The Spice Girls and Shopping :)

I can't wrap my brain around the fact that today is already Tuesday, and that we are nearing the end of the month of February. Where did all the time go? I really felt like January dragged itself along, but February certainly is moving pretty speedily along. It's probably because last week I was in a bit of a fog from being sick that a few of those days just blended in to each other. Plus if I add in all the fun of the weekend, suddenly I find myself here on Tuesday wondering where the heck the time has went.

So the Spice Girls concert was a total blast!!! I had more fun than I expected to have. Not that I expected to have a miserable time or anything, it's just that while I knew it would be fun, I didn't know just how much fun it would end up being. I guess I'm too used to going to John Mayer concerts, where the set design isn't really a big part of the show... it's just about the music. Which that in itself is a great thing when you can go to a concert and simply be entertained because the music is awesome. The Spice Girls obviously aren't John Mayer, but they sure did put on one hell of a show. The music was just FUN. It immediately brought me back to 9th and 10th grades, except this time I had no shame in dancing and singing my heart out to their music. Me and my sister were being total goofballs, dancing and screeching and giggling... basically doing what sisters do. The set design was great! I think they had three or four costume changes, and the set was constantly changing, and lots of bright colors. Plus they had all male backup dancers, some who were doing a kind of cabaret act, others who were break dancing... it was awesome. The Poshbot (as Trent at Pink is the New Blog would say) was out doing her thing, and the audience cheered for her the most, which was funny. Honestly though, shock of my life, I gotta say the best performances seemed to come from Sporty Spice. She really does seem to be a great singer and she put the most energy in to her performances. (The rumors are that she's the one who is really ready for the tour to be over, so for that reason I was surprised at her energy.)

At the end of this blog I'm going to include a few pictures (the full album can be seen here and the guest password is "photos.") and also some video I shot! :)

So moving on... on Sunday morning/afternoon my sister and I went out and about, because my sister was hinting that she wanted to do a sister day. I was totally fine with that because it is nice to spend a day with my sister. It seems that we rarely get to do that without her hubby tagging along. Don't get me wrong, my brother in law is a nice guy, but he does have a tendency to annoy me on occasion, especially how he always wants to be a tag-along regardless of what it is we're doing! I swear that we could be out shopping for manure and he'd want to come along. But he's not really the point in this story, so I will move on. The first thing we did was go to Bob Evan's for a late breakfast/early lunch (brunch?). I should have known how our day would be when my sister took three different cell calls while we were eating. I don't know, I just personally find it rude when a person just breaks out their cell phone during a meal. It would be one thing if we were at McDonald's or something, but we're actually in a sit down restaurant and she broke out the phone three times. I mean seriously! And by the time we got in the car to head to the mall, she was on the phone with her husband. We went to the 12 Oaks mall (I'm including that info for Robin since I know she lives in the area) which was a bit of a drive from her house. I was getting a little car sick which was probably making me get annoyed a bit easier, but before we even got to the mall my sister was on the phone yet again. Seriously, she should just have that thing surgically implanted to her head already. Geesh.

While at the mall I was shopping for spring/summer clothes. I've been needing to update that bit of my wardrobe for a while now. We went to the 12 Oaks specifically to go to the Delia's store, because there was a really cute top in their catalog that I really wanted. I was super excited because not only did they have the top in the store in my size, but they had it for only $6.99 when in the catalog they most definiately want $30 for it! So that was a big score! I did really well overall with my shopping, getting a cute pair of silver ballet flats and heart dangle earrings at H&M for $15 total. I also got two tops, a new bathing suit, and board shorts at Old Navy for under $60, so I felt like I was doing pretty good. I went home happy with my purchases, definitely no buyers remorse!

The real trouble started while we were at the Coach store. My sister is one of those people that gets hung up on a brand name, which totally irritates me. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like to have nice quality things, and I have been considering getting a nice, basic Coach purse as of late. I get irritated with my sister because she's got mulitiple trend-of-the-moment expensive purses, and she'll continue to buy them as long as they're stamped with Coach or Gucci, etc. Seeing as she's hardly bringing in six figures, I can't for the life of me figure out where she gets the money for those things! While I was okay with browsing the purses, my sister kept insisting that I buy one, and wasn't really taking no for an answer. Well, I didn't buy a purse that day, and my sister was clearly irritated with me because I'm not as impulsive as she is when it comes to spending my money. By the time we had made it to Nordstrom's (this time she was eyeballing a LAMB purse, which was honestly the ugliest purse in the whole store and cost almost $400, even though they had cuter, cheaper LAMB purses) she decided that she would start in on me.

When she picked up the fugly purse and tried to convince me of why $400 was a reasonable price, I just shook my head no. This set her off, and she started lecturing me on "living in a box." She started going on and on about how I "live in a box" and that I need to "step out of it." When I asked her what the heck she meant by a "box," she started saying that "it's everything Tamara. It's the way you wear you hair, the clothes you wear, the music you listen to, the friends you hang out with, living in Flint, the jobs you work. Everything. You are stuck in a box, and don't you think it's a little juvenile?" In which my inner response was "Oh, that's right, seeing as more than half of our friends are mutual, you're always asking to borrow something from my wardrobe, and you ask me to burn you copies of all of my CDs... but you're calling me juvenile." My verbal response was "Tiffany, everyone has their "box" if that's what you're calling it. You have one, too. You work at Chipolte which I hear about non-stop, you are married to Rich, you live in Waterford. Is there anything so exciting about your life that I'm forgetting?" She immediately scowled at me and said "Well, name one adult accomplishment you have, Tamara!"

This wasn't getting us anywhere. I knew she just wanted to pick at me, so I decided to just put an end to the conversation. "Let's see. I have a college degree. I think that's a pretty good accomplishment. And you're married, and that's an adult accomplishment. Let's not play this game of who is more adult than who. I don't like the purse, I'm never going to like the purse, okay? Can we drop it already?" She scowled at me one more time before mumbling "Fine. I just think you need to loosen up a bit. But whatever." Ah! I swear, that girl! By the time we were done shopping, and we got back to her apartment, I was quite happy to say my farewells. It was hardly a "I won't talk to you for days" kind of argument, but it was definitely a reminder to me of why we get along best in small doses. At least we had fun at the concert!

And so here are a few pictures of the many I took of the concert. A lot of my photos came out blurry due to not using flash, but some of them came out pretty good. We really had some great seats, but the camera made it look like we were a little further away.

The sign as we drove up to the Palace.

My sister is on the right, I'm on the left. I look really tired here! This was right before the concert started.

Edited to add that apparently I don't know my left from right! LOL I'm on the right, duh.

This was a good clear shot of the stage.

Vickie B. in all her Posh glory.

My sis and me after the concert, in our Spice Girl T-shirts. :)

Oh and trust me when I say I have even more stories about the concert to share with you guys, but I'll add that to a blog later this week. :) Here are three videos I took. Sorry that it's shaky, but I was using my digital camera to record it, plus we were dancing around. The first video is the longest (A little less than 3 minutes) and the other two are pretty short.

This was me and my sis singing a bit off key to "Wannabe." LOL This is not a fair representation of my actual vocal skills!

I think this was the beginning of "Viva Forever." This was the last song of the concert.

And this was literally the last few seconds of the concert. :)