it became unsafe to be at work. 

On Tuesday, March 10, 2020 around 8pm, I left my office in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, on 5th Ave directly across from the New York Public Library.  I wore a black puffy jacket but you could feel Spring was just around the corner. I walked 5 blocks to my parking garage, got in my car, flipped on some tunes, and drove the 4 miles across the city, through the Lincon Tunnel and up to my apartment in Hoboken, NJ, on the scenic banks of the Hudson River. 

Little did I know...

That was the last time I would be in NYC.  I havent been back since. 

To this day, I SO wish I just stopped -- stood on the sidewalk and took it all in. The sights, the sounds, even the smells.

I wish I said goodbye -- and thank you -- to a city that I love.

Anyway, while I was making my way home to NJ, on the other side of the country, my boss was boarding a flight from LA to back to NY.  She was mid-air around 9pm when we got an email from our LA office saying someone in the NY office -- MY office -- caught the Coronavirus.  

Uh oh.

Our leadership team (minus my boss) quickly jumped on Slack and we decided to email everyone in our company and tell them to stay home tomorrow. It was late, but most people were up anyway. In that moment, I remember feeling a mix of fear and relief, kind of like when school was canceled as a kid because of some big snowstorm coming on the same day as an important test.

I decided to exhale and make the best of it... until later that night when my phone started buzzing.

It was after midnight, so technically now March 11th. And it went a little something like this...

What happened next? Well, she called, and let's just say she wasn't happy that we let the company work from home.  

To be fair, she had no way to know we were on the precipice of a once in a lifetime worldwide health pandemic. And the funny thing is, to this day, I think March 10, 2020 was the last time the whole company was in the office together as this kicked off many years of remote, then hybrid work schedules. 

But still...  

We were right to take it seriously and let everyone stay home.  

Later that same day, March 11th, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. The US government declared a national emergency on March 13th as all businesses and schools were ordered closed in the days and weeks that followed.  

And so it began... 

2 weeks to "flatten the curve," which became 2 months, 2 years, and the rest is history.  

At first it was an adventure, then it wasn't.  I'm not really sure what a zombie apocalypse would be like, but maybe something like this.

The aftershocks have faded slowly with time -- the fear, sorrow and resilience.  A new normal.  It changed us all.  I wonder how history will look back on it.  

I'm not sure I recognize the NYC I see today, but I do miss the NYC I knew.  

Goodnight, Manhattan -- 5 years gone, but forever in my heart. xo

Brave New World

How is it 2025?!  

It feels like it was just the year 2000 -- a brand new century, half a lifetime ago. 

Remember all the hullabaloo around Y2K?  Banks will collapse! Flights will be grounded! Power grids will implode! The media had us whipped up into a frenzy. 

That seems so quaint and simple. 

Now, it's all about artificial intelligence. And nearly 100 years after Aldous Huxley put pen to paper, AI is taking over our brave new world...

On the one hand, it is EXCITING. I love new stuff! On the other hand, it will be pretty horrifying when a robot that's smarter than Elon, richer than Oprah, sportier than Serena, and sexier than Beyonce (or Madonna, in her heyday) steals my boyfriend.

Oh, who am I kidding? I won't have a boyfriend.

Anyhoo, one day AI will do literally everything for us. Except fold fitted sheets.  That shit is hard.

A win for the humans!

I guess it's only fitting that I asked ChatGPT to help me with this blog post. My request was simple: Write a rhyming poem on how great it is to be named Jennifer. 

It came up with 2 different versions in 2 seconds flat. To be honest, they are actually pretty good.  Then I asked it for a regal portrait (see above). It's giving Game of Thrones vibes, but I don't hate it.  Finally, I asked it to make me into an 80s doll. 

That one... not so much. (Scroll to the end to see what I mean.)

I guess I flew too close to the sun and got burned.  Let that be an AI lesson for us all.

Now, for the poems. e.e. cummings, e.eat your heart out...

Jenny from the Block (But Make It Jersey)

I’m Jennifer—call me Jen or Jenny,

One name, three vibes, I’ve got plenty.

From Bronx-born roots to Jersey streets,

I walk with rhythm, skip no beats.

A Leo queen with fire inside,

Long brown hair and fierce green eyes.

I speak my mind, I hold my ground,

And lift you up when feeling down.

Got that charm you can’t define,

Half big heart, half punchline.

From shopping malls to midtown lights,

I’ve worked real hard and soared to heights.

So whether it’s Jenny, Jen, or J,

A loyal girl in every way.

On city blocks, in garden skies,

This name? It’s legend—no surprise.

The Glorious Burden of Being Jennifer

They named me Jennifer—golly gee,

Like half the girls in ’73.

You shout my name across the mall,

And seven Jennifers will call.

In class I was Jen #4,

Behind a Jen, two by the door.

Our teacher sighed, “Just use last names,”

And thus began the nickname games.

There’s Jenny, Jen, "Nif" and “Fer,”

(Last two are weird, do not prefer.)

There's also Jenn with extra n,

A silly spell, like whyy or whenn.

Yet still, I love my name with pride,

Rolls off the tongue like theme park rides.

It’s friendly, cute, a comfy shoe,

And rhymes with… well, just very few.

So here’s to Jennifers, all around,

The finest flock that can be found.

We laugh, we lead, we own the show—

Even if folks call us all J Lo.

Nice job, AI! But go back to the drawing board on this one... she's creepy.

Season's Eatings

Today is Cyber Monday, that totally tempting but also unnecessary holiday designed to make you online shop till your fingers drop. Or until you run out of money. (Whichever comes first.)

Of course, I love it.

Last year, I shared a bunch of small businesses I like, from clothing and shoes, to accessories and beauty. And all that stuff is still really cool.  But you know what?  

You can't eat it. 

I have it on good authority that sneakers taste terrible.

So this year, I thought I'd share some of my favorite foods that you can get delivered right to your doorstep, mostly thanks to the glorious Goldbelly, and also some shops that ship their stuff.

And don't get freaked out by ordering perishables online -- it usually comes overnight, packed in ice and whenever I've had an issue with shipping delays or spoilage, these companies always made it right.

Ok, so... merry, merry and mangia, mangia!

BEST CROISSANTS

Company Name: Williams Sonoma Galaxy Desserts

Founded: 1936 by Gabriel Pasquier in France, then 2012 in Richmond, CA

Eat This: Classic & Chocolate Croissants

Fun Fact: If you want to enjoy a taste of France in the morning, you'll need to plan ahead and let these croissants rise overnight so they will be fluffy and delicious. But right out of the oven, they're a real treat and waaay better than any other bake at home croissant I've ever had.  Bon appetit!

BEST CHEESECAKE

Company Name: Junior's 

Founded: 1950 by Harry Rosen in Brooklyn, NY

Eat This: Original NY Plain Cheesecake (but honestly they are all delicious) 

Fun Fact: This is my birthday cake every year -- I love NY-style cheesecake (not Italian, the ricotta makes it lumpy, but cream cheese makes this v creamy) and this one is the best. You can even find them in grocery stores, but it's not as good as getting it sent from NY.

BEST ITALIAN PASTRIES

Company Name: Ferrara's

Founded: 1892 by Enrico Scoppa and Antonio Ferrara in NYC

Eat This: Sfogliatella, Mini Cannolis & Rainbow Cookies

Fun Fact: My favorite stop whenever I went to the Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy -- this is a taste of home that my fam has enjoyed for generations.

BEST PIES

Company Name: Southern Pie Company 

Founded: 2012 by Amanda Wilbanks in Gainesville, GA

Eat This: Mini Chicken Pot Pies, Pot Roast Pie & Taco Pie 

Fun Fact: Their sweet pies are good, but the savories are the best with a super flaky crust. They take a while to cook but are worth the wait and waaaay easier than making your own. 

BEST BAGELS

Company Name: Utopia Bagels

Founded: 1981 by Scott & Jesse Spellman in Queens, NY

Eat This: Sesame, Everything, Plain & Cinamon Raisin 

Fun Fact: The key to a great bagel is the water! There's nothing like what comes right out of a NYC tap. Crusty on the outside and fluffy on the inside, these are perfectly puffy, like a good bagel should be. (Note: whenever you see one with a hole in the middle that you can see through, throw it away -- it's a bagel not a donut!)

Honorable Mention: O'Bagel in Hoboken, NJ & Essa Bagel in NYC -- I've eaten their bagels warm from their shops and nothing is like that, but still their shipping is pretty good.

BEST PIZZA

Company Name: Umberto's

Founded: 1965 by Umberto Corteo in Long Island, NY

Eat This: Meatball & Pepperoni Grandma Pizza

Fun Fact: They invented the Grandma Pizza, a rectangular pie, like a Sicilian, but with a thin crust. NYC tapwater is key to great pizza too.  Pizza by mail is tough to do mostly bc the sauce gets dry, but this one was tasty.

Honorable Mention: Sally's Apizza in New Haven, CT and Lombardi's in NYC, where New Haven & NY-Style pizza were invented.

BEST CHEESESTEAK

Company Name: Pat's King of Steaks

Founded: 1930 by Pat and Harry Olivieri in Philadelphia, PA

Eat This: Pat's Original Philly Cheesesteak (literally the only thing they have)

Fun Fact: I've done the Pat's & Geno's taste test in Philly, they are right across the street from eachother, and Pat's is really the king. "Wit whiz" is the only way to go, and it holds up pretty well in shipping. You just have to eat it when it arrives, but that's pretty easy to do.

BEST LOBSTER ROLLS

Company Name: Hancock Gourmet Lobster Co.

Founded: 1946 by Hazel “Nana” Ellis Hancock in Ogunquit, ME

Eat This: Maine Lobster Roll Kit

Fun Fact: Lobstah rolls taste like summer and these were fresh and meaty -- get the whoopie pies too, if they have them.  The lobster mac & cheese and pot pies look pretty tasty too!

BEST POPCORN

Company Name: Garrett's

Founded: 1949 by the Garrett family in Chicago, IL

Eat This: Chicago Mix

Fun Fact: Their signature half caramel corn, half cheesy popcorn, is all delicious and the way to go. But don't just trust me, it was even Oprah's favorite, so you know it's got to be good.

BEST CHOCOLATE

Company Name: Bromilow's

Founded: 1958 in Woodland Park, NJ

Eat This: Milk Chocolate Covered Potato Chips

Fun Fact: Man, I miss this place. We've had these homemade, hand-dipped chips every year at Christmas for as long as I can remember and now we ship them to FL. You can smell the chocolate before you walk in the door of their West Caldwell shop near my hometown in Pine Brook. You really can't go wrong with any of their chocolates, but the chips are salty-sweet perfection.

So those are some of my fave eats, I think you'll like them too.  But really, no matter what you cook, bake or order, the most important thing at your holiday table isn't the food on it, it's the people around it.  

Hope you enjoy all the holidays have to offer -- merry happy everything!

Sixteen Candles

This lil blog here just turned Sweet Sixteen!

Sidenote: Do people even blog anymore? Maybe not. But I think if I keep doing it, eventually it will be popular again. 

Like scrunchies. 

And Sixteen Candles! Can you believe it's been FOURTY YEARS since we met Samantha Baker, Jake Ryan & Farmer Ted? 

It's only a matter of time before it shows up on TCM sandwiched between Gone with the Wind and DIal M for Murder.

This John Hughes classic may not exactly stand the test of time when seen through modern eyes (hello, Long Duck Dong), but whenever I watch it, I feel like a teenager again. Even though I was only 11 when it came out. It's full of first loves and heartbreaks, best friends and cool kids, triumphs and mess ups, all wrapped in a fluffy pink bow. 

Kinda like this blog.

So, as we've done in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 - 2022 and 2023, let's take a look back at the past year...

Total Posts I've Written (including this one):
354

Average Number of Posts I Write Per Month:
0.4 (DOWN from 0.7 last time -- poop)

Average Number of Unique Visitors Per Month:
466 (UP from 410 last time)

Average Pageviews Per Month:
2,059 (DOWN from 2,247 last year)

Most Traffic Comes From:
Still a tie between Google and Pinterest

Most-Read Blog Posts in the Past Year:

2024: Goodbye Friend

Most-Read Blog Posts Ever (in order of popularity):
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Pinterest (December 2012)
Which Christmas Cookie Are You? (December 2015)
A Gluten-Free Holiday Feast (December 2014)
Farewell, Crawleys (March 2016)

Grease Is the Word (January 2016)
Dear Stores that Close on Thanksgiving (November 2015)
Election Eve (November 2016)
Freedom (July 2016)

20 Apps I Adore (January 2012)

To Date or Not to Date (October 2008)

Post Nobody Gave a Crap About:

2024: #TeamUSA

Most Comments:
Ummm, nobody comments anymore... better luck next year!

Most Popular Poll:
2024: I didn't do any this year.
All-Time: Up in the Air 

Most Frequently-Used Tag for the Posts I Write:
Pop Culture

Most Popular Search by Visitors:
Dating

Lastly, My Favorite Posts I've Written in the Past Year:

2024: Jessie's Girls

So, there you have it.  A look back to remind myself -- and hopefully you -- that I really do love this blog.  I am still writing about TV shows when the mood strikes, but this one has a special place in my heart.

Thanks (as always) for reading!

#TeamUSA

I sometimes forget that I'm French.

From food to fashion to films, I identify most with my Italian side. 

But from my last name, to the 7 years I studied en Français, to that one time I visited Paris, to my beloved Louis V Neverfull large tote, to the fact that I can literally eat my weight in fluffy croissants, I remember... 

I am half French too!

And oh la la, France sure put on a show last night. 

You know, I don't usually get swept up in Olympics Fever.  The last time I remember really following the games was when Michael Phelps was sweeping up gold medals in Beijing in 2008. 

But this year just hits different.

The stunning venue absolutely plays a part. I don't think there ever was a more beautiful sight (or site). For the first time, the opening ceremony didn't take place in a stadium but in a whole city. 

Magnifique! 

And I am looking forward to seeing how Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky and Sha'Carri Richardson fare.  But maybe more than all that, I think as a country we really need something to unite us. 

Right now.

A reason to cheer!

We live in a time where we are reminded daily of the things that divide us -- especially in an election year. But the Olympics gives us a chance to celebrate being the UNITED States of America.

Remember that? It's in the name!

So, I'm all in with the Red, White & Blue. I've even got my official Ralph Lauren-designed tee, sweatshirt & tote so I can have all of the style and none of the skill of #TeamUSA. 

At least I'll look good...

This spectacular show kicked off with the flurry of a thousand can-can girls, even if she was a little soggy from the rain. Since the Olympics symbol has 5 rings, here are my 5 mesmerizing moments from the truly dazzling opening ceremonies:

That Beautiful Boat Parade
How cool was it to see 200 countries float down the River Seine smiling ear to ear with colorful flags waving? I even learned about few new ones! Each team was full of hope and hard work on their way to the torch lighting ceremony. And the rain was no match for our flag bearers Lebron James and Coco Gauff who led nearly 600 emotional athletes in a “USA! USA!” chant as they cruised to the Eiffel Tower. Bonne chance, mes amis!

Heavy Metal Marie Antoinette
Who needs medals when you have metal? The French Revolution was in full swing with Do You Hear the People Sing from Les Mis. As bright red ribbons spilled over the sides of the Conceirgerie down to the cobblestone streets, dozens of Marie Antoinettes held their own decapitated heads as headbangers rocked the river. A spectacle to behold.

Hold Me Closer Flying Dancers
Gravity-defying acrobats were swinging and swaying on stilts twenty feet in the air making for a wild ride over the Pont Neuf bridge, which was as wet as the water below. It was so graceful and yet so nerve-wracking. I still don't understand how they did it!

Her Heart Will Go On
There were many great muscial moments, but it was Celine Dion who brought down la maison with her stunning performance of L'Hymne À L'Amour (her first time singing in public since a sad medical diagnosis). Perched with her pianist on a balcony of the shimmering Eiffel Tower, high above the City of Lights, she was a showstopper. I saw her once at Caesar's Palace in Vegas with Cirque du Soleil and back then she put on a helluva show. It was so moving to see her in this gorgeous finale.

Up, Up and Away
What began with a masked man leaping across rooftops to a steel horse gliding down the river to a steady stream of A-list athletes, the torch was passed from person to person until it lit a flaming hot cauldrom, turned hot air balloon, in the Tuileries Garden. It was a glowing send-off to a fabulous four-hour fête.

After all THAT, I say, bonjour et bonne chance aux États-Unis! 

Let the games begin...

(And because I really couldn't choose just 5 moments, here's a whole bunch more pretty stuff.)

Jessie's Girls

Rick Springfield was my very first concert. 

It was July 26, 1985 and I was just about to turn 12.  We went as a family, which also made it my 7 year old brother's first concert too.  

You're welcome.

I don't really remember what I wore, but I know my mom dressed him in a button down, khakis and loafers like he was going to an insurance convention.  

We piled into our gray Chrysler LeBarron on a sweaty summer day, and cruised on down Route 3 toward Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, NJ. This venue changed names a few times over the years, to Continental Airlines to Izod to Meadowlands, and now I think is closed, but it used to be a pretty happening place.  It was also the spot where I saw my first concert with my friends at age 15 (on a school night!).

It was Bon Jovi. Yes, I am the quintessential 80s Jersey Girl and had the hair to prove it.

Anyway, back to my first love, Rick, aka dreamy Dr. Noah Drake on GH. 

As a pre-bday treat, we had floor seats a few rows from the stage. I don't think I understood how special that was at the time, but I know now. I do remember the excitement in the air when the lights dimmed as 'Til Tuesday opened and sang their one-hit-wonder, Voices Carry. 

Hush, hush! You might say ol' Richard's a one-hit-wonder too, but you'd be wrong. Sure, Jessie's Girl was #1 on the charts and in my heart in August 1981 (which, incicentally, is also when MTV was born), but no doubt if you were alive and had ears in the 80s, you've heard most of these catchy ditties:

• Jessie's Girl
• Love Somebody
• Love Is Alright Tonite
• I've Done Everything for You
• Don't Talk to Strangers
• Don't Walk Away
• Bop 'Til You Drop
• I Get Excited

So, imagine MY excitement when I heard he was coming to Florida's Friendliest Hometown. Nearly 40 years later, my mom and I were able to come full circle and relive an awesome memory from a lifetime ago.

As a treat this go round, I came thisclose to buying an autographed guitar for a cool $1K just to get to go backstage and meet him. But alas, cooler heads prevailed (aka my mom) and I settled for a t-shirt and an autographed Working Class Dog CD (which I can't actually play bc I don't have a CD player anymore, but is still befitting this trip down memory lane).

And at 74 years old (whaaaat?), Rick put on a helluva show. 

Singing and strumming and dancing and prancing across the arm rests in the audience to the tune of Human Touch. Iconic. He belted out all the songs above (which he also wrote), plus a few more including a surprise rendition of 867-5309/Jenny -- which is NOT his song, but it is MY theme song.

It's like he knew I was there...

So here's to you, Rick Springfield, for letting us feel like teenagers again, making us all wish we were Jessie's Girl and teaching millions the meaning of the word "moot."