Adele....

Amid the chaos that was October 2016, my girls and I took some time out to attend a concert in Washington DC. It wasn't just any concert. It was ADELE. Yes, that Adele.

It was kind of a crazy turn of events that led to the show.  The previous year, 19 had been off for Columbus Day as well as the day after, so when I saw that Adele tickets were available over Columbus Day weekend 2016, naturally I assumed the same school holiday would take effect. WRONG.

Poor thing did NOT have off that day, so she had to leave from her last class and drive 3 hours straight to the Metro station outside of DC. In a cool twist of fate, we exited I-270 at the exact same time so we didn't have to go looking or waiting for one another at the station. We parked side by side and rode in together.

The Metro goes directly to the Verizon Center in DC where the concert was held. Once we exited, we found a Chipotle and had a quick bite to eat before braving the long lines to get in to the venue. Once inside, we found our seats up really close to where I believe God lives, section 404. You could feel the excitement in the air.

When the lights went down I reached over and held both my girls' hands. As Adele began to sing "Hello" my eyes filled up with tears. When I looked over at both of my daughters, they also had tears in their eyes. That, my friends, is a special kind of magic.

Our view. Look at her eyes!

The special bond between a mother who is very close to her daughters is something to be cherished, and I'm lucky enough to share that bond with both my girls.  To experience this concert together, to see the tears in my girls' eyes, knowing that they felt how special this experience was, just as much as I felt it, was overwhelming.

I lost my mother 3 weeks after the Adele concert. My mom and I had that special bond, and I'm blessed to share that same close bond with both of my girls. I hope that they, too, will have a similar bond if they are fortunate enough to have daughters of their own.

From the beginning until the end of the Adele concert, we danced, we sang, we laughed and we cried together. It was one of those magical memories for us and I'm blessed that I have two amazing girls with whom I got to share it.

Shock Value!! Or why I don't like Zayn Malik anymore...

As a mother to 2 teenage girls, I hear a LOT of music in my house. A. LOT. Some of it's okay and some of it sucks, but for the most part, I don't mind it.  Over the last few years we've listened to One Direction a bunch. Their music is fun and peppy (yes, I sound like I'm 90). For the most part, I like their stuff.

I remember telling both my girls back when One Direction released their movie that IMO Zayn probably had the best voice AND that if the band were to break up, it was my feeling that Zayn would be the first to leave. Apparently, I was right. Now Zayn has moved on and has released solo material. 16 played me the video for his new song the other day, and let's just say I wasn't impressed. (Let me also say that I'm not linking to it because I didn't like it enough to share it with you 4 or 5 folks who read me on the regular).

It became clear to me in the first few seconds of watching the video that One Direction had become too tame, too clean for Zayn Malik. Then I heard him drop the "F" bomb during the song. That was all I needed to hear. I walked away from the computer, shaking my head in disappointment.

Now you guys know me, I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, and I've dropped my fair share of "F" bombs. But I don't do it for shock value, or to piss people off or show how cool I am. I drop the effer when I'm pretty pissed about something and "darn" just won't do. And I am not afraid of music with cursing. Hell I LIKE Eminem because he is who he is. He started out with the mouth he continues to sing with. He didn't change to be someone else purely because he wanted to escape an image.

But Zayn's use of the "F" bomb was purely for attention. It is MY opinion (and remember, this is my blog so if you came here to read and you don't agree, you don't ever have to come back, my feelings won't be hurt), that Zayn is so glad to shake the clean boy-band image he had while a member of One Direction. He didn't want to sing the tame, safe lyrics any longer. He wanted to branch out on his own, be his own man, be true to himself and write from the heart. Or the crotch. Whatever.

The point is, he got what he wanted. He's officially shaken off the "Boy Band Member" label. No longer will moms look at him and think "what a clean cut, well-mannered boy". Well, not this mom anyway. Now I will look at him and think "I'm not buying concert tickets for my daughters to go and watch you sing songs about f*cking because you CAN, now that you're no longer in a Boy Band". It's really a shame, too, because he really DOES have a beautiful voice, and maybe one day he'll settle down and reign in those wild horny thoughts and go back to singing songs that aren't mean to shock. But for now, I'm saving my money to pay off the One Direction and Adele concert tickets from my credit card bills.