Yesterday, I went over to Erin Margolin's house to do a practice run-through of the Kansas City Listen to Your Mother show. Basically there are somewhere near a dozen of us, and we're all performing a short essay we wrote about motherhood, daughterhood or some mix of the two. Before we started, Co-Director Laura Seymour was all, "Hey, is anyone good at opening champagne?"

I've worked at four restaurants and a dog track. So I was all, "I AM." There was nervous tittering, because let's face it -- most of us didn't know each other and we were in someone's basement drinking champagne and preparing to expose our innermost secrets in preparation for taking the entire show live in a few weeks. WHAT'S TO BE NERVOUS ABOUT?

So there I was, test-driving my new gray-and-orange-striped-Calvin-Klein-from-Marshall's dress that is super-crazy tight but also super-crazy comfortable, my jacket to hide my nervous-armpit-sweating habit and my Kanye mail-order-discount glasses. The last five champagne bottles I've opened have had a pop, but I've always been able to hold onto the cork. If I didn't know Erin better, I'd suspect her of shaking this bottle all the way home from Costco, because when I opened it, the cork shot out of my hand and the champagne came spraying out so fast I was covered in it, down to my dripping glasses, in nanoseconds. 

It was champagne hubris, y'all. 

It's fortunate that I have an extremely high tolerance for making an ass of myself, because I was COVERED in champagne. My right armpit smelled like New Year's Eve 1998. Still, I cleaned myself up and sipped a little of that champagne while I listened to a bunch of new friends read some truly amazing essays. I laughed, I cried, I wore champagne with pride.

Our show is going to be on Saturday, May 11 from 7-9.  A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales go to the Rose Brooks Center, and there will be a representative from Rose Brooks at the performance to answer your questions about that organization.

A few of us (me included) will be selling our books there afterward. I'll be selling SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK for $10 and THE OBVIOUS GAME for $15, cash or check only. I'll also have some bookplates for THE OBVIOUS GAME in case you already bought it and are like I DON'T WANT TO BUY IT AGAIN I JUST FORGOT TO BRING IT SO PLEASE SIGN THIS STICKER FOR ME AND IT'LL BE ALL GOOD. 'Cause that's the glory of bookplates! Which are really just address labels, but don't tell! The little angel will be assisting me, and she glories in that role, so even if you don't want a book, please stop by and say hi if you are there.

DJ Nibbles loves LTYM.

In other Mother's Day news, there's a special promo code and a $50 gift card giveaway over on Surrender, Dorothy: Reviews for custom, kid-artwork-inspired iPhone cases. (Twofer)