lauralh | karaoke: a shy girl's perspective

When I graduated college and knew no one in the city I lived, I thought it would be fun if, when me and my friends all got together we could go to a karaoke bar and sing. On the other hand, we pretty much did that anyway by ourselves, and I wasn't sure what being in front of a bunch of strangers would add to the experience. In fact, when it was first suggested, I totally freaked out.

Last night

hotcrab,

candid, and I made our way to Lake City's Jalisco and proceeded to drink enough tequila to get rid of my stage fright. It didn't actually take much, I suppose. I mean I wanted to, I was just apprehensive, it being my first time and all.

But it was surreal, since one doesn't actually know what one's own voice sounds like. I knew I was singing, but I found it hard to make the connection between the sound coming out of the speakers and my singing. I liken it to a VR game - you can control the pitch and tonality of the voice you hear by way of your own voice. The more I drank, unfortunately, the worse that voice sounded, but the less I cared about what anyone else thought.

Which was good, since it became more and more crowded. Not that crowded, but you know, more than five people. At first our table was the only one singing, too, but as the night wore on, a few more people got up. And we gleefully sang along with them (to the English songs). It was fairly funny with Steve singing R&B booty, and actual black people singing Creed and Pearl Jam.

It was a good time. Got to bring the other housemate next time, I think.