The song:
The story:
This one sort of ties into the one from last week.
Almost like I planned it, though I didn’t.
My brain may have;
totally possible.
Anyway, last week I was talking about my AmeriCorps team that I served on for most of 2007.
We were a group of eight 18-24 year olds
going around the country helping people.
We were like the gang of Scooby Doo without a dog
and with a van that could fit in more easily.
One of our assignments was to help out The United Way
with spring break in Louisiana.
We stayed there for five weeks,
and the last four weeks kids came from all over the country
(I say kids, I mean college students)
and we worked with them.
This meant a pretty regular schedule during the week.
I think we had meatballs on Monday,
and fish on Friday.
One of the days a tour would leave to go around
and look at the damaged houses.
And other day, there would be karaoke.
I’ve always loved singing,
even if I don’t sound the best.
I believe that I make up for it in theatrics.
The first few weeks we were really gung-ho about representing at this karaoke night.
And by gung-ho I mean
I know I did it and maybe one other team member.
Even if they didn’t do their own song,
I know that they were there to support me.
I don’t really know WHY I picked
Total Eclipse of the Heart,
but I picked it.
I even had someone from my team come up
and help me at the beginning.
My teammate stood, facing the audience,
and sang,
“Turn around”
and then she would turn and I would face forward
and sing the next line.
This continued until the “turn around” parts were done,
and then I rocked it solo.
I’ve always had a sort of raspy voice,
but for the life of me I cannot remember
HOW I could hit those high notes.
I CERTAINLY can’t now.
I sang it both times though, and gave it all I had.
My teammate Shyra planted herself in the audience and helped me too.
There’s a part in the song where it gets instrumental,
and it almost sounds like
there’s some thunder and lightning happening.
At that point I waved my arms out into the audience
like I was striking them down with lightning,
and Shyra would wiggle and writhe like she got hit.
The college kids probably thought we were the
BIGGEST WEIRDOS EVER,
but I didn’t care and I still don’t.
It was so much fun.
Now when I hear the song,
I wonder how I could have hit those high notes,
and I miss Shyra
and realize what a good friend she was
to do that for me.
