What's up, TWELVE YEARS LATER! Jeez! (PS - If you look in the background behind Michelle, you can see Don Hill! Dude's gotta be in his late 50s (at least!) and he's still at his own club every night until closing!)
On the walk out to the van, somehow Matt and I started talking about running which led to an argument about who was faster. We decided to settle that shit on the spot with a parking lot footrace! Ready, set...
Yes! It was one of those rides where you watch a movie in a seat that moves around in synch with the screen and it totally tricks you into thinking that you're moving all over the place. (Shit ruled!)
After the ladies were done flashing their bling, we stopped off to rent one of those little wireless buzzer things that lets you "check into" a ride and not have to wait in line! (You go to a ride, hold us the little beeper thingy to a hot spot, and then the doohickey tells you when to come back to the ride and get on! That way you can roam around the park and go on all the lame rides while you wait for your turn on the big-boy rides!)
And here's me. I'm guessing that you can tell by our faces that the water in the pool wasn't exactly warm. I'd brought along my new waterproof camera (that Meredith got me as a gift for when I go scuba diving) and it allowed me go...
Hey, at least the one button she left me was up top. That way I could cover my chest up (er, sorta) and simultaneously look like a fashionable Hispanic west coast gangbanger. Thanks, Lo!
Oh, that's right. And then at the very end of the song when I dropped to my knees for the final high-note, Lorelei reached up and ripped my shirt open (popping off ALL of the buttons except for one).
Doubling up for the big outro. This was probably one of my most favorite accidental karaoke moments. (In fact, it's probably only eclipsed by the time that Seth and I ended up accidentally karaoking with Tracey Morgan back in 2003!)
When the band got back on stage, they called me up to sing! "Don't Stop" is pretty much one of the best karaoke songs of all time and one of the few times that I actually don't mind that fact that I was pretty much born with a woman's voice. Check out the singer all like "Holy shit, this guy's a eunuch!"
OMG, this photo makes me LOL on so many levels. I love how Grant's covering his mouth. That's because he knows that if he makes so much as a peep, I'll spring awake with the quickness and swat him right in the bean bag. I also love this photo because it looks like I'm dead and I can already envision my own funeral where my friends will be pulling this same exact bullshit next to my open-casket. (And Meredith will probably be the accomplice that takes the photo. Just like she did here!)
...we had an hour before the reception and I wanted to grab a quick nappity-nap to ensure I'd have the juice for what was sure to be a full night of drinking and antics. Grant, Meredith and I all went up to our room and just as I was falling into dreamland...
I thought I was so funny for doing the whole "flex-down while ironing" thing until I looked at the photo later and realized the reason Meredith was laughing so hard was because Grant had managed to brain me in the background.
Hannah and me. Hannah also made her IKAD deput at the Mermaid Parade of 2001, but she doesn't properly show up until later that same night when we had a prom party at Indoorvillage!) A few minutes later, Hannah introduced us to two other girls that were in town from England for the wedding...
Last song of the night! I may not have won the competition, but I definitely went home feeling like a winner! (Cue sitcom audience applause and outro music from Growing Pains).
In my defense, I first used to balls to show off my juggling skills, but the crowd wasn't impressed. It wasn't until I started awkwardly rolling them around on my crotch that the crowd lit up! (Photo by Leo Zacharias)
If, by the time I die, tombstones with embedded video screens are commonplace, someone please make sure that this photo makes it into the cemetery slideshow. Thanks. (Photo by Leo Zacharias)
Claire was the other finalist! For the last round it was announced that our hands were going to be TAPED to one microphone and we'd be singing a duet voted on by the audience! Here's Claire and I getting our hands taped together. Hahaha.
(Photo by Leo Zacharias)
The audience ended up selecting Summer Lovin' from the musical Grease. I didn't know the song well, but I knew it better than most of the other songs that were on the list! (There was stuff like Love Lift Us Up Where We Belong! If the audience had chosen one of those songs, I would've been effed!).
For the first round of competition we were told that we'd be judged on two things: 1) How well we performed our song. 2) How well we incorporated the use of a "prop" that would be given to us halfway through our song! Sure enough, I was about halfway through Gloria and I was handed...
Out of all the Jovi repertoire, Livin on a Prayer is the one that has the most opportunity for crowd-interaction. You get to sing the part that goes "Whoa, we're halfway there..."
I was really nervous about the list (because nothing's worse than having to watch someone do karaoke when they don't know the song!), but I lucked out and managed to secure Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer for my round two jam!
After the six competitors had each performed a song, the judges announced that only three of us would be moving on to round two! Here's my reaction to the news that I'd be chosen to move on, but that in Round Two song selections had to be chosen from a pre-selected 8-song list!
I was the second competitor called up to the stage, and it was announced, much to my relief, that I'd be singing Gloria! Yay! (Thanks to Seth for manning my cam and snapping these pics!)
The beach ended up being a little bit chilly (and the water was downright un-swimmable!) so we only ended up spending a little over two hours before heading back. Here we are on the subway platform happy...
And me? Why yes, that is, a Pierre Cardin tuxedo! Thank you for noticing! (Er, it's not really. That was just the first fancy-sounding name-brand that popped into my head. Which probably just made you realize that despite living in NYC and half of my friends working in something "fashion related," my knowledge of the fashion world comes from Bret Easton Ellis novels set in the 80s).
Here's me and Mer. The ceremony had already taken place and we're at one of the really nice, private university clubs uptown waiting for the reception to start. Before we went into the reception hall, I went to the bathroom to "freshen up" and was magically transported...
And now we'll briefly interrupt all the puppy-pics for a picture of me trying my best to make my eyes go in different directions! I've sort of got it down...I can make one eye go crossed and the other go pretty straight. But I've got nothing...
and Vibeke (who's hands down, the most out-of-control, will do ANYTHING on a dare, girl I know). For reasons unclear, the minute I ran into her, she took her panties off and put them around my neck. (That's just how she rolls).
That's right, I wasn't just at Gurj's birthday as a friend, I was there as a hired performer! You see, Sarah had been unsuccessful in her attempts to hire a male stripper and so she ended up asking me if I'd be willing to do it (Sarah knew all about my previous experience as a male stripper). She offered to pay me, but in the end I told her I'd settle for being paid back the money she already owed me! Hahaha. So around 1am that night, they called Gurj up onto the stage, and in front of pretty much all of our friends...
A few minutes later, Gurj came over with a bundle of cash (aka - the money that Sarah already owed me) and I gots paid! Woooo! Here's Gurj getting ready to make "the deposit."
