I Went Out on a Date

Karaoke night. What else is there to say?

Yup. Like the title says, I had a date recently. With my wife. It was a lot of fun. We arranged a baby sitter, and then we went out to a little bar and grill not far from where we live, where they have Rolling Rock for a dollar, and the best chicken fingers in town. And karaoke.

We didn't know about that last. We found out that it was karaoke night when we got there. After a brief consultation, we decided not to sign up. This had more to do with my wife's perception that I cannot carry a tune, and my perception that she cannot carry a tune (honestly, I am not sure that either of can, but we both think we can), than it did with any sense that karaoke isn't fun.

Because it is fun. It's a lot more fun to sit and watch, though. Especially when there's dollar beers to be had. So we just found a table in a relatively dark corner, sat back with our chicken fingers, barbeque sauce, honey mustard sauce, and Rolling Rocks, and watched the show.
And what a show it was. If we thought that we can't carry tunes, we soon got a lesson in poor singing. Now, maybe it's not nice to have fun like this at other people's expense, but these people were volunteering for it. First, they were drunk enough to act stupid unselfconciously, and second, they were belting out 80s and 90s hits like they thought they were stars.
I think I know how the judges on American Idol must feel, when they get those contestants who are bursting with enthusiasm, but have no skill at all. It's scary.

It was also a blast to watch. Especially because we knew most of the songs, and were mostly sober, so we could just sit back and sing along quietly with each other, while all around us, drunks were making fools of themselves. A sociologist could have written a paper on it...
Eventually, it was time to go home, and so we did. But we'd gotten out together, and had a good laugh, and that's what really counts, of course.