Friday Flashback

I have fifteen minutes of Friday left, so I'm going to go ahead and write, even though I should be sleeping, or reading Shakespeare, or writing a paper, or cleaning my house. In one week our stress level will go from about a level 9.6 to, oh, I'm guessing somewhere in the 4+ range.

We've got a really-super-lot going on right now. Smack dab in the middle of finals and nightly performances for DH, T and R. I attended opening night of their play last night and my buttons were busting with pride over them.

Okay, and maybe I was just a teensy bit jealous. Hey, I'm a diva, what do you want from me?

But really, I was so happy to sit in that comfy conference center chair and watch my sweet children grinning on stage as they tried really hard not to look right at the audience, and watch my husband, so fuzzy he's almost unrecognizable, sing a touching duet and speak his powerful lines.

The tech crew was having some pretty serious issues, but apparently the lighting guy fell off the stage and broke most of his ribs just a couple of nights before the show. Yikes. Sending good thoughts and prayers his way, and a few more to his replacement. He needs them.

Anyway, back to my flashback. I got to thinking about some of my favorite moments on stage and remembered one my most awesome moments of all time.

When I was in college I was a member of a really great choir. We sang for religious functions throughout the year and then every year we put together a big variety show which we performed in the big theater at the college and then took on tour somewhere in the U.S. The year I was in the choir with my best friend/roommate, JDC, she was given the female part of a patriotic duet called "Freedom's Light," which she performed in the variety show and which was, subsequently, one of the tracks on our CD that year.

Then JDC went on a mission to New Jersey. I missed her a lot.

The next year I was in the choir again. In the fall the choir participated in a big, collaborative patriotic show sponsored by the college. It's a pretty big draw every year and the 2000 seat auditorium was completely full. They had found some hoity toity male vocalist to come and sing "Freedom's Light" as a solo and he was going to use the minus track (music without vocals) that our choir had used the previous year.

But it was discovered, minutes before the concert was to begin, that the only track they had of the song was the one with the vocals that JDC and another guy from our choir had performed, the track that was on our CD.

In a panic, our choir director came to us, asking if anyone knew the track well enough that they could believably lip sync it. They had to have a female to cover JDC's part.

I'd listened to that CD so many times, I knew every single nuance of that song. Every breath, every little pause or tonal inflection. I shot my hand right up and they whooshed me backstage where they handed me a microphone and I met a very ticked off hoity toity vocalist who had to be trained when to lip sync to the male vocals. Not only did he not get to sing, but he had to pretend like that voice on the CD was his own.

I got up in front of those 2000 people and gave a stellar performance. Aside from those in the choir, no one had any idea that the song had not been performed live. And I could "sing" with confidence because I knew exactly how great "my voice" would sound. It was a totally fun, unanticipated moment of glory, and a way to feel close to my best friend who was thousands of miles away. She got a pretty good laugh when I told her that story.

And it still brings a smile to my lips.