Bring on the Cheese. Go On, Bring It.

I think I'd like to officially make Friday's my THINGS I LOVE post. Exciting. Right now, I'd like to wax poetic about cranking a good song while driving in my car...one of my most favorite things to do. It ranks fairly high for me as a thing I love.

I'm one of those annoying drivers that likes to crank it up to ear bleed level...but I don't dance. Too self conscious. Now don't get me wrong. I can dance. Like really, really dance. I swear it when I tell you that my college girlfriends and I used to dance at The Rat - the best bar on West Chester University's campus - we seriously drew a crowd. I'm not braggin. Well, actually I guess I am but holy smokes did we have fun.

Check 'em out...this was taken a few months ago at one of our Girl's Weekends. Not bad for a bunch of 40 year olds, huh?

Those were the days. Those were the days.

I know you are simply dying to know what music I blast in my '04 Chrysler Pacifica (it is NOT a mini-van, at least I don't think so).

I have a confession to make here. I love cheesy pop music. It all started with WHAM back in senior year of high school - 1985.

I couldn't get enough of the neon coiffed duo and was madly in love with Andrew - the non George Michael dude. I'm certain I owned cut off gloves and neon green clothing of some sort and I knew that WHAM dance by heart. Don't even try to act like you don't know what I'm talking about. You know.

I would whip that move out at the Jamison Skate Rink during the Saturday night dances there, with half of my head shaved off and plastic dinosaur earrings. What can I say - I wanted attention. I was a good kid though - the worst I did was sneak out of the house with my dad's brown, cotton, paisley robe in my purse because he forbade me from wearing it to the dance as a jacket...and I wore it anyway. Oooooh did I get in trouble for that one. He was waiting for me when I got home from the dance - AT THE FRONT DOOR. I almost peed my pants walking up my front walkway.

Back to my affinity for cheesy pop music. I'm talkin' boy bands, The Britney herself, heck I've even listened to Aaron Carter - WITH my then 5 year old. Hand to heart.

I've been known to rock N'Sync, hard. Back Street Boys. New Kids on the Block (both old and new), Britney Spears, pre hooker/psycho head-shaving days - yet I'm diggin on Womanizer, a lot. Christina Aguilara - even when she was the nasty XTina.

LOVE, love, love Justin Timberlake. But to me, he is far beyond cheesy pop music. The guy is seriously talented. I was 'hips against the stage' front row at the 9:30 Club in DC a few years ago with my girlfriend Maria (she is one of those college girlfriends that helped draw a crowd - the girl can dance! *she is 2nd from the right in the photo above) Anyway, back to the best night of my life - well I guess the second or third or fourth night. The night I got engaged, the night I got married and the birth of each of my boys should probably take precedence to J.T. - reluctantly.

Hips to stage. J.T.'s feet were about 2 inches from my hands. We make eye contact. He smiles down at me. I smile up at him while a girl of 18 or 19 wails into my ear, "YOU ARE SO LUCKYYYYYYYYY! AHHHHH!" I politely mouth what any 36 year old mother of two would mouth, "I Love You." He smiles again.

And then, I do the most daring thing I've ever done in my whole entire life - even more daring than sporting my dad's robe at that dance. I take my two, 36 year old hands and rub his calves. Like 4 times. Two times up. Two times down. I get another smile too.

Yes, my husband knows the whole story. Yes, he thinks I'm crazy. Yes, I re-visit that moment with my friend Maria and we smile and shake our heads at how much stinkin' fun that was. Yes, it helped cement my deep and true and absolute love of pop music.

Long live the cheese.

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