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Aug. 28th, 2007 12:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badstarSo the weekend was...hmm, intresting.
I hopped the train up to PA...grabbed Chinese food in Philly between trains. (Yum. Except for the fried rice. That was just ew.) Got to Lancaster, mom and Grandma Jane picked me up and then when Mike came home they got ready to go and do their Friday night Karaoke show at the AmVets. (I think most of you folks know by this point my mom and stepfather are not only total karaoke junkies, but also karaoke dj's with their own business. They are obsessed.)
So I went along. I'm sitting there at a table behind their setup, minding my own business. Doing such a good job of minding my own business that suddenly mom's in my face demanding that I stand up. Apparently they start their show at the AmVets with the national anthem. News to me. So it plays- actually about halfway through the disc went crazy and suddenly the national anthem was a much faster tune than I remembered. So then after that, Mumsie leans down again and demands to know if I was protesting the national anthem.
Okay, back up the truck, what? Apparently I had a look on my face like I wasn't going to stand up. Well, truthfully, I had no plans to stand up...then again, I also didn't know what was going on to know that standing was in order. I explained that I wasn't paying attention and she let it drop...though I'm not entirely sure that she believes me.
Okay...can anyone answer (to my satisfaction) why on earth not following certain actions like flag saluting becomes automatically assumed an act of disrespect? Now, I know where I was and I grok the whole "when in Rome" thing...but that aside, ah, nevermind. This is just going to lead to one of those "it's the thing to do" things that come up whenever I rant about the pledge of allegiance, and it all goes around in circles. Why? Because. But why? Well, because. Yeah.
So anyway...it all kinda went downhill from there. It was really crowded I sang one song, got a lecture from Mike every time he glanced in my direction and noticed that I wasn't applauding someone's performance (Apparently it's the height of rudeness to be present for a karaoke performance and not applaud for any reason? I forgot about that, I used to hear it all the time from Mike. One time Mom, Mike and I walked into someplace that we didn't realize had a karaoke night in progress and as we were walking in, someone was just finishing a song...the 'rents burst into enthusiastic applause. When I didn't, I got a lecture about how rude I was.
Uhhhhhh, right, so I just walked into some place for some pizza, didn't know that there was karaoke even taking place and I'm being rude for not clapping? Whose brilliant logic is that? So that element has always been a huge sticking point for me.) Anyway, I didn't stay long...I called Grandma Jane and she came and picked me up.
Was supposed to get together with Michelle and Samantha on Saturday. Chelle had Isabel at the house Isabelis was Tarna's daughter. Tarna is was my stepsister from my father's marriage. Something about Tarna's boyfriend not liking Isabel, Tarna giving her to my father and Karen to adopt because of this (completely against dear old dad's wishes), Karen disowning Tarna and my father stuck raising someone else's kid when he never wanted to raise his own. Cute. This arrangement in place for less than a year and they already have it set up that if anything happens to Karen, Chelle and Dave become Isabel's guardians. I'm honestly surprised that Dave agreed to that, but okay. and Karen had sent some milk with her. Apparently the milk was bad and Isabel got really sick. If the milk was that bad, how did my sister not smell it before giving it to her? Erf, whatever. So I didn't see Chelle and Samantha.
I tried calling Kathy and Heather to see if they were around, didn't get ahold of either one. So I called my brother. ended up having to go through my grandmother to talk to him. Talking to her was a joy as always. Riiiiight. Ended up going and having lunch with Mike and his acquaintence/girlfriend/playtoy/something or other Brandy atthe Lancaster Brewing company (How ironic to be having lunch at the place where my five year reunion was held on the day of my ten year reunion) Well, the duck egg rolls were good. The Reisling was decent til it lost its chill(server looked at me like I was insane, ordering wine in a microbrewery....so I find myself explaining yet again that I'm allergic to beer.) conversation was...severely lacking. But it's my brother, the frat boy who never went to college.
The reunion....uhg. Grandma Jane insisted in giving me a ride (I could have walked and fully intended to, but she was afraid I'd get heat stroke or something and wouldn't let me out of the house til I agreed to a ride.) I tried to ask her to drop me off around the corner from the Marion Court...btu she insisted on driving me right up to the point where the driveway meets the courtyard...about 30 feet from the gathered reunion. Great, so I'm the only attendee of my ten year reunion whose grandmother dropped them off. I need to get a car. Or at least a driver's license so I can rent cars for this sort of thing. So anyway, Mica was there. Other than that, it was mostly people that I did my best to avoid ten years ago. A whole lot of "oh my god it's so nice to see you. Are you married? Do you have kids? See my wedding ring? Here's my husband." and people talking about mortgages and car payments." Many people that I didn't even recognize, and a big gigantic supersurprise thunderstorm. I mean the sky was hazy...then it became cloudy..but light whitish-grey cloudy for about twenty minutes, and then these really low purple-black clouds come racing across the sky and within two minutes it's pouring and lightning all over the place. Oh...and they charged $25 for soda, water, wings, meatballs and carrot sticks. That was insane. I talked to very few people. Mica, a couple of others that Mica is friends with and I wasn't but I guess you could say were sort of friendly acquaintences back in the day, and Dave- a guy that I never talked to til the last two months or so of high school when we were sitting next to each other in English class, and then after graduation worked together for the summer at the Nike store, and Tony, a former neighbor that I didn't even recognize at first, and Jason who shared the "I wouldn't been here if I had anywhere even remotely better than me" sentiment and Chase, who apparently had seen on my myspace page that I do the firestaff thing and had been telling Jason and Tony about it. That sorta amused me. I never talked to any of these three in high school- Tony was an irritating stoner, and Jason and Chase weren't amongst the vast majority that never would have had the time of day if I talked to them (as far as I could tell anyway) but had no common classes or anything like that, therefore, just no reason to talk. And then there was a rather bizarre conversation with a guy that I had forgotten even existed. If he wasn't three sheets to the wind, he was a good two and a half. I left shortly after Mica, Amy and Kim wandered back to Leola. No one noticed when I left, I wasn't surprised.
As it stands, I'm planning to be in Ohio of the fifteen year reunion :-P
I went to karaoke again....It wasn't as bad this time)So the 'rents had another show at another club Saturday night. I went there from the reunion- they said it would be a much smaller crowd and much quieter...it was. There were a few people there that I had known before I moved to Maryland, so I talked to them, and I sand a few songs. (I'm not a karaoke junkie, I just like to sing...though I'm not particularly good at it. I song a lot better with the radio or a cd than on my own...I'm able to match pitch. I've been told that I have a fairly impressive vocal range, and that I could be reasonably not bad if I had some control. I could live with reasonably not bad.) So don't laugh...I love Laura Branigan. And I was thinking of singing Solitaire..but then I remembered some really weird notes, and thought better of it...and noticed that they had The Lucky One, which is a song that I like better anyway, so I handed mom another slip of paper with a couple of other songs and asked her to replace my song...and later, it's my turn and I'm expecting to be singing Say It Right by Nelly Furtado and they give me Solitaire. I said it wasn't my song, she insists that it was...whatever. If I asked them to switch it out then, Mike would have had a tantrum. So I go with it. Never sang the song before other than to the cd- and it's been oh, probably a good two years since I've listened to it, and the verses have this weird timing so I'm rather tentative. After the first chorus, a little musical interlude was playing and I turned around and was talking to mom for a second, realized the singing part was starting again and maybe it was just that I wasn't thinking about it but for that verse, and most of the chorus, I swear I actually sounded good. I know that i had the timing of the words, and was actually really singing it with a full voice (except for the first verse, it's a pretty high-energy song)...though then that weird note-thing that I'd thought of earlier came up and I just lost it. But I got to sing the last song, and I sang Say It Right- I've only even *heard* this song a few times nevermind ever song it, but I sounded not too bad. So I was thinking about that...and thinking about singing brought to mind the time back in May when a coupe of us had a small ritual at the grove one evening in honor of the VA tech shooting victims...and I sang Patrick's Song by Shawn Mullins...tbis was a completely spontaneous thing so it's not like I brought music or anything, I wasn't even sure I could remember the words but I did, and I remember later thinking that I had sounded better than I had expected- not spectacular, but good enough that I wouldn't mind singing again as part of a ritual sometime. I dunno, can anyone tell me...does it do any good to just take a few voice lessons, or is it something that really needs to be done over a longer period of time? I'm not by any means looking to become a professional singer, but I'd like to be able to sing the occasional ditty in ritual without feeling like I could never show my face again.
And I must remember to take into consideration what clothing I'm wearing if I agree to jitterbug when some appropriate music comes on. Especially if dancing with someone who is extremely enthusiastic about spinning their partner around. So Saturday night, at ne point the 'rents took a break and put some swing music on...and one of their friends really wanted to jitterbug- I don't know the dance super-well, but I can follow...she gets dizzy if someone spins her, so she was perfectly happy to have me be the following one. what she was lacking in her ability to be spun, she made up for in her enthusiasm for spinning me. And damn, I knew that the skirt I was wearing was kinda twirly, but I've never spun around violently enough to realize that it actually does the flat-circle thing....so yeah, I got a bit of commentary on how erm, appropriate said skirt was. (I call "wardrobe malfunction")
Didn't get back to Grandma Jane's til well past two Saturday night, didn;t get to sleep til well past three. Set alarms on my phone for six, six fifteen and six thirty...never heard on of them. Grandma Jane woke me up at 739. My train left at 755. Oops.
I got up, swore heartily, threw my last few things back in my bag, gathered it all up and was out the door, Grandma Jane took me to the train station...and there was a train sitting on the tracks that I could see from half a block away. I told her that I was going to go in, and asked her to wait five minutes before leaving, if I missed it I would come right back out and figure out what to do, if I wasn't out in five minutes, then she could leave.
Then we got into the parking lot and I heard an announcement that my train was just arriving...this was a good thing to hear. I got inside, ran upstairs and to the door back downstairs to the tracks...an employee told me that the train hadn't pulled in yet...so the one that I was was a westbound train (I couldn't see the front end of the train from where I was to know) so the train pulled in just as I got down there. If Grandma Jane lived another two blocks away, or if we had caught one more red light on the way there, I'd have missed it. I was back in Baltimore and at the grove just after 11. Insanity I tell ya.
I hopped the train up to PA...grabbed Chinese food in Philly between trains. (Yum. Except for the fried rice. That was just ew.) Got to Lancaster, mom and Grandma Jane picked me up and then when Mike came home they got ready to go and do their Friday night Karaoke show at the AmVets. (I think most of you folks know by this point my mom and stepfather are not only total karaoke junkies, but also karaoke dj's with their own business. They are obsessed.)
So I went along. I'm sitting there at a table behind their setup, minding my own business. Doing such a good job of minding my own business that suddenly mom's in my face demanding that I stand up. Apparently they start their show at the AmVets with the national anthem. News to me. So it plays- actually about halfway through the disc went crazy and suddenly the national anthem was a much faster tune than I remembered. So then after that, Mumsie leans down again and demands to know if I was protesting the national anthem.
Okay, back up the truck, what? Apparently I had a look on my face like I wasn't going to stand up. Well, truthfully, I had no plans to stand up...then again, I also didn't know what was going on to know that standing was in order. I explained that I wasn't paying attention and she let it drop...though I'm not entirely sure that she believes me.
Okay...can anyone answer (to my satisfaction) why on earth not following certain actions like flag saluting becomes automatically assumed an act of disrespect? Now, I know where I was and I grok the whole "when in Rome" thing...but that aside, ah, nevermind. This is just going to lead to one of those "it's the thing to do" things that come up whenever I rant about the pledge of allegiance, and it all goes around in circles. Why? Because. But why? Well, because. Yeah.
So anyway...it all kinda went downhill from there. It was really crowded I sang one song, got a lecture from Mike every time he glanced in my direction and noticed that I wasn't applauding someone's performance (Apparently it's the height of rudeness to be present for a karaoke performance and not applaud for any reason? I forgot about that, I used to hear it all the time from Mike. One time Mom, Mike and I walked into someplace that we didn't realize had a karaoke night in progress and as we were walking in, someone was just finishing a song...the 'rents burst into enthusiastic applause. When I didn't, I got a lecture about how rude I was.
Uhhhhhh, right, so I just walked into some place for some pizza, didn't know that there was karaoke even taking place and I'm being rude for not clapping? Whose brilliant logic is that? So that element has always been a huge sticking point for me.) Anyway, I didn't stay long...I called Grandma Jane and she came and picked me up.
Was supposed to get together with Michelle and Samantha on Saturday. Chelle had Isabel at the house Isabel
I tried calling Kathy and Heather to see if they were around, didn't get ahold of either one. So I called my brother. ended up having to go through my grandmother to talk to him. Talking to her was a joy as always. Riiiiight. Ended up going and having lunch with Mike and his acquaintence/girlfriend/playtoy/something or other Brandy atthe Lancaster Brewing company (How ironic to be having lunch at the place where my five year reunion was held on the day of my ten year reunion) Well, the duck egg rolls were good. The Reisling was decent til it lost its chill(server looked at me like I was insane, ordering wine in a microbrewery....so I find myself explaining yet again that I'm allergic to beer.) conversation was...severely lacking. But it's my brother, the frat boy who never went to college.
The reunion....uhg. Grandma Jane insisted in giving me a ride (I could have walked and fully intended to, but she was afraid I'd get heat stroke or something and wouldn't let me out of the house til I agreed to a ride.) I tried to ask her to drop me off around the corner from the Marion Court...btu she insisted on driving me right up to the point where the driveway meets the courtyard...about 30 feet from the gathered reunion. Great, so I'm the only attendee of my ten year reunion whose grandmother dropped them off. I need to get a car. Or at least a driver's license so I can rent cars for this sort of thing. So anyway, Mica was there. Other than that, it was mostly people that I did my best to avoid ten years ago. A whole lot of "oh my god it's so nice to see you. Are you married? Do you have kids? See my wedding ring? Here's my husband." and people talking about mortgages and car payments." Many people that I didn't even recognize, and a big gigantic supersurprise thunderstorm. I mean the sky was hazy...then it became cloudy..but light whitish-grey cloudy for about twenty minutes, and then these really low purple-black clouds come racing across the sky and within two minutes it's pouring and lightning all over the place. Oh...and they charged $25 for soda, water, wings, meatballs and carrot sticks. That was insane. I talked to very few people. Mica, a couple of others that Mica is friends with and I wasn't but I guess you could say were sort of friendly acquaintences back in the day, and Dave- a guy that I never talked to til the last two months or so of high school when we were sitting next to each other in English class, and then after graduation worked together for the summer at the Nike store, and Tony, a former neighbor that I didn't even recognize at first, and Jason who shared the "I wouldn't been here if I had anywhere even remotely better than me" sentiment and Chase, who apparently had seen on my myspace page that I do the firestaff thing and had been telling Jason and Tony about it. That sorta amused me. I never talked to any of these three in high school- Tony was an irritating stoner, and Jason and Chase weren't amongst the vast majority that never would have had the time of day if I talked to them (as far as I could tell anyway) but had no common classes or anything like that, therefore, just no reason to talk. And then there was a rather bizarre conversation with a guy that I had forgotten even existed. If he wasn't three sheets to the wind, he was a good two and a half. I left shortly after Mica, Amy and Kim wandered back to Leola. No one noticed when I left, I wasn't surprised.
As it stands, I'm planning to be in Ohio of the fifteen year reunion :-P
I went to karaoke again....It wasn't as bad this time)So the 'rents had another show at another club Saturday night. I went there from the reunion- they said it would be a much smaller crowd and much quieter...it was. There were a few people there that I had known before I moved to Maryland, so I talked to them, and I sand a few songs. (I'm not a karaoke junkie, I just like to sing...though I'm not particularly good at it. I song a lot better with the radio or a cd than on my own...I'm able to match pitch. I've been told that I have a fairly impressive vocal range, and that I could be reasonably not bad if I had some control. I could live with reasonably not bad.) So don't laugh...I love Laura Branigan. And I was thinking of singing Solitaire..but then I remembered some really weird notes, and thought better of it...and noticed that they had The Lucky One, which is a song that I like better anyway, so I handed mom another slip of paper with a couple of other songs and asked her to replace my song...and later, it's my turn and I'm expecting to be singing Say It Right by Nelly Furtado and they give me Solitaire. I said it wasn't my song, she insists that it was...whatever. If I asked them to switch it out then, Mike would have had a tantrum. So I go with it. Never sang the song before other than to the cd- and it's been oh, probably a good two years since I've listened to it, and the verses have this weird timing so I'm rather tentative. After the first chorus, a little musical interlude was playing and I turned around and was talking to mom for a second, realized the singing part was starting again and maybe it was just that I wasn't thinking about it but for that verse, and most of the chorus, I swear I actually sounded good. I know that i had the timing of the words, and was actually really singing it with a full voice (except for the first verse, it's a pretty high-energy song)...though then that weird note-thing that I'd thought of earlier came up and I just lost it. But I got to sing the last song, and I sang Say It Right- I've only even *heard* this song a few times nevermind ever song it, but I sounded not too bad. So I was thinking about that...and thinking about singing brought to mind the time back in May when a coupe of us had a small ritual at the grove one evening in honor of the VA tech shooting victims...and I sang Patrick's Song by Shawn Mullins...tbis was a completely spontaneous thing so it's not like I brought music or anything, I wasn't even sure I could remember the words but I did, and I remember later thinking that I had sounded better than I had expected- not spectacular, but good enough that I wouldn't mind singing again as part of a ritual sometime. I dunno, can anyone tell me...does it do any good to just take a few voice lessons, or is it something that really needs to be done over a longer period of time? I'm not by any means looking to become a professional singer, but I'd like to be able to sing the occasional ditty in ritual without feeling like I could never show my face again.
And I must remember to take into consideration what clothing I'm wearing if I agree to jitterbug when some appropriate music comes on. Especially if dancing with someone who is extremely enthusiastic about spinning their partner around. So Saturday night, at ne point the 'rents took a break and put some swing music on...and one of their friends really wanted to jitterbug- I don't know the dance super-well, but I can follow...she gets dizzy if someone spins her, so she was perfectly happy to have me be the following one. what she was lacking in her ability to be spun, she made up for in her enthusiasm for spinning me. And damn, I knew that the skirt I was wearing was kinda twirly, but I've never spun around violently enough to realize that it actually does the flat-circle thing....so yeah, I got a bit of commentary on how erm, appropriate said skirt was. (I call "wardrobe malfunction")
Didn't get back to Grandma Jane's til well past two Saturday night, didn;t get to sleep til well past three. Set alarms on my phone for six, six fifteen and six thirty...never heard on of them. Grandma Jane woke me up at 739. My train left at 755. Oops.
I got up, swore heartily, threw my last few things back in my bag, gathered it all up and was out the door, Grandma Jane took me to the train station...and there was a train sitting on the tracks that I could see from half a block away. I told her that I was going to go in, and asked her to wait five minutes before leaving, if I missed it I would come right back out and figure out what to do, if I wasn't out in five minutes, then she could leave.
Then we got into the parking lot and I heard an announcement that my train was just arriving...this was a good thing to hear. I got inside, ran upstairs and to the door back downstairs to the tracks...an employee told me that the train hadn't pulled in yet...so the one that I was was a westbound train (I couldn't see the front end of the train from where I was to know) so the train pulled in just as I got down there. If Grandma Jane lived another two blocks away, or if we had caught one more red light on the way there, I'd have missed it. I was back in Baltimore and at the grove just after 11. Insanity I tell ya.
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Date: 2007-08-28 02:01 pm (UTC)Thanks for further strengthening my "karaoke is retarded" beliefs. Also, regarding the national anthem thing- I find it VERY out of place that someone's playing it for a karaoke show to begin with...what's next, national anthem playing to open up Bingo night? Dog shows? Science fairs? Whatever other events might be held there...? Though I'd've been paying attention and would've stood, I certainly wouldn't have been expecting it, even IF it were at an AmVets function.
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Date: 2007-08-28 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-28 10:39 pm (UTC)I think it'd be okay to meet with a voice coach for a consultation.