Your mid-week boredom reliever is going to be a little different today. I’m going to tell you a story and then give you a whole bunch of other shit to read. You could spend hours on this one. Make sure your boss isn’t looking. If your boss is looking, let them know where they can find this link. Your boss doesn’t want to work either.
On Friday this past weekend I went to my sixth, maybe seventh, I’m not sure anymore, meet-up with the Ohio Blogging Association. The OBA meets once a month partaking in various events around the city. For this month’s meet up, 4 OBA members teamed up to host “Karaoke at the Cat” at my newest bar and restaurant love, NoodleCat.
Katie, one of my favorite blogger buddies, hit me up early for a night out. We decided to head out to NoodleCat together, go a little early, try out the food, and then sing some serious tunes like were auditioning for The Voice. The day’s leading up to “Karaoke at the Cat” were filled with text messages vying for the weekend. It just could not come fast enough.
Yes, a lot of these photos will be instagram’d. The lighting in this place was not great for pictures so I had to clean them up somehow.
Going early was a fab idea and so was the food. I would have tried everything on the menu, but I was trying to channel my inner Kelly Clarkson and eating 2 bowls of noodles and 10 steam bun sandwiches just didn’t seem like something Kelly Clarkson would do. So, I started out with one steam bun covered with pickled veggies and miso.
For dinner I got the Szechuan Ramen noodle bowl thingy. It was szechuan chili sauce, red peppers, napa cabbage, and chinese long beans. I wanted to confirm it was as vegetarian/vegan as it sounded and the waiter informed me it was made with a chicken broth. Before I could rethink my order he told me that they would substitute any vegetarian items that I wanted, they would even make my bowl with a veg*n seaweed broth. The food was amazing.
With food out of the way I felt I could focus fully on my mad singing skills and pick out a couple songs. Katie and scoured the list of music for our best belts and some how I ended up being the 3rd person up behind the mic. I rocked that crowd with a version of Party In The USA that Miley Cyrus only wishes she could match.
Then Katie threw down with some, “I Feel like a Woman” and put me in my place. You think that would have kept me from singing another one…. noooope. I sang a lot. I sang “Sexy Back” and “Love Shack” with a few other bloggers before going solo again with a Carrie Underwood song no one knows but Jen and I and was super fun.
Three glasses of the house white later, karaoke was wrapping up. It was probably the best OBA meet-up to date. The turnout was amazing, the staff took good care of every single one of us, everyone tired to sing something, and no one had a bad time. It was the perfect night.
I remember going to my first OBA event and how nervous I felt. It’s really hard to put yourself out there and make friends with total strangers. It’s been a process, honestly, getting comfortable and reaching out to people you wouldn’t know otherwise. If I’m introduced I can hang, going solo is something that takes practice. I had to stick to it and keep attending and now, months later, I have developed some pretty awesome relationships and a couple good friends.
Ok, enough photo overload…
These folks write some pretty fun blogs as well. So here is your Wednesday time suck, a way to kill your lunch hour and do some reading… Cleveland Style.
Bloggers in attendance at Karaoke at the Cat, and some serious Cleveland Blogger love, drumroll please:
Kasey from A Case Of…
Katie from Beer and Clothing in Cleveland
Jen from Why CLE and her husband Matthew
Amanda from Clue into Cleveland and husband Scott
Sarah from Cooker Girl and husband Kevin
Dave from Health Insurance Issues with Dave and Again? Really?
Josh from joshkrajnak.com
Jeanne from Life in Cleveland
Charlene from Life in the CLE
Mary from @MaryLeeS
Morgan from Morgan J.
Megan from It’s My Time To Sparkle and Shine
Alicia from Poise in Parma with cameo by her brother Drew
Julie from ROJ Running
Holly from Rust Belt Runner and husband Neil
Kimberly from SMITTEN…in cleveland
Stuart from sosAssociates