Hipster karaoke is dying.

Hipster karaoke is dying. It's been moribund for a while, ever since it started getting written up on yelp and people started flocking to it, but the last few times I've been there, there's been some serious negative energy.

For example, the people coming there tend to sneer a bit at everything...

One fatter (white) woman who I just met made a crack about how shitty the bar was, and other people laugh *at* (rather than 'with') the host's numbers - he dresses up as an 80s-rock loving Texan (he's from Texas, and loves 80s-rock), but in slightly ridiculous, but non-mocking way - and during Thanksgiving when they had turkey bingo, some older hipster guy kept making a big point out of buying bingo cards so he could win the Polish sausage prize when it was up, and when he did win it, he kept making ironic fun of the contest and the people running it, and when he went up to sing later on, he took his sausage up and played it like an air-guitar.

And, people laughed at him, he was part of the show.

Too, there's all these bridal parties that start coming in, of these taller bitchy (white) girls who pile out of cabs and are dressed in black, and, like all bridal parties, they behave obnoxiously and then if you look askance at them, they say shit to you...

Like, the other night, they went back to the list and were browsing the list back there before signing up, and holding up all the people who were going to sign up, when the host had these books out on the counter in the hall, and *that's* where you were supposed to browse songs, the book by the list was just to flip open to the song and get the song number to write it down. I was like, "You know, there's some books out there to browse," and one of the girls was like, "So?", and I was like, "Oh no, I just figure that might be more convenient" (she was a bitch, the bride was this fuggly thing with a "BACHELORETTE" tiara and an overbite and a veil on that had little pink plastic penises attached to it).

Someone said that it's actually rated the number-one night spot in the city now online, bigger than the opera and all these clubs, since though there's only like 40 reviews, they're all 5 stars.

Also also, even some of the regulars are getting shitty... This newer (white) guy who sings hard rock is nice enough, but he brought his (white) hipster girlfriend in the other night and she was seriously drunk, and twice at two different points in the night she was flailing her arms and whacked me in the face, and when I gave her a little bit of a look, she didn't even apologize.

Also also also, though the host works off of tips and the bar is now making a killer, the host is actually making a lot less money than he used to, when the nights were more intimate and more fun and people gave more to him.

Anyhow, I sang the Stones's "Mother's Little Helper", got a little pissed off, tried to hang out with friends and enjoy myself, and then left.

I don't think I'm going back soon.

Census fun.

I got home the other night and the letter from the census bureau was in the mail, so I went to go fill it out over dinner, only to find that it's for whoever's home April 1st, and by then I'll already be in my new apartment where I'm moving to.

So, I didn't fill it out, and am leaving it for the new tenant.

Now, it will be a game with me to see if the census takers can find me at my new place. I guess I'll get a sense of how efficient they are at tracking down stray people so everyone gets counted!

Tonight..

...is my final night in my Danish Haven!

Tomorrow I move.

Sneak.

I had 3 books out forever from different small seminary libraries in my neighborhood (some of them have titles in specialized areas that the main library on campus doesn't have!).

But, since they're small, their library catalogs are not computerized and so you have to come in in person or send them an email to renew, and the books are due every 2 weeks, so I had these books out since Dec. and never renewed them...

So, I ducked into each library, smiled at the librarians there, shoved the books in the return, and tried to walk confidently to the door like nothing was wrong.

I wonder if they'll come after me for the fines.

Lost my towel.

My gym bag is getting raggedy around the top - I've been meaning to get a new one, but I haven't had time - and then yesterday, walking around campus, somehow I noticed that my gym towel had fallen out, this bright orange-and-yellow beach towel that I use for the gym on campus so I don't have to pay their towel fees...

I retraced my steps some but didn't come across it. I wonder what the person who found it thinks!

Have been stressed.

At the end of last week I was feeling stressed, and I couldn't figure out why.

Then, I totalled up all the shit I have going on, and I figured out why - I have so much on my plate right now! - including -

- arranging shit for moving.
- getting boxes for moving (I have to start packing next week!).
- changing over my cell phone to a new number.
- finishing up TAing.
- finalizing a syllabus and readings for a class I'm going to be teaching at a friend's church (we got a grant).
- gathering my dissertation committee.
- revising my dissertation proposal.
- getting shit together for another paper I'm presenting on at the end of May.
- applying to teach a course for next year (the app requires a lot of thought, since I'd have a lot of input into the syllabus).

In reaction to all this stuff, like it usually happens, I end up going out too much to compensate for having long, intense days, and that starts a vicious circle of tiredness where the next day I work even harder and even longer and then meet friends to go out for even longer the next night, and so on.

A story from my neighbor back home.

My neighbor from back home the judge was a student radical at the flagship state university during the 70s, and one time she was in a meeting with a top administrator and she got pissed and shook her finger at him and was like, "You have to do this, and you have to that, and you have to do the other!".

At that, the guy kind of grimaced and folded his hands and was like, "[her name], let me tell you first that I like you because you're a very nice person, but you know, I really don't have to do any of those things, because all that I really have to do, is just wait 2 years."

She said that he said that very nicely, and that he really did like her, and that that was one of her first major life lessons.

Subway story.

The other day I was on the subway going for a job interview at a bar in my new neighborhood, when this little (black) girl with cornrows and short braids done up with bright colored beads got up to follow her mom to the door to get off at the next stop, but her backpack was a little open, and a couple papers fell out.

"Here," I was like, grabbing them and giving them back to her. "And I hope that's not homework, since it would be a pain to lose it and have to do it over."

"Thank you," she was like.

And then, after a pause, she was like, "Nice hairdo."