LOL

Here's a little shocker for ya. When I type LOL in an online chat, or a cell phone text message, most of they time I am I not actually laughing out loud. I know, shocking! Am I the only one who abuses LOL this way? In fact, I think I'd actually forgotten what it truly means to laugh out loud. To laugh so much that your face hurts and you can't catch your breath. To laugh so hard that you just might actually pee your pants (if you've had a few kids and are pushing 40, like me, that's more of a possibility than I'd like to admit). For all my LOLing and LMAOing, those moments of true hilarity are pretty far and few between these days.

Which is why driving down to Williamsburg last Thursday night to attend a Four Bitchin' Babes concert at the Library Theater was such a big deal. Thanks to my brother, whose good friend Deirdre Flint is an amazingly talented folk type singer/songwriter, I had two tickets to a performance by the Babes. I have to let my crazy show a little here and tell you that, normally, I'd talk myself out of such an adventure. It's too far, it's a school night, who'd watch the kids, who could I invite to go with me... but there were tickets waiting so I got over myself, invited my friend Stephanie, and made the trip.

The current Babes lineup includes Sally Fingerett (a founding member and the group's newest Newlywed), Debi Smith (a killer Soprano and the mom of a child with Asperger's Syndrome), Nancy Moran (a self-described "musical late bloomer" who who struck me, instantly, as someone I'd like to be friends with. But not in a weird-audience-member-stalker kind of way) and Deirdre (who is hysterical in a scary smart sort of way... I mean, really, who would think to write a love song to Food? Genius!).

By the end of the first song (an homage to women enduring hot flashes) I had tears in my eyes from laughing. By the end of the first set, I had been rocked with laughter, had been moved to tears, and had decided that, if the devil ever does come knockin', I'd trade my soul to be able to write and sing songs like any one of those women on stage. After an intermission to allow us to catch our breath, they returned to the stage and outdid themselves, with a new (hysterical) group song, individual performances that included a pitch-perfect operatic solo by Debi (ok, what do I know about pitch-perfect besides what I hear from Paula Abdul and Simon? But it was damn good!). Deirde closed the show with "The Boob Fairy", which had us rolling in the aisles (because "we've all felt the pain of being dissed by one fairy or another"). The group returned for an encore with "Viagra in the Waters". That hilarious tune provided bonus humor in the form of the reaction of some of the men in the audience, particularly the gentleman right in front of me who (I swear) froze like a deer in headlights when he realized what they were singing. It was, as they say, priceless.

The Babes may be coming to a town near you. I strongly suggest you get yourself some tickets, corral a few friends (women of any age and/or men who can take a joke)and treat yourself to the ultimate Mom's night out. You'll thank me for it!