Day 246- Nov. 25- Mark Hubbard

Mark is an awesome human being. He's weird, and says abrupt and off the wall things to get himself a look of, "Huh, really?" from people at times, but that might be the very reason I like his company so much. I met Mark YEARS ago when I realized one summer visit back home that most of the people I used to hang around were no longer living in Yarmouth, or were tied up with family, child-rearing, jobs, stress, life. As I looked for things to do on foggy summer evenings, I happened to stumble upon karaoke in the attic of a brew pub on the waterfront. I enjoy beer and karaoke, so I started to go. 

Mark was an enthusiastic host. He loved to do his standard repertoire of Crocodile Rock by Elton John, as well as others. He encouraged crowd participation, even if you couldn't keep a tone. It was fun and helped me pass the time. He noticed me regularly showing up so we got to chatting and I faithfully attempted a song or two each night, starting to narrow down my own list of favourite tunes that matched my awkward "in between high and low" range, not quite soprano and not quite alto.

One night I selected the song The Middle by Jimmy Eat World. It fit my range and was fun since I had more or less figured out the lyrics enough to keep up to the fast pace singing. As I began the song, some young punk that had drank a few too many already decided he wanted to sing along too. He jumped up, grabbed the second mic and stood right in front of me. That was my song, and after I attempted to get a good view of the screen around to his left and then to his right to no avail, I suddenly reacted, without thinking through how it might look to the audience. I knelt down behind the guy, and started to crawl through his legs to get a view in front of him, all without missing a word. Of course, I felt a bit like a rockstar since he was failing miserably at keeping up to the words at that point and I was nailing it. Or maybe the rockstar complex came from the fact that the cheers went wild, likely more so due to the fact that he was pretending to ride me in a sexual manner, although I would like to think it was out of respect for my singing the song with gusto. 

After that evening, Mark invited me to join a kayaking course and a group, who were learning how to dragon boat at the nearby Milo Boat house. He helped me overcome my fear of kayaks and actually become a super fan and promoter of the sport. We have had many laughs and he's become a staple friend to help me make fun memories back home each summer. Love you dude.

Song of the Moment: The Middle by Jimmy Eat World (Sing a long if you can!)