quotas and Karaoke Nemesis

It's Friday night and I'm in. I'm in because I want to be in, yet I feel like I should be out. Sometimes when Friday/Saturday roll around I feel like I NEED to be out, even if I have no desire to be out at a smoky bar. It is my inner insecure 15 year old girl screaming at me to go out. That old idea that you need to be out on a Friday and Saturday night or you aren't popular. I'm 25 and single with no kids so maybe I should still have that philosophy, the thing is I usually have a 2 day going out quota. As long as I go out two days in the week I feel like I have a social life going. Most of my life two nights in the week was all I had available to go out.
Tomorrow I'll be out all day for hopefully a very fun day so that is 1 day out. On Thursday I saw The Reader(see below) on Tuesday I went to Condom Craft Night(see further below) and on Monday I went out and defeated my Karaoke Nemesis. So, quota for the week has already been met.
Oh, did I mention a Karaoke Nemesis?
Why yes I did.
I tried to slip it in but I see you caught that.
If you are a regular reader you will remember my Karaoke Nemesis.
If you are new to reading my blog click on the title to this post and you can read about the beginning of this rivalry.
After Michigan State's devastating loss to North Carolina on Monday I wasn't ready to just call it a night and head home and sulk. First my friend Jana and I went out and had the best burger I have had since moving to Alaska. Than I was able to talk her into going to Karaoke with me. I had to finally face-off with Dax, the man that dared to tell me I don't know crazy karaoke.
I promised Jana I would only sing one song and than we could go. I almost believed it myself. But karaoke is like chips you can't just stop at one. I eventually roped in Jana's friend Tex(who is from Washington) to sing some songs to prolong the karaoking Madness.mwhahahaha
okay I went to a Count from Sesame Street place for a second.
The thing is the Karaoke was far from madness. It was also far from crazy. It was regular. When I got my shot to take over the microphone I knew I had to rock it. I have been toying with the idea of adding "The Distance" by Cake into my repertoire, but for my first song I had to go with one I knew I could rock. Dax is known for cutting off people and changing their songs and kicking them off stage if they aren't good singers. He had also kind of blown me off before it all started when I said I had come to do some karaoke. I ended up opening with, no surprise, Build Me up Buttercup. The crowd went wild, again no surprise. After I finished Dax said, "Wow! We need more people like Carol!"
Point for me.
I didn't sign up for a second song because I really did intend to stick to my promise of one song. Eventually there was a point where no one was signed up for a song. How does that happen at the craziest karaoke in the world? Because Dax was being heckled(mostly from my table-not by me I was stony silent-Tex and Jana let him have it) he decided not to sing another cheesy song where he changes the words to be about Homer. He eventually found his way over to my table. And got me to sing again. I feel he was trying to embarrass me. To try and reclaim some power. I agreed. Bring it. A Ms. Sara Lutz signed me up for "I Believe I Can Fly" once and I brought it. He played "Don't Stop Believin'" Can't embarrass me with a song that I have rocked many a time.
I had a Michigan State Shirt on with a "Go State!" sign on the back of my shirt. When I did the "From south Detroit" part I turned so the crowd could read my "Go State" sign. And than I did it again at the "Some will Lose" and had a really sad face... Still I rocked the shit out of that song.
Point for me.
After I was all done Dax proclaimed, "Carol where have you been? We need you here all the time!"
Point for me!
And in your face be-otch!
I got Tex to sing "Friends in Low places" by himself and than talked him into doing "Bohemian Rhapsody" with . Dax said this was a sacrificial song, a song that people glutton for punishment sing.
Guess what Tex and I did? Yeah We totally rocked it.
I'm giving myself 5 points for that.
IT was getting time to leave and I just want to sing "Sweet Caroline" a song I never get to sing. Tex needed to go and I got him to agree to stay through an insanely drunk girl's rendition of "Dirty Deeds" if we went right after her. I went up to chat with Dax about getting in one more song. He said he could do it but I had to do something for him. He than puffed out his cheek and tapped on it. I acted as if I haven't had creepy old men all over the world give me this move. My eyes got all big and became glazed over with question marks.
"Ummm, ahhh" I then puffed out my cheeks and pretended to be a blow fish.
He looked at me and then said, "Do you want the song? Cuz you gotta do something for me."
I tightened up my face and did it.
Damn you Dax! You brought me down a peg.
Point for Dax.
He tries to pull that shit again I'm out of there.
Tex and I did rock it good enough to get the one man left in the audience to applaud.
So I take back my point.
Dax...my Karaoke Nemesis... I don't feel I can call you that anymore. You suck and I'm pretty amazing.And I'm really modest about my skills. It's beneath me to have you as a nemesis. You think that it is all about the voice and as I have preached to people all over the world, Karaoke has nothing to do with your voice but the show you put on. This was far from crazy karaoke. To me crazy karaoke is Crunchy's right before our whole table gets kicked out because Sara is kicking someone, Tom keeps singing with people who don't want his help, and I like to show people how fast I can drink by using their drinks to demonstrate. It's giant sing-a-longs. Dax. You don't know what I've seen. And how hard I can rock it, I half assed it for ya! But my friend Sam is coming, so I'll be back. And I will destroy you again.

Side effect of Volcanic Ash.

My friend Elizabeth and I went to see "The Reader" tonight and were greeted with several surprises. I don't want to give away too much of the movie but I will say if you were ever interested in getting a good look at Kate Winslet's breasts, you will have ample opportunity in this film. They are out there for about half the movie. If you were thinking I would enjoy watching a soft core porn, but are embarrassed at anyone finding out that you are watching a soft core porn than this is the movie for you. Soft Core Porn with a great story to come along.
The biggest surprise was waiting for us as we entered the theater. We had to remove our shoes and leave them by the door. We cracked jokes with other audience members about pretending we were at a slumber party. The owner of the theater must have heard everyone making so many jokes and came out to explain that the ash will make the film reels catch on fire. So, that is why we needed to take off our ash covered shoes.
I have seen a film catch fire once before in Phoenix Arizona 007 was rapping up is escapades and the entire picture melted away. Got two free tickets for it.
I enjoyed having an excuse to take off my shoes in the movie theater. It is perhaps the only perk of having everything covered in ash.

At Home in Homer

My Junior Prom date(and current boyfriend to my good friend Rachael) Tommy's parents lived in Alaska for seven years. They said it just sort of happened. They warned me that I should not move up to Alaska unless I was prepared to stay up here for at least a few years. They warned me that most people living in Alaska just came for short visit and found themselves never wanting to leave.
I couldn't understand this form of thinking pre-Homer. Now...now I get it. If I could stay in Homer permanently I would. I would absolutely live here for at least a few years to forever. Unfortunately the cost of living here is ridiculously inflated. Even more so than the average ridiculous inflation in Alaska in general. I find myself becoming increasingly bummed that I will be leaving Homer at the end of May. I'm just starting to get into the swing of things. I keep meeting cool and interesting people. I have only met one person who is originally from here, so my standard opening question is, "Where ya from originally?" Most of my clothes have Michigan State, Pistons, or Tigers scrawled across the chest in large letters ruining my answer to the question.
Since moving up here I have only left Homer once and it was to go to the town of Soldotna for some shopping. While there I ran into a girl from my high school whom I hadn't seen since my graduation in 2002. Neither of us knowing that the other had moved to Alaska.
Alaska genuinely has some cool people. I think Homer my have more than the average. This is an artist colony so many people are very involved in the arts. Despite only have around 5,000 people I am never lacking interesting cultural events. There are many art galleries in town. On the first Friday of each month they have something called First Friday(Clever I know) where all the galleries put out their new displays and have catered food and the artists come and give talks about their work. This past Friday I attended one about the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Oil Spill. It was fascinating as people's emotions ran high. I was coolly detached always thinking it was a tragedy but never having any personal connection to it.
Every Friday night there is a free foreign film at the college in town. It can be a bit hit or miss but overall I have been happy with the films, also there is free popcorn...if you know me you know Popcorn is my favorite food. There is a regular movie theater too that gets the movies a couple months after they originally came out.
There is a theatre in town and many grand productions that go on at the high school.They bring in artists from all around to perform.I saw an amazing one woman show called Wong flew over the Cucoos nest. On my birthday I attended one of the big events of the year-Jazzline. A monster-sized Dance recital. It was great! I'm hoping to start taking dance lesson from one of the stars of the show soon.
On top of this cool arts community there is very cool brewing community here. There is brewery, Meadery, and winery-wine in Alaska...yeppers and pretty good too. They all host events that are quite fun to introduce a new flavor. One Saturday there was a Home-brew competition. A five dollar donation got you a cup and all the beer you could drink. If you brought your own cup you could drink for free-something to know. These weren't just regular home-brews these were the best of the best. There was a Chocolate Hazelnut one brought down by a guy from Nome who has won tons of National competitions. It was amazing. There was also a large selection of Meads. At the end of the night my original group(a group of people I met just by sitting at their table, I only sat there because a guy had a Flint shirt on) had all left so I went out and stood where they were holding all the beers. I asked the man who was officially in charge to make me a little crate of all the beers that had already been judged by the judges meaning they were free to be drank by everyone. He did and when he left I suddenly became the de facto leader of the beers. Telling people what ones they could drink and giving my suggestions, pumping the keg, and filling their cups to the brim. I love being next to the keg, you meet everyone that way. This was something Tom and I figured out early in college that being in charge of the keg was where you wanted to be early on to meet everyone. The people were fun and energetic at the end of the night when the awards were given out.
There are quite a few bars in town. One even has a craft night. Most of them feature cool local bands most nights of the week. The music scene in this little town is awesome and only suppose to get better in the summer.
There is a cool Coffee Shop called All Hopped Up. I love drinking coffee from there and than saying I'm all hopped up. I am well aware of how dorky that is.
When I first arrived there wasn't much sun, however Michigan doesn't have much sun in January either. The good thing is the days get longer at an amazing rate. Now I would argue it is considerably sunnier than I remember in Michigan at this time of year. For my birthday I had the best weather I have ever seen.
The people up here are fearless. I have met several people who have lived in Antarctica for extended periods of time.There is a pretty big surfing community here but they only surf through the stormy winter weather. Taking the summer off to pursue other activities. The Time Bandit guys(featured on Deadliest Catch) live here.
Tonight I got invited to join a game night that some of the people in the community go to and my church is starting a game night soon... Playing board games is always something I miss after an extended stay at home(my mom and I really got into Boggle at the end of my visit) You better believe I will be bringing Settlers of Catan with me to game night(one of my only regrets in life is that I don't have a picture of my friends and I playing Settlers of Catan my last year at university-a pretty regular occurrence)
There are museums up here. The Pratt Museum being the most famous and respected of the museums. If you aren't into the natural history that the Pratt Museum offers there is also a hair comb museum.
There are many scientists and researchers up here. This past weekend had a science conference. In the summer there is a well known writers conference-Amy Tan attended one year. A Few weeks ago there was a big Quilters conference. I know one of the women that attended and she said it looked like little sweatshop with each woman pouring over her sewing machine.
My church is pretty awesome. Absolutely no people my age. Not even in the surrounding age brackets of my age. But it is still cool. I enjoy the vibe. Just wish they had better music...I'm amazed when we sing a song post-1919.
The sports and activities are great here to. There is a very large trail system throughout town and surrounding town. Many people spend the sunny afternoons in the weekend cross country skiing the trails. I don't know how to ski very well. I do know how to walk, wish is fortunate because at the Alaskan Coastal Studies they rent out free snow shoes. I have taken advantage of this and enjoyed walking around the trails with the snow shoes... Just have to keep your eyes open for Moose. There are also tons of sports you can join in through the community. I play volleyball on Tuesday and Thursday nights. I love it. Although tonight I stayed a half hour longer than I usual do and found I get a little loopy after 9:30 and just start doing my best impression of a Frisian boy dancing. Most of the rest of the week when I want a bit of exercise I got to the pool. Yep, in a community of 5,000 there is a 25 yard pool with three times through out the day to do Lap Swimming. It is a bit pricey(like everything here) which I don't mind because than I really try to get a full work out in.
Near the airport there is a lake where water planes can land in the summer. In the winter while it is frozen there have race car competitions. They are pretty big until the fiching derbies start. Homer is after all the Halibut Capital of the world.
Homer is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The architecture is crap, but the natural beauty is amazing. Located on the Katchamak Bay and surrounded by snow capped mountains it's no wonder so many cruises dock here in the summers.
I have also been lucky enough to be here in the winter and witness the huge Eagle population.
If I haven't convinced you this is an amazing community and that I truly regret that I won't be able to afford to stay here after my contract is up than please let me know what you need from a town that this place is missing. Because I don't see it. Sometimes the end of the road isn't too bad.

I know Karaoke

I got challenged to come to Karaoke next week. There is Karaoke on Mondays and Thursdays at a local bar named Duggans. The host of the bar was sitting next to me at a one woman show I saw tonight. She mentioned that the Karaoke guy was in the crowd. I responded by yelling,louder than necessary, "There is Karaoke in this TOWN?!"
"Yes, there most certainly is on Mondays and Thursdays."
"ungh..."
"Yeah, its the craziest Karaoke, ever."
"Ever? That is a pretty bold statement. I have been to a lot of Karaoke. Much of it Crazy. I mean you have to be crazy to stand up in front of a room of strangers and sing, knowing darn well you can't sing."
He did that laugh, oh god THAT laugh, the one where they are blowing off what you just said.It is just short of being a chuckle, it makes no noise- except for maybe a puff of air.. I hate that laugh. Then he said, "Well, I'm sure you have never seen karaoke as crazy as this. You need to come down for our Karaoke nights. You won't be able to handle how crazy it is."
I did that half chuckle-"blow off what they are saying" laugh.
He doesn't know who he is talking to. I don't know a lot of things but I know how to karaoke. I also know how crazy karaoke can be.
I have done Karaoke from Honduras to Scotland, from Uganda to Kyrgyzstan. Since the Dutch don't seem to have karaoke anywhere in the country I was given a microphone and allowed to sing behind the bar-"Gold Digger". I have done karaoke so many times that I have a signature song- "Build Me Up Buttercup". On my birthday I make random strangers let me sing with them as their forced upon present to me. I also have learned the importance of picking your songs to cater to your audience, which led to me knowing three country songs by heart. I have several rap songs, a plethora of Classic Rock songs, and can do pretty much any girl power song out there for a predominately female of fabulous gay crowd. I have made a room full of men cheating feel uncomfortable by singing "Before He Cheats". I can do "I got you Babe", a duet- by myself. I have had a friend surprise me by signing me up for "I Believe I Can Fly" and brought down the house. I have shouted at the top of my lungs, "SWEET CAROLINE BUHM BUHM BUHM good times never seemed so good, SO GOOD! SO GOOD! SO FUCKING GOOD!" and "ALICE, ALICE, ALICE WHO THE FUCK IS ALICE?!" In a bowling alley in Uganda I have linked arms with complete strangers and sang the chorus of "Zombie". A group of Brits was rudely interrupted by me trying to join in, in upstate New York. In a bowling alley in Salt Lake City I sang a perfectly choreographed version of "Freshman"
while a girl was passed out on the floor. I have done a flying leap off a mini-stage in Honduras at the climax of the song. The Disco lights, the highest honor in the karaoke world, have come on more times than I can count. I have carried on singing "It's Raining Men" while my friend Sara yelled at a very, very straight man that it is cool if he was "bi-curious".I spent almost every weekend my last year of university going to the karaoke bar two blocks from my house.
Most importantly I sang karaoke at a kiosk on the streets-of Kyrgyzstan- after drinking at an Ambassador's house-dancing with prostitutes-having friends trying to prostitute me out for good beer-on Christmas-THROUGH AN EARTHQUAKE THAT WAS SO STRONG IT DESTROYED MY FRIENDS HOUSE! SO! DON'T TELL ME, I DON'T KNOW CRAZY KARAOKE!
I'll rise to the occasion I'll go to this karaoke of his. I might even sing my signature song. However, I will not find it the "craziest,ever" unless the volcano that is about to erupt actually does erupt, causing a tsunami, while I'm singing, and a local eagle breaks through a window, and takes my beer right out of my hand. If all that happens than he is right, Karaoke at Duggans is the craziest...ever.

Mountain Dew

Today I saw the best Mountain Dew commercial. I didn't see it on TV, I saw it live. They weren't filming a New Mountain Dew commercial up here, but they should have.
To get to my house from town it is necessary to drive slowly on a long and winding road. For my lowland up-bring one part is particularly terrifying. It is a turn that is next to a drop-off, with no guard-rail, and makes a 180 degree turn in a short amount of time.
I follow the instructions the signs give me and go around the turn at a mellow 20 mph. Today as I came up the Mountain and as I approached the turn I saw it. The perfect Mountain Dew Commercial. It forced me to slow down and move over to the right to give it room.
What I saw was a Ford F250 come sliding around the turn. Tokyo Drift style. Going extremely fast. It looked like he was about to slide of the edge. The back end of the truck hanging over the edge. Just as the truck as about to go over the cliff the driver regained control and than shot down the mountain at an accelerated pace. Just as he passed by me he cracked open a Mountain Dew and took a long swig and smiled.
Perfection. I couldn't have come up with a better Mountain Dew Commercial if I had tried.

How do you make friends?

I just realized after typing in my title you can't ever write/say the three words "how do you..." together without following it up with, "solve a problem like Maria?"
That's a good song. I should watch Sound of Music more often... but I have issues with watching any Nazi movie more than every few years. Yes, Sound of Music is a Nazi movie... not a Nazi propaganda movie but a movie about/dealing with Nazis. In case you didn't know Nazis are scary, they aren't people to go sing with about your age in a greenhouse.... I'm 24 going on 25 and I would tell any girl who is 16 that singing Nazis should be avoided.
Wait
Why did I sign on to blogger?
Oh, yeah...
My grandpa likes to call me his vagabond grand-daughter, which is fine and some what true. The only problem with being a "vagabond" is having to make new friends all the time. The thing is one of the best parts about moving around all the time is getting to make new friends.
See what I did there?
I'll explain.
by changing the word "having" to the word "getting" it becomes an opportunity, not a task for survival.
I haven't decided yet whether I will have a negative outlook on making friends or a positive one... all depends on if I make some friends.
I don't know how to make friends... not in life in general... it's more of a Homer, AK specific thing.
More of a me in Homer, AK specific thing.
I chose to move here without knowing anyone. I also work at a job where I have no co-workers. I'm not taking any classes. I live alone.
So, how do you make friends when there are no natural outlets for making friends?
I signed up and paid for open gym basketball. I am middle aged at the open gym. I'm also the only female. And I seem to be the only person there who doesn't think they are God's gift to basketball. I'll keep going for the exercise, but I don't think it will be a great open door to new friends.
I'm hoping to get out of work early on an occasional Monday.
why?
There is a knitting circle from 3-5 on Mondays... Fingers crossed I can meet with the gals at that and have them teach me to cable(knitting term, don't feel bad if you don't know what it is-it just means you aren't as hip as me) Oh, yes- I have never been to a knitting circle but I can imagine.
I tried something I knew nothing about and have had to quickly throw away my naivety. I posted a little blurp on Craigslist under "strictly platonic" saying I was new to the area and was just wondering what there was to do. I also said if people wanted someone to hang out with or to show me the city I was up for going out.
The responses I got weren't proportional to what I put out there. I won't mention them here.. some of you couldn't handle it. Those of you who can, I have already told. I feel not responding to an email is a bit rude but I know no polite way to respond. And since I'm getting recognized on the street from my photos I attached to it, I think any response to any email would be the talk of the town.
I'm going to keep trying to go out and meet people and make friends. There is a good chance this will end in failure. I promise to document it here. I would like to say that if you have any suggestions for ways to make friends with no connections I am all ears. I'll let you know if you suggestion works. :)
I got nothin' to lose.