WRITTEN IN THE STARS - December 26, 2011

TJ King Karaoke 214 King Street East

This was the first time in a while that I had celebrated my birthday on the actual day, in this case, December 26th. Because it falls after Christmas, it’s normally been a bit difficult to get together with friends since we are all doing different things and getting together with family and relatives. Imagine my joy when I found out that three of my closest friends were FREE on Boxing Day!! When we realized that my birthday was the first of the group since starting the Tour, we just knew we had to make it an official tour stop. And what better way to celebrate the big 2-4 than with a night of karaoke at TJ King Karaoke because that, folks, is the way we fiesta.

Note: This was also the second birthday to be celebrated at TJ King Karaoke, as we had celebrated Jenny’s birthday here two years ago.

I had the ladies over to my place for a mini cocktail party where we snacked on some appetizers I’d whipped up, including some hummus and Before-You-Know-It Bean Dip complete with nachos and mini pitas, and Suddenly Stuffed Mushrooms. Fancy names, I know, thanks to the creators of the Magic Bullet blender. I’d never made the mushrooms and had a Bridget Jones moment à la her birthday dinner party where her leek soup turns into blue leek soup thanks to a piece of blue string. It’d been a while since the four of us had gotten together (this was actually also our first tour stop as a full group since our Stoney Creek Day) so it was great to catch up on events of the past few months and of course the Christmas holidays.

After opening presents, we enjoyed some cake! Rather than going with a traditional birthday cake, I honed my baking skills (thanks to a little help from Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines who are quite the pair) and opted for marble cupcakes, complete with chocolate frosting and colourful star sprinkles, arranged in the number “24” to celebrate turning a year older. Jenny, Kristin and Carly loved the cupcakes, oohing and aahing at the colourful star sprinkles. This was the first appearance of stars and the theme continued throughout the night. The group of us are known for our full circle moments and themes whenever we get together and this night was no exception. Stars were everywhere.

We were first introduced to TJ King Karaoke by our friend and Honourary Tour Member Emily during our days at McMaster and after our first few visits, we were hooked. I think it’s safe to say that we consider these our stomping grounds for belting out our favourite tunes and exercising our vocals. After numerous visits, we finally mustered the courage to take the next step to becoming certified singing superstars/rockstars/stars (note the word stars!) and give live karaoke (with a band!) a go. We have TJ King Karaoke to thank for being our safe haven to belt our little hearts out in preparation. After selecting an hour of karaoke (you can always add more time as needed), we were led down a corridor to one of the many colourful karaoke rooms. This time, we were in room number 4 (fitting considering that there are four of us). We walked into a room with sunshine coloured walls adorned with what else, but stars! So marked the second star apperance, as these bright colourful stars certainly lit up the place.

With the dim of the lights and the flick of the switch, we got our karaoke on! There was certainly an eclectic mix of music that night, from disco to hip hop to bubblegum pop. Despite making a list beforehand, Jenny, Kristin, Carly and I found ourselves perusing the songbook, flipping page after page searching for songs that’d come to mind that very second. Normally we include a few 90s tunes (which bring a sense of nostalgia to the time of pop music), some old school Motown hits, Top 40 hits and some Glee-featured songs for our very own Gleek, Kristin.

Sidenote: I have to mention the fact that each song has a corresponding video clip which plays on the TV screen as the song plays and the lyrics flash on the screen. Most of the time, these videos in no way relate to the song that is being sung and as such, have resulted in moments filled with outrageous giggling, to the point where we’ve collapsed on the couches, trying to catch our breath and compose ourselves. What’s even funnier is when the videos do end up matching up with the song and one of us realizes this and points it out the rest of the group. So in short, these videos are quite entertaining and another reason we enjoy our time at TJ King.

We started off the evening with The Turtles’ “Happy Together,” a song we’d sang at The Snooty Fox’s live karaoke night, our first ever live karaoke experience. The night was already off to an entertaining start as Kristin and Jenny made it through the last set of “ba da ba ba, ba da ba ba”, no easy feat. The group of us sang a few songs together like “Lady Marmalade” (each of us taking on a persona) and ”Do-Re-Mi” (complete with giggles and action dancing). Halfway through, we did a throwback to the 90s including tunes like BSB’s “I Want It That Way”, Ace of Base’s “The Sign,” and went even further back, belting out some Bee Gees and ABBA. Kristin and I got our swagga on, teaming up for songs like “Empire State of Mind” and “Super Bass,” which I dedicated to two of my fellow Youth Challenge International volunteers, Tasha and Nicole! We sang and danced to this song during our last night in Tanzania and I’d told Nicole all about my friends and our karaoke nights, so I knew I had to sing a song for my TZ peeps. Nicole, I promise I’ll sing some Ke$ha and J. Lo next time! ;)

It’s no secret that I am a fan of Coldplay, so I was glad to end the night off with their song “Yellow”. This marked the third appearance of stars as we all sang the chorus, ”Look at the stars, look how they shine for you…” After I got home, I took once last look at the night sky and stopped for a moment, standing in awe at all the stars. It is rare to be able to see so many stars twinkling in the night sky amidst the streetlights and city lights. It reminded me of one night in Zanzibar when some friends and I headed to the beach and stood there gazing up at all the stars. It was a perfect evening: the sky was clear, there was a cool breeze and there we were, standing in the Indian Ocean halfway across the world, taking in the starry filled sky. Of course, another star-themed song popped into my head, this time “Starry Eyed” by the lovely Ellie Goulding.