You know what? It’s all worth it.

I get to stand up in front of family and friends for the second time in two months to profess my love and devotion to this woman:

Melissa and I with our Iowa marriage certificate (flipped-yay Photoboth)

I can’t wait.

Other people in our lives have been a lovely surprise as well… For instance, my grandmother -  she’s 88 years old, old school Jew, grew up in NYC and has lived in New Jersey for most of her life.  For years, I went back and forth on my decision to come out to my grandparents. My grandmother would always ask me if I was dating, and my token line was “I’m just hanging out.” She even asked me one time if anything was wrong with me, as I couldn’t just “hang out” all the time with boys.  I sometimes feel sad that I didn’t get to “come out” to my grandfather before he passed two years ago, but I wasn’t ready yet.  It took finding my other half (and appearing in Newsweek together,) for me to finally tell the one person in my immediate family who I was really dating. Needless to say, my grandmother has been wonderful and loves Melissa.

During our conversation today, she asked me if I heard about Oprah being gay. I started laughing and thought that she must have been catching up on old tabloids. Then she said that she just heard that this “cute boy” who used to be on one of her soap operas just came out.

“Ricky Martin, Nana?”

“Yes, yes. That’s who that is. He’s such a good looking young man. You are so lucky Stacy. It’s so fashionable to be gay now!”

Another funny exchange came from my own mother. She sent me a text (yes, my mother has joined the world of texting…oy), and mentioned that my fiance sent her a lovely email and how excited she is to be Melissa’s mother-in-law.  The “Email” was a note on her facebook wall. I love you mom.

Finally, when I arrived home from work today, Melissa gave me the invitation to the bridal shower that my  soon-to-be mother-in-law is throwing us in Western IL.  The note that she placed in the invitation was absolutely priceless:

Dear Friends and Family,
We all know what it is to want to find another person to spend life with. We know it can be a long search. Melissa and Stacy have found each other in a world that has given them difficult odds. They invite us to celebrate with them. They do not want to make you uncomfortable, change your opinion or recruit you to the lesbian team. Please do not feel pressured to attend. But in case you want to have a good time, join us!

Yes, my friends, we are truly blessed and lucky to have such amazing people in our lives. I am truly excited for the upcoming festivities.

I wish I still had that tape. . .two sixteen year old girls screaming:

Love is like a bomb, baby, c’mon get it on
Livin’ like a lover with a radar phone
Lookin’ like a tramp, like a video vamp
Demolition woman, can I be your man?

This week I found a new app in the Itunes store called Starmaker. It’s a personal karaoke machine right on your Ipod/IPhone.

What I love about this app is that not only can you keep your closeted karaoke freak in check by singing tunes to yourself, but you can also torture (er share) your tunes with friends! There are a few ways that you can share your tune right now, via email, and via Facebook (both private and for the world to see.)

Here’s a demo from the company’s YouTube page.

This will hopefully help all of us TechKaraoke geeks for our next event... practice makes perfect, right?

I would usually read the music section, writing down all of the concerts I would attend using my salary from Highland Superstores.  After I budgeted my entire paycheck on concerts, I headed to the Missed Connections section.  I always wished that they would have a section entitled “Found Connections,” so we would be able to follow up with these poor souls and see if they ever really found the person who brushed against their shoulder, or glanced at them (while really looking at the gorgeous cupcakes behind them.)

A-HA is coming into Chicago for their final tour.  Um. Can someone clarify something for me? Have they been around since the mid-80s? Im freaking out because in the 90’s, it was my parents’ bands coming back for these money-grubbing reunion tours, and now the bands of my childhood and college years are coming out of the woodwork (Cracker.)  That is definitely the sign of impending doom.

Here are some lovely examples of the doppelgangers in my family:

This is a picture of my brothers and I from way back when (Yay early 80s)

This is a picture of Brian and two of my nephews:

Our family produces dopplegangers.

One more for you…

Here’s my mom as a kid:

and me again:

I remember the first time that I learned about Karaoke. It was a Christmas party, held by my best friend’s family in a fieldhouse in Suburban Chicago.  It was a Filipino gathering, complete with the full roasted pig hanging out on the dinner table.

My friend’s Uncle came out to sing to the crowd. He looked like a Filipino Elvis – complete with the skinny pants, sideburns and Pompadour, and of course the hips swaying back and forth. I was mesmerized. He was an OK singer, but everyone was really into it.

My grandmother bought me a book when I was a child to keep my school memories together. Each year it asks you “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The first three or four years that I had this, I wrote “Rock Star.”  Granted, I had no idea what that really meant, but I think I received the book about the time that MTV launched. I saw videos by Pat Benetar, Rod Stewart and those wierd Buggles. I knew that was my destiny.

I tried out for choir in seventh grade. I didn’t make it and was really sad about it. However, in eighth grade I did singing my “heart” out with the song “These Dreams.” I still remember the teacher guiding us through the song and making sure that we were enunciating the chorus  “THESE DREAMS – PAUSE PAUSE – WHEN I CLOSE MY EYE- EEEEEEESS” My love for Chorus lasted until Freshman year in high school. I was told early on that I had a crap voice and I gave up at that point.

Flash forward to Los Angeles – Brass Monkey – a divey lounge bar in the middle of Koreatown.  I went there for a friend’s birthday and was hooked. Lounge Lizards and people like me who can’t truly carry a note (but make up for it in our ham,) shared the stage (well, spotlight in this case.)  I was shy as could be, but I managed to squeak out “Time after Time.”

I moved back to Chicago in 2005, and I went to a birthday party at Pontiac Cafe. The live band that night was called the Karaoke Dokies.  You could pick a song, gather your muster (or pound a few drinks like most everyone did) and get up on stage to rock out with the band! I thought regular Karaoke was intimidating, but this was an amazing rush. The band played along with your speed, fast or slow, and really made you feel like you were truly a rock star for a few minutes.

You can only imagine my joy at seeing the rooms at Waba last night. You can sing to your heart’s content with nobody but your friends who you “trust” to not give you too much crap. Well, that isn’t entirely true, but at least you don’t have to listen to a million versions of sorority girls singing “Love Shack.” in an evening.

As part of Melissa’s Xmas Gifts, I finally snagged tickets for Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. It’s a quiz show on NPR which Melissa got me hooked on when we first got together. I never thought I would become a NPR nerd, but here I was, geeking out over the fact that we were in the 2nd row, THIS close to Peter Sagal and Karl Cassell. After the show we chatted about how much fun that would be to do as our job. Your day to day job is making people laugh about the news. Lucky, lucky people.

If you are in Chicago, or come to Chicago, I urge you to get tickets. Its a cheap night out which will make your tummy hurt from laughing.  Goldstar usually has half-price tickets.