Unrepentant Geraldines: Mama's Going Out

Album Cover via ToriAmos.com

You might not know this (or you might, I'm not exactly a closed book), but I'm a huge Tori Amos fan.  Like, enormous.

I found Tori when I was very fifteen and very emo.  To be honest, I'm not so sure those things aren't synonymous.  In any event, there were feelings that, for me at the time, didn't have words or a voice, and Tori spoke to them in a way I didn't know was possible.  I think I played Little Earthquakes for eight months straight.  Tori might be why I failed Geometry. It could also have been because I sucked at Math, and especially sucked at Geometry.  But, whatever.

Over the years, Tori and I, we've had relationships, break-ups, gotten married, had losses, and built families.  We've grown up together.  I buy her albums, I sing her songs, and I sense, still after all these years, a kindred spirit.

But I don't go to concerts.  They're expensive, and I have kids, and I don't have time to go to concerts anymore.  Not since Reagan was brand new.  The last concert I went to, actually, was hers.

You can imagine my shock, just before my birthday, when my friend Dena told me that she'd scored a couple of tickets, and damned if she hadn't decided to take me with her.  Good thing I happened to be at the school, picking Bridget up from a Summer School field trip.  It's nice to know there are people around and a defibrillator when you have a mild heart attack!

Tonight is the concert, and I'm ridiculously excited about it.  Like, try-not-to-jump-up-and-down-and-freak-out-the-kids excited.  

This should also help clear up my just-got-back-from-vacation funk.  There's something about get-away days that sort of knock me out of things for a bit.  But I think I've finished unpacking.  And of course, the laundry train has begun again.  I should do some kind of timeline on our laundry.  It's insane. 

If you haven't heard it yet, my favorite song on the new Tori album is Promise.  As the mother of daughters, I love the back and forth between Tori and Tash and the promise that we moms know was made the day they laid them in our arms.  That we will be there, on their side, no matter what.  I'm ridiculously sappy, and this one makes me get misty eyed if I think about it too hard.