kareoke and office parties

late again with the post, but this means that i get to include the weekend festivities! woo! this was actually a semi-busy weekend, which was great, although let's be serious i'm usually quite content with tea, gummy and candy and a movie, but it was nice to have a weekend that didn't resemble quite so closely that of a grandmother

this past friday was my friend Michelle's birthday, and being that we are friends from doing ridiculous theater together freshman year, there was only one real way that we could celebrate:

80s kareoke.

after doing some online research we came upon what appeared to be a real gem: "Razzys". when you walk in (also note, there is basically nothing else around razzys, except for a carwash and some apartments) it appears to be what i imagine a bar in small-town nebraska looks like, teeny-tiny with a flashing budlight sign BUT! then you make your way to the "back room", which is complete with bar, lovely spray paint decor and a small dance floor/kareoke stage. we got prime seats for the group and lined up some kareoke gems (the kareoke book of options at razzys had around 5,000 options, no joke). and i have to say, the crowd at razzys was very supportive, no judgment just love for the kareoke, and there was QUITE the range of songs (and talent....) from the guy who was in all black and stood completely still except for a slight hip-twisting and sang tom jones "she's a lady" to the goth girl who got up and sang carrie underwood (question mark?) to the wonderful gay man in argyle who rocked out to cher to a scrawny guy who sang rocket man by elton john and then proceeded to run around the dance floor with his arms out like an airplane, which led the guy at the table next to me to say "i want to be on what he's on" to the bar's owner, nancy, who is quite the raspy-voiced broad who did 2 songs over the course of the night including "proud mary". i myself (along with others) did "total eclipse of the heart" and "joy to the world" (as in "JERMIAH WAS A BULLFROG!" not the holiday song). the other wonderful thing about kareoke at razzys was that the kareoke dj sang the backup vocals for every single song. i mean everything - from bruce springsteen to cher.
one of the top moments of the night was, after a few pretty high energy songs, a guy gets up and announces that he's going to sing "walking in memphis", we all sort of settle back for a more low-key couple of minutes, and it starts off as expected but then SUDDENLY he takes a turn very similar to that of the wedding singer singing "total eclipse of the heart" in Old School, and he launches into "i'm f***ing walking in memphis. i'm f***ing walking with my feet ten feet off of beale..." and so continues like that for the rest of song, (note, the dj didn't miss a beat, chiming in with the background "i'm f***ing walking in memphis" at the appropriate parts) the guy then ended it with "Suck it!", with everyone in the bar looking shell shocked and slowley clapping him off the stage. all in all it was a FANTASTIC night, followed by sleep and a big birthday brunch the next day. when you all visit, get excited for some razzys, i won't force you to sing (although i would love to hear "S" sing one of her favorite kanye songs) GET EXCITED PEOPLE!

saturday was made up of brunch, a trip to a musuem with some dartmouth people, and then d's office dinner! and i just want to say that after reading d's posts about these people i felt a mixture of terror/"they can't POSSIBLY be as ridiculous as all that", and let me just say, d's descriptions were spot on.
spot.
on.
that said, they were all WONDERFUL, and so nice to me as the awkward "significant other" (question mark?), there was fantastic greek food and ridiculous, amusing conversation. i think the biggest thing (which d's talked about a lot, but i thought i'd say again) was how amazingly PASSIONATE these people are, not just about their jobs but about their lives in general, i'm speaking mainly of d's boss, but all of them really seemed to have their stuff together, it was very inspiring, and made me want to be more active in figuring out my own life....on that note, i made a list today of things i need to work on achieving, it ranged from trying to learn the most i can out of the current job, and not getting passive about it, to trying to cook more, to reading more (i was in a bookstore last night and decided that if i can make time to keep up with the office than i definitely have time to read all the books i want to)

alright, that's it for now...