Bexy
The other night I attended the most amazing and surreal karaoke party at a friend’s apartment. We ate, drank and sang the best of the eighties and nineties at the top of our lungs until the neighbors started to complain (at which point we decided that we could continue to sing if we just tried really hard to sing everything at half volume). And then this really weird thing happened around 1:00 in the morning. Nobody left the party. It kept getting later and later, but our numbers remained strong even as the sun started peeking out over the nyc skyline (and if you’re under 25 and reading this, just wait a few years and then tell me this is not a strange phenomenon).
We were all tired. I think I even passed out for about 15 minutes on the couch, but then woke up again just in time to join in on “Sweet Child O Mine”. After the song I looked over at my friend who was asking one of the guests: “Are you really leaving this purgatory of karaoke?” I couldn’t help laughing because it did feel like we had somehow reached a purgatorial level of partying. Somehow we all got stuck in this strange place between partying and passing out. We were unable to tear ourselves away from that book of songs, even though our heads were aching with exhaustion, our arms were reaching for couch pillows and cushions and our voices were becoming sore and weak. The songs just kept coming: Bon Jovi, Aha, Outkast, Madonna, and of course, MJ.
When I finally did get home I was still lost in that purgatory. My body was begging me for sleep but all I could think to do was brush my teeth, wash my face and then sit down at my computer. It was like I missed my chance for sleep.
I started thinking about the other purgatory that I’ve been in since graduation. Stuck between school and career, I’ve been trying desperately to figure out how to make the transition from student to professional. But I keep getting turned around, lost, nervous and confused. It’s like I’ve been reading through the same songbook for months, trying to decide which one will work out, trying out a few, hoping for the best, all the while just wanting to give up and pass out. But as Bon Jovi would say: We’ve got to hold on, ready or not. You live for the fight when it’s all that you’ve got.
Sometimes in karaoke I will pick a song that I absolutely love, only to find out that it is unnecessarily difficult to sing and I can’t remember the melody for the non-chorus sections. “Umbrella” by Rihanna is a good example of this. Other times, someone else will pick a karaoke song that I generally detest but I find myself (almost uncontrollably) singing along at the top of my lungs while thrusting a clenched fist into the air or pointing furiously at strangers. “Total Eclipse of the Heart” is a good example of that. In unemployment, as in karaoke, you never know how things are going to turn out until you try absolutely everything and probably make a total fool of yourself in the process. For example, I applied to a job a couple months ago that I am totally unqualified for, but I recently got called to come in for an interview. I never thought that after law school I would be going back for yet another degree, but here I am, getting ready to register for classes. As Alicia Keys puts it: All I know is, everything’s going to be alright.
And yes, I realize this is a blog about unemployment and this post has basically been about karaoke with some very dubious connections to unemployment. So as Outkast would say: I apologize a trillion times.
