My Moment of Glory

This weekend I am in Eau Claire at the always scintillating High School Reunion. I would regale you with stories of my classmates and photos of the amazing nights out, but it was pretty much like your own high school reunions. The scene is comprised of about five people you actually wanted to see again, another ten that are somewhat interesting to reminisce with, and another 50 or so drunken fools who you either don't remember or just plain don't want to remember.

Everybody seems to just fall into the cliques and groupings of high school and then the scene is fueled by alcohol...which doesn't really seem to add that much to everyone's personality despite firm beliefs to the contrary.

But then, toward the end of the night last night, something extraordinary happened.

I was given the opportunity to sing (kareoke) the World's Greatest Rock Ballad.

Apparently only 5 or 6 people felt drunk/confident enough to sing in front of (gasp) their high school peers. Therefore, if one wanted to try something new, one had every opportunity. While I was neither drunk (Just two glasses of wine at dinner 3 hours prior. I had to go home and nurse my Peevers) nor overly confident (I was singing a difficult and classic song I had never tried in public), I still took the bait.

For those of you who know me in real life: I am not overly shy when it comes to public performance. I generally love any captive audience, even drunken ones. However, what you may not know is that I do get nervous and uncertain and although I love kareoke, I am not so keen on singing something with a high potential to make me look foolish due to infamiliarity and high difficulty level. I consider myself far from an accomplished singer but my love of attention outweighs my fear of foolishness. Then, as I perused the song list, I saw the perfect song. The song which contains the best deep and yet cheesy song lyrics ever written as well as being a kickass '80's power ballad. So, I couldn't not go for it.

And so it went:

I know just how to whisper,
And I know just how to cry;
I know just where to find the answers;
And I know just how to lie.

Can you feel it yet, the building music, the grave solemnity:

And I know the roads to riches,
And I know the ways to fame;
I know all the rules
And then I know how to break 'em
And I always know the name of the game.
But I don't know how to leave you,
And I'll never let you fall;
And I don't know how you do it,
Making love out of nothing at all

And then finally...the big crescendo:


Every time I see you all the rays of the sun
Are streaming through the waves in your hair;
And every star in the sky is taking aim
At your eyes like a spotlight,
The beating of my heart is a drum, and it's lost
And it's looking for a rhythm like you.
You can take the darkness from the pit of the night
And turn into a beacon burning endlessly bright.
I've got to follow it, 'cause everything I know, well it's nothing till I give it to you.

The big finish! The crowd goes wild! Air Supply brings down the house!


Really, that moment encapsulates my remembrances of the world that was the '80s and my high school experience. Silly, overly dramatic, sometimes nonsensical, hormone driven, and just plain me being ultimately willing to be a total fool just to get the big moment of glory (even though 2/3 of the people there were either paying no attention or rolling their eyes at the moderate talent fame-whore I can be. Ahhhh. Like I care).

You should all now go to Napster or wherever and immediately download "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" by Air Supply. Imagine yourself pining away over some teenage boy to whom you talk on the phone for two hour every night with the phone cord stretched across the kitchen and into the closet while you parents plead with and threaten you for use of the phone. Remember the glorious earnestness of your dreams and desires and inarticulate longing to be exactly where you are today: grown up.

It's even better than we dreamed, isn't it. Take this journey down memory lane with me. You will thank me.