Who knew I was the life of the party? Not I!!!

So last night, Friday night, I was at the arena for FOUR hours, as Ardan had a practice and Gunnar had a game immediately after that. Its Gunnar's home tournament this weekend, and the hockey moms had planned for us all to have a girls night after the game, which ended at 8:15. I'm so lucky that Hubs was at home to look after the kids so I was able to go with them.

The bar they decided we'd go to is called the Open Range, so I knew that I'd be getting a healthy dose of country music (bleeeeechh). What I hadn't realized was that that bar is known for having a huge karaoke night every Friday night.

First of all, who knew that there were so many good-ole-boys out there who LOVE to sing karaoke? I can honestly say that in my entire life, I had never seen a guy willingly get up to sing. But we're not talking one guy here. There were like seven guys who were constantly up at that mike. And these were guys that I would never in a million years have guessed to have a love for karaoke. I'm talking big burly oil-rig guys, wearing their denim jackets and the guy version of mom-jeans, with huge guts overhanging their waistbands. Of course, most of them sang country songs but there were a few that surprised me with their song choices.

There were about five or six of us hockey moms sitting around our table. As more moms showed up, we started getting a little louder and rowdier and then someone (couldn't have been me) suggested one of us should get up there on the mike. One of the moms there is widely known to be a huge karaoke enthusiast and the kicker is that she doesn't even need a few drinks for dutch courage. She couldn't decide on a song so we picked Abba's Take a Chance on Me, and we all promised we'd get on the dance floor and boogie when she was singing. She did AWESOME, we were so proud.

Flash forward to a couple of hours, and a lot of drinks, later... I had innocently mentioned how I loved to sing Cover of the Rolling Stone, but that I needed a LOT of dutch courage. Everyone got a kick out of that, with Renee (the one who sang the Abba song) asking me, "What song is that?" Awww, come on Renee! I tried singing the chorus for her but it was so loud in there she couldn't recognize the tune. I noticed some of the moms huddled together, writing on a piece of paper. Didn't think much of it. Got up to go the bathroom (broke the seal, I guess) and all of a sudden I hear on the mike, "Okay Beau, its your turn! Get up here!"

I could feel my face draining of all color. Looked at the other moms, who were giggling hysterically, urging me to "Get up there and belt it out, girl!" OH. MY. GAWD!!! Traitors!! I stumbled my way up to the mike, begging Renee to come up with me and she caved and joined me at the mike.

I cannot even begin to describe how nervous and scared I was. Its one thing to become a karaoke queen when you're totally wasted and don't give a flying f*ck what everyone thinks of you. Its totally another when you're only buzzed and there's a packed room of strangers staring at you! It didn't help matters that my throat was bone-dry and my voice was all hoarse and scratchy from the drinks, smokes, and having to yell at the top of your lungs just to talk to the person sitting next to you.

And so it began... "Ah, ah, ah, I don't believe it. Hey Ray, hey Sugar, tell 'em who we are..." In the blink of an eye, what seemed like the entire bar surged to their feet and swarmed the dance floor. People were going crazy, singing along as loud as they could, dancing wildly and giving me the rock-on hand signal. Suddenly, singing my favorite karaoke song became easier. Another mom came up to Renee's mike and then there were three of us. My scratchy, hoarse voice couldn't decide if it wanted to sing low or high, but no one cared. It... was... AWESOME!!!

I was on a definite adrenaline-high after the song ended. All the hockey moms looked at me in awe, "I can't believe you can sing like that! You knew all the words! You were awesome!" Renee swore that she'd found a new karaoke buddy (don't know about that, haha).

So yeah, it was a truly great night. Had tons of fun, got to know the hockey moms better outside of hockey, got hit on by a couple of guys (great for the self-esteem, lol), and I didn't get so drunk that I had a hangover this morning. So I'm quite looking forward to going to Gunnar's hockey game today and seeing all the moms again. I kinda broke out of my shell with them last night, showed them a new side of me, and it seems like they like me more now. Its only too bad that this happened now, at the end of hockey season. Guess I'll have to arrange another karaoke night next hockey season, at the start! Haha.