karaoke

Your brother called and wants to know if you'll be eating dinner here tonight and if they can go ahead and fix the microwave meal they've been saving up for a special occasion. Nights when you can't cook for them equal "special occasions" in thier minds. I always spell the word "their" incorrectly. This may be what you call runofthemill run-on, stream of conciousness writing. I know, I'm sorry. It makes you want to throw up your hands and call the doctor.

I met my father's boss tonight for the second or third time. My father, a doctor, has a boss who's a getthepartystarted-kindofwoman. A famous name around this house who had us all roaring up a karaoke storm, if you know what I mean. She had a few too many root-beers. At least, that was the joke. Perhaps I could say, with more certainty, that this woman drank too much root beer if she had been singing along with us. In all honesty, I can't write about this without confessing that it was I who seemed to have drank too much (What, but grape-flavored water and coke, had I been drinking?). There seemed to have been a surplus of songs that my sisters, parents, brother-in-law and I knew how to sing only the choruses or certain catchy bits from. Whole songs? Give me a break! For example, when my sisters and I sang Arethra Franklin's "RESPECT," the three of us shifted from singing the melody to singing back-up vocals--only in that instant realizing that we hadn't the slightest idea of what the actual melody was there. Those words on the screen can only get you so far. Try singing the "Macarena" without knowing the tune. Okay, that's not so hard. Try something a little more difficult--like "Surfin' USA". Did I mention that if you weren't a member of my family, you were exempt from participating in the karaoke activity? You could even refuse participation and get away with it. Next time will be different... (I'm conjuring up some kind of 'next time' in my head. Who knows whether there will actually be one.).

And that's enough. I s'pose this doesn't entertain you... getting the back-story and not even a good story of the karaoke-family spectacle. And if you are part of the family and missed this, someone will surely (attempt to) rope you on that supposed next round.