Halloween Karaoke - 2005

Today is Halloween. I have mentioned before that this is my 2nd favorite holiday of the year. I will use any excuse to make a spectacle of myself so Halloween is a great day for me to embrace my inner dork. So I used this as an excuse to dress up for karaoke last night. Since last year's appearance as the Queen of the Universe went over well at karaoke, I decided to repeat the costume.

After an exhausting day of scrapbooking on Saturday with Keem at our friend Julie's house (where I was exposed to not one but two babies and was tempted to run through the streets begging for someone to impregnate me, the cuteness was so much more than I could bear) in Wisconsin, I spent Sunday doing absolutely nothing. I woke up, played online for a little bit, went back to bed, woke up again, played online a little bit, went back to bed to nap so I was prepared for the evening ahead of me. At approximately 6:30, I swear I heard Keem call my name using her authoritative voice. I jumped out of bed and walked to her room and asked her why she called me. Apparently, she did not call me. I had been dreaming. However, since I was up, this was the perfect time to dye my hair (the roots were driving me insane).

While I was waiting for the hair dye to set, I decided to put my plastic shower cap on. I was standing in front of the mirror, admiring the shower cap (which was only purchased because it has frogs on it) and had a thought. How about wearing my Queen of the Universe outfit but pair it up with the shower cap and my frog slippers? I could be the Queen of the Universe on her day off! At that time, I would have been thrilled to have some of those pink velcro curlers but do not own any.

Beth called and let me know she was on her way. She also told me she forgot to dress up. I had a moment's hesitation. There was a chance that I may be the only person dressed up for the holiday. Did I want to take that chance? Well, of course, I did. Surely someone would be filled with the Halloween spirit.

We were on our way to the Chalet when something weird happened. We had pulled up to our exit onto Rice Street off of 36. There was a red light. No big deal, right? Yeah. You would think that, wouldn't you? But then you wouldn't be sitting at the light for 9 minutes. The light on Rice Street stayed green the entire time. The only concession to the fact that the light might change was the flashing of the don't walk sign. But don't get too excited by that. Because it turns to don't walk for all of 30 seconds and then turns back to walk. Can you say really, really annoying? I knew you could!

Finally Beth made a decision that will probably haunt her for the rest of her life. She ran the red light. So we decided her costume was that she's a criminal (she looked very cute in her black jacket, flared jeans, salmon pink overshirt and light pink t-shirt but still - she's a law BREAKER! Bad Beth (I would have probably run it about 5 minutes before she did so I really shouldn't talk)), possibly on her way to a disco.

We arrived at karaoke and walked in and, yes, you guessed it, not a soul was dressed up. So I did garner a few glances. I did get asked by several people what I was supposed to be and one woman said that she might have to steal the idea. I was accompanied by Frug (large frog wearing a Santa hat and scarf. He was my date, the Frog Prince, dressed as Santa).

I asked Beth to call Angie and ask her to at least wear a angel halo or something so I wouldn't feel like a complete idiot. Unfortunately, they had both just pulled up into the parking lot. Angie did call Steve and ask him to bring his boas up with him so she could wear them (she's such a nice girl (Steve was Hulk Hogan for Halloween)).

Bryan walked in, looked at me in puzzlement and then said "Oh. Yeah, it's Halloween. Okay."

Nate and Becky came up as well. They had just returned from a trip to Texas. It was nice to see them again. Nate lives in Wisconsin and we don't get to see him that often.

Okay, now for pictures. Now you'll finally be able to put faces with names! Isn't that exciting?

Here I am, singing "Change The World." It is my warm up song. Notice the shower cap? You can't tell but the frogs are wearing crowns and big lips. There are also lips and the words "Kiss Me" printed on the cap. Did anyone take the freakin' hint? No. Well, Nate did kiss me on the cheek but he doesn't count.



Here is Beth. I believe she is singing "She Drives Me Crazy" but she sings it as "He Drives Me Crazy." Because that is more fun.



This is Nate and his girlfriend Becky. He is planning on proposing to her soon. I would say it was a secret but she's pretty much figured it out because we keep staring at her ring finger every time we see her. I have no idea what they are laughing about but it's probably Nate being silly again.



Nate is singing...um, something? I think it might be "3 Days" but I'm not sure. I'm not even sure if that's even the name of the song.



This is Amy. She just had her hair done and it is fantastic. She has one of the most clear and pure voices that I have ever heard. She did not sing last night or stay for very long. This made us sad.

DM: I am the Queen of the Universe. I command you to sing.
Amy: It's your day off. You can't command me.
DM: Damn it!
B: Good one, Amy.

There was a weird guy sitting behind Amy and I that asked Amy to introduce him to Nate. Amy turned to him and said "Well, I would, if I knew who you were." She is so very clever and I adore her.



Here is another picture of Becky. Nate and Becky went to see some guy named Pat Green perform in Texas, the reason for the whole trip. While I was taking this picture, Nate leaned over.

N: She's very pretty, isn't she?
DM: Yes. She's gorgeous.
N: You should see her naked.
DM: Uh, no. That's okay.



Here is Angie. She also has a spectacular voice. She just recently became a karaoke host as well. She also works as a technician in a vet's office so Johnny, when you do come to America, you'll have lots to talk about with her. She keeps using weird vet terms when we do the game (there are starting to be a lot of games at karaoke but this one is where Bryan thinks of a random word and we list random words. The person who is closest to his word gets to sing first. Angie's word this week was prepuce. Apparently that was closest to parachute pants. Because they're both scary, according to Bryan.



I was trying to get a picture of her facing me. It didn't work.



This is Steve. He is a really good friend of Amy's and she had the brainstorm about two months ago to introduce him to Angie. They hit it off really well and are so cute together. Steve is the one that gave me my nickname "Hurricane Dana" and said last night that he was so proud of himself for that nickname because it has stuck.



Here Frug and I are dancing together. Beth, do you remember what song it was? He is a very good date. Doesn't cause a lot of trouble, doesn't get mad when other men hit on me (HAHAHAHA) and is a very good dancer. Frug is stroking my hair.

Behind us is the creepy guy that Amy brushed off. He walked behind me and rubbed my shoulders/back and kind of freaked me out. He did that to all of the women at the table. Dude. Don't touch me. Don't touch my friends. Don't even breathe in our direction, okay?



Beth is singing "All That Jazz." Angie said she had to wear the boas for this song. Apparently the boas are itchy.



We started picking out songs for each other, the prelude to Suicide Karaoke. I'm not sure who decided that Nate should sing "Strokin'" but he gave it his all. He started changing the words and Becky almost crawled under the table from embarrassment as Nate began exposing more and more details of their love life. It was hilarious.







We soon started letting Bryan pick out our songs for us. This was a little interesting. He would flip to a page and then choose a song. It was actually a lot of fun.

This picture is from me singing "Superstar". I had asked Gil last week what songs I should sing and he suggested "Rainy Days and Mondays" or "Superstar" from The Carpenters. I was somewhat familiar with the first song but not the second (or so I thought) but didn't have time to sing the song. Not that I'm obsessive or anything but I did download both songs and have spent some time singing along with iTunes.

When I walked up onto the stage and "Superstar" came up, I was, naturally, somewhat stunned. How did Bryan choose this one song out of all of the songs in the book? It was not until after I sang the song that Beth told me she had asked Bryan to put in The Carpenters for me but not which song. Fortunately, although Gil was there, he was up at the bar at the time and not at our table. If he had been, I may have had some problems singing the song, especially the chorus, which pretty much has a lot of baby, baby, babies and I love you's in them. Not going to sing that while looking at him, thanks. That would be bad.



Dean was there! He is clapping for me.



Dean ended up having to sing "It's Raining Men" because he had quit the first song that Bryan choose for him. He was quite the good sport about it.







Bryan was sort of singing along with Dean. Or mocking him. Not sure which exactly.



It was a great night. Liz and James were there as well, sorry, no pictures. Since they weren't singing, I forgot to take pictures of them. Maybe another night.

Suicide Karaoke is much fun, if a little scary. Our rotation consisted of 4 people for the majority of the night.

The highlight of the evening (and the most confusing part because, hello, what the hell do you mean by this?) is when Gil said, as he was leaving, "Great costume. Sorry I didn't get to see you glow in the dark." ARGH! What does that mean? Probably nothing.

Beth and I had a fairly uneventful ride home, except for the idiot that was on the wrong side of the road and was headed head on for us (fortunately he turned). Perhaps he thought he was in London instead of Saint Paul? There were no possessed traffic lights, just laughter and music as we talked about the night.

My Mom should be up here in a few weeks. Looking forward to dragging her up to karaoke and taking pictures of that.

Hope you all had a spooktacular Halloween!