Beauty and the Beast

About ten years ago, our family moved to a little town south of San Jose.  We didn't know a soul and I had a new baby.  It took me about a year to pull my house together and start to seek out some new acquaintances.  I discovered a moms and kids group and through it have met some women who have become great friends.  In that first year, we had a regular Friday afternoon "Happy Hour" playgroup.  Then I had a birthday.  I'd never had big celebrations before, but we mothers needed a break from the families for a night, so I organized a bowling night.  What a night!  We bowled, drank waaaay too much, ended up at a local bar, had to have one of the moms' older stepsons come pick us up, and ended up being seriously sick and hungover.  I can recall my four-year-old daughter telling me that I shouldn't go bowling anymore-- it made me sick!  :)  And so a tradition was born.  Not the being sick part, thankfully, but an annual birthday bash that has carried on for eight years so far.  We've done big birthdays (Las Vegas for 40), chillin' birthdays (pool party last year), but always fun and memorable.  Today I'm turning 42 and in a few weeks my girlfriends and I will be heading to San Francisco to see Disney's Beauty and the Beast musical, shop Union Square, take in the MOMA, and eat some fantastic food.  I think my friends look forward to this annual event almost as much as I do.  Music is always involved.  Here is my Beauty and the Beast mix, minus the Disney.

1. "Till You Come to Me"- Spencer Day
2. "Second Chance"- Shinedown
3. "Night Enchanted"- Trans-Siberian Orchestra
4. "Here Lies Love"- Florence & the Machine
5. "Fearless Love"- Melissa Etheridge
6. "The Power of the Heart"- Peter Gabriel
7. "Waiting for Love"- Waiting for Iris
8. "Dance Me to the End of Love"- Leonard Cohen
9. "In Our Dreams"- Paula Cole
10. "Just to Be Loved"- Al Jarreau
11. "The Night"- Edie Carey
12. "Suspended in Time"- Olivia Newton John
13. "The Trouble with Love Is"- Kelly Clarkson
14. "Wild About My Lovin"- Imelda May
15. "Death by Perfection"- Maia Sharp
16. "Islands in the Stream"- BeeGees
17. "House of Mirrors"- Tenth Avenue North
18. "At Least I'm Not as Sad (as I Used to Be)"- Fun.