Queen + Adam Lambert: In Concert!

I wrote on my personal Facebook page a few weeks back that every four years in July, Brian May and I get together to celebrate his birthday. Obviously this post wasn't entirely true: alas Dr. May has no idea about the interesting timing of our two encounters but that doesn't change the fact that on July 19, 2014 (Dr. May's 67th birthday and nearly four years to the day from the time I had the amazing opportunity to meet him), I saw Brian May and Roger Taylor performing as Queen in concert!

Rumors of this current North American tour began to circulate ages ago. You may recall that as early as 2010, Foo Fighter and massive Queen fan, Taylor Hawkins started talking about a tour. Unfortunately that particular matchup didn't come to pass but the whispering continued. I caught wind of them early on and vowed right then and there that if they scheduled a date anywhere near me, I was going. I missed out in 2005 when I was on my "but it's not Queen without Freddie" high horse and then their 2008 tour didn't even include a visit to the States. Honestly, Brian and Roger could have announced that they were touring with a bunch of singing rattlesnakes and I'd have made it my business to be there. (Although blech - maybe not rattlesnakes!)

As it turns out Brian and Roger decided to connect with American Idol veteran Adam Lambert for a North American tour, which began earlier this summer. Reception to this news on the major Queen fan front was - to put it mildly - mixed. Many felt that touring with anyone besides Freddie (and, of course, reclusive bassist John Deacon) was blasphemy. Others felt that a tour was fine but just not with someone whom they considered the very embodiment of a "C-lebrity", a song from the Queen + Paul Rodgers album released a few years back. Then there was the contingency of which I was a part: generally younger fans who sadly had no opportunity to see Queen in their heyday and realize that with both Brian and Roger firmly into their 60s, the reality of a tour is rapidly decreasing by the day.

When they released the dates, I was ecstatic: Madison Square Garden in NYC, TD Garden in Boston, and - ohmygosh, in my very own backyard - Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut! I dug out my rarely used American Express card to qualify for presale tickets and tasked ever-humoring Husband to purchase three tickets to the show. Presale, unfortunately, did not go smoothly. Tickets had been released in groups of 2 so a request for 3 was downright impossible: the system kept saying "none available"! Eek! Finally Husband snagged 2 tickets for me and a fellow fanatic friend and set out to find a single ticket for himself. The whole process was ridiculously nerve-wracking and made worse by the fact that tons of VIP tickets were available for several hundred dollars a pop. If it had just been me and Husband I probably would have paid the premium to get floor seats but I wasn't sure how high my friend was willing to go so we stuck with the regular seats. Finally, Husband got a ticket for himself and all systems were a go.

Of course literally the next day they announced a second date in Connecticut to account for the unexpected demand: that show is next Friday and tickets are still available. Argggg!

We booked a babysitter and made reservations to eat at Bar Americain (Bobby Flay's restaurant) before the show. To say I was nervous on Saturday was a bit of an understatement! I knew for sure that this concert was a once in a lifetime experience and I hoped everything went off without a hitch. Thankfully, it did! Dinner was delicious and just the right amount of food. I even treated myself to a frosty beverage to hopefully take the edge off a bit! We explored the casinos a while and I found my favorites: penny slots! I'm just about the cheapest person in the world and the idea of plopping down money that I'm just going to lose in five seconds makes me ill. With penny slots, I played the same $20 all evening before I lost it!

When it was time to go to the arena, there was a huge crowd gathered. Security was kind of a mess: they had male officers frisking male attendees and female officers further up the line frisking the ladies and checking bags. Seems like it might have made more sense to split up men and women or at least have some sort of signage indicating that was the procedure. While we waited, I checked out the makeup of the crowd which was very interesting. There were lots of older folks, but not older in the sense that "Brian and Roger are in their 60s and still awesome older"; it was more like "I'm going to hit the buffet at the golf club before nap older". I also spotted a fair number of families: parents in their 40s-50s with teenage-ish kids. The older generation definitely had the biggest showing though.

My shirt, which I will rarely wear lest it get worn!

The admission line basically lead straight into the merchandise line, which was fine because I knew I wanted a shirt. I'd scoped them out online earlier in the week and had narrowed it down to a particular style. My friend liked another style better (and I actually did too), but it didn't have the concert dates on the back and I really wanted that feature on the shirt. Otherwise it's just a Queen shirt that I could have bought anywhere! I also wanted to snag a program for a friend in Canada who visited the Montreal show but the programs were sold out.

So we waited...and waited...and waited.

Oh my gosh we were in this line forever! The shirts were all numbered and displayed on the wall so all you had to say was, "Number 3, size Medium" and then pay, but people were taking forever! One lady in front of us would say, "Number 12, size XL", the lady would get the shirt and then the first lady would say, "Number 30, size XL." You seriously couldn't order all the styles at once?!?!! Another two ladies stood there for ten minutes holding shirts up to their backs to figure out sizing as if they had never purchased t-shirts before. And I can't even count the number of people who asked, "What's on the back of Number [whichever]?" If the back isn't displayed on the wall, it's blank, people! Geesh!

We made our way to the front and at that point had decided to combine our orders to save time. My friend dealt with the lady for literally 45 seconds and 30 of those seconds were the lady fetching our two shirts. Everyone is seriously lucky that the show didn't start in the meantime or else I think we would have totally freaked out!

View from our seats. There were two giant television
displays and then a Q in the center with a video screen.
Unfortunately, our view of the Q video was blocked by
a piece of sound equipment.

Afterwards we found our seats. I've been in this particular arena before, but I was pleasantly surprised at how small it seemed. Suddenly our seats in the middle of nowhere didn't seem to terribly far from the stage. And even better, there was a catwalk and second smaller stage well within our view!




At this point it was past 8pm and I was ready for the show to start! I was definitely a little nervous and was bouncing around in my seat trying to contain my excitement. We did use the time to take a selfie photograph since Husband wasn't sitting with us to be official photographer of the night! We also chatted up the folks next to us: the couple to our left claimed to be big fans, but didn't know it was Dr. May's birthday so we weren't sure what to make of that and then man to our right said his brother was a big fan but he didn't do much squealing so who knows! (Obviously I'm being silly with both those statements: I don't go around judging whether someone's Queen fandom is adequate...or do I?)

The show itself was, in a word, amazing. Completely and utterly amazing. The set list was perfect: a combination of tried and true classics (Another One Bites the Dust, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, and Killer Queen) and more obscure tracks that separated out the real from the casual fans (Seven Seas of Rhye, In the Lap of the Gods...Revisited, and Now I'm Here). And more importantly, the boys sounded great. Dr. May and his Red Special were in rare form and good ole Roger thundered through the songs like a drummer half his age! He did have some assistance in the form of his youngest son, Rufus, who has been performing with the band as a percussionist for the past few years. Rog definitely held his own though and it was only during one song (Tie Your Mother Down, which came very late in the set list) that he completely handed over the drumming reigns to Rufus.

I'd made a very conscious decision that I didn't want to see any video of Adam Lambert performing with the band prior to the concert. You have to understand that this meant restraining myself for ages as Adam has been performing in one-off shows with Brian and Roger for several years now. For me, I felt very strongly that I needed to make my own opinion about the collaboration and I hoped that someday I'd be able to form that opinion after watching them perform together live. That said, I thought Adam did a fine job. He very clearly understood and made it clear to the audience that he understood that the show wasn't about him. I read a review that questioned why the boys didn't throw Adam's fans a bone in the form of one of his solo songs, but I think the answer is obvious: this wasn't Queen AND Adam Lambert. This was Queen + Adam Lambert. Of all the merchandise for sale outside the arena, there was ONE Adam Lambert shirt. Out of nearly 30 different Queen variations, including several that featured Freddie Mercury. Yes, Adam Lambert's fans may have come to the show to hear him sing, but there was no question that he was there to sing Queen songs and rather proud and honored to be doing so.

Adam's certainly got a flamboyant personality, that's part of the reason why many felt he would be a good fit for a band once fronted by Freddie Mercury, one of the most outrageously flamboyant frontman ever.  He was cheeky and wore some wild costumes, but remained respectful of his stagemates the entire evening. At one point, Dr May asked the crowd how we liked the "new guy" and his bashfulness at our polite applause seemed rather genuine.

Speaking of bashfulness, however, I'd be lying if I didn't say that my favorite part of the show was the middle section where Adam took a lengthy break. It began with Adam announcing that it was Dr. May's birthday and we all sang "Happy Birthday" to him. I'm including Husband's videos because he had a slightly better position in the crowd and has a better camera on his phone (and if you listen closely to the second video below, you can hear him singing along!!) Oh my gosh I seriously could not love this man more! As we sang, he made his way down the catwalk to the smaller stage and I knew immediately that some wonderful things were about to happen!

I was not disappointed. The next song was one that I've always wanted to see performed live because of its sing-along component: Love of My Life. The history behind this song is that Queen embarked on a world tour in 1980-1981. When they arrived in South America, this song (though released several years prior on the Night at the Opera album) was a huge hit and audiences demanded that the band play it. They complied and the crowd would sing along, often drowning out Freddie himself. When the band returned to North America (to film their iconic Queen: Rock Montreal concert), they included it in the set list, not realizing it wasn't quite the hit up north. This led to a very sweet exchange between Freddie and Brian about one verse into the song where Freddie says, "they don't know it!" From that point on, however, the song became fan favorite all over the world and has been a staple in the band's set list for decades. Now, of course, Dr. May both sings and plays guitar on this song and the emotion in his voice is evident. He asked us to sing along and promised us a "treat" at the end if we performed well. I'm not ashamed to admit that I definitely shed a tear while singing along to this one and I was horrified to see how many people made a beeline to the restrooms during this song! I think we should have locked them out! How could you walk out on this beautiful moment?

Although it was rather predictable, the "treat" at the end was a video of Freddie singing the final portion of the song. Yup, the tears were definitely flowing at that point!

The mini-set ended with Roger joining Dr. May for another one of my favorites: '39! Oh how I love this song and I greatly enjoyed singing along to this one as well. It really is a perfect example of what a dork Dr. May is though: he went into this whole elaborate explanation about how the song is a folk song set in outer space and then said we were going on a mission into space. Oh my gosh - talk about adorkable! Then they headed back to the main stage where Roger sang his signature contribution: Days of Our Lives, another one that tugs on the heartstrings of those fans who remember and loved Freddie so much.

Overall, I was very pleased with the concert. I was thrilled when later (on the closer stage, no less) they played Under Pressure. I didn't recall that one being on the set lists and as you may recall it holds a special place in my heart for being the song that showcases what an amazing musician Roger is. He sang his part as strong as ever and I swear for a minute it sounded like David Bowie had shown up! I was a little sad that Rog didn't get to sing lead on Radio GaGa, but I greatly enjoyed his dueling drum solo with Rufus! That was definitely not on the set list!

The one song I really did wish they had played was It's Late, my absolute favorite Queen song. They only ever played it live a few times in the 1970s so I knew this one was a long shot but I think it would have been amazing to hear. Maybe next time, eh boys?

I don't regret for a minute going to the show and several times just closed my eyes and enjoyed the fact that I was in the same room with Dr. May and Roger Taylor listening to them play music. It was completely surreal. And, again, I shed another tear during the encore as they played We are the Champions and I realized that this was the last song I'd likely ever hear them play live. (Unless I go back for tonight's show, which I totally might skip town and do!) It was truly a magical evening with two of my favorite musicians!

**NOTE** I've linked to my previous posts for each song on the set list that I featured as a Queen Song of the Week. I highly recommend that you go back and listen to the original recordings and live versions of those songs as they really are masterpieces that showcase the talents of four of the most iconic and diverse musicians of the 20th century!

Happy Easter: Baby O meets the Easter Bunny!

Yeah it was crazy-expensive and it's not like he's actually going to remember that it happened, but what did you expect? I'm ridiculous.

Happy Easter!

Love,

Kathleen, Husband, and Baby O

These Are the Days of Our Lives: An Announcement

I'm a little late to the table regarding the "scandal" that's recently been a hot topic in the world of Anthropologie-blogging. Click here for JG's ridiculously thorough summary of said scandal.

I've decided to refrain from commenting on the actual goings-on because (1) it's a week later and there's no need to beat a dead horse and (2) I don't actually consider myself an "Anthro-blogger" more of a "talks about all sorts of random ass stuff which frequently includes Anthropologie blogger" so I don't know that my opinion would be appropriate. 

However, the whole incident has led to a fair amount of self-reflection on my part which I do feel the need to address.

When I started my blog back in January 2010, I was running like a mad woman and in need of new (and smaller) clothes. I was restocking my closet and it sounded like a lot of fun to bring all you lovely readers along for the ride. I also thought writing a blog would be a fun way to bring some attention to some of my more random interests.

That anyone started reading my blog continues to shock me and I'm grateful for every single one of you.

However, in the last 21 months, my priorities have drastically changed. Many of you followed my struggles with infertility this past year and again I saw blogging as an opportunity to get some information out there. I don't want to be ashamed or embarrassed to talk about IVF (in vitro fertilization) and putting my journey out there for the world to read helped give me confidence to speak about it in real life.

I don't shop for clothing as much as I used to and reading through many of the comments over at GOMI made me realize why: there are other things much more important to me. That dress I'm so in love with today will be back in another colorway next month or it will go on sale. Or it won't and I'll never own it and shockingly the world will continue to exist.

That isn't to say, however, that I have stopped shopping. In fact, Husband and I made a rather large purchase over Labor Day weekend.

That's right, readers, I'm pregnant. Husband and I are expecting a little baby boy in January and predictably we are both over the moon excited. I've been putting off making an official blogging announcement in the hopes that I'd soon have a cute little baby bump to show off, but unfortunately I'm so tall, even at 22 weeks, I've still got nothing!

That said, I'm going to try to keep up the blog to the extent that I'm able, but from a decidedly different viewpoint. In Princess of Taylor-world, maternity pants are "in" and Pilcro cords are "out". As soon as my bump is a little more noticeable, I'm looking forward to running posts reviewing maternity clothes and even giving advice about combining your non-maternity closet with your maternity closet.

For anyone wondering, my pregnancy is progressing beautifully. The doctors have said on more than one occasion that things look "perfect" and I'm beyond thrilled every time I hear that. Husband and I have been on this journey for such a long time, to hear that we can finally relax and just enjoy preparing for this little guy brings us such happiness!

I have been experiencing some wicked pregnancy symptoms, most notably heartburn and exhaustion. But thanks to my Leachco Pregnancy Pillow and twice-a-week yoga classes, I'm finally starting to feel a bit better. I've also been very excited in the past few weeks to feel our little guy moving and as I type this he's happily kicking away.

I want to thank each and every one of you that's commented or emailed as I've chronicled our journey. And those of you that sent us positive thoughts and well wishes as well.

It is when someone opens their life to the point of sharing happy news like this that it becomes clear that, like in any relationship which has ups and downs, we truly are a community. And one that I'm very happy to be a part of.

Something to Talk About: Infertility and the Media

The other night Husband banished me to the bedroom while he watched 60 Minutes on DVR. As I flipped through the channels, I stumbled upon the premiere of Pregnant in Heels.

This show is, in a word, ridiculous. Wealthy, connected, and pregnant New York City couples hire a woman named Rosie Pope who dubs herself a "maternity concierge". She helps them decorate nurseries, choose names, and basically anything else they need to prepare them for the birth of their child. In the first episode, a couple insisted upon hiring a group of experts, empaneling a focus group, and throwing a dinner party for friends...all to choose a name for their son, who they claimed would most certainly be on the Presidential ballot in 2056. In the end, the couple ignored everyone's advice and settled on a name that no one liked...which they totally could have done for free.

I was ready to start flipping again when a particular scene caught my attention. Rosie Pope, the maternity concierge herself, holding a Follistim pen.

A Follistim pen, like I have in my refrigerator right now!

At first I thought perhaps she was branching out and helping women who were not yet pregnant, then her husband appeared on the screen and it occurred to me that in a tremendous bout of irony the maternity concierge was battling infertility.

Lately it seems like infertility is everywhere. And I don't think that's because I'm going through it.

Many years ago, my mother's doctor suggested that she have a mammogram. Nothing was wrong, but my mom had hit an age where it was a good idea to do one. So she agreed and while she awaited the results, she traveled to the beach to visit her brother's family. While there, she called me in a panic:

Mom: There is breast cancer awareness stuff everywhere here!

Me: What do you mean?

Mom: Everyone's wearing pink...and there was a parade this morning. I think it's the universe trying to tell me something.

Or it was October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Say what you will about television shows like Jon & Kate Plus Eight and other families with high order multiples, but I really do think they are at least partially responsible to bringing the subject of infertility to the forefront. People love twins, triplets, quadruplets. The more babies, the better. And beyond triplets (which occur in only the rarest of cases), these high order multiples do not happen naturally.

Soon, I was noticing that other reality shows were dealing with infertility issues. Giuliana & Bill suffered a miscarriage followed by a failed IVF cycle right around the time Husband and I did. And the Little Couple hasn't even been able to complete a cycle of IVF due to complications arising from Jen's small frame.

As silly as it sounds, but I feel a bit of a kinship with women like Giuliana and Jen: Giuliana is a successful television personality and Jen is a doctor. Both set goals for themselves in life and then achieved them...until now. Suddenly there's this huge thing that seems so easy for every other woman and yet it turns out we're woefully inadequate in that department and there's nothing we can do to change it. Seeing other women experience that out-of-control feeling doesn't necessarily make me feel any better, but at least I know I'm not alone.

Here's the thing though: it's one thing to discuss IVF when cameras happen to be following you around and documenting every detail of your life. It's another to just come out and start talking about it. Not because there are cameras. Not because anyone is going to find out anyway. But just because it's something that happens to women and to couples that isn't shameful. It's not something we need to hide in the corner and be embarrassed about.

Recently it seems many celebrities have begun discussing their experiences with infertility and IVF. Elizabeth Rohm, best known from Law and Order, found out at age 34 that she couldn't conceive naturally and underwent IVF. And Elizabeth Banks, currently appearing on 30 Rock, and her husband had a baby via gestational surrogate.

Perhaps it is just that I've become super-sensitive to matters of infertility. As I searched for the two stories linked above, I came across several sites listing dozens of well-known celebrities who have experienced infertility. I still can't help but think that many of those celebrities "came out" about their struggles in response to an accusation by the media. A celebrity has twins and the first assumption is that there must be a non-genetic reason for it. That turns the revelation into more of a, "Yes, fine, we did IVF. Are you happy?" than a open and mature dialogue about the fact that there are couples out there who simply cannot conceive naturally, but luckily science has stepped in to allow many to achieve what otherwise would be impossible.

When Husband and I were undergoing IUI, we didn't tell anyone save our immediate family. When we had our first miscarriage, we didn't even tell them until months later. That whole period was awful: I felt like I was lying to everyone about everything. Our response to IVF has been totally different: we've been completely open about it because we're not doing anything wrong. Why should Husband lie to his high school friend about why I might not be attending his wedding in June? The truth is that if I have doctor's appointments three times a week, I won't be able to travel.

Does that mean I'm not happy for him to be getting married? Of course not.

Does it mean that I wouldn't love to be there? Sure, granted the wedding is in Nebraska over my 30th birthday weekend, but Husband is definitely going and I'm never one to turn down a great party!

Being truthful is just easier and as expected, Husband's friend understood and wished us luck.

Part of the problem, I think probably the biggest problem, is that people don't know how to respond to someone who is talking about infertility. It's uncomfortable to hear and not something that can be solved with some reassuring words. But sometimes, most of the time, the person dealing with infertility isn't looking for answers.

She's just looking for support. For a friend. For someone to be there for her and distract her with shopping or lunch or a day away from her HCG count or estrogen levels.

The one thing I've learned as Husband and I have navigated the last year is what amazing friends we have. Friends who call Husband to talk because they can tell we're having a bad day. Or friends who show up with cheesecake and movies to entertain me while I'm stuck in bed rest. They don't solve our problems. They don't even try. But they are there for us more than we ever realized friends could be.

Of course there's a difference between telling close family and friends what's going on and blabbing about it to the media (or on a blog!), but in order to get infertility out there as a non-taboo subject, people have got to talk about it. And become comfortable with it.

I'm glad to see that there are finally some younger celebrities and people in the public eye addressing this issue. Hopefully someday infertility won't be thrown around as an accusation and will just be another part of life.

In the meantime, Husband and I are continuing our quest to conceive and will be beginning a second cycle of IVF tonight. Thank you to everyone out there for all your support. I may not "know" you, but reading your comments and stories also makes me realize that we're not alone and I commend any of you willing to share your story on this blog!

Happy Friday!

A Query: Celebrity Encounters

Husband and I recently had an interesting conversation about celebrity encounters. Ultimately we were left in complete disagreement so I'm curious to open the question up to a wider audience.

A while back we had the opportunity to attend a comedy performance by Tom Wilson. I'd be willing to bet that every single one of you knows who Tom Wilson is, but I'd also be willing to bet that most of you know him not as Tom Wilson, but rather as "Biff" from the Back to the Future trilogy.

Tom Wilson in Back to the Future, Part II and Tom Wilson now.

Now I've made no secret of my love of the Back to the Future trilogy: three entire movies about time travel? Sign me up! But I've also always been a person who enjoys the villains more than the protagonist hero (i.e. my love of Alan Rickman and Tim Curry, who somehow manage to make even the most despicable villain likeable) so Biff really is my favorite character in the Back to the Future movies. I always think of what fun it must have been for Tom Wilson to dress up in all the costumes for various time periods and makeup for various ages and then just go around picking on everyone.

Lest anyone think that we only appreciate Tom Wilson for his role in Back to the Future, let me assure you that's not the case. We loved his role as the gym teacher in Freaks and Geeks, he had a guest role on Psych last season, and he's currently in the middle of a several episode stint on Big Love. The guy's really a pretty good actor and every time he shows up on screen somewhere, we're pleasantly surprised.

But anyway, back to the point. Husband and I attended Tom Wilson's comedy show. Husband was particularly excited as he'd just received the Back to the Future trilogy in blu ray and thought perhaps he'd ask Mr. Wilson to sign it.

Once we arrived at the show, however, our friends informed us that they'd done a little research on Mr. Wilson (okay that makes me think of Dennis the Menace) and discovered that he was trying to separate himself from his Back to the Future persona and that he had made a conscious and public decision to not sign any Back to the Future memorabilia.

The show began and less than five minutes into it, Tom addressed this issue. He said that he was going to just put all the Back to the Future stuff out there and then he was moving on. So he said the lines: "Hey, McFly!"; "Hello? (knocking on an audience member's head); "Butthead!" and then he picked up a guitar to sing a song that he had written about his decision. Here's a similar version that he's performed before:

Video courtesy of TomWilsonUSA.

At the end of the song, he did just what he promised: he moved on to the rest of his routine. And guys? He was totally freakin' funny! We were in stitches the entire performance! He sang, he told hysterical stories, and he ad libbed with audience members. Husband and I (and two friends) all agreed that he was genuinely entertaining and we were glad that we'd come to the show.

Now here is where Husband and I have differing opinions (and for the sake of not getting biased feedback, I'm not going to say which one of us had which opinion. Tricky, eh?)

Opinion A: Tom Wilson is totally entitled to not want to sign Back to the Future stuff. That was from 20+ years ago and he's done other work since then, which we've enjoyed (television, movies, and, now, stand-up). He realizes that many people are coming to see him because of his Back to the Future connection so he addresses it upfront in a humorous way and then does his real routine. Would it be great if he went around quoting lines from the movie nonstop and "calling people Butthead on their answering machines" (per his song)? Sure, but he's also a person and that probably gets really old.

Opinion B: Tom Wilson is famous because he played "Biff" in Back to the Future. If he had decided to leave show business entirely, he would be completely justified in being annoyed if people continue to bring it up. However, he stayed in show business and is counting on people recognizing his name and his image to come see his shows. He should not only accept that recognition but embrace the fact that people are coming to see him now because he was Biff in Back to the Future and sign whatever people present to him. Otherwise people wouldn't care.

In the end, Husband decided not to wait in line to meet Tom. No doubt that was partly due to the fact that he didn't trust me to not squeal, "I love you, Biff!" I tried to convince him to go have his own "Brian May moment", but he lamented that no celebrity would ever be as gracious and wonderful as Brian May had been so he would surely be disappointed.

I agreed that the "Brian May standard" is all but insurmountable and off we went to dinner.

Now, in all fairness to Tom Wilson, he's surely not the only celebrity who struggles to get past such a recognizable role and character. He just happens to be the celebrity that prompted the discussion between Husband and I.

For example, here's a video compilation of a guest appearance that Brent Spiner did on the short-lived television show "Joey".

Video courtesy of digikotw.

I particularly like this example because not only is the actual clip about Mr. Spiner trying to distance himself from his role as the beloved Data, but subsequently Matt LeBlanc is in a similar predicament with his character Joey.

By appearing as himself in this episode, Mr. Spiner seems to be taking an approach similar to Tom Wilson: poking fun at himself and the character, but hoping that fans understand that there is some truth behind every joke. Interestingly enough, most of Mr. Spiner's recent movie roles have also been science fiction themed (most notably in Independence Day and Superhero Movie). I'll say this: he's definitely got the role of the slightly crazy scientist down cold.

However, the Star Trek genre is a beast of its own and for Mr. Spiner the role of Data, while more than twenty years old, continues to be lucrative for him so long as he makes appearances at Star Trek conventions across the world. Or by guest staring on the best episode ever of Family Guy with the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Matt LeBlanc, on the other hand, completely embraced the role of Joey, following the ten year run of Friends, by agreeing to star in a spin-off. Of course, this show ended years ago and I'm unsure how Mr. LeBlanc has handled the role of Joey since, but it's safe to say that the role of Joey remains his most recognizable character.

And then there's my botched encounter with Andrew McCarthy from way back in 1999. Perhaps there's no one role or movie that Mr. McCarthy is best known for, but he is remembered as part of the 80s ensemble "the Brat Pack" and the numerous teenage angst-ridden movies in which they starred. I so gushed and fawned over Mr. McCarthy and his roles in movies such as Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo's Fire, and Mannequin (yes, Mannequin), that he thought I was kidding and gave me a really nasty look and moved on to the next fan.

I really wasn't kidding, Mr. McCarthy. Seriously.

So is Tom Wilson justified in not signing Back to the Future memorabilia? Should he just be glad that people still care who he is and leave it at that? Or is he entitled to decide that he wants to move on both personally and professionally and fans should have to go along with that? (And again, this question applies not just to Tom Wilson, but to all celebrities who are best known for a single role or series of roles from a long time ago.)

I'm interested to hear thoughts...

Sweet Child O' Mine

Since I went ahead and let the cat out of the bag regarding our struggle with infertility a few weeks back, I figure I might as well continue to write about our journey.

It was really great to read everyone's comments. And equally helpful to put into writing a lot of what I've been thinking and feeling. I was also able to make a pretty significant decision which I'll go into more detail about at the end of this post.

Thus far, we've attempted IUI (inter uterine insemination) three times. The most recent time I pressed my doctor to be more aggressive, telling him that we'd be fine with multiples if it meant that we got pregnant. He reluctantly allowed me to increase my dosage of medication and I ended up with three mature follicles, which ended up not even being enough.

This most recent attempt was really frustrating: I was convinced that it had worked. After the procedure, the toughest part is waiting the two weeks before you can take a pregnancy test, but this time the two weeks just flew by because I was so sure that I'd be getting good news.

The next step is probably IVF (in vitro fertilization). My doctor has scheduled me for a hysterosalpingogram next week. I've tried to envision circumstances where we wouldn't proceed to IVF and honestly I can't think of any: if the test shows a problem, that means IUI will probably never work and if the test shows no problem, we've already tried IUI three times and the odds are that it should have worked by now, especially with us stepping up my medication dosage this past go round.

In any event, we're losing a month, which is frustrating. Back in August, I thought we'd have a baby by April and now a best case scenario is by April, I won't even be into my second trimester. Two years ago, I envisioned telling my family at Christmas that we were pregnant. Then I reluctantly acknowledged that perhaps it would be this past Christmas that we'd have good news for our family. Now we're less than three weeks into 2011 and I'm starting to worry that if we don't have some success soon, I might be looking at not having a baby until 2012.

Which is irrational...I know that. Like I said, we're three weeks into 2011. There's no need to discount the entire year already, but in my mind, I'm already starting to think that way.

When I spoke to the nurse on Friday, and she confirmed that the last attempt had not worked, I asked to speak to the clinic's on site psychologist. She's not currently taking patients, but she recommended another local psychologist who was. They both specialize in working with women and couples dealing with infertility.

Husband had suggested that I look into seeing someone several weeks back. All my life I've been someone who succeeds when I've set out to accomplish something and now there's this relatively simple yet monumental thing that I just can't seem to get right. I think about how Husband would have kids already if he was married to someone else. And I glare at my clients who seem to get pregnant at the drop of a hat only to have the baby promptly taken away.

I don't think my line of work helps matters much. Every day from 9am-5pm, I'm surrounded by children and parents having children, losing children, and children being returned home after years in foster care. I wake up in the morning and think of what's in store for me at my office.

And I don't want to go.

Recently my sister-in-law had ankle surgery. She's been on a variation of bed rest for the last few weeks. I told Husband that sounded pretty good to me.

Husband tells me that I don't have to work through a pregnancy and if I want, I can quit whenever.

To do what? I asked him. Be a stay-at-home-Kathleen?

So in an effort to actually make going to work, to a job that I formerly loved, bearable, I'm meeting with this psychologist for the first time on Tuesday morning.

We'll see how it goes.

In any event, we're losing this month. Between doing the histerosalpingogram and attending an IVF training session, it's going to be mid-February before we can attempt anything, IVF or otherwise.

Hopefully I can take that time to take care of myself. I'm not doing anybody any favors by being an emotional mess throughout this process.

I really do appreciate everyone's support and comments. It helps to know that I'm not the only person out there going through this and honestly, it's beginning to amaze me that anyone manages to get pregnant since it seems like everyone has some story to share. I don't intend to post every aspect of our journey here, but I can certainly share the big decisions and milestones.

And in an attempt to not make this post a total bummer, I'll leave you with one thing I found today that did make me smile: a performance of Brent Spiner, best known as Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Chita Rivera, of too many Broadway shows to name, singing An English Teacher and Rosie from one of my all time favorite musicals Bye Bye Birdie.


Enjoy!

2010 Year in Review: Running

As predicted when I began this blog nearly a year ago, my interests have ebbed and flowed a bit. Some months I couldn't get enough of my three favorite obsessions and other months I ignored them completely.

Such is the life of someone with an obsessive personality.

Running is the interest that essentially fell by the wayside in late 2010 for a few reasons. Firstly, this summer was unbearably hot and humid. Waking up early to run is supposed to lessen that misery, but when it's 75 degrees and 80 humidity at 6am, short at running at 3 in the morning, I'm not entirely sure how I can be expected to run! True, I do have a treadmill, but the temperatures inside weren't much cooler and frankly the thought of potentially melting in my den was not appealing either.

The second reason why I got away from running was more personal. In August, I found out I was pregnant. My doctor advised me to stop running longer distances (hence my decision to not run the Diva Half Marathon in October). I didn't stop running completely though and by the end of the month, I wasn't pregnant anymore.

Mentally, I know that I didn't do anything wrong. My doctor didn't tell me to stop running altogether: he just said to cool it a bit with the long distances, especially in the heat. But Husband and I have been seeing this doctor, a specialist, since early in the summer and if there's anything I can do, or in this case not do, that might increase the odds of our being successful, I want to do it.

The last few months have been exhausting, mostly mentally, but not surprisingly that has translated to physical exhaustion as well. Since October my body has been playing tricks on me: I feel tired as if the treatments have worked and I give in to my body's request to rest, rather than be active. Husband encourages me to take care of myself, to listen to my body, and more and more I've been allowing myself that indulgence. Then I find out that we've been unsuccessful and all my resting turned out to be just laziness and, if I'm being honest, a bit of depression.

It's been hard to convince myself that I shouldn't have done something differently and my response has been to all but eliminate running completely. Obviously this isn't the healthiest of choices for me, particularly if I'm hoping to actually sustain a pregnancy in 2011. My resolution for the new year is to slowly get back into running short distances at a slow pace because I know that ultimately, that's the best thing for me.

Likewise my running shopping was virtually nonexistent this year as well. True, I did acquire a capri running skirt which proved to be suitable attire when the heat finally broke late this fall. And a good friend gave me two navy athletic skirts leftover from an event that she coordinated at her office. Other than that, I've really been making due with the gear that I already had.

My intention in sharing this information is not to be a downer, but rather to be honest about why a formerly significant aspect of my blog has virtually disappeared. I also know that I'm not the only person to have gone through the things I've experienced this year and as much as I've not really liked talking about it, I know that I've appreciated hearing others share their stories. Perhaps my writing this will help someone going through the same thing.

Stay tuned on Wednesday and Friday for 2010 Year in Review posts on Queen and Shopping, the other two subjects about which I frequently write. I promise that both of those posts will be slightly more uplifting!

Happy Monday!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone who celebrates has a very Merry Christmas!

We opened our presents early this year because my sister and brother-in-law left on Tuesday to spend Christmas with his family, but this morning we woke up to stockings and yummy French toast prepared by my dad! Delish!

On January 6, we'll be celebrating our third Christmas when Husband's father and wife come into town so I still have a small pile of presents under the tree just taunting me for two more weeks!

Luckily, I've done quite a bit of shopping at Anthropologie's pre-Christmas sales so stay tuned next week when I start debuting all my new Christmas buys!

Merry Christmas!

Keep On Running: Coming Clean

You know that expression "the white elephant on the blog"?

Well maybe that's not the exact expression, but you get the idea.

There's been a white elephant hanging out on my blog for a few weeks now and after lots of consideration, I'm ready to address it.

Some of you may remember the weekly featured I started running back in July: Keep on Running. The plan was to post my weekly training for my upcoming half marathon as a type of motivation to get me to run in the miserable summer heat and humidity. I'd been slagging off for most of the summer and knew I needed to get my act together if I was going to make it through the race.

Some of you also may have noticed that I've neglected to run my Keep on Running feature for several weeks.

Those of you who are really observant (or are just boarderline stalkers) may have noticed that I've not been referring to running as frequently in my daily posts.

Well, readers, the jig is up. I'm ready to come clean.

I'm not running the Diva Half Marathon in October. I've told my fellow princesses and they understand. But as each week passes and I just blatantly ignore the running aspect of my blog, I feel like I'm lying to you all every single day.

And I hate that.

The decision to not run the race was not mine. It was my doctor's and while I'm not happy with him, I understand his reasoning. I won't go into details here, but let me just say that he nearly had a heart attack when he heard I was planning on running 13.1 miles in October and training for that run in this summer heat.

Today I ran for the first time in weeks. Husband convinced me that a slow and short run would be fine (which is true - only long distances were explicitly prohibited) and he was right: I feel much better having gotten a few miles in.

They were really really slow though, but the weather was perfect and the run itself wasn't terribly uncomfortable. I'm looking forward to slowly getting back in the saddle again.

So, readers, there you have it. There won't be anymore weekly Keep on Running posts, but at least now I won't feel like a horrible liar every Sunday when I don't write one. And I'm still hoping to attend the Diva Half Marathon so I'll have plenty of pictures and stories from the weekend.

I hope you all understand: running has been a big part of my blog (less so than shopping and Queen, but nevertheless, something I initially set out to include a great deal). It still will be something I discuss and something I do, but just in a different way.

Happy Running!

New Weekly Feature: Keep on Running

This blog is supposed to be about Queen, fashion/shopping, and running.

I've got the fashion/shopping part covered. Between my daily What I Wore posts, Anthropologie Fitting Room Reviews, Fashion Challenges, and Outfit Polls, I think a good 75% of my non-working/sleeping day is spent shopping, thinking about shopping, or writing about shopping.

The Queen part, I've been pretty good about too. I've stuck to my plan of highlighting a Queen Song of the Week every Friday, detailed meeting Dr. May, wished the boys birthday wishes, and occasionally ranted about various business decisions.

The running part?

Eh - not so much. Sure, I ran some posts called "Running Essentials" but running is a pretty straightforward sport. Once you have a couple of things, you're pretty much good to go. I have a few more that I can write, but that's not enough to properly feature the third component of my blog.

I've also been slagging off a bit in my training. This summer has been the most hot and humid that I can ever remember. The temperature hasn't dipped below 70 degrees (nights included) in weeks and the humidity is frequently about 75%. In the winter, my treadmill is a viable option, but in the summer, it's a recipe for heat stroke: there's no air conditioning in that room and no matter how many fans I set up, I cannot generate enough air circulation to make me not want to die.

This is a bit of a problem, however, since my fellow princesses have convinced me to run my fourth half marathon in October.

Hence, my new weekly feature "Keep on Running", loosely based on Designer Me's Monday Training Posts (click here) and named after a song originally by the Spencer Davis Group that Roger Taylor recorded (and didn't release) during his 1984 Strange Frontier sessions.


Basically I'm going to post my half marathon training plan every week and then I'll say which workouts I successfully completed. If I have a good week and follow the training plan, you will all congratulate me and I'll be happy. If I have a bad week and slag off, you will all yell at me and I'll be publicly embarrassed.

See? Fun for everyone!

To generate my workouts, I use the SmartCoach training program on the Runners World website. You have to be a member of Runners World to use SmartCoach, but membership is free. I plugged in my recent 10K time of 1:05:00, selected a 10 week training program, that I typically run 15-20 miles a week, and that I wanted a moderately hard program.

I'm also going to try to work in yoga at least twice a week. Occasionally, I'll combine shorter runs (like the 2 milers this week) into one longer run.

Now, here comes the fun part: did I stick to my workout schedule for Week 1?

Sunday:          Yoga
Monday:         2 mile easy run
Wednesday:    5 mile tempo run
Thursday:       Yoga
Friday:            2 mile easy run
Saturday:        7 mile long run

What this week has taught me is that not running in the hot/humid weather makes running much more difficult that a tough run in hot/humid weather. Typically your pace slows in the summer, but when you combine that with basically being lazy for an entire month, your pace ends up essentially a crawl. The best thing I can say about my runs this week is that I got through them.

I will say this though: already this feature is having an impact on my training. At about 3 miles in today, I really really wanted to call Husband and make him come get me, but then I thought to myself, "Geesh - I can't run the silly feature for the first time and not have completely made it through all the runs," so I sucked it up and got through 4 more miles. Hopefully this shame will carry me through the next nine weeks until the Diva Half Marathon.

So Week 1 of my Half Marathon Training Program was a success. You can now commence the obligatory congratulatory comments!

I'm off to the Red Sox game now. I'll be back tomorrow with the wrap-up and final outfit in my 18 for 18 Challenge.

Happy Running!

And GO Red Sox!

Into the Blogosphere

The point of this blog is not to talk about my job. In fact, I go out of my way to not talk about my job. Earlier today, I mentioned a stressful few days that I had in store and how I wished it was Tuesday afternoon. Well, part of that stress was because in my area of law, clients don't always take my advice. I can go through every detail with them a dozen times and make my recommendation, but at the end of the day, our course of action is their call. I have to go along with it.

In this particular situation, I have a client who I was terribly afraid would not take my advice. I've met with this client several times, but still wasn't sure until this afternoon what the client was going to decide.

Today my client decided to follow my recommendation. My client signed all the necessary documents to do what I had suggested.

Are you ever in a situation where you get exactly what you want and still feel like crap?

I did the right thing. I know I did the right thing. I had confirmed it with three other people in my office, including my boss. But the right thing isn't always the easy thing and I have a feeling that the emotional drain that I feel today is going to pale in comparison to how I'm going to feel on Tuesday when we finally get in front of the judge.

After my meeting with my client, I went for coffee with a co-worker. Then I went to Anthropologie to try on some pretty things. It made me feel better momentarily and the fact that it did ultimately made me feel worse. My life is so easy that a pretty blouse can bring me out of the funk that I was in all day today. I wish I could say the same for my client...

First post - and Away We Go

I might as well start this off with an introduction. Who am I? Why would anybody be interested in reading my blog? Well, I can't answer the second question, but I can certainly attempt to answer the first.

Who am I?

I'm 28 years old. Female. Married. That's the easy stuff.

I'm originally from the South. Not the "deep" South, but well below the Mason Dixon line. If you heard me talk, you'd never guess that I was from the South - I work very hard to not have any trace of an accent. However, if I go back home, it takes about twenty minutes before I lapse into a "y'all" coma. Now I live in New England after a four year stint in NYC.

I'm a lawyer. I work for the government. Here's the thing about my job: coming out of college, if you had asked me to describe my dream job, I would have described my current job. It's great - the perfect balance of court, client contact and writing and research. I am also really passionate about the area of law in which I practice - it's the reason I went to law school in the first place. But as great as all this is, that's also the downside: I'm 28 years old and I have my dream job. Can I do this for the next 40 years? There's no real room for advancement at my current job so where do I go from here? When do I need to start thinking about where do I go from here? I'm 3.5 years into "real life" post-grad school and I'm not quite sure what I should be doing next.

My husband is also a lawyer. He does boring law. He bores me with stories about depositions and summary judgment motions and discovery. *snore* I won't bore you with any of that.

We have two dogs who I will likely discuss here often. A Boston Terrier and mutt. Individually, they are great dogs. Together, they are absolutely and completely insane.

Now to the fun stuff - the purpose of this blog...

I have what some (i.e. DSM-IV) would call an obsessive personality. It has in my life been a source of great amusement to both myself and others. It also hampers fun to a certain extent because there are some things that I could never ever even try for fear of my good ole' obsessive personality taking over. That being the case, it tends to surface with respect to random weird things.

My three current obsessions: running, shopping, and Queen hence: the Princess of Taylor.

I'm particularly pleased with myself for thinking of a rather clever title for my blog. It may seem simple but it is actually very complex.

Princess:

I'm a princess. I'll admit it. I'm very spoiled and have been my whole life. As a child, my dad made me a sandwich every day for lunch. Now my husband does. There's nothing wrong with that.

However, I'm also a running princess. Last March, several friends and I ran the First Annual Disney Princess Half Marathon. We ran it wearing homemade tutus and tiaras. Along the way we stopped and took pictures with every Disney character we passed and at the finish line were presented with Tiara Finisher's Medals.

Finally, Queen, one of the greatest bands of all time. It would be rather presumptuous to call myself Queen after their awesomeness so Princess is an appropriate step down.

Taylor:

Of all the stores at which I shop, I love Ann Taylor the most. I will admit that it is definitely a love-hate relationship. I feud with them incessantly about shipping costs and price adjustments and they make me absolutely crazy sometimes, but I cannot deny that they make absolutely beautiful clothing that occasionally fits me really well.

Anyone who knows anything about Queen (or about me) will know that their drummer is named Roger Taylor and he's my favorite member of the band. I understand that 99% of people reading this will say, "Wait - how is Freddie Mercury not your favorite member of Queen." To you all, I say, "Freddie Mercury was amazing. Possibly the greatest frontman of all time, but watch the Queen Rock Montreal Blu Ray. Watch the performance of "Under Pressure". That's not a backing track singing David Bowie's part - that's Roger Taylor. Oh and he's also playing like a 17 piece drum kit at the same time." Case closed.

So there's my clever little title. I briefly flirted with the idea of being Princess Taylor, but decided that would be confusing and make it sound like either 1) my name is Taylor (which it is not, first or last) or 2) I want my last name to be Taylor (by either marrying Ann or Roger). As the second option would be weird, even for me, I added the "of" and presto, perfection.

I'm sure at some point I'll ramble on about other things on here, but this is a good jumping off point. Sooo away we go...