My U turn

God dammit, Carl

Back in 2008, Carl was a friend of mine who happened to be a great singer. He wasn’t that great at other things, but his voice gave him a good reputation, so he went along with that wildcard. At that moment I also had a singing career of a few years, having good gigs at local concerts, and owning a well equipped recording studio for my own music projects. Sadly, I didn’t devote much of my time to it because I was running a small design firm that was taking off. That was financially far more important than my music.

I was driving my old VW and picked up Carl on my way back home. I saw him waiting at a bus stop in one of the main avenues where the traffic got stuck for over 20 minutes. I saw him wearing those washed tight jeans that I couldn’t understand. They didn’t seem comfortable. I rolled down the window and yelled at him. He jumped in the car, surprised to see me. Our encounter kickstarted a chain of reaction that made history. The last thing on my list of that rainy Saturday was to meet the woman I would marry 6 months later, but somehow Carl had the ability to unfold weird happenings around him. That bastard.

I was driving through this big avenue lined up with trees, right next to a famous University, when he said “Hey, it’s there! Take the U turn!”. I didn’t understand the hype. It took him a few sentences of scrambled thoughts to explain his sudden excitement. He was a good friend, so I ended up driving around the university block and parking in the back of it. Apparently, there was an audition for a college choir he was going to attend, and he happened to forget completely about it, until he saw said University flying past us at full speed, hiding in between the motion blur of the trees.

I thought “Really? A choir audition?” admired by his passion for all forms of vocal music. I just heard him beatbox for 5 minutes straight, and talk about opera singers, right after a rehearsal he had with a latin music band. Weird dude. One of those rare talents that nobody seems to understand or appreciate, but that people like him wore proudly.

Eight minutes later, I was in the parking lot, still trying to understand the spike of happiness and energy surrounding him. Carl insisted I should also audition for the Choir, while I insisted he should walk back home on his own.

Naturally, I ended up sitting in a waiting room, holding a number card, and waiting for my turn. I walked in the audition hall, without any excitement at all, as I had plans to leave right away.

But, there she was.

The short girl with the curly hair and the voice of an angel. She sucked the air in that room. I immediately thought “I have to nail this. I won’t forgive myself if I don’t get the role!”.

Carl and I got introduced to the choir crew, and I started bouncing nervous looks and awkward smiles across the room. I admit that I wasn’t an experienced latino, as most of my musician and designer friends were, and my traditional dating experience was pretty much based on ex girlfriends that cheated on me, got bored of me, or never really saw me as good boyfriend material. I was the newbie in the room, from many angles.

However, for some reason, I felt very confident with her, and I projected an unusual personality. Before each grasp of air I would take, I would try to speak as clearly and softly as possible, trying to keep my tone of voice calm and relaxed, while in reality, I had a heavy weight in my chest. Or my head. Or somewhere else, I can’t remember. Hopefully this isn’t relevant to the story.

I rolled up my sleeves, as if that would help in any way, and I walked up the stage. I truly did my best. Time went slowly, as I was hitting high notes in middle of a song that seemed to become slower and more profound as I approached the end. Almost as if I didn’t want it to end.

I was very proud of my performance for the audition. I didn’t impress the Choir director. But I impressed her. That’s all I wanted anyway.

I got the Tenor role.

I was so excited that I wanted to go back home and continue practicing. The fear of losing that role as the choir’s tenor got me worried right away. Not because I cared about the crew there, or recognition, but because I knew I already created a nice connection with the girl with the curly hair. I wanted to know where things would move forward in the future, and I knew something great would come out of that connection I felt.

Oh boy, I was so wrong.

– July 2008