karaoke weekend: "the best weekend of my life"

anyone who's been talking to me lately has probably heard the phrase "twins" thrown around a lot (let's thank Oni and Chipmunk for that). regardless, there was this one crazy weekend that started the whole phenomenon off.

on Friday night Oni asked me to go out w/VP and his friends b/c VP had somebody he wanted Oni to meet as a dating prospect. so we all went to ktown and had dinner at Seoul Garden which i'd never been before and was skeptical of, but i have to admit their soonjubu and nangmyon is really good. i think i got a pretty good handle on what kind of food Seoul Garden offers b/c VP's friend, who is visiting and invited his 3 friends all from Japan, decided to order just about everything you would usually order from the menu and we ate family style. we ordered haemul jun (the seafood pancake) and japchae for starters. everybody split bibim nangmyon, nangmyon, soonjubu, seafood soonjubu and bbq ribs. the only thing missing was chigae and the usual korean bbq choices (we opted against bbq, which was a good choice b/c Oni and i went out later and it would've sucked to smell all bbq-ey). i had ordered a budae jigae but they forgot and at that point i didn't want to spend any more money on food, plus nobody was finishing anything at that point.

afterwards, it still being kind of early (9-ish) we went next door to Toto for karaoke. it was all of ours 1st time at Toto and we'd just randomly picked it b/c it was next to Seoul Garden. the room's actually very big which was nice since we were 8 ppl but it's the system they have set up that's the most impressive. the tv screen is ginormous, there's 2 tambourines on the table when you sit down, and the place is BYOB. it's the remote that's the most fun: aside from having a button to create applause, you can also use it to make disco and techno versions of every song you sing. it was a lot of fun to use it on VP's japanese friends b/c they all sang really well so we had to just mess w/them a little. right in the middle of their song Oni would just randomly press the techno button and the song would speed up and VP's friends' eyes would widen but they'd go along w/it anyway. 1 of my favorite moments was after singing Don't Stop Believing i texted Pal and Douglife who were my Hoboken karaoke buddies w/the lyric: "strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard/their shadows searching in the night" and got the reply text from them stating: "streetlight people, living just to find emotion/hiding, somewhere in the night". *giggle*
while there i got a call from the Twins (Chipmunk to be exact) who were on the LIRR into the city. since they were arriving at Penn Station i told them to just meet us in ktown and we would all figure out plans for later. the Twins and their friends went to Off the Wagon and Oni and i met up w/them later. i'd warned Oni of the scene there but since she thought the Twins were cute and it was her 1st time meeting them she was game to at least give it a try. for anyone who's never been to this bar, let me just pre-warn: this is the ultimate college frat party. what's sadder is, i'd been there before. so when Chipmunk was calling me to tell me where they were going and he couldn't give me an address, as soon as he said Off the Wagon i knew where it was. in my defense, Pal and i used to go to Village Ma w/ppl from work for a giant karaoke night and it happened to be right next to Off the Wagon and that's how this bar 1st came into my life. the other escapades were few and far between.

afterwards be bounced to another bar on Yuka's recommendation but since it was around 4 am at that point, everything was closing so the Twins, Oni and i cabbed it back to Brooklyn and the Twins stayed over at my place. tho, once again, i'm obviously getting old, b/c Chipmunk slept on the sofa and Casper in my bed while i slept w/Wifey. and why didn't i just sleep in my own bed? i don't know. it's just kind of hard to articulate in writing. was it cause i'd only met the Twins the week before? or that i'd only known them for a total of 2 days? or am i turning prude? or just too old to sleep w/ppl i don't know? or b/c Casper was grumpy b/c he was annoyed at Chipmunk? sigh...

the next day Twins, Oni and i went out for dim sum at Jing Fong. Casper told me that it was his 1st time there w/o his parents. aaw... o yea, in case my tone hasn't told you already: the Twins are 23. and i always thought that Debs was gonna be the youngest person i would go out w/ (that's not blood-related). anyways, if i make a lot of "aaws" in this posting, it's not my fault. it's instinctual and reflex. since the weather was so gorgeous we walked over to South Street Seaport and just sat around. it was actually a pretty chill time.

eventually the Twins went home to change and get ready for another night out in the city and Oni went to have dinner w/a friend and i got to go home and take a nap (which was much needed although it made me late to meet up w/Stitch at Max Brenner's). Stitch and i headed to Sing Sing and waited for the rest of the crew to get there and start...another karaoke night. yep, you didn't read incorrectly. Um and Stitch and i had planned a week before that we would go out karaoking so that was the scheduled activity. plus, they're hilarious anyway so i just knew that karaoke was gonna bring out something even better. and it did! Um sang bedding songs (all R&B, all about how much he's gonna love you down) which just floored me and Stitch danced to Jordan Knight's Give it to You. CLASSIC. after an hour of Sing Sing i suggested we move to Toto b/c the space is better and it was cheaper w/the amount of ppl we had. so on saturday night, around midnight, i found myself in exactly the same spot in ktown i'd been the night before. who knew? later we got some more korean food and called it a night.

still had a great time tho there was a mini dramatic moment w/Oni and my voice was hoarse for the following week. and that quote used in the title of this posting? it's not mine.

there is one caveat tho. after this weekend, i am completely camera-ed out. the Twins each had a camera, Oni and i had one, and Yuka had one as well. taking the same picture 5 times gets trying after awhile. i noticed on the following weekend there was a lot less of it going around.