One step from the nursing home

Friday delivered a double-barrel reminder that I'm old and getting older (although it beats the alternative, no doubt about it). My eldest daughter, who recently turned 11, attended her first school dance.

And it was an 80's dance.

I mean, it's not bad enough that I have to begin pricing out shotguns, lest any of her prepubescent classmates start getting funny ideas. But to denigrate the very decade in which I began sowing my wild oats ... the irony was thicker than Oscar Goodman's liver.

The girls (her best friend flew in from Minnesota for the weekend, with her mother, the godmother of Kid No. 2) had a great time getting ready for the dance. My own mother sent a package of 80s skinny ties that I actually used to wear, and she chose my favorite one to accent her getup. The moms helped with the hair, the kid sister looked on in amazement, and here's what they came up with:

The front view

Reverse angle

We found an 80s stream on Pandora before dinner, so we prepared for the bash with a steady diet of Madonna, the Cutting Crew, Journey and Belinda Carlisle. Oh, girls just wanna have fun! And they sure did.