Work-Filled Days, Karaoke Nights

Busy. That’s an understated word used to describe my life. A thesaurus might say: full of activity, demanding, hectic, eventful. All of those apply, and more. No complaints here, either, I appreciate the turn my life has taken, and I love everything that I’m doing right now. I only wish there were twelve more hours in the day because I hate to have to tell someone ‘Maybe next week we can get together,’ or ‘I can stop by between work and a meeting for an hour…’ oh well. Nothing can change that fact unless I can track down one of those nifty time-shifting necklaces Hermione has in The Prisoner of Azkaban. Note to friends: that would be an excellent Christmas gift. Just sayin’.

In between my ever changing work schedule, two classes at the dojo, and writing, I’ve managed to fill up my extra time (haha, there’s not much of it) with graduation parties and going away parties lately. Needless to say, I’ve had the most fun in the past week than I have in the past few months, so a big THANK YOU to all of my friends who have hosted these life-transition shindigs. It’s been fun. And in its own way, it’s been a life transition for me, as well. For the first time, I did karaoke last night, and it wasn’t as frighteningly debilitating as I thought it was going to be. I always pictured myself standing in front of a crowd and barely squeaking something out as people booed me off the stage. I’m happy to say that that did not happen, and I’m still in one piece. My voice, on the other hand, is raspy and my throat a bit raw this morning, but it was worth it. It was my friend’s going away party last night and, in my whiskey haze, I agreed to go on stage and perform Lady Marmalade from Moulin Rouge. I did not relish being in the spotlight, quite literally there were lights shining down on us from a real stage, but I did enjoy belting out one of my favorite songs. Before we went on, my friends and I made the observation that a performance is based on how many people come and dance and cheer you on (there were a few where no one was on the dance floor…and once or twice where the music just kind of faded out…yeah that was a little sad) and all I hoped for was that we didn’t have an empty dance floor. When they called us out, I decided to focus, not look at the crowd, and just remember the words to the song that I’ve sung a thousand times, and so I did. My lovely co-singers decided to peace out on the singing in the beginning of the song (there are five parts to the song and there were three of us) so I did the best I could despite the range difference and the rapping and by the end of the song, we had a decently populated dance floor and some stunned friends. It was pretty awesome. Not something I’m going to do every weekend, but fun and exhilarating nonetheless.

I met up with some friends from work this morning for a much needed hearty, greasy breakfast and while we were being seated, we noticed a group of four guys sitting across from us, one of which was wearing a glittery flashing tiara and a colorful lei, and they were all wearing a bleary-eyed smile as they recounted the bachelor party they had come down for the night before. That scene made my day. It was good to know that I wasn’t the only one that had an amazing night followed by a fantastic morning with friends. I don’t think people take enough time to have fun, myself included, and the last week has shown me that even if I’m busy, even if I think I don’t have time, there are ways to shift things around and rearrange schedules in order to do what’s most important: to not live a stagnant, predictable life. There was no way when I got up yesterday morning at 545 for my morning workout class that I thought I’d be doing karaoke 19 hours later. I never expected to make it a nearly 24 hour day of nonstop fun and unplanned adventure. Even though I got less than six hours of sleep and I’m starting my eight hour closing shift in a few minutes, I don’t regret a single second of yesterday. Sleep can wait, life can’t.