The Birthday List

This week I sent an email to a casting agency expressing my interest in participating as a movie extra. To be clear, I don't make a habit of writing to casting agencies asking for the opportunity to be an extra. The truth is that I've never even considered it before. For one thing, I'm a lousy actress and for another, I'm just not much of a movie fan. Having a part in a movie, however insignificant, never really occurred to me until recently.

The closest I've ever come to this level of fame and fortune is when I lived in Southern California and a friend called to say she had signed me up to audition for Wheel of Fortune with her. I went along gamely and naively with no idea what I was in for. The process for being chosen as a contestant was to sit in a room with a bunch of people at little elementary school desks with paper copies of puzzles to solve. If you passed the first level you were promoted to the next level and on and on to stardom. I think some of the higher level challenges included jumping up and down and acting super excited. I probably could have passed those but having never watched the show I was a bit vague on the puzzle concept and was eliminated in the first round. I sat around waiting for her as she kept moving through the ranks of contestant selection. She made it to the top tier although she was eight months pregnant and I still cringe at the thought of her jumping up and down. In the end I'm not sure she ever got called to be on the show.

(Source: Google Images)

Now that I think about it that story really has nothing to do with being a movie extra.

Anyway, I sent the email to the casting agency and pointed out that I'm particularly talented at exiting a building and walking down the street. That seems to be what a lot of movie extras do. Walk out of buildings and down streets. I'm pretty sure this is my latest calling.

Whether I'll actually get the opportunity to be filmed while leaving a building and walking down the street remains to be seen. But I took the initiative to inquire because it is 2014 and just before my birthday in December I got this crazy idea to ask others to help me compile a list of new, different, and stretching experiences I can accomplish in the coming year. Being an extra in a movie was one of several interesting suggestions.

I didn't end up getting a lot of responses to my request for ideas. I'm not terribly concerned about the number of items on the list, though. I'm happy with what I got and appreciate those who invested time and brain power in helping me compile the list. I believe if I attempt to fulfill the offerings I will accomplish the goal of expanding my horizons somewhat. In some cases I will probably end up looking a little foolish. But perhaps no more so than failing out of the first level of solving Wheel of Fortune puzzles.

Here is the list:

• Learn to play an instrument I love.
• Learn to throw a Frisbee.
• Hike Mt. Elbert.
• Take a foreign language course.
• Be an extra in a movie.
• Take Irish Step Dance lessons.
• Attend several services at the House for All Sinners and Saints church in Denver.
• Take a road trip by myself.
• Learn to skip a stone.
• Write letters to each of my children saying why they are my favorite.
• Stop and talk with a homeless person.

There were three additional ideas that are still under consideration:

• Spin a globe with my eyes closed, stop it with my finger, and visit the place where my finger lands. I love this idea but am thinking I might alter it to a map of Colorado. I'm not sure I would have the funds nor the wherewithal to go anywhere my finger landed. I mean...what if it landed on Afghanistan or the middle of the Arctic Ocean?

• Sing a solo. As much as I love singing I, weirdly, have terrible stage fright. Speaking in front of groups presents no problem for me but singing creates paralyzing anxiety. I have, in fact, performed a couple of solos in my life. They were terror inducing experiences. I haven't decided if I want to try again.

• Let my hair go to it's natural color. This is the least likely suggestion to make the final list. I don't think the suggesters were actually serious about it but whether they were or not, I'm not sure I'm adding it. For one thing, my hair hasn't been it's natural color since I was 12 or something. For another, I'm not sure I'm ready for the whole grey thing just yet. It sounds terribly boring. I'm still thinking about it.

So that's my list. Some of the suggestions sound fun. Some sound scary. Some sound intimidating. Some sound interesting. And most are things I'd never have thought of on my own which is exactly what I wanted.

I don't anticipate being successful at everything on the list. I just anticipate giving them each a try. At the very least by this time next year I hope to be able to say

E _  _ e _  _ e _  _e       i _       t _ e      B e  _  _    T e _  _ _ e _!