Karaoke

Last night I did karaoke for the first time (in public, that is).  It was a nice little jaunt outside of my comfort zone, though that may come as a surprise to some of you, since you only see the witty, charming, affable side of me.  Singing is not one of my strengths, nor is performance of any kind, especially when I'm the center of attention.  But I think I was able to tough it out because it was a group of people that I've gotten to know pretty well and that I feel pretty comfortable around.  I sang "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" with my friend Logan.  Turns out that one isn't really in my range, but there's not much you can do once you've started.  It was a lot of fun, and I had a few ideas for songs that I didn't get to do because of time.  But it's something I think I'd like to do again.  We should do it for New Year's!  Along with Just Dance.  I also added it to my list of dates to go on.  In the future, though, I'm going to make sure I find a song that's in my range before I go.

Truth or Dare Bowling

Last night I went on a date with a girl in my ward named Katherine.  You should already be impressed that I went on a date.  Anyways, I checked the weather the day before to find predictions of thunderstorms.  So all the great outdoor date ideas I'd been considering were out of the question.  I decided we would have dinner at my apartment, then go bowling.

Now, I enjoy regular bowling, but I wanted to make it a little more memorable.  I decided that for each frame we would have to bowl a different way.  For example: lefty, backwards, or granny-style.  I started looking online for some more ideas and found a site that suggested truth or dare bowling.  So I found/came up with a bunch of questions to choose from.  But because I wanted the best of both worlds, I decided that we would do truth and dare.  This is how we did it: the first bowler picks a dare at random (I printed off the truth questions and the dares and cut them into individual strips), and both bowlers bowl that way.  Then you pick a question at random, and both people answer.  It works better if you pick the question before bowling so that you have some thinking time.

You could do this a lot of different ways.  You could make it work with a group too.  Have each person pick an individual dare or question instead of all doing the same one.  If you do that I'd suggest returning them to the pool afterwards so that other people can still get it (and so you don't run out of papers).  You could actually do truth or dare and let people choose which they'd like.  Or you could say odd-numbered frames are truths and odds are dares.  Or if your score is odd, you have to do a dare, and if it's even you have to do a truth.  I'm sure there are even more things you can change.  If they let you, I'd suggest putting up the bumpers so that there aren't gutter balls (you'll get a lot).  Unfortunately at the BYU alley you have to have someone under twelve for the bumpers.

I had a lot of fun, and I got to know my date better.  And I didn't even have to make conversation!  The truths were plenty to keep it going.  Sometimes we had to remind ourselves were bowling because we got talking too much.  We had a great time, and the result was quite amusing: we tied.

Let me know if you want to see the list of Truth questions and Dares that I used.

Murder Mystery Dinner

Last Saturday night I went on a double date to the Old Spaghetti Factory at University Mall in Orem.  We were there for a Mafia Murder Mystery show put on by performing group Salty Dinner Theater.  It was a lot of fun.  We arrived between 7 and 7:30.  They gave us three menu options, took our orders, and showed us to our seats.  The actors and actresses roamed around the room talking to the guests at all the different tables.  They were really friendly and made it a lot of fun.

The show started after we got our appetizer and continued throughout the evening.  There were several musical numbers too.  I think my favorite was "Come Fly With Me" because I knew the words.  The actors and actresses interacted with the audience a lot, which was fun.  At the end of the show, one of the characters dies, and everyone has to write down who they think it is and what they think the punishment ought to be.  They collected everyone's slips and sorted out the ones who got it right as the ending was explained.  Then they brought in the slips of those who got it right, and the guilty parties (they picked two of the actresses--the one who was actually guilty and the one who most people voted for) had to undergo their punishments.  Some of the punishments were drinking a glass of water sprinkled with parmesan cheese, getting ice cream in the face, and singing I'm a little teapot.

The whole evening was very enjoyable and memorable.  The company had a photographer there, and they put some of the pictures on facebook.  I look pretty ridiculous, so I'm not tagging myself in the one I'm in.  But feel free to look at their facebook page.  I had a great time, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Notes:
It was a really fun date, and I'd definitely do it again.  It works as a single, double, or group date.  It was a somewhat expensive date (thank goodness she asked me out and told me she'd be paying).  Tickets are $15 each for adults, though I think Catherine said she found a deal on Groupon.  The tickets didn't include dinner, and each of the menu choices was about $10.  The meal included a salad, the main course, and ice cream at the end.  Appetizers cost extra.  I wasn't sure what to wear, so I went semi-formal with a button-up and khakis.  It ended up being a safe guess.  I probably could have gone a little dressier (tucking in my shirt or wearing a sport jacket), but I also saw people in jeans, so it was pretty flexible.  It's nice to dress up though.  If I remember, the show lasted an hour and a half or so.

Note 2:
I saw the director of my study abroad program there--turns out his son was one of the actors!