Sorry I haven't posted for a couple of days but I've been fighting a cold. This is the first cold that I've had in maybe ten years. Usually the flu shot fights off the winter blues but not this year. I'm up and about now and ready to go back out into the world.
This is the first Monday in several weeks now that I haven't had a comedy class to look forward to on a Monday night. It was such a fun eight weeks. Now I am looking into cooking classes! At least for two more weeks I can look forward to the Wednesday night comedy class.
One of the things that I did while I was fighting off the cold was to go through my desk to clean it out. I came across a file that my Mom had made for me of my "press clippings". Every time my name made the paper she would cut out the article and would stick the article in the folder. She gave it to me for Christmas one year. There was an article about holiday memories that I wrote that was the lead article in a insert in The Tigard Times. A poem that I had written about all the drug overdose deaths among sports figures had made page one of the sports page in The Oregonian. There were a few times when I won movie tickets for quick little blurbs about questions of the week the Oregon used to have in their Friday Entetainment section. However, the one article that I found that really interested me the most was a column written about a time when I did something totally out of character for me. When Who Wants To Be A Millionaire first came out they would get their contestants two ways; one is by phone, you would call a number answer several questions and if you got the questions right you would then go into a pool with all the others that had the right answers. The show would randomly choose ten people from that pool for specific air dates. I got into the pool several times but was never chosen. The other way the show would get contestants is by visiting various cities for tryouts.
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire came to Portland one year. They held their tryouts at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Portland. Standing in line has never been my favorite thing to do. Also I was concerned about what my clients would think if they found out I stood in line several hours to be on a TV show. I gave it some thought and figured unless I got on the show my clients would never find out. The Oregonian building is maybe a block from The Hilton in downtown Portland. Because I had to take my dad to a doctor's appointment that morning I wasn't able to get down to the Hilton until maybe ten o'clock in the morning. There were a thousand or more in line. Who did I get next to in line? There was a block of four of us. An engineer that had driven down to the Hilton from Vancouver, Washington. A college student that had walked down from Portland State. Now you will never guess the fourth party? A reporter from The Oregonian who was sent down by her editor at the paper to experience standing in line, taking the test, and write an article about it for the next morning's paper. We were in line for over six hours. The four of us kind of watched out for each other, when one had to go to the bathroom, take a break, get a cup of coffee, something to eat we would save the spot until their duties were done. We had a great time talking to each other. It really wasn't as bad standing in line as I thought it would be. The one that talked the least was the engineer. He read the almanac most of the time. When we finally got into the Hilton we were given a test with twenty questions on it. You had to get eighteen right to go on to step 2. Step 2 was a video taped interview to see how you would do on camera. The one bad thing about standing in line that long is it kind of fries your brain. I missed going to step two by one freaking question. The only one of the four of in line that went to step two was the almanac reader. He didn't come across well on video so never made it on the show.
The very next morning there was a column on the front page of what was then called The Living Section (now called How We Live) of The Oregonian that mentioned all four of us in line by name, stating our ouccupation, and what we were like to stand in line with. The first call I got was from my friend Ted. The same Ted that I have breakfast with every Sunday. Everyone in Portland knows him. He surprised me when he told me he thought it was the neatest thing for me to do. I received maybe thirty calls that day from clients. All of them were surprised that I would do something so out of character for me but the general consensus was that they wished they had done it!
What have you done that was out of character for you?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Sorry you had a cold, but glad to hear you're on the mend. Cooking classes sound like fun, though probably not as much as comedy classes. Maybe you can share some of the better tips and recipes with us?
I love the story about standing in line for Millionaire, and sorry you didn't get picked. How funny that you got featured in the paper when you thought you'd be anonymous. Goes to show something or other, doesn't it?
I'm overtaxing my brain trying to think of something I've done out of character, at least something fit for publication [eg]. The only thing I can come up with is how I acquired just about all my editing jobs. Somebody who knew me from one area of work would ask if I also did another area. Oh, sure, I'd say, as my nose grew like Pinocchio's. I'd get the job and then I'd fake it until I figured it out. Somehow it always worked, and I'm not sure if that means I was a quick learner or that TPTB couldn't tell good work from the not-so-good kind.
Hi Pat
I really want to take a standup class but be darn if I can find one in Portland so it is cooking, I may look for an acting class. I want to do something to continue getting over my shyness and stage fright.
Yes, appearing in the paper taught me two things, you can never hide and don't worry!
I think the example you gave is marvelous and shows a lot about your personality. Believe it or not I used to do the same thing on jobs. I think it just shows that we are both fast learners! That or people like us and are willing to cut us a break.
Bill
Post a Comment