Birthdays and small blessings
Dec. 19th, 2006 12:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cleolindaOkay, so here's what happened this weekend:
Saturday night, the Lovely Emily had arranged a sort of joint birthday cosmic bowling party for us--something like twelve people total, I think. I'm sort of a bowling idiot savant--this was maybe the third time in my life I've ever been, but I managed to bowl three or four strikes... and four or five utter gutterballs. I'm far better than I have any right to be--good enough to have fun, but not good enough to be, you know, good. So I came in at 82 for the first game and 86 for the second, had a frozen Coke, got a silver key trinket from a vending machine, good times.
Then the Lovely Emily, Brett the Vet, and one of the bowlers I just met, Beth, decided to go to Starz, this karaoke bar out on Valley. (Apparently there's also one out on 280.) En route, I forget what exactly happened, but I was in the front seat and someone pulled out in front of Em, she had to hit the brakes, and as I go plummeting towards the windshield, the last thing I see before I die is the license plate of the car in front of us:
Fortunately, I'm wearing my seat belt, because... no. Not the way I want to go.
So then we get there, and... people were really not bad enough. They were either goodish, or bad but not in a fun way. Nobody was really drunk enough yet, maybe that was the problem. Brett and I had been assured that we were just going to people-watch, so we're barely in the door when Em's like, "So what are you going to sing?" Yeah, no. We both managed to get away with keeping mum, although Em got up and sang some Nickel Creek, and then "Walk Like an Egyptian" with Beth, and they managed to get most of the bar Egyptian-dancing, which was awesome. And then this girl Alison--I think she was a friend of Beth's?--belted out Journey's "Don't Stop Believin,' " and it was the best karaoke performance that ever was or, most likely, ever will be. But then, then there was the performance that no one who saw it--or, indeed, heard tell of it--will ever forget:
She was mild, unassuming, bespectacled, mousy. She got up and mumbled the entire first verse of "Since U Been Gone." Then she hit the chorus, and in the loudest, deepest death metal voice you can imagine, roared out,
She kept this up for the whole four minutes. I have no idea how her throat didn't, like, burst into flame. Even the DJ guy was cracking the hell up. She finishes, she gets a standing ovation, and I get the feeling that she had done it before, because the DJ mutters into his mic, "People ask me why I like that song, and I always say, 'You wouldn't understand.' "
So then we go to Waffle House.
I stumble home at about 2:30 am--not because I had anything to drink, mind you; I actually nursed a bottle of water through the entire Karaoke Experience--mostly because it's 2:30 in the morning, and it's been a really, really long time since I've been out past midnight.
Sister Girl's birthday, meanwhile, went off without a hitch. I have no idea how, except that maybe we'd saved up enough birthday karma for a withdrawal this year. Edgar's made the cake she wanted from a random picture in a fashion photoshoot; she loved it. We got a second strawberry cake for general eating, and hardly spent any money on either of them. We gave her pajamas and a dozen martini glasses, and our cousin gave her fun-wobbly shot glasses, and she loved them. Her friends took her out to the Macaroni Grill and then came back to the house for cake and booze in the rec room. Two of her hard-to-lay-hold-of guy friends came as well. Everyone was gone by 11 pm. And she was happy. Seriously, I have no idea what happened. And she's been in a good mood ever since--and this is even considering that her boyfriend's been an utter dink who didn't call her or drive up to see her on her own birthday, and fed her yet another one of his straight-faced but extremely improbable excuses (previously: "I was working in a warehouse without a phone. Oh... what about my cell phone? Uh..." and "They're moving me to another store today, but I don't know where. But definitely not the one you know the number to"). I'm not one to look fair weather in the mouth, or... something. I just enjoy it.
Report: Iraq on brink of collapse.
S.C. 'santa' charged with kidnapping girl.
Tamil Tigers free 23 children after abduction 'mistake'.
Three more show polonium traces in UK poison case.
Trump to Miss USA: You get a second chance.
Bollywood black comedy muses on role of Taliban.
Injured man wins damages for sex overdrive.
Woman tells cop she bought 'bad crack': "A North Carolina woman was arrested after complaining to a police officer that the crack cocaine she had just purchased wasn't very good, authorities said."
Director Lynch produces film that puzzles critics; also, sky reportedly blue.
Saturday night, the Lovely Emily had arranged a sort of joint birthday cosmic bowling party for us--something like twelve people total, I think. I'm sort of a bowling idiot savant--this was maybe the third time in my life I've ever been, but I managed to bowl three or four strikes... and four or five utter gutterballs. I'm far better than I have any right to be--good enough to have fun, but not good enough to be, you know, good. So I came in at 82 for the first game and 86 for the second, had a frozen Coke, got a silver key trinket from a vending machine, good times.
Then the Lovely Emily, Brett the Vet, and one of the bowlers I just met, Beth, decided to go to Starz, this karaoke bar out on Valley. (Apparently there's also one out on 280.) En route, I forget what exactly happened, but I was in the front seat and someone pulled out in front of Em, she had to hit the brakes, and as I go plummeting towards the windshield, the last thing I see before I die is the license plate of the car in front of us:
LIL POOH
Fortunately, I'm wearing my seat belt, because... no. Not the way I want to go.
So then we get there, and... people were really not bad enough. They were either goodish, or bad but not in a fun way. Nobody was really drunk enough yet, maybe that was the problem. Brett and I had been assured that we were just going to people-watch, so we're barely in the door when Em's like, "So what are you going to sing?" Yeah, no. We both managed to get away with keeping mum, although Em got up and sang some Nickel Creek, and then "Walk Like an Egyptian" with Beth, and they managed to get most of the bar Egyptian-dancing, which was awesome. And then this girl Alison--I think she was a friend of Beth's?--belted out Journey's "Don't Stop Believin,' " and it was the best karaoke performance that ever was or, most likely, ever will be. But then, then there was the performance that no one who saw it--or, indeed, heard tell of it--will ever forget:
She was mild, unassuming, bespectacled, mousy. She got up and mumbled the entire first verse of "Since U Been Gone." Then she hit the chorus, and in the loudest, deepest death metal voice you can imagine, roared out,
SINCEUBEENGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE
ICANNOWBREATHEFORTHEFIRSTTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME
IMSOMOVINONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
I GET WHAT I WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANT
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH
ICANNOWBREATHEFORTHEFIRSTTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME
IMSOMOVINONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
I GET WHAT I WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANT
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH
She kept this up for the whole four minutes. I have no idea how her throat didn't, like, burst into flame. Even the DJ guy was cracking the hell up. She finishes, she gets a standing ovation, and I get the feeling that she had done it before, because the DJ mutters into his mic, "People ask me why I like that song, and I always say, 'You wouldn't understand.' "
So then we go to Waffle House.
I stumble home at about 2:30 am--not because I had anything to drink, mind you; I actually nursed a bottle of water through the entire Karaoke Experience--mostly because it's 2:30 in the morning, and it's been a really, really long time since I've been out past midnight.
Sister Girl's birthday, meanwhile, went off without a hitch. I have no idea how, except that maybe we'd saved up enough birthday karma for a withdrawal this year. Edgar's made the cake she wanted from a random picture in a fashion photoshoot; she loved it. We got a second strawberry cake for general eating, and hardly spent any money on either of them. We gave her pajamas and a dozen martini glasses, and our cousin gave her fun-wobbly shot glasses, and she loved them. Her friends took her out to the Macaroni Grill and then came back to the house for cake and booze in the rec room. Two of her hard-to-lay-hold-of guy friends came as well. Everyone was gone by 11 pm. And she was happy. Seriously, I have no idea what happened. And she's been in a good mood ever since--and this is even considering that her boyfriend's been an utter dink who didn't call her or drive up to see her on her own birthday, and fed her yet another one of his straight-faced but extremely improbable excuses (previously: "I was working in a warehouse without a phone. Oh... what about my cell phone? Uh..." and "They're moving me to another store today, but I don't know where. But definitely not the one you know the number to"). I'm not one to look fair weather in the mouth, or... something. I just enjoy it.
Report: Iraq on brink of collapse.
S.C. 'santa' charged with kidnapping girl.
Tamil Tigers free 23 children after abduction 'mistake'.
Three more show polonium traces in UK poison case.
Trump to Miss USA: You get a second chance.
Bollywood black comedy muses on role of Taliban.
Injured man wins damages for sex overdrive.
Woman tells cop she bought 'bad crack': "A North Carolina woman was arrested after complaining to a police officer that the crack cocaine she had just purchased wasn't very good, authorities said."
Director Lynch produces film that puzzles critics; also, sky reportedly blue.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 06:58 pm (UTC)But I like Cronenberg, so go figure.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-20 05:22 pm (UTC)Sky... Blue? ROFLOL.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 06:59 pm (UTC)PFFF, AHAHAHAHA!!!
no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 07:00 pm (UTC)got a silver key trinket from a vending machine, good times.
The best part of bowling with my friends is what we get out of the trinket machines. The one year my friend Queerball pulled out - I think it was suppoed to be a necklace, but it was like, this eyepatch looking thing, with tiger print fur on it, on a string, and we spent a good part of the night trying to figure out exactly what it's primary function was. ("Eyepatch? Bikini top? Anklet!") It ended up hanging from my review mirror until the car was trashed. (...Now I'm wondering if I rescued that or not when I had to clean the car out..)
no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 07:09 pm (UTC)I'm pretty sure that Brian would have been bleeding from the ear if he ever laid a line like that on me. *lol*
no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 07:11 pm (UTC)That cracked me up. I wish I could book this DJ for my next party!
no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 07:29 pm (UTC)The local theatre showing INLAND EMPIRE has a sign up in the box office stating that anyone who sees the film nine times—and brings the ticket stubs to prove it—can watch it a tenth time for free.
I cannot imagine the kind of psychic toll that would take. Watching it once was, to quote one of Laura Dern’s lines, “Kind of a mindfuck.”
Mind you, I am planning to see it at least once more on the big screen.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 07:30 pm (UTC)Director Lynch produces film that puzzles critics; also, sky reportedly blue.
Hee.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 08:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 08:55 pm (UTC)That's pretty pitiful.
Fun birthdays.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 10:34 pm (UTC)That story about the British guy who got money for being a sex fiend... I'm not really sure what to think about it. On the one hand, it could actually be a very unfortunate incident. On the other, it kind of sounds like a General Hospital sub-plot. Of course, if I could get several million dollars for having too much sex, then count me in.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 11:13 pm (UTC)but sister girl should totally dump that guy. boys who don't even make an effort on your birthday, especially when he's officially her boyfriend!!, are not even worth the time it takes to tell them off.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 11:17 pm (UTC)Yeah, she's actually driven out to see him right now, and if he doesn't show, she says she's going to his house to give him hell. Sigh.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 11:20 pm (UTC)good girl. i can just imagine the kind of hell she'll give him. i would not want to be on the receiving end of that!
no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 11:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-20 01:21 am (UTC)No, that's not haze or fog, it's smoke, from bushfires 200km away. And I'm another 40km from where that photo was taken, sitting inside, and I can't breathe because of the smoke >_<
no subject
Date: 2006-12-20 01:49 am (UTC)It's funny because it's true
Date: 2006-12-20 02:42 am (UTC)Gasp! Le squee! Eeee!
Also: Dude, that's some good shit right there.
I had it for approximately 24 hours before my CommTech teacher took it. What are we doing in CommTech? Making a movie. Irony. Far out. But he was nice and gave it back at the end of class. Also, my cousin is practically ripping it out of my hands right now. But it's okay. She was a preemie, so I'm stronger.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-20 08:34 am (UTC)Glad you didn't experience "Death by LIL POOH". altho i must admit that concept is fucking *hysterical*.
Sister Girl's d00d sounds like a t00l. A really giant one. Who quite honestly sounds like he's either cheating on her, lying to cover something up, or simply too spineless to just break up with her. I could be wrong, jsut have heard/dealth with getting fed those sorts of lines before. I hope things turn out alright.
Also: a general Thank You and Happy Belated Birthday!!! I read all the time but hardly ever comment,and just wanted to tell u how much I enjoy the way you write... I have a very odd sesne of humour, and few things make me laugh quite as hard as some of the stuff in your entries.
w00t.
linkspam
Date: 2006-12-20 02:56 pm (UTC)http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/18/nyregion/18whale.html
It's not *quite* as disgusting as it sounds. Also, there is an awesome photo.
linkspam for you
Date: 2006-12-20 02:58 pm (UTC)school says 'sorry' after revealing the truth about Father Christmas (http://www.guardian.co.uk/christmas2006/story/0,,1975747,00.html) what was the teacher thinking? o_O
Virgin dragon to give birth in holiday season
Date: 2006-12-21 01:13 am (UTC)But this was icing on the cake: “Komodo dragons seem to be able to switch ways of reproducing to deal with a shortage of suitable boyfriends.” Somehow, I just never thought of Komodo dragons having "boyfriends." :-P