Don't Worry Be Happy And Other 80's Trends

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Some (okay, many) have commented on the abundance of proper photos in my recent posts. Some (okay, Sara) haven't known quite what to make of this. The secret revealed? I HAVE BEEN SHAMELESSLY PILFERING PICTURES! I've found stealing other people's pictures to be infinitely easier than using my own. But no more. We'll see how that works. For my recent birthday, I decided to throw a killer 80's Prom to celebrate while paying homage to my birth decade. In preparation, I painstakingly scoured the Billboard Top 100 from 1980-1989. Yes, the music library in our home includes all 1000 of these titles. I have to admit, I have, on occasion, wondered as to the usefulness of this collection. No longer.

Hmm.  So this Jem cake is my first photo fail.  Not that showing the cake was a fail.  Not at all!  My super-rad, ultra-talented friend Lisa made this, and besides looking AWESOME, it was delicious.  But I meant to insert a picture of me belting out 80's  karaoke, to illustrate the music riff I was on before.  No matter, though.  Anyone who has heard Jem's truly, truly, truly outrageous melodies know how fitting this picture really is.

Anyway, one of the Top 80's songs was the ridiculous "Don't Worry Be Happy" and I refused to play it at my party because I blame it for all that is wrong with my generation.  When I was a kid and heard the song, I thought the lyrics were:  "The landlord say your rent is late--he may have to mitigate."  Hence--"Don't worry; be happy."  I knew from the school spelling bee that "to mitigate" meant to make something less harsh, less severe.  So I always thought, "What a great landlord!  He's taking care of that guy, even if he can't pay his rent."   When I learned the truth--he may have to litigate--I was beyond disillusioned.  Litigation is cause to worry, my friend, not to be happy.  I blame our law-suit crazy culture on Bobby McFerrin.

Here is me NOT singing "Don't Worry Be Happy."

So, of course I have had this song in my head for the  last two weeks.  It's someone's idea of a joke.

I procured a full-size cardboard stand-up of everyone' favorite 80's icon, but in most pictures you couldn't see him:

So, in this picture you can actually see him quite well, but when it's small it looks surprisingly like one where you...couldn't.  Anyway, moving on.

I made Pac-Man cookies for the event.

The secret is using upside-down tulip cookie cutters for the ghosts, and cutting out Pac-Man's mouth with the bottom of a heart-shaped cookie cutter.  Genius!  (I didn't think of it.  See the above link).

There's nothing like an 80's prom to bring everyone together, both male and female...

Both geek and chic

(I won't say who's who, but the guys in the latter picture are sitting around playing Tetris)

Brat Packer, Stoner, Punk--all were welcomed with open arms.

Wow.  I am in shock as I type this but by 80's magic this picture has rotated itself so as not to appear sideways!  More likely this was my webmaster husband tweaking something on the site, but I choose to go with 80's magic, baby!