Annual birthday celebration

Sharon, Julia & I have our birthdays within 2 weeks of each other. When we figured this out, we instituted yearly birthday outings without husbands or kids. This was after we had a disastrous year of having 3 individual birthday celebrations. There was too much cake and just... well, it got really bad by the time we got to Julia's birthday. Just felt like watching the same movie over and over and over again. Like when I was a kid and looked forward to watching The Wizard of Oz. You only got to see it on television once a year and it was an event. If you missed it, you'd have to wait until the next year. Then came VHS & Betamax and all of a sudden watching the WoO wasn't as exciting. I got a copy from my Aunty Pris one year and I haven't watched it since. So having 3 birthday parties with the same circle of friends all within the same 2 week period... You see how bad had gotten.

We went to the Harbour Public House (yeah, with the extra "u" because the people who founded it were from England) along with all the adults on the island. At least it felt that way. We showed up relatively early, at 5:45 PM, and still the place was packed. I think the senior citizens who show up to meals at 3 PM for the blue plate special have a good idea. Plenty of parking and you don't have to wait for a seat. I suppose that is just around the corner for the 3 of us. I had my first pint of mangoweizen. You know the Hawaii in me can't pass up a mango anything. Same goes for coconut. Or lychee. But it just tasted like beer to me. 

We are such old moms. Even though the kids were safe at home, of course our conversation turned to living with teen aged boys and tween girls. I'm the only one with a kindergartener anymore. Those girls are so close to the finish line. Damn. I guess you can take the moms away from the kids but still, our worlds revolve around them. I wonder if I'll have anything to talk with these broads about when their young ones end up graduating. Who am I kidding, of course I will. They're my girls!

So anyway, we decided to try to find some karaoke someplace. It's my birthday celebration and despite neither of these two chicks being filipinas, I was going to make them come with me. They had promised to be a good audience while I sang. Neither of them wanted to sing with me. It's okay. So long as they'll go with me, I'm good.  

We tried the Mexican Cantina first. When we entered the establishment, we doubled the number of women in the packed bar. No karaoke. They were watching some game on tv. I don't know what kind. There was green field underneath men running around with numbers on their backs. Who knows? Anyhow, we turned around and left. Even though we're old broads, we remember those bar survival skills we learned in our twenties. 

I knew another bar had karaoke on Thursday nights but this was Friday. I knew our chances were slim. We drove by and saw a similar television situation in there:  astroturf, men with numbers, etc. We wandered down to see our friends at BIBBQ. The closed sign was up but maybe it would be a better time than having another drink while people interested in watching men run around on a field made noise to interrupt our conversation. 

I was still jonesing to karaoke with my friends. But it was looking like there was to be no karaoke. I was trying to convince Greg from the BBQ to give me a little Louis Armstrong -- he obliged with just a couple of bars. I suggested, I Get Ideas, one of my fave Satchmo songs. I sang a little of it and while Greg didn't know it, I sparked the interest of a 6 year old girl whose family was just leaving the restaurant. She tugged my sleeve and asked if I knew the words to Jingle Bell Rock?

Do I know the words to Jingle Bell Rock? I'm kind of awesome when it comes to Christmas Song lyrics. I may obsess on them a little. For the past few years, I've made it a point to choose a Christmas song that the family will concentrate on singing for the season. In the past we've done Joy to the World and O Holy Night. How do you think I've managed to learn Adeste Fideles or Ave Maria? That's right, hard work, determination, and a fanatical devotion to the pope... actually, no, but a kind of razor sharp focus on expanding my carol file capacity. 

So this little girl and I belted out Jingle Bell Rock at the top of our lungs! She and her 9 year old sister sang a Halloween song. The 9 year old sang an original composition which was surprisingly great. Seriously great. (damn, I should have gotten her name. She'll be famous someday.) Then the little one said she was going to sing Gaga. Joy! She didn't know the name of the song but the second she started with, "rama-ooh-lala..." I jumped right in. She was astonished that I knew the lyrics since all she knew was the rama/lala parts. These girls were just darling. The older girl invited us to see her school's art show where she would be performing. Too cool. 

After they left, my big girls and I found a booth and started chatting. My friends officially cut me off from drinking. They thought I had too much with 2 beers. Seriously. With the wonders of my smartphone and YouTube, I was able to get in some pseudo-karaoke. I sang Alanis Morissette's You Oughta Know (the non-radio version) and for contrast, Adele's Someone Like You. Truth is that Alanis' attitude about the break-up "did you forget about me, Mr. Duplicity?" seems much more empowering than Adele's whiny "Don't forget me, I beg..." However, Adele's song is way easier to sing. That middle bit of Alanis's song is tongue-twisty. At that point my friends were fading fast and we headed home before the clock struck 10 PM. Damn, we're getting old. 

An aside, one of the karaoke versions of You Oughta Know on YouTube has the most fabulous mondegreen in it:  "It's not fair / to deny me / the cross-eyed bear that you gave to me..." 

Cross-eyed bears make me smile.