Despite what my Facebook status said, I didn't sing for the Akron AEROSOLS baseball team, it was the AEROS. (Damn you, Auto-Correct!)
My S. U. graciously took me to stand out the AEROS stadium this past Saturday. It was REALLY cold. Thank God he had talked me out of my original audition outfit, a skirt and blouse. "It's freezing outside! It's the Aeros for God's sake!"
"It's an audition!" I whined back.
"You're going to freeze," says Mr. Weatherman.
"What? I'm supposed to wear my stuff for the Humane Society?" I was going there next to help with an Education Program (I did feel that would be a Social Faux Pas actually, that it would be unprofessional and DISRESPECTFUL.)
"It's the Aeros, for God's sake! You're gonna freeze."
"It'll be inside, I'll be fine!"
"IT'LL BE OUTSIDE! YOU'RE GONNA FREEZE!" This is turning into a huge Fashion Debate.
"Fine!" I think. And I change. We're standing in line and I'm thinking....could he be right? In the lobby area they had a table where you filled out paperwork and then we went down a long hallway and yes, into the stadium proper. They file us into a line that goes down stairs to one of the gates that leads onto the field. It is freezing and the wind is blowing, circling around the stadium, whipping hair, coats, scarves into a frenzy. I turned to my S.U. and tell him, yes, he was right about my wearing pants!
There are about 6 to 8 people in front of me. God/dess bless them all for trying because I'll bet most of them thought it was ---
a) going to be indoors
b) there would be a piano player
Oh, no! You walked out to (I think) the pitcher's mound and (luckily) faced away from the stands. As I listened I was so glad I had brought my pitch-pipe so I could start on a good note. (NO pun intended.) One of the weird things that happens is if you listen to other people singing, sometimes you pick up their habits or pitch. And with one exception, I was rooting for most of these people to please, please, please Pick A Pitch And Stay There.
Of course being good sports, we all congratulated each person as they came off the field. It is a big deal and it's pretty scary stuff. I kept quietly hitting the Bb on my pitch-pipe. I felt that if I could start right, I could finish right. I began to walk out on to the field, and it was even colder down there. I actually trotted out to the guy with the clipboard and handed him my wildly blowing audition slip. "Hi, how are you? Man, it's cold out here1" And it's really BIG! You don't know how big a real stadium is until you are actually ON the field.
"You are...Mia?"
"Yes, that's me!" He told me how to hold the mike. I took a steadying breath and started to sing. I screwed up one word: "Blare" for "Glare" (I always seem to do that...) and I think I could have hit "free" better but other than that, I thought I did well. The guy with the clipboard said, "That was fantastic!" Thank you, thank you, I'm thinking. I thanked him, said it was fun and trotted back to the doorway back into the stadium.
As I walked up the stairs, people said it was great and I thanked them. One guy said, "You've done this before!"
"Only in Canada!" (I forgot about Nautica ages ago. Another story for another time.)
I'm glad I did it even though they are only looking for 19 people and there were 87 folks there.
There is the ABJ article video...I am not in it....thank God!
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