On Friday, I went to the Rendezvous to help safetymonkey celebrate his thirtieth birthday–the last one before he crumbles into dust and memory like that guy who chose the wrong cup at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He had rented the private room so we could have a karaoke party, and further requested that we dress to moderately impress. I was glad to have been invited, I hadn’t seen anyone in that group since last year’s Black Barbeque and I was beginning to become concerned that inviting a string of douchebags, one after another, to his parties had been the last straw for my attendance. That wasn’t the case–I hadn’t been able to make it to last year’s Halloween party, and then Jon moved and didn’t have a suitable place to throw the sorts of parties he used to, thus there was no Valloween this year to be invited to, and I just hadn’t gotten my invitation to the new location of the Black BBQ yet for this year. If I bring someone with me to the BBQ this year, I may have to administer a non-douche test beforehand.

Anyhow, I got dressed up fairly fancy, save for the flats that I wore because I didn’t feel like wearing heels–usually if I go out dancing in heels, my legs are messed up for a couple of days which makes it difficult to keep with my exercise routine–besides, MODERATELY impressing people does not call for heels. I was surprised at all the attention I was getting out on the street between the walk from my car to the club, I’m not used to getting looks and having strange men approach me to say hi and it happened a LOT in just a couple of blocks. I don’t know if it was the outfit or the makeup or that I’ve lost weight, but if it’s the latter, it’s only going to serve to increase my cynicism about people’s basic natures. Once there, I also got a “you look really good” from an ex, which is one of the best compliments a girl could receive.

At karaoke, I waited to see what sorts of things people were going to sing, to set a tone for the evening–the last time I sang karaoke with these guys, I was drunk off my ass and delirious from latex fumes so I didn’t want to pick something that was overly strange or out of line with people’s musical tastes.

As soon as Jon borrowed someone’s glasses to sing some Lisa Loeb, I knew I could do whatever I wanted.

I put in The Final Countdown and rocked the hell out of it. It was kind of surreal, entirely unlike any karaoke experience I’d ever had before, because the whole room was singing along and dancing and they cheered and screamed for me in a way I’ve never been cheered for before–it was pretty amazing.

Last call/get the hell out came all too soon, but I was glad that I got the time I did to reconnect with everyone and I can’t wait to see them again in a few weeks at Black Barbeque XI!