new things

Last night we celebrated Iina's birthday. She's a girl I met through my new roommate Trish. Her fiancee, Corey, and Trish planned it so she'd think she was coming over for our housewarming party and we'd surprise her.

The night started off well. Trish made a chocolate chocolate cake in a bundt pan. It looked and smelled beautiful. We put the candles in while we were waiting for Iina to get here but when we looked at the cake a while later they were all crooked. Trish pulled one out to straighten it up and someone commented that she had put them in upside down. She had, in fact, put them in right side up, but the end of the candle had melted into the cake leaving a bare wick.

Fortunately no one died from wax consumption and we proceeded on to Happy Karaoke. We were all very skeptical - not being big karaokers - but when it's your birthday everyone does what you want, so we went along. It was up off of Buford highway where there are more Asian signs than English ones. It ended up being a private karaoke place. There were about 10 of us in a private room where we could sing whatever we wanted (as long as you could find it in the huge book of Korean songs). Some of the vital ones were lacking (Baby Got Back) but we got by with songs like Africa, It's Raining Men, Womanizer, Livin La Vida Loca, Whatever You Like, and Can't Touch This.

The words were up on several of the nine screens that were in a square in the front of the room. They had the most obscure videos going in the background. Some of them would be European cities, then they would be penguins, people on the beach, baboons, elephants swimming (underwater view), or fields and fields of flowers. Every once in a while there was one that actually seemed to have something to do with music but it was pretty rare. To top things off, our room had one of those spinning balls with colored lights (not a disco ball, but close).

We had a really good time and nearly everyone sang at one time or another. I have never missed my other vocal chord so much since I don't have much of a range without it, but microphones do wonders for a lack of volume. Being loud is kind of addictive.

I thought of Israel a lot while we did this because I think it's similar to what they do a lot in China. The way the place looked and the fact that we were the only non- Asian people there made it feel like we were actually in a different country.

After all the lame ones went home a few of us headed over to Iina and Corey's house to play Rockband. I have never played Rockband. I've only played wii once before and I nearly dislocated my shoulder playing imaginary tennis. But since I'd already done one new thing tonight I figured I might as well keep going.

Since I'm used to stringed instruments I decided to start with the guitar. I thought I was doing well until it said I failed. I didn't know you had to "strum" the lever on the side of the guitar while you're hitting the notes. So dumb. Trish and I took turns on the guitar and drums and the drums ended up being the only one I didn't fail every time on.

While we were playing and Iina was singing Corey was making us delicious, custom tortilla pizzas (to spare us all the extra calories). They are quite the hosts. I nearly won all of Trish's money but sticking my finger in the snapping turtles' aquarium, but after watching them snap at the glass decided her wallet wasn't big enough to pay for the loss of my finger.

Around 5am we decided we'd had enough fun and came home. I'm pretty sure I was still hitting the bass drum in my sleep. I'm thinking of getting a microphone that I can just carry with me all the time to make sure people can hear me :-). Happy birthday to Iina!