When: December 20th
Where: Blue Karaoke
Why: Two times in my life, I've gotten up to sing karaoke with friends. Once was at my friend Susie's bachelorette party and another time was with my friend Allison in New Orleans with a group of people we'd met down there. Both times were up on a stage in front of people with a screen scrolling the lyrics. It had been years since either of those experiences, and in that time, I've come to be a very proficient shower singer and car singer. At least, in my opinion. So, when my friend told me he was getting together with a group of people to karaoke, I jumped at the chance to join them. 
The place we met up at was not what I expected. It was, I'm told, a much more authentic Japanese experience of renting a room with friends for a certain amount of time with a songbook and a machine with microphones and fancy lights. The reason we were at this more-authentic establishment is because this group of friends had mostly met up while working in Japan over the past few years, and in fact, one of the girls did a whole song in Japanese!
So, Anita and I arrived just in time to start singing some hits, including "Let It Go" and "Bye Bye Bye" and Katy Perry's "Hot n Cold" and I learned how to use the catalog and the machine to made my request for my big solo debut. While waiting for my request to come up, we passed the microphones and tambourines around the room to participate, and despite being very new at this and only knowing one other person in the room, Anita and I were having a blast.
Then, I realized a couple of things. One is that there is a very strict scoring system that is built into the machine and displayed on the screen for everyone to see. The system is based on both one's ability to keep to the beat and to be in tune. Another thing I realized is that the background music for the karaoke machine is like a synthesizer version of the real deal, and with the acoustics in the room, I found it hard to match pitch to the music and was trying just to match pitch with the other people singing. Finally, these other people singing were good at it, and about a decade or more younger than me. This made me a bit anxious about the song I had requested, which was an oldie-but-a-goodie (yikes, I sound old just using that phrase).
When my song came on, I was so excited! I know almost all the lyrics by heart and it's a song that my group of friends all think is lots of fun. And yet, no one in this room seemed to know it. It is A) country and B) from the '70s. Now, I know it was my goal to sing by myself, but it was really awful. Obviously, I won't be discovered this way, but I really don't think I'm actually quite this bad. Ask my friends who are in the car with me; I'm usually on the better end of average! And even during the chorus, no one really joined in, except for Saad who is just completely fun and probably knows every possible karaoke song. So, without further ado, enjoy my embarrassment!
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