pamie tries karaoke. will she ever go back?

I had never tried Karaoke before. My friends had decided that last night was Karaoke night and threatened to never speak to me again if I didn’t go. So I talked Eric into going, and we said we’d be there.

I asked where this place was, and they told me it’s the bar at a motel. I knew I was in for a classy night.

But yesterday afternoon, before plans were finalized, I started to have second doubts. What if I make a total fool out of myself? (Like that’s anything new, I know). But I’ve been in bars that had Karaoke before, and I always felt so sorry for the drunken woman clutching the mic in one hand and a White Russian in the other screaming about “One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.” Or it’s some pathetic man trying to pick up chicks by singing “Why don’t we get drunk and screw?”

Welcome to Karaoke, Texas style.

In any event, I started getting cold feet. I did not want to humiliate myself in front of everyone.

And then I got a phone call from my friend. They were the only ones in the bar. Just the eight of them singing song after song, cheering each other on and drinking up a storm. I could hear “Stand By Your Man” playing in the background as my friend urged me to hurry my ass over to the bar.

And Eric and I showed up, and had a fucking blast. It was so funny, like a private party. The bar (inside the motel, mind you) had a couch, so it was almost like we were crashing some party at a house and we got out of control. People were singing song after song. And my nervousness was gone the second I got to sing “Summer Nights” with my friend. I successfully never sang solo all night, picking some great duets and such. Plus I got to sing one of my favorite songs of all time: “Leader of the Pack.”

Everyone got into the singing, and since it was just us, there wasn’t a lot of embarrassment. We were just having a great time. I really didn’t think that I’d have such a great time singing in a bar, but once you get to belt out “I’ve Had the Time of My Life,” you really start looking at this whole Karaoke thing differently.

They kept the bar open for an extra hour for us. We had to have been the most business they’ve had in months.

I felt so good after it was all done. What a stress reliever to sing so loud and for a couple of hours. And all the laughing? If only they could get new music in all the time, we’d probably go back. As it is, we pretty much sang almost everything we wanted to sing, and to quote Eric, “Once every five years is enough.”

But definitely a way to spend a Tuesday night.

So today I’m back at work and I feel terrible. Not because of last night, but some sort of allergies. I felt this way yesterday, but I thought I had a cold. Since I was fine last night and fine this morning until I got to work, there are only two conclusions: I am allergic to something in the air or I am allergic to work. Now most people vote for the latter, but I am sticking to my claim that it is pollen and molds that are making me sick. My head is all stopped up and I keep sneezing and my nose is running and I’m exhausted. I just want to go home and crawl up in the bed and wait for winter.

Like I won’t be bitching about something come wintertime, I know, but I really do like the cold. I love sweaters and cardigans, and cocoa and blankets and such.

Right now I just feel so tired. I’m so tired I can’t believe it. I get tired really easily lately. I wish I just felt better. Do I need to get more sleep? Eat better? Run around more? Probably all three. I have just felt that lately I’m not so much in charge of my life. Other things dictate where I am all day and all night, and I don’t get to just relax. When I get an evening to just relax, I have a hard time just chilling out because I feel this need to clean my house and organize this and that and catch up on all my home things, but I end up just talking on the phone to an old friend who’s been trying to reach me or falling asleep on the couch. It’s terribly frustrating, and I’m not sure how to re-organize my day so I feel that I’m accomplishing all that I need to accomplish.

Oi.

I guess that means that I’m just like everyone else. I want to be a superhero. I want to be a superstar. Not fame or fortune, mind you. I just want to be able to accomplish all I want to accomplish. I want to start writing another play. I want time to write scripts. I want time to think. I’m just so damn busy and when I’m not busy I’m beat. How boring. How boring is that?

But I did have a good time last night, because I didn’t think about all the things I could be/should be doing, but rather, just having fun with my friends. I haven’t really just had a great night out in a while. Sure, I go out all the time, but it’s to rehearse or have writer’s meetings, or catch dinner, or hurry up and eat before the movie starts…which is the worst, because once you finally all decide on a film, there’s never a moment to relax until the movie starts.

What film will we all see? Well, she wants to see this film, but he already saw that one, and this guy doesn’t want to see it at all, but he’d like to see this film, which is okay with everyone but this guy and she suggested this film, but unless we all leave now, we’ll never all get there in time, and I don’t think everyone is home right now to know that we have to leave now, so that leaves us with these two films, and most want to see this one, so we’ll see this one, and the rest will have to deal. So I’ll call everyone and tell them that it’s this film, and tell them where the theater is and make sure that everyone has a ride and knows for sure where we are meeting… let’s just have them meet over here and then we’ll all go at the same time and then we won’t lose each other… but everyone is running so late that I know we’ll miss the previews, and if we miss the previews so-and-so will be mad because we always miss the previews but it looks like everyone’s here, so let’s go… and we get there and some drop the “ticket buyers” off so that the others can go park and the “ticket buyers” stand in line and see that there’s a better film on that they all forgot about, but they don’t know if they can buy tickets to that because they don’t know if everyone wants to see it, so they just buy tickets for the one that they all came to see in the first place, and then they go in to stand in line for food, and of course someone comes in and says, “Did you know we could have seen that other movie?” but no one answers because they are all looking at their watches because they are now missing the previews, but they haven’t been fed. Everyone gets the food and they all walk slowly into the theater reading all the posters along the way and then they start the “Where Shall We Sit” proceedings which look mostly like sheep trying to be herded and everyone is trying to find a row to hold everyone and people are telling us “this seat is taken,” “this row is taken” until you all jam into the front row and have to crane your neck to see and then someone has to sit by this person because they are sharing food and this person wants to sit by this person, but he’s supposed to sit by this person, and then everyone sits down in a huff and starts complaining that they missed the opening credits and then everyone shuts up, watches the film and eats.

and there’s your moment of relaxation.

because as soon as the film is over, it’s who liked the film and who hated the film and who it was that said he knew we should have just gone to see the other film and who’s mad that someone else didn’t like the film, because she probably did like the film but she’s being stubborn and where do we all go now and who’s hungry and–

I never get to breathe.

But I love the movies. I really do. It’s an amazing ritual that we go through every time we want to see a film.

Can you tell I’m not feeling very well? I’m just getting sloppy today. We have a luncheon in a half an hour and I forgot to bring food. Stupid pamie. Now I’ve got to look like the moocher.