ACTION-PACKED WEEKEND

Belly Dancing Machine

You want a REAL ab workout? Take up belly dancing! We celebrated Markie's birthday at Marakkesh last Friday, a Moroccan restaurant in Studio City and the girl who came to entertain us with her belly dancing skills made us say, "woh!" How do they move their stomachs like that?! It's crazy! She pulled Mark up with her scarf and our birthday boy showed HER how to belly dance like a man. Joe took a stab at it too; although, I'm not sure the macho dance is considered a type of belly dancing. I'll have to look that one up. We were trying to get Riann to get up and dance as well, but she wouldn't do it unless the dancer let her borrow her castanets. Riann asked her, but she said, "No." Hahaha! Sorry, babygirl. Maybe next time.

The restaurant was a picture perfect image of Moroccan culture, complete with low-standing tables and chairs, dim room lighting accented by extensive draperies that swung across the room and customary eating traditions, like washing our hands at the table before the food was served. We ate well! I'd love to talk about each dish but I don't remember what anything is called, except the mmm* baklava and Markie's birthday cake.

Markie belly dancing for his birthday

After dinner, we took our party to Sapphire, this bar/lounge down the street. It's a small place, no dancing, just a bunch of people drinking, talking and listening to jukebox music. Guess who we saw! Freakin' Pink, and she looked FEH-DED, eyes droopy, no make-up, blonde hair asunder and all up in her wifebeater. That was our random celebrity encounter for the evening.

It was a more than enjoyable night, trying new food at a new place, seeing old faces and just having a grand ol' time in the company of fabulous friends, all for the sake of celebrating a life we're so thankful we're a part of. Happy Birthday Markie!!!

Sabado Muy Busy

Saturday morning started early for me. I took Raven to Glendale Toyota at 9 am to get his 30,000 mile service. Everyone's like, "30,000 miles? Haven't you had your car for like 3 years?" Almost 4 actually, but my commute is only 8 miles (that's back and forth)! He's running great thanks to an oil change, brake check, tire-rotation and a bunch of other car treatments I'm not even gonna get into cuz I don't need to expose my lack of knowledge on the subject. =)

I spent the day taking care of laundry, entertained by '80's movies galore on tv: Some Kind of Wonderful, Adventures in Babysitting and 16 Candles! LOVE IT! After I picked up my car, I paid some bills at the mall, where Tin and I saw a personified Dora, the explorer. This little girl fit the bill so well: She's Latina, about 4 years old, bowl haircut with killer bangs and she kept pulling on her mom's purse yelling, "Nunca! Nunca!" which translates into "Never! Never!" hahaha! Freakin' hilarious!

After mass my family and I had dinner at Max's and then it was off to party!

Pat Relax!

A bunch of us spent Saturday night dancing up a storm at Club A.D. for Bev's 25th birthday. First we met up at Cile's house where Jaja had a full-on background and lights set up on the deck so we could take pictures before we headed out. SO high school! From there the 12 of us (Me, Christine, Fantone, Joemama, Cile, Leia, James, Pat, Kay, Jaja, Melissa and Bev) headed to the club where we met up with a completely intoxicated Fernand and Co.

The evening was sooooooooooooo much fun! I haven't partied like that since November at Risque in Vegas! Christine was insistent about driving that night because she wanted me to drink (Thanks again Chris!) so, the cheap date that I am, got buzzed off of ONE Jack & Coke (Thanks James!). Jack & Coke implies there’s SOME coke in it right? NEGATORY. That drink SO did not have any signs of soda in it, but I drank up anyhoo. I can't say I hated it. Not bad. We all danced drank! Kay was intent on getting Pat to drink and get crazy and we all praise her for her efforts.

We seriously danced for at least 2 hours straight when we first got to the dance floor. Fernand was freakin’ everyone in sight, and Pat was a dancing machine! Homeboy was all over the place! Now we know he needs at least a 6’ x 6’ area of dance space to avoid hurting the people who’re dancing around him. I swear I got knocked in the face by Pat’s arms AT LEAST 8 times that night, not to mention getting slammed into on all sides, which is weird cuz the dance floor wasn’t even that packed! We attempted to sit down TWICE, but got enticed by music we couldn’t resist dancing to. Who’d deny “Hoochie Mama” and “Shake It?” No way! When they started playing that new Mariah song…again, we knew it was time to leave. Chris and I headed home and everyone else went to have a late dinner.

Horrendously fun evening! Check out the pictures on Bev’s blog! Thanks for inviting us, Bev!

I didn't go to bed until 2:30 am after that crazy fun night, and I can't believe I was able to get up at 8:00 am the next day! We took Kelsoe to California Adventure on Sunday. I'll save that for the next entry. Too much that little boy! He wore out his 3 nannies that day!

Busy weekends...can't get enough of them!