Mandatory Karaoke Update

"Hello.
Is anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is anyone home?

Come on, now.
I hear you're feeling down.
Well I can ease your pain,
Get you on your feet again.

Relax.
I just need some information first.
Just the basic facts:
Can you show me where it hurts?

There is no pain, you are receding.
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're sayin'.
When I was a child I had a fever.
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I get that feeling once again.
I can't explain, you would not understand.
This is not how I am.
I have become comfortably numb.

Ok.
Just a little pinprick [ping].
There'll be no more -- aaaaaahhhhh!
But you may feel a little sick.

Can you stand up now?
I do believe it's working, good.
That'll keep you going for the show.
Come on it's time to go.

There is no pain, you are receding.
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're sayin'.
When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse,
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone.
I cannot put my finger on it now.
The child is grown, the dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb."

- Pink Floyd, "Comfortably Numb"

It was Sunday, yet again (can you imagine it happens once a week?), and so DM and I made our way to The Chalet for karaoke. There was something strange about tonight though. All day long I had a feeling that karaoke would be different tonight, somehow. When I awoke this morning, it was from a dream about karaoke. I do not dream often so vividly and clearly. Normally my dreams consist of things that happened previously to me, not of things that haven't happened [yet]. When the dreams do come through so vividly, I usually spend the entire day trying to figure them out. I'll get to the dream in a bit, but just know that it put me on my toes for the day.

The drunks came out early tonight. By the time we arrived, there was already a woman who hopefully ended up throwing up once she got home to get rid of all the alcohol in her system. You know that point right before alcohol poisoning? She was there. She seemed to be hitting on Bryan (the host), she kept touching him and he looked uncomfortable. When DM got up to sing, she screamed (volume control had been lost on her hours before), "She's gonna do her thang!" Then she turned to Bryan and repeated her message, yet a little louder and a lot more forward, "You let her do her thang!" I hope your image of her includes the head bopping side-to-side in defiance. Bryan is staring blankly at her, trying to figure out how by letting DM up on the stage, handing her a microphone, and entering her song in the computer he is restricting her from doing her "thang".

Once Bryan started to sing (which is bliss - wow, that man has a talent), she approached him and I got the impression she meant to dry-hump him where he stood. His response was quick and I saw a side of Bryan I've never quite seen before. He reminded me of my mother, in fact. Actually, anyone who has ever been scolded by their mother probably knows the look he gave her and the correct tone of voice. It was firm and there was no nonsense in his words. "No! You need to sit down right now."

The woman managed to pick up Bryan's glass of Coke and started drinking it. The extremely odd part was that she finished it and then replaced it with a full glass of Coke. Finally, she left. Another table of drunks replaced her, making sure they were loud, obnoxious, and generally the "life" of the "party".

It was "New Song Sunday" for us and we each tried some new music. Michael has a Pink Floyd karaoke CD and only recently have I begun to appreciate the music. I know that sounds strange, but remember I'm only 26. I was born in 1978, towards the end of the Pink Floyd era. Pink Floyd (PF) was my parents music, right? I have found as I age, I have started to love the music of the 70's more than I would have thought at age 15.

My previous experiences with the music of PF was from a night hanging out with my ex-boyfriend from high school (The Jerk). I remember showing up at his place and sitting around watching The Wall while he got stoned. I'll tell you, watching this movie while sober is an extremely odd experience, especially when you are naive and somewhat sheltered. It freaked out my logical brain.

Michael has sung "Hey You" before and I found that I like the music. I really do. Tonight, Michael sang both "Hey You" and "Brain Damage". "Comfortably Numb" was sung by someone and I'll get to that. I know, I know, enough with the "suspense" right?

In between "Hey You" and "Brain Damage", the door opened to The Chalet and I felt all the color drain from my face. Imagine me, the vampiress already, looking like I've been exsanguinated*. My stomach started flip-flopping, John Kerry-style, and I almost screamed. I did not, however, have the same reaction as the time I ran into The Jerk on campus**.

After a month hiatus, the boy and Pete strode into The Chalet. I guess there goes my theory of scaring him away completely. I didn't think that I was scary enough to chase a regular away from his weekly fix of beer and karaoke, but it had seemed to be the case. (If you don't know who The Boy and Pete are, please click this link and scroll down to the part labeled, "The Most Recent Disaster". I've documented it quite a bit actually.) Now, my dream should have prepared me for this. You would have thought the fact I had a dream that he walked in, started talking to me, and picking up where he seemed to have left off would have left me prepared. I had even joked about the dream with DM in the car on the way. I told her that he was at karaoke in the dream and he explained why he hasn't been there for a month and hasn't called. We laughed about it. It wouldn't actually happen, would it?

And yet...

I still look up each time the door opens, looking to see if it's him striding in. (He strides. He has a confident walk and I notice this.) I have done a good job of fooling myself that I am not still attracted to him after his not calling. I'm not sure if I fooled anyone but myself, and I even knew deep down inside, I still was curious about what happened. I don't see myself as uber-attractive, but I don't think I'm a Yeti or anything. I couldn't believe I was a monster scary enough to freak out the confident man.

So he walks in with Pete***. My eyes about bug out of my head and I figure they will hang out at the bar. Nope. Instead, they get a couple of bottles of beer and come over and join us. It's all smiles from The Boy and he keeps making sure to refer to me by name. He directs questions to me and we converse a little. He tells me that he was in another state for a bit of time over the holidays. He flirts with me. He acts like he was glad I gave him my number, but acts like the flirting is still going in a forward direction. He acts like I didn't screw up by bursting my bubble.

His first song of the night was, "You'll Accomp'ny Me". Which, I have to say, he sings fantastically. I still have problems listening to others try Bob Seger songs at karaoke. His second song was, "Comfortably Numb". He was excited to see that Michael had a PF disc and he asked to try the song. He had asked me to look for the song in Michael's CD case.

Here's the thing, it was his first time ever singing the song. It's a commonly known song. He normally does pretty good at his songs, but it was if this song was written and composed for him. He was f**king AWESOME at it.

I can't kid myself, I'm still attracted to him. I still want something to happen. I'm kind of confused, especially since he acts like there is no uncomfortableness. And the thing is, there really isn't anything all that uncomfortable, other than me being so confused.

His hair looked really strange. I don't know what he did to it, but it looked like an experiment. DM commented that maybe he had been wearing a hat earlier. I have noticed though I'm not usually attracted to a man's hair. Okay, I fell in love with a guy whose prominent hairstyles were a mohawk and that horrible bowl haircut so popular in the late 90's. The other guy I still care about had a mop-top. I'm not picky about hair, apparently.

When he was getting up to leave (after the last song of the night), he made it a point to make sure we were going to be there again the next Sunday. He looked me in the eyes as he asked. He smiled. I melted. Duh, right?

I feel like I've been side-swiped by a Mack truck. I thought this was over. I guess I was wrong. I don't know what is going on and I'm not overly anxious to get all girly again, but...

It was fun to flirt. It was fun to go a little (lot) crazy thinking about him. I still want to get to know him better. I'm weary and guarded, but I enjoyed the time he was there tonight. I just don't know what to think. I think I should become Comfortably Numb.

--

*To prove how much of an X-Files freak I am, I could not for the life of me figure out how to spell this word. I use the word, but I can't spell it. I remembered that it was used in one episode of The X-Files during season one and knew which scene it was. I put in the DVD, found the scene and watched it with the subtitles just to figure out how to spell it.

**A year after The Jerk and I stopped corresponding via telephone and pagers, I was walking out of my astronomy class. Another mass lecture class was exiting the building the same time as mine. Imagine my shock when I look to my right and I'm walking right next to the ex-boyfriend that I took a little too long to get over. My reaction? I screamed and ran back to the dorm. I didn't even know he went to the same school. I need preparation for these things.

***About half-way through the time of The Boy and Pete, I remembered that Pete's actual name is not Pete. DM also couldn't remember his real name. Michael didn't even blink when I called him Pete. Luckily, I did not actually call Pete by the fake name. That would have been slightly awkward. It was easy to not refer to him as Pete, since neither DM or I actually ever heard him say a single word. He has absolutely no personality.

3 Comments:

At 1:02 PM, Weary Hag thought...

Beth, I laughed myself silly at your footnote on the proper spelling of that five-dollar word! This confirms it. Like it or not you are a true perfectionist. I love it!
If I lived closer, I'd be stopping into the Chalet to join you and your friends from the sidelines ... sounds like you folks have a blast!
Glad you led me to your blog ... I'm having so much fun trying to keep up with you.

Carol

At 10:32 PM, CarpeDM thought...

Oh, you crack me up. I loved that you used X Files to find the spelling.

What a weird, weird night. From my being told to do my thang and being nuzzled in the neck by yet another drunk guy to the whole the boy thing.

What is going on with our world? It is askew!

Yeah, the boy was awesome singing comfortably numb. But what is with the hair?

At 11:33 AM, Firebear thought...

I love the line

"My eyes about bug out of my head and I figure they will hang out at the bar. "

it is very visual and funny when taken out of the paragraph. I just imagined the old cartoon eye popping wolf when he came in "Boing!" then they not bouncing back into the socket.