R.I.P. King of Pop

Ton Ton has been working on a special "labor playlist" for me. A mix of happy, upbeat songs I can sing along to while having contractions in order to, hopefully, ease the pain. Last week he was playing some of the songs he had chosen, and one of them was "Say Say Say", the duet between Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson. I immediately requested he add more of Michael's songs to the list.

Last year, we threw Ton Ton a big birthday party. It was a live karaoke event -- his musician friends played instruments and the rest of the guests sang. Ani and I did a rendition of "Beat It".

If we have a house party and it goes past 2:00 a.m., you can bet "Thriller" will come on the stereo. Ton Ton and I will probably lead whoever is still around in the dance.

The first song Ton Ton and I ever danced to was "The way you make me feel". After seeing him do the moonwalk and grab his crotch, I KNEW I had found the one!

As a college student in D.C. right after September 11, I went to a United We Stand concert with a bunch of my best friends. The headliner was Michael Jackson. We sat in a hot stadium all day waiting for him to come on. At around 11:00 p.m., he took the stage and sang "Man in the mirror". Our seats were very far away and we were disappointed he only did one song, but it was totally worth it.

Belly may be born into a world without Michael, but not without his music -- Ton Ton and I will make sure of that.