DareMe: Singing My Heart Out

Letting go of the fear and muscling through the pain was all part of being able to deliver Rice Krispie Treats with love.

What is Valentine’s Day all about? Is it just a silly lovers’ holiday that revolves around chocolates, flowers and obnoxious displays of affection? That’s all good and fun, but it all had to start somewhere. There are many legends that describe a Saint Valentine who, when marriage was outlawed for young men, continued to perform ceremonies for young lovers in secret. Lovers continue to celebrate in his name, which is a sweet story, but let’s get back to chocolates, flowers and all that fun sappy stuff.

This month’s mission? To deliver singing Valentine telegrams to people in their workplaces, completely embarrassing them and me in a couple of musical notes. I have always enjoyed singing and my voice isn’t too bad if I do say so myself; however, when it comes to performing in front of other people I get so nervous I want to puke. To do this dare, I was going to have to just let go of those fears.

Where was I going to go? Who to visit? What to sing? I’m not one to jump in head first until I do some research, so I looked up videos of singing telegrams to see what people sang and wore. Hoping for some inspiration, I was let down to find there are really no videos or tips accessible. I put posts on Facebook telling my friends what I was doing and looking for people to sing to. I didn’t strike much luck there, either.

I could tell this dare was going to be precious, and it had to be caught on film. I got in contact with Jonathon Schermerhorn, Motif’s own movie man, and together we narrowed down our destination list to two towns: Warwick and Providence.

I decided that if I was going to burst into people’s work in song and dance, the least I could do was come bearing sweet treats, so I was off to the store to find ingredients for Rice Krispie Treats and a costume.

It was the night before Jon and I planned to meet, and all that was left to do was make the Rice Krispie Treats. That night I went out to dinner, when I got out of the car, I felt a searing pain in my lower abdomen. I went into the restaurant hoping it would go away, but it got worse until I was squirming in my seat and crying uncontrollably. I kept telling myself that I could muscle through dinner, but halfway through I was singing a different tune. My insides were burning. It felt like I swallowed a dozen razor blades that were slowly making their way through my intestinal tract. I was feeling sharp pains in my kidneys, and it was almost too painful to take a breath.

My mother told me to go to urgent care, but I explained that I couldn’t because I had to make Rice Krispie Treats. Obviously, she did not understand because she kept urging me to go. It was nearly 10 pm, and no urgent care was going to be open. I was going on two horrible hours of pain when I decided I couldn’t take it anymore, got in my car and went to the emergency room. I saw the doctor, I did some tests, he prescribed antibiotics and I was out of there.

When I got home I ate something, took the antibiotic and felt better in just minutes. So I made the Rice Krispie Treats. But while melting the marshmallows I put my plastic spatula down a little too close to the flame and as luck would have it, when I picked it up, the melted plastic adhered to my wrist. Luckily, the hospital bracelet I still wore protected me from too much damage.

I finished the Rice Krispie Treats and hit the pillow at nearly 4 am. I woke up at 7 am to deliver my telegrams, but because of my exhaustion and the nausea from the antibiotic, Jon and I decided to keep it short.

At our first location, Bald Hill Pediatrics, we delivered a singing telegram to Penny. She’s my mom, but it still counts. I sang “At Last,” while she wore a princess crown, just so she would feel extra special, handed out my sweets, and we were outta there. Next on the list was Save the Bay where we were going to sing “Somebody to Love” to Isaac. I seriously underestimated how many people work at Save the Bay. It seemed like there were 30 people watching me stumble through the lyrics! I was fading, and since we had to go back to the Motif studios anyway, Jon and I figured we would sing to anyone in the office. We sang “Can’t Help Falling In Love” for Erin, our sales director, and Caitlin, our associate editor. Erin’s reaction was my favorite of the day because when she heard me sing, her jaw dropped, which definitely boosted my confidence.

This dare was a lot of fun, minus the whole hospital thing. I was proud of myself for singing in front of people and it made my week when people actually enjoyed it. I almost turned down this dare due to nerves, but I’m glad I went through with it. Providence, don’t be afraid to push your limits! Go ahead and stick your neck out for that thing or that person you love. You may just get your heart’s desire.