Stanwood

Every so often, it's nice to be the big fish in a small pond.


Earlier this week, Rio invited me to hang out with a work friend in her back country stomping ground of Arlington and Stanwood. I agreed, despite the fact that I'm certain I'll be eaten by bears if I ever leave my own area code, and decided to approach it as a new cultural experience, just like travelling abroad. We met at Nicole's place in Arlington, an hour north of Seattle, then took off to the Stanwood Hotel & Saloon for karaoke night.

I was a bit apprehensive when some of the locals said, "Awesome! Girls!" as we walked in, and others started eyeballing the table and discussing pickup lines the moment we sat down. I didn't really want to get hit on by the nice Northwestern Washington boys. However, once I got a couple of $5 microbrews in me, I relaxed and chatted with a few of the other singers at the bar.

And actually had a good time.

It turned out they were having a competition for that bar's entry into the Evergreen Idol singing competition. There were 11 finalists who had each won a previous week's contest, and were karaoke-ing their hearts out to get one of the saloon's 2 spots at the big Evergreen State Fair finals. Unfortunately, all three of our group were better singers than most of the competitors, so everyone (including the karaoke hostess) was really impressed and wanted to know where we came from. We were instantly declared the unofficial winners of the contest and lavished with attention.

One guy said I was the winner, even above my "sensational singer" friends, for being the prettiest and the best singer. That would only happen in the middle of nowhere. It's true that hotness is very much relative, and it's better that way. I'm enough of a narcissist as it is, I don't need the people around me encouraging my notion that I'm the most awesomest girl what ever lived on a regular basis.

But for one night, it was kind of nice. It was fun. I don't know if it's worth the hour drive each way to do it more often, but as new cultural experiences go, I'm glad I took the adventure. Once.