If Aerosmith Needs Me...

...I'm ready.

Went to a surprise party for one of my BFFs last night. Great time, lots of food, drinks, fun folks, and games.

Okay, at first I wasn't excited about the games. I mean, we're all great big grown up boys and girls. I wasn't looking forward to a pinata, you know?

But then...they announced that the main game event would be a Rock Band competition.

Actually, I've never played. But I know a lot of people who do (and, since I know some of them very well, I had to figure if they could do it, then I could do it). And I do know there's a strategy to getting your band together.

I shoved the hubs into his own band. He's great, but he's not a rock star. He also doesn't have the competitive edge that I knew would be necessary. No, I joined up with the birthday girl's husband, and a young mom whose kids play this game constantly, both of whom clearly had the winner's killer instinct so necessary to a friendly game among pals (well, it's necessary if you want to win). He played guitar, she drummed, and I was the lead singer.

The competition was fierce. My husband's band started off slow. Then he quit the band before they became big. The two bands we all feared petered out. Others did better than expected. And on it went. Until it was just The Retarded Dogs (my husband's former band, but the name he picked for it lives on) and Mudslide (my band, named by our required groupie who insisted that our success was all due to the name she gave us, which could possibly be true).

The Retarded Dogs went with "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden for their final number. And they were good. Very good. We knew we'd have to go with something intricate in order to have a chance. As the lead singer, I got to choose our songs, and I went with "Dani California" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Well.

I don't think it's bragging to say we were AWESOME. We blew away the competition, definitively. And for the coup de grace -- I scored 100% on vocals.

There was pandemonium. Oh, sure, some of it was because everyone was drinking (everyone but me, since I was driving home and had been on Coca-Cola for the past few hours), but more was because I was being told no one had ever seen a 100% on vocals before. (Probably true for this group -- I wasn't the only person playing who had never played before.)

So, the guy who's game it was asked me to join his band for a few numbers, and I got 100% again, this time on "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult. More pandemonium ensued. We also got the high score of the evening on that one. I'm just sayin'.

I would probably still be there, hitting the high notes and all, but the hubs demanded that we go home so he could get to bed. Hater. He's just jealous because Mudslide won and I'm now a lead singer in demand.

So, you know, should any of 'my bands' need vocal assistance -- Aerosmith in particular, but I'll be kind and offer myself up to anyone who needs me -- I'm here and currently my price is reasonable. (Steven Tyler and Joe Perry -- call me. Extra reasonable pricing for you.)

Love,
Gini

P.S. The hubs is under orders to never bring this game into our house, because I'd stop writing until I could get 100% on every song. And that could take me, what, at least a month...