Running Up That Hill

In the first few years of high school, the people I used to hang out with were somehow tapped into the newest of the new music imports.  All of the 80's euro-pop I love today I heard first while at parties or in cars or in the green room of the school theater getting ready for a show or on walkmans at lunch.  I remember the first time I heard Kate Bush - helping a girl with her costume on the opening night of Aristophanes' The Birds - and I paused to listen because I immediately loved it.  Her voice was amazing and I was already addicted to synthesized music from watching MTV.  We listened to that same mixed tape every night before the show during that run and I never got sick of it.
 
There was a time when my voice was quite a bit higher and my range was quite a bit broader, but in my old age I've lost both and tend to avoid singing anything that's too challenging.  Two nights ago however, I wrote down "Running Up That Hill" on a slip at the bar and then talked myself out of it two seconds later.  Shauna said I should do it and then Brad said something along the lines of, "Are you gonna sing or just sit there all night?" so I said screw it and figured since the bar was mostly dead, it wouldn't really matter if I sucked....which I was convinced would be the case since there's no way in hell I could do that song justice and had previously avoided it for that exact reason. 
 
Anytime I sing a song that I love for the first time, I get shaky.  Not physically shaky but vocally.  My throat goes all wonky and I really have to struggle to keep it in key.  And when I'm done, I have no idea how it actually sounded...I just assume it was bad.  Tuesday night, Shauna said it was actually good and she must have really thought so because she put it in for me again last night.  Crazy.  She also called me on not challenging myself and said I should sing more "girl songs." (I end up singing songs originally done by men more often than not because I'm well aware of how much lower my voice is now than it used to be...and because I'm a wuss.)  We'll see what happens. 
 
I think I'm done being neurotic for this week.  Next week is fair game for ridiculousness but for the next few days, I'm gonna just be happy fun time girl.