Somethin' New

Every once in awhile ya gotta do somethin' new. Stretch the ol' comfort zone.

The only way that I have sung in public is in a large choir. Or at least a good sized group where I had to blend in. I always got nervous when I would sing by myself.

So when my friend Kris sent me an email that said do you want to sing the Star Spangled Banner with us at a baseball game, I wrote back. "Did you mean to send this to ME?"

Turns out that she did.

She had an arrangement of the music for three female voices and she and Mary Kaye thought I could do it and that it would be fun.

I was not so sure.

But I said yes.

Our first rehearsal was.....well, the music wasn't so good but it was a barrel of fun.

It had been a long time since I had laughed out loud, giggled, and actually made a joke. (actually, several jokes..all bad)

I recorded my part and sang to it driving up and down Highway 101. I thought I just might have learned it.

Our next rehearsal was better. It was just as much fun and the music was better. We still screwed up in places but it was presentable.

When Friday got here I thought I had it down pretty good but I was pretty nervous. I got to the park almost an hour early!

When Kris and Mary Kaye got there, we ran through it in the parking lot. It was ok and we all laughed. They really made me relax. They didn't know it but they made it really easy for me.

Then we sang.

People laughed at our name. ( appropriate, we called ourselves "The Hotflashes"!) But when I saw them standing and when I hit the right notes (most of the time), it felt SO GOOOOD!

It is really good to have friends. It is really good to sing. It is really good to have both at the same time. And it is fabulous to have both of those doing somethin' new.

Thank you to Kris and Mary Kaye.