Tell Me It's Real

Last night I forced Ray to listen to New Edition songs until he agreed to take me to the New Edition Valentine's Day show at US Bank (with K-Ci & JoJo and El DeBarge, BOOM.)

I sang 'If Isn't Love' like I was Ralph Tresvant (even though my voice is lower than his.) I was four seconds away from breaking it down in the kitchen when he relented.

Starry eyed, I recounted how I listened to my 45 of Mr. Telephone Man over and over when I was in the fourth grade. I would play it upstairs, so I could crank it and dance around without my uncool parents hassling me about it.

They don't GET me. I wanted to be alone with Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky and Mike.

"I was a sophomore in high school when that came out," Ray said. "I was listening to Van Halen and Ratt… and Black Flag."

But what I heard was, "I loved them just as much as you, Gina, even if I was too old to be into boy bands."

I won't go into the finer points of why Can You Stand the Rain is the best slow jam ever and how many backward slow skates at the Idyl Wyld Roller Palace I lapped to this treasure, but just know if they bust it out Valentine's Day, Ray is getting mashed on.

I might even cry and pretend to pass out and stuff. 

34 days.

(Btw, have you ever heard Auto-Tune sound so smoooooooth. Hell no, you haven't.)