Forgot About Elf

In the past week or two I've managed to get out for karaoke 3 or 4 times. It helped bring back a little bit of joy to my heart. Karaoke was something I had never done until I moved to Baltimore. Every Wednesday back in summer 2005 I would head down to Shucker's in Fells Point, usually armed with cousin Emily, Spider, Thais, Sgrizzi, sometimes a few others would show. Jimmo was the karaoke DJ and since very few people would sing, I would get to sing 10 songs a night. It was the rmcgrath show, and we all know how much of a fan I am of that.

One Wednesday we went and Jimmo wasn't there. We found out that allegedly the karaoke was "killing their business" - when in reality of course it was their terrible food and poor service. I stopped going there altogether.

I had to find a new karaoke jam. Tried a few places with mixed results. On Tuesdays, after TNT, I started heading to Frasier's on the Avenue in Hampden with Jake, Godsey sometimes and Brusewitz. It was cool, until the roller derby girls started taking over. It was at Frasier's, however, that Jake and I perfected our "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in the style of Old School, which has brought crowds (and girls - psyche!) to their knees ever since. I also had some great performances of Outkast's "Roses" and D12's "My Band".

Moving on from Frasier's, I also had a secret Wednesday night spot in Brooklyn Park - Maynard's. DJ Tony had the hugest assortment of jams, a great sound system, wireless mics, a stage - it was sick. Thais performed here a few times with me, as did Godsey. Not sure that many others made the trip down. I soon grew weary of driving down there and had nobody to go with.

Recently, the arrival of Patty Mac into the group has brought a resurgence of karaoke. Walt's Inn, on O'Donnell, has become a favorite of ours. We've hung out with Mike Tirico there. We've run into friends from days gone by. I've gone on Sunday nights, Monday nights, Wednesday nights and of course the normal weekend nights. Every time brings something different. A few times ago I rocked the crowd (on a busy Friday night) with my renditions of "Nuthin but a G Thang" and "Forgot About Dre". I am super gangster so it's very natural for me to perform these well. Then of course I'm always reminded of my old AIM screen name, which was "forgot about elf". The double entendre of course insinuating I was a fan of the song, and I had also somewhat forgotten about my nickname of Elf.

Last night (Monday) it was a throwback to 2005. Meeting up in the Square was a crew I don't think I've ever seen all hang out at once together, and certainly not for as long as we did. It helped that the few teachers in the crowd had off today. The group was composed of Mike and Shane Prada, Kipchirchir J. Bitok, Brian Godsey, Andy Gell and then Joel Brusewitz, fiance Alix Ruth and Dave Berdan joined us. I have barely seen any of them in the past few years. We walked into Walt's like Gangbusters to find it was completely barren of any patrons. Nevertheless, we rocked the shit out of the place. It was like the Rolling Stones at Altamont, or when Elvis returned to Vegas after he was banned.

We stayed until close, so of course I'm pretty exhausted today. It was a tiring weekend - a whirlwind of houseguests, being snowed in, staying out late and driving people around. I'm glad it's over as I really need to return to normalcy after this week. I also definitely need to begin Christmas shopping. I love going to the Mall on Christmas Eve, I am so much more efficient when I'm under the gun.

As far as training goes, Friday was a pretty sweet run. 4 miles with BG and Kip, used to be the old crew. 7:28 first mile, started to pick it up a little, then dropped a 6:38 last mile uphill. I was pretty impressed. The snow began to fall on Friday night, and by Saturday morning it was full-on snowstorm. I drove my "new" car to get Zero, Jen and Chrissie, then while on Fallsway we narrowly escaped the totalling of my car. We were volunteering at Celtic Solstice, which went on as planned. 3200 had registered; 400 showed to run. BG got the win, wearing spikes, and Julia Rudd got the W for the ladies. It was an unbelievable race and I'm psyched it took place.

Last week I managed a shade over 17,000m in the pool, which represented M-F swimming. I had 4 really good workouts but by Friday I was a little tired. I took the weekend off and got back in yesterday and felt awful. I think the mornings I swim immediately following PT are tough because I get beat up by the PT session and then just feel like I'm dragging. Today I felt much better in the pool.

I rode Tues and Thurs last week, the snow and the guests hampered my ability to ride this weekend so I'll probably have to bring my bike and trainer home with me so I can do something over the next few days. I'm heading down to P's graduation from FBI training and on my way back through Baltimore if I have time I'll try and sneak in a quick swim.