Maddy's having a movie party here tonight, kind of a late birthday party but mostly just a great excuse to get 10 girls together to squeal and laugh and watch Hairspray and dance (and for me to start the party year that is 2008). Tweenapalooza central is what we are tonight.

So easy: we got a bunch of movie supply stuff (popcorn bags and tubs, red carpet, rolls of tickets, little movie charms and fake director's black and white "take one" frames for them to take home) from Oriental Trading Company (sadly Maddy wouldn't let me get the popcorn box costume, let alone wear it. Don't you think it would be stunning on me?). Pasted the invitation to a popcorn bag and attached a ticket and sent it. Got pizza, popcorn, junior mints, and other horrendous candy I hope they finish or I will. Movie title pictionary, eating, filling out the movie ballots, watching a movie = easy 3-hour soiree for 12-year-old girls. So now you know, in case you're ever in a bind with a gaggle of energetic preteens.

Meanwhile, Lauren went with some friends to the high school to see The Hypnotist. I'm pretty sure this is a different guy but the hypnotist was a yearly favorite for us at Logan Junior High and Logan High School, only the school leadership deemed it so educational back then that they actually used school time to hold a hypnotist assembly.

Anyone else out there have this?

Shiny bald headed and intimidating, Jack Lythgoe would show up every year, pick a few eager volunteers out of the audience and proceed to basically embarrass them by making them do silly things (like grab the curtain and not be able to let go or not be able to get up), make predictions, or they would go into the future and describe what they saw. Sometimes someone would say they were married to someone we all knew (I remember thinking "please don't let it be me" more than once). There was also lots of talk about the new millennium and World War 3, the Cold War at its chilliest.

If you got close you could see that Jack Lythgoe wore black eyeliner and greenish blue eyeshadow--making him simultaneouly more frightening and more ridiculous. He would hypnotize a row of about 10 students, then walk behind them and put up his fingers indicating how "under" each person was, sometimes flickering between two. (Greg and I used to mimic The Hypnotist when our kids were babies, using our fingers above their sleeping heads to indicate how under they were when they fell asleep. One of the benefits of sharing a Junior High history with your spouse.) I never was hypnotized but I always had the nagging suspicion that most of them were humoring Mr. Lythgoe, using their free pass to be zany and stupid and funny and basking in being stars for a night.

[Lauren just got home & reports it was hilarious. He made them believe they were missing their bellybuttons or had someone else's. He made them forget their last names. Sounds pretty much the same as I remember. And now...you're getting very sleepy, your eyes are getting heavy, on the count of three I will snap my fingers and you will sink deeply into a comfortable sleep...]