Somewhere along the line, I have become a Karaoke whore.

Well, not really, but Raven & I have become Monday night regulars at the U Otter Stop Inn. This is entirely due to the fact that the Monday night host rawks. OK, it's also because Benq and everlastingwhy frequent that night as well. And they're Supa-Sweet.

So, we starting going to Karaoke. And for some reason I actually like singing at this bar. It's kinda hole-in-the-wall tiny and the people are generally there for a good time but neither belligerent nor so drunk their "singing" painful.

Benq had told us about the "Otter Idol" contest that they'd had and how he got 2nd place. So when they announced Otter Idol 2 and touted free drinks as part of the process I said "Why not?"

So for 6 or 8 weeks (I've already forgotten.) I got up and sang a song. And for 6 or 8 weeks I am pretty certain I came in 4th place when only the top three qualified for the finals.

Every damn week.

Most weeks this was fine, as I didn't necessarily feel that I deserved to be in the top three. But I would nearly half the time this was irksome, because I was pretty sure that I'd done better than some of the people who qualified. Regardless, every week I got up and sang something. I was at a bit of a disadvantage because I wasn't ever into Karaoke before, and as such don't really have any songs that I'm super comfortable with, so every week was a learning experience.

A few days before the finals I got a call from Toni saying that one of the finalists couldn't participate and that since I had the highest point totals of any of the non-qualifiers that I could participate in the finals. (Raven qualified early on, with a bondage-y rendition of Sweet Dreams whilst she was wearing The Dress.) So I had to pick a song.

I was originally thinking it would be awesome to do Bad Touch by Bloodhound Gang (Sometimes referred to as the "Discovery Channel Song".) while wearing a monkey suit like the ones in the video. Obviously, the time was not right for that. I considered Beautiful Day by U2, for which I had earlier received some rave reviews. (While still not qualifying) Save Tonight by Eagle Eye Cherry was also pondered, before I decided on Sweet Transvestite from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

I know the show really well, and while I didn't necessarily feel up to dressing in lingerie, I did at least have a cape that was handy and some gothy sleeve things that look like the movie. They drew numbers to see what order we would sing in, and I ended up with number one.

So I got up, sang really well, and worked the crowd. It was awesome.

I'm pretty sure I ended up in fourth place.