Wedding Devil

Halloween this year was awesome! Last year was spent bar hopping with my gay ex-boyfriend after a long night of work at Max and Erma's. I know, I know, that sounds un-toppable. But hear me out.

Somehow, last week, two of my favorite students convinced *cough*guilted*cough* me to sing a song as part of their Halloween celebration the following week. I warily agreed and spent that night playing nearly every song on my iTunes to see which ones I truly knew all the words to without thinking about it. Because naturally I didn't want to be a complete screw-up by forgetting the words. I stumbled across "The Way You Love Me" by Faith Hill and found my winner. I immediately downloaded the karaoke version and starting belting out the song in my room, which I'm sure my extremely quiet (aka loudest people I've ever met) neighbors enjoyed. I call that sweet, sweet revenge.

I found out I needed to attend a rehearsal. But wait, let me inform you first that I have never sung alone in front of a large group of people. I took voice lessons my last year at Concordia and pretty much bombed my "small group" performance and completely bombed my final exam. I'm not exaggerating. I forgot the words, my voice didn't hit a single correct note, and my body was shaking violently. Remind me why I agreed to sing fot this Halloween thing again?? Anyway, rehersal consisted of plugging in speakers in the parking lot, hooking up my iPod, and singing for the small group of people there. I didn't forget the words, but I pretty much sucked. My students avoided saying how horrible I was by politely suggesting I practice with more confidence. I love them. I love the cultural idea of "saving face" a little bit more these days.

One rehearsal turned into two and the next one was with legit microphones and about 3 times as many people. I sucked equally as much and again was encouraged to practice more confidence. Yeah. Okay. Got it. I suck. You are the ones who asked me to do this so now you live with the consequences. And by consequences I mean my horrible voice.

The day of the performance I had a couple female students come do my hair and makeup for me. I added more makeup when they left. And completely changed my hair style. What can I say? I think my hair is the best thing I've got going for me, especially since it sets me apart from basically this entire country. I put on the only nice dress I have here and matched it with some black flip flops from Old Navy (classy, right?) and headed to school. I was calm, cool, collected, you know. I was supposed to be the 3rd singer during the play, a good 45 minutes at least until I went up on stage. I wandered around a bit to see the booths my students had up. I came back to the waiting area and suddently, "Okay, Miss Amanda, go!" What?? I wasn't prepared! But thankfully wasn't shaking. They started my music too early and I didn't get a microphone. That's cool, just start it over, no biggie. Then it stopped after about 10 seconds the second time. Again, no big deal, one more time. Music stopped a third time. WTH?? I started getting uber nervous and considered just walking off. But alas, it turned on again and I managed to get through the song and the improv dance with my white prince without any major mess ups. Thank goodness for the giant, too bright spotlight that blinded me from seeing the HUNDREDS of people watching me!

Afterwards I didn't have many people say I did a good job...however they didn't say I needed more confidence either, so I was happy. Everyone said I looked beautiful. Good. Now I can look frumpy in class more often because they know it's not a permenant thing. I did enjoy hanging out with ALL my students that were there and a lot of them are beginning to be some of my best friends!

All in all, although I'm sure the gay ex-boyfriend stories make for a better laugh, I feel like the memories from this Halloween will stick with me for the rest of my life. Plus, I have pictures to prove it happened :)