Christmas Music

Today is Christmas Eve. For J, it's Christmas Eve evening. Since he already opened his gift that I want to talk about, I can, well, talk about it.

There isn't much you can send to your husband for Christmas when he's deployed. There's nothing he needs, not much that he wants and can use over there, so what do I do? I came up with the idea a couple weeks ago.

I recorded a little video of me singing J's favorite Christmas carol, The Little Drummer Boy. I found a karaoke track on youtube that was in a good key and at a good speed. You wouldn't believe how many versions are out there, some fast, some slooooow, and in all vocal ranges. Crazy. But I found a good one at the very last minute.

I had three options for recording my video: my laptop, my phone, and my digital camera. I did a short test of all three to see which had the best sound quality. The iphone won, hands down. Then I had to find the right place in my house. I ended up in the dining room. I set my laptop on the table, plugged in the desktop speakers, and propped my phone up on the monitor like I do when J and I facetime. I just used facetime as a verb *shutter*.

Anywho, I ended up having to set my laptop on a box to raise it up. And then another box. But it put it at just the right height. I start recording, and Duke jumps up on his table, which is in the dining room, and noisy. He scratched at his collar, which makes noise, and then Bosco (our doggy visitor for Christmas) whined. Stop, reset, take 2. Bosco whine pretty early on. Stop, reset, take 3. Duke comes to my feet and meows. Ugh! really?

I took a break, let the dogs outside to play, and tried again. I made it through the song without interruption, but decided that I didn't like the camera angle. This is when I added the second box. Final take, made it through, no interruptions, and it was the best yet. It wasn't going to get any better, and the dogs were ready to come inside.

I noticed something at this point. I was in a good mood. I had woke up a little depressed, but making this video for J really cheered me up. I had forgotten how good singing can make me feel. Anymore, I really only sing to myself, usually in the car. And since I haven't been doing much driving around, I haven't been singing much.

A while back, I looked around for a community choir I could join. I found a small one that was pretty new, and decided to go. I stayed for 1 semester (it ran on a school-year schedule). I couldn't go back. There were people with no pitch, many who didn't read music, and it was so unprofessional, I couldn't take it. I know, it's a volunteer thing, but if you say that you want to appear professional, you should at least try.

I haven't found anything to replace that, and I sing less often than I used to. Of course I still head back to Kansas every Easter for annual Good Friday date, but that's once a year. There's this talent "show" here on post. Most the "talents" are music, of course. Part of me thinks I should audition. But what the hell would I sing? Should I go classical? Should I try something more modern? I don't know. Would I need to supply back-up tracks?  I don't know. Auditions are in January.

One way or another, I think I need to add more music back into my life. Even if I just turn the TV to a music station (like musicchoice, not MTV), and listen, if a song I like comes on I'll start singing along. So yeah, I'm going to sing more. I still have stage fright, so no, I probably won't sing for you. But I need to start singing for myself more often.