The Life of a Showgirl

Writing about my Spotify Wrapped made me realize that I never got around to reviewing Taylor's newest album, The Life of a Showgirl!!!  You all must be so mad at me, waiting so long to hear my thoughts about this!  Apologies all around!  Let's get to it!

So-- first things first-- I kinda complained that her last album (The Tortured Poets Department) was too long.  But since then, I've been surprised at the staying power of a lot of the songs on that album.  I may have judged it too harshly.  Regardless, she overcorrected and this album felt a bit short!  (Poor Taylor can't win!)  She sort of tried to make up for it later, by releasing the album again with a bunch of the songs re-recorded as acoustic versions, but really, that feels like cheating (even when I quite like a lot them reworked as acoustic songs)!  So, there's that.

Hearing the hype before the release, I was worried that this album would be a lot of Taylor Swift complaining about how hard her life is, so I was quite relieved when that really isn't what it's about at all.  Phew!  Thank you for not subjecting us to that, Taylor!  (Or at least, not very much of that!)  Also, I should point out that all my reviews are about the cleaned up versions.  I don't bother with the dirtier lyrics.  So-- without further ado, here are the songs, in order:

The Fate of Ophelia:  This is a really great, catchy song!  I'm excited that Taylor's references to Ophelia might get people reading Hamlet, so that's a nice bonus.  And the music video that goes with it is well done.  Nice, strong start, Taylor!

Elizabeth Taylor:  Ooh, I like this one, too!  I'm not entirely sure why we're talking about Elizabeth Taylor.  I mean, yes, I know she was super famous and an icon for beauty and glamour and whatnot, but there have been plenty of icons, why her?  I mean, I can't help but think that it's mostly because her last name is Taylor.  I can't really think of anything else she and Taylor Swift have in common?  I guess the other obvious answer is that both have been unlucky in love and the media and fans seem to eat their sorrows like it's actual food.  That must feel lousy.  Regardless, it's a surprisingly fun song!  I approve!

Opalite:  Ooh, this one is almost the definition of a bop!  It's catchy, it's fun.  Sure, it's a bit pithy and I'll probably be sick of it soon, but once you've heard it, it WILL get stuck in your head for a day or two!  Beware!  But I like it.

Father Figure:  Another winner.  Unlike the first three songs, this one has a darker (I guess more minor) sound to it, so that's different.  It also has a fun little revenge feel to it with a nice dash of triumph at the end.  I wonder who she's talking about here?  (Ah-- a quick google search says it's probably about either Scott Borchetta or Scooter Braun, in case you were curious.)  I like this one, too.

Eldest Daughter:  This one is fine and decently catchy, but it's not one of my favorites.  My children inform me that her use of the phrases such as "Savage" and not being the baddest (cleaned up) are super cringy.  That doesn't bother me because a) I'm too old to care if Taylor is cringe, and b) I actually think that's sort of the point?  I don't know, I could be wrong there.  When she talks about how she learned cautious discretion after breaking her arm falling off a trampoline, I feel like maybe she's milking this minor incident a little too much, acting like her life has been so difficult.  Not a good look, Taylor!  Also, the idea behind this, that every eldest daughter is so put upon...  All these other oldest daughter TikTokers are acting like she's stated this universal truth about how hard that role is, but I'm not buying it.  I mean, I'm sure sometimes it feels that way, but I think the nature of childhood is that EVERY kid feels put upon at times.  Because being a powerless kid sometimes sort of sucks!  Your life has not been that hard, Taylor.  I do like the repeating theme that she's never gonna break that vow, I assume to look out for her little brother?  That's nice.  

And.  I LOVE the line where she admits, "When I said I don't believe in marriage, that was a lie."  Thank you for finally being honest about that one, Taylor!  Our society needs to get back to admitting that most of us want to get married.  That's not a bad thing!  This song is fine.  But if it gets skipped, I don't really care.  

Ruin the Friendship:  This is another one that is perfectly catchy, but if it gets skipped, I won't really complain.  And it's surprisingly sad at the very end, which I did not see coming on my first listen!  Why, Taylor???  And what happened to the guy????  (Okay, I just googled this one, too, and apparently it was about her good friend Jeff Lang.  No info on why he died so young, but speculation that the song "Forever Winter" might also have been about him, so he probably had mental health problems, which is just so sad.)

I also really agree with the message here that it's better to take the risk and find out if someone likes you back than to never ask because you don't want to risk ruining your friendship.  One of my biggest pet peeves is people who refuse to date someone they have chemistry with because they're don't want to mess up their friendship.  I mean, do you honestly think you're going to stay buddies after one of you marries someone else?  Yeah, it's not gonna happen.  That friendship is doomed no matter what, so you might as well take the risk!

I'm glad Taylor agrees with me on this!  

Actually Romantic:  This one is complicated.  I originally quite liked the song, but as I learned more about what (and who) it's actually all about, it kind of soured for me.  I don't care enough to write it all out here (if you're actually curious, you can read all about it here), but basically, Charli XCX wrote a song about how she feels inferior to Taylor Swift and hates feeling that way, and as punishment for that Taylor decided to come out swinging.  And it just sort of seems mean.  And this is also one where knowing the not-cleaned-up version sort of ruins the song for me.  So, yes, if it's playing, I'll probably be singing along, but I don't really like it.  

Wi$h Li$t:  This one has gotten all this bad press from Taylor's TikTok fans for being "MAGA-coded" which frankly shocked me because I thought this song was so funny!  Oops?  I guess?  (Not really.  I refuse to apologize for the things I like!)  I'm sorry, if wanting to get married and have kids is MAGA-coded, then the left is in for a world of trouble.  The line making fun of people with "three dogs that they call their kids" is hilarious, as is the rest of the song.  I love that she's praying, "Please, God, bring me a best friend who I think is hot"-- isn't that what everyone wants?  This song is great.

Wood:  The dirtiest song Taylor's ever written, and (even cleaned up) it's hard for me to get past that.  It's also just kind of dumb.  I usually just skip it because I'm too embarrassed to be seen listening to it.

CANCELLED!:  Ooo, I like this song a lot.  It's got the same fun, dark, witchy vibe as "Look What You Made Me Do."  Supposedly it's about Blake Lively, which I don't love, since I'm pretty sure she's evil.  But I still can't resist this one.  (Update-- I guess the same people who say Wi$h Li$t was another MAGA song are saying this one might be about Brittany Mahones, so who knows?)

Honey:  This one is sweet (ha!), but kind of boring.  I usually skip it.

The Life of a Showgirl:  Argh, the song here is catchy, but the lyrics and story it's telling is totally dumb!  I never know what to do with a song like this!  She and Sabrina Carpenter sound nice to each other, and they're little "Thanks for coming to the show" banter at the end is kind of a fun reminder of the Eras Tour.  But the actual "story" about some girl meeting the main girl showgirl after a show and being so impressed and wanting to become one?  I just don't care!  And the idea of having the keys to the city-- I mean, maybe I just don't know anything about this, but I can't name a single famous showgirl.  Actresses, yes.  Singers, yes.  But I just don't think being a showgirl is that exciting or interesting or, I don't know, history-making?  They all get forgotten.  I just think Taylor latched onto the idea of being a showgirl (which she isn't, but whatever) and had to write a song about it, but this isn't really that great.  But unfortunately, it is catchy enough that if the song comes on the radio, I'll probably be singing along to it, even as I'm annoyed by it.  Grr.  

Taylor also released a bunch of pictures to go with the album, and they're...  pretty weird?  

I mean, this is fine and showgirl-esque

But this is...  Taylor as Spider-man?  Why is she climbing over the chairs in her heels and fishnets?

Taylor cosplaying Marilyn Monroe...

I guess this is showgirl-y...

But this is just weird.  Why is she green?  Why is she posing like that?

This is me every time I eat spaghetti.  I swear she's just copying me.

And, as I said, she released a bunch of acoustic versions of the songs a couple weeks later, and they're pretty fun-- I generally like those!-- but not different enough for me to write more about them.  

So, to sum up, I like the album, but I'm not head over heels in love with it.  It's a bit short and it's not particularly deep or heartbreaking like most of her stuff tends to be.  But releasing a fun and catchy album is not the worst thing in the world.  Maybe happy-in-love Taylor doesn't have it in her to rip her heart out just to produce music with all the feels, and that's okay.  

Post-Thanksgiving!

First thing Saturday morning, we dragged the Houston Smiths out the door with us to get our Christmas tree!   This involves us running all over the tree farm, leaving kids behind to "guard" every tree we like until we finally choose The One.  This year (just like last) we ended up choosing a tree that Kendra found-- she has a good eye, that one!  Camille quickly dubbed it "Fat Derek," and not only is it lovely and full, but it also was the closest to the parking lot of all our chosen trees, so that was nice!

Fat Derek!

One of the runners up!

And I got to let Jason help with set up!

We're so festive!

I swear, once we put on lights and ornaments the branches settled down a bit and our tree got even fatter!  It's awesome!!!

The Houston Smiths were all set to leave around 3pm that day, but about an hour beforehand, they all started getting notifications that their flights were delayed (which of course meant that they'd be missing their connecting flights, too).  The good news was that they hadn't left yet, so they just got to stay longer!  Craig and I had been planning on getting a few Christmas things, so we also grabbed some groceries, and I was able to make fried ramen for everyone (this was what Ryder had requested for his birthday dinner).  I even figured out how to make it gluten-free for Jeni, so I was proud of myself for that.  (Although I didn't actually taste it, so who knows how it really turned out?  If it was terrible, Jeni was definitely too polite to say so!)

And then we got to sit around playing "That Escalated Quickly" and laughing and having a great time together, so that was really wonderful.  We said our goodbyes and went to bed, and they left twelve hours later than originally planned, at 3am instead of 3pm.  (Gross!  Why is traveling always so hard?)  But they did get home safely and without further incident.

As soon as church was over, I began washing all the towels and bedding from having so much company, only to have my dryer break after the first load.  😫  Not gonna lie, that was a real bummer.  Craig was able to fix it, but not until the part came in the mail, which ended up being Friday.  So now I'm forever thankful to have a working dryer again!  And I'm thankful that we had such a wonderful time and that the joy of the Christmas season is in full swing!

Spotify Wrapped

I do enjoy seeing my year summarized by Spotify Wrapped-- that's where they break down all the stats of what you've listened to the most.  I even got the little videos from Taylor Swift and Joe Rogan thanking me for being a *fan!

However, based on my top songs, I might just be certifiable.

Seriously. I don't usually feel the need to apologize for the things I love, but even I look at this and think, What a weirdo!

What's especially funny is that "august" isn't really one of my favorite Taylor Swift songs ("How Did it End?" and "Maroon" definitely ARE, though!), but for whatever reason it's just one that plays a lot when I have my playlists on shuffle and I'm usually too lazy to skip it.  (Craig is more cynical than I am, and he would tell you that it's probably cheaper for Spotify to play that one.  He's probably right...)  If I were to rank all my favorite songs by Taylor, it wouldn't even be in the top twenty!  I DEFINITELY love Bach's B Minor Mass, though, so that was (dare I say?) spot on!

Here's to more great music in 2026!

*I actually dropped in my Taylor Swift rankings-- last year I was in the top .05% of listeners, this year I'm just top 1%.  Sorry, Taylor!  And Joe Rogan must send his video to anyone who's ever listened to his podcast, because I didn't think I'd listened to him at all since last year's election!  Who knew?

Ryder is Fifteen!!!

The day after Thanksgiving was Ryder's birthday!!!  It's also the day we begin decorating for Christmas, so that was busy!  (It's also a day I get to be lazy and not cook at all.  Hallelujah for getting a chance to catch my breath!)

Who doesn't love a Christmas beardie?

Ryder swore up and down that we had promised him he could spray whipped cream right into his mouth on his birthday.  Craig and I have no memory of this, but we decided to let him go for it.  Actually-- Craig sprayed the whipped cream into Ryder's mouth and we made him hold it there while we all sang (progressively slower!!!) to him.  It ended up being a LOT of whipped cream, but Ryder didn't seem to mind at all!  

Tom and Donna were going to come and take us all to Five Guys for Ryder's birthday dinner, but they were having car troubles, so we ended up going to Culpeper, which also has a Five Guys, so it all worked out!

We had a a bit of a snafu with the present we got him-- a game called "Bad Therapy," which, I realized when I went to wrap it, was labeled for Ages 17+ with a big Explicit Content Warning!  OOPS!!!  I had no way of knowing what exactly that meant without opening the game, so we opted to just return it and get him something else.  So we handed him a present as we explained that he wasn't going to get to keep it!  Poor Ryder!  (We did replace it very quickly!)

And then the next day I made his dinner and dessert of choice (fried ramen and red velvet s'more brownies)-- which was still a lot more cooking than I normally do so quickly after Thanksgiving!  He also got trick candles on his brownies, something he said he always wanted and probably regretted as soon as he actually tried to blow them out.  We all tried to not think about how much spit ended up all over our dessert...!  😂

Anyway, A very happy birthday to my favorite middle child, Ryder!!!  It's so fun watching him growing up so quickly and turning into such a fine young man!!!  My friend Samara commented that Ryder looks just like Craig, but with my coloring, and I think she nailed it-- that's our boy!!!

Thanksgiving!

If I would have been trying to pick up Jason and Jeni from the airport, that would have been the most amazing timing ever!  But they actually needed to wait several hours for Maya to arrive, and they had gotten their own rental car, so I actually just dropped my parents off and sped right back home again.  I only had a few hours to change the bedding, wash towels, and vacuum before I had company again!

In addition to Jason, Jeni, Maya, and Eli (Lindsy and Kamryn were spending the holiday with their respective in-laws), we also got Craig's Aunt Lynda and Uncle Greg (who stayed with Tom and Donna in Culpeper), so it was a nice, full house!  Is there anything better?

We spent Wednesday doing as much prep work as we could-- brining the turkey, and making all the desserts (super jell-o, carmel pecan pie, apple crisp) and boiling all the potatoes (both russet and sweet!).  We got pizza from Papa John's (and made Kendra and Maya pick them up, which was super helpful and went perfectly!) and I'd gotten frozen GF pizza from Costco for Jeni.  It was a really nice day!  Before we went to bed, Craig managed to wash all the china, so that was really nice to not have to worry about!

Lynda gets to meet Charlie!

The next morning Craig and his brother were up early to play in the ward turkey bowl.  (They also took most of the kids-- only Kendra and Maya were smart enough to stay in bed!)  I started a quadruple batch of rolls and then met up with some friends to walk the neighborhood 5K.  (We cut a few corners and didn't quite make the full 3.1 miles, but it was still better than not moving at all!)  Everyone got home around the same time and I took a quick shower before the hot water got all used up, and then Craig helped me roll out my dough and bake all the rolls.  Then I kept sneaking them as we worked on everything!

Some day Craig and I are going to get themed t-shirts to wear together!

Colton kept joking about wanting to see the turkey's heart, and then was completely grossed out by it.  Of course.

Playing games with the grandparents!

And then from there on out we were mostly just cooking all day!  Everything turned out really well, I was really happy!

Yay for Thanksgiving!

Lovely November

The Sunday after Halloween, a rather remarkable thing happened: Craig got released as bishop!!!  He's been serving in that calling for over five-and-a-half years, having been called just a month before the Infamous Covid Lockdowns of 2020.  In some ways, that doesn't feel very long ago, but let me just remind you that at the time, my family looked like this:

It turns out that 5.5 years is a LOT of time!  (And when you were expecting only 5 years, those extra nine months tacked on at the end feel really long!)  (In all fairness, I should say that Craig did tell our stake president that he wouldn't mind staying bishop through the summer so he could do all the summer activities he'd planned with the youth.  But then our stake president ended up going to Denmark on a sabbatical, and couldn't call a new bishop until he was back.  So Craig was released literally two days after Pres. Papin returned home.)

It's really wild to reflect on all the things that happened over this time.  Having your husband be the bishop is hard (probably not as hard as actually being the bishop, but I really only write my own experiences here; Craig can start his own blog if he wants to delve into all of that), but I can also see so many ways that we've been blessed over the years, financially, spiritually, mentally...  If I really try, I can probably think of things I wish we had, but truly we've had all our actual needs met and then some.  It would be churlish of me NOT to be filled with the utmost gratitude for all we have.  

So this was the end of an era, for us.

Now-- they just called Craig into the Stake Young Men's Presidency, so it's not like he'll be resting on his laurels.  But I sure am enjoying getting to sit next to him during sacrament meeting again!

So that was our BIG news for the fall.  Other stuff was pretty average (and by average, I mean, pretty great)...  Oddly enough, things stayed just as busy?  I mean-- maybe they weren't as busy, but it wasn't like we suddenly had oodles of time to wile away...  But, Craig did get to skip the YMs camp out, which gave him time to (almost) finish rebuilding our deck steps, so that was pretty great!

The weather continued to be gorgeous on into November, as it usually is...

Playing pickleball in the Palmer's driveway (that really pretty tree in the background is ours!)

Here's that same tree from our porch!

One night Camille and I went walking while everyone else was at their Tuesday activities.  The moon was so pretty through the clouds so I snapped this picture (and caught that plane going by).  A minute later the clouds had completely cleared away and I was glad I'd caught this!

We also made sure we attended the last football game of the season because it was Kendra's Senior Night!!!  😱

A bunch of friends from the ward had come to cheer her on-- such great people!

Megan, Missy, and Anita

Oh hey-- there's our new bishop, Bishop Huff!

And there Kendra is with her bass drum

She's in the white coat directing the Star Spangled Banner

Still enjoying temple date nights!

And then lucky Craig got to take the teacher's quorum on their temple trip the very next morning!  (They mostly needed him for the van, but we're fine with that!)

And we're not above sweetening the deal to make it even more fun!

And then when Craig changed into something more comfortable, we realized he and Colton were matching in the most awesome way!

I'm not entirely sure where this picture came from?  But that's Colton and Camille playing in the creek behind our house!

Trying to build a fire in the rain

Getting ready to go camping (without Dad!!!)

My parents came to visit for a whole week which was awesome, and still went by too fast!  During that time we managed to go to the temple

and it just worked out for us to invite Sarah to come along, too, so that made it even more fun!

And then we ran into my Mother-in-Law in the chapel and got to do the session with her!  And THEN, Sarah's parents came and visited with us in the celestial room!  Quite the family reunions going on there!  (And then we got lunch at Chuy's, which was so good, but maybe not as exciting as family?!  But a very close second!)

My parents managed to be here for both 5th grade music night AND the high school band concerts!  (Which were on the same night, but we managed to not miss any of the times our kids were performing!  Parent win!)  First up was the entire 5th grade singing "Take on Me" (yup, from the 80s!):

She's on the right, second row

There, you can see her better!

And then they broke out into smaller groups where they got to pick their own song, so here's Camille with Mara (completely hidden behind the music stand) and May (singing, mostly hidden behind her music) performing "Stargazing":

I'd told the music teacher that we needed to make it to the high school band concert pretty quickly, so he helped us out by having them perform first.  It was so nice of him!  If we hadn't been in a rush, I wouldn't have minded seeing some of the other kids perform, but we needed to dash!

There's Kendra!

And there's Ryder getting set up!

They were both trying to be taller than the other!  (I think my Dad still has Ryder beat, but probably not for much longer!)

We also dragged my parents to the Huff's Pie Night (now an activity for the entire ward-- welcome to being bishop, Scott!), where Craig got this adorable picture of Camille and Peter hanging out together:

(And we got Torchy's after!)  I also got to bring my mom to my choir practice, which always makes me happy!  (And right before that, we got dinner-- just the grown ups-- at Timberwood Taphouse!)

And before we knew it, the week had flown by and it was time for me to bring my parents to the airport!  We managed to get some pictures of them with the kids before they left for school (WHY am I so bad about taking pictures???):

Which was when we discovered something...

Colton, who grew four inches since their last visit, is now taller than Grandma!!!  😱

My short mother!  😂

Right as we were approaching the Richmond airport, I got a text from Craig's brother Jason-- guess who had just landed at the same airport?