Sing It, Sister!

Karen Carpenter was on to something. Well, maybe not with the whole starvation / bulimia thing, but with the singing thing, she was bang on.

Anyone who knows me knows one thing: I have the kind of smooth, silky singing voice that could make Helen Keller turn in her grave. That’s right, I can’t sing. Not a note. Not one bar. I couldn’t carry a tune with a duffle bag. You want melody… forget it!

That being said, I LOVE SINGING. Love it. I sing all the time… well whenever I’m alone, that is. There’s something that just feels so powerful about belting out a tune (that sounds rather foul doesn’t it. “You’ve been a very very bad tune. I’m gonna give you a belting you won’t soon forget!”). Singing to your hearts content, as loud as you want (remember to be alone when doing this… unless you actually possess some semblance of talent) without a care in the world. Just you and your Judy Garland album.

I listen to music all the time. It surrounds me. At home my CD’s are always playing. At work, too. In between the two, I have my iPod. Unless I’m in the movie theatre or having dinner with people, I’m listening to music. And truth be told, if I’m having dinner with really boring people, I still listen to music just to drown them out. (Shhhhhh, our secret.) And when I listen, I just can’t help myself but to sing along.

Studies have shown that singing is actually beneficial to our health to boot. They say (‘They’ being the people that do these studies) that when we’re singing, good or bad, our mood is elevated and endorphins are released and some other good stuff happens, or something… I wasn’t actually paying attention to the article.

I’ve actually got another confession to make: I sometimes fancy myself a famous singer of some sort, and dance around my apartment singing along with Madonna, Liza, Elton, Tina, Enrique, whoever. I dance around like I was in the video. Mirrors really come in handy at this point. My apartment is not the largest unit on the planet, so I am rather limited to my moves, but I can still Vogue like nobody’s business. Although I did make quick note that I would never again try to duplicate the finale of ‘Flashdance’.

Maybe things will be different when a CERTAIN Fat Girl and I actually get around to booking ourselves into a dance class of some sort. Until then, take a cue from Karen, the ‘They’ and from me…

Sing, sing a song

Sing out loud
Sing out strong
Sing of good things not bad
Sing of happy not sad.

Sing, sing a song
Make it simple to last
Your whole life long
Don't worry that it's not
Good enough for anyone
Else to hear
Just sing, sing a song.

Sing, sing a song
Let the world sing along
Sing of love there could be
Sing for you and for me.
-The Carpenters