what's it cost to have a good time?

i had a BIG weekend!

Friday night was the Eagles concert. Now, i haven't been to a large concert in over 25 years and forgot what they were like. i remembered: there are lots of people, long bathroom lines, expensive food and drinks and, oh yeah, the band.

what i discovered was a lot of people having a great time, expensive food and drinks and long lines to the bathroom. so much so, that some women were stalking into the mens room to use their facilities.

i waited.

tony bought some of those glow stick/wand/bracelet thingies at the dollar store that morning. he's a genius.

we shared them with our fellow bleacher neighbors and waved those things until our arms got tired. i made mine into a blue neon bracelet and wore it to bed. it made me smile when i woke up in the middle of the night to see that thing shine.

the sky glowed and the crowd roared. it was great.

on sat. i had a craving for mexican food. oddly enough, when rae and i were in mexico we didn't eat "mexican" food. unless you count the popsicles made from crushed fruit (mango, jamaica, ummmm) and the elote that rae bought on the malecon (corn with lime juice and chili). so, we went to papa chano's on alvarado st. in monterey. after that we ran across some old sport cars that were going to be auctioned off that evening (the Concord de Elegance was going on) for big, big bucks. we ambled into the hotel on the plaza (it changed names and i can't for the life of me remember it) and looked at even more expensive cars.

this is the good part. while wandering around looking at these gleaming, polished within an inch of their lives, super expensive cars, we stopped to look at some jewelry.

you know, little baubles. rings for men with diamonds the size of cherry tomatoes. and the salesman cajoled me into sticking out my wrist and trying on a retro diamond bracelet with 100 something diamonds. so okay, i'm looking at it and wishing i had some spare cash to spend on something so entirely frivolous when he says" it's 97". i immediately freak out and squeal "take it OFF". Tony is looking at me weird but as is usual, doesn't question my odd behavior and we amble off. it's only later when we're talking about the bracelet and he realizes the salesman meant $97,000 not $9,700.

which explains my freaking out.

after a haircut for me (too short) and a visit to the aquarium where tony shows me a room we have mysteriously missed in all our visits; we went home.

which brings us to sunday. a bus ride to the monterey county fair to hear "the chicano all stars". we got their early enough to talk to a couple of the band members (well, tony did) and get a seat in the front row/center aisle. yippee

many homely pigs, smelly goats (boy, their eyes are weird), angora rabbits (it was hard finding their heads in all that fur - no kidding), super nachos, giant cabbages and a head of lettuce for 10 cents later, we went home.

i woke up exhausted. and how much did all that fun cost? not very much. and we had the bestest time. i think, no i know that most of the fun was because i was with tony. who always laughs and makes me laugh. and i really and truly appreciate that.