A Brush With Stardom

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If you haven't already, check out my uber-swank contest promoting the Writing for Young Readers Conference this summer!  Yours truly will be teaching the beginning novel workshop,  so for all you writers out there, sign up!  You will be hard pressed to find a better value for your money out there.  And I'm all about  value for da money, trust me. If you're not a writer, or just can't swing the conference this year, help promote it and be eligible for the same great prizes!  The contest ends on Friday, so enter now, while you're thinking about it.

So, remember how I want to be a TV extra?  This is actually not a totally random whim (of which I have many) and it's not for my love of the spotlight (which is a lukewarm love at best).   It's for a writing project I'm working on and have been planning for awhile.  Then, luck of luck:  I discovered that the show I wanted to be an extra for was actually filming an episode in Utah the very NEXT WEEK!

Then the luck ran dry. My husband, who is rarely sick, fell victim to a nasty flu.  Determined not to let it affect me, I avoided this flu by getting 12 hours of sleep a night, drinking plenty of fluids,  bathing in hot water with Epsom salts, and getting close to Daniel only to give him my miracle-cure apple cider.

Unfortunately, I avoided this flu until the day BFF Brodi and I were heading up to Park City to be part of the action.   After a prolonged, boring exchange with the Film Commission and our various "contacts" we learned that the show already had more than enough extras.  Which was good, because although I deluded myself into thinking I was healthy that day, when I washed my hands at Brodi's and saw myself in the mirror, I said (not just to myself, but audibly) "I look sick."

Indeed I did.  In every sense of the word.

Worse still, once in Park City my ears clogged up, my hearing not to return until the end of the day.  Oh, and it was FREEZING.  Brodi noted my lack of  usual "sidling skills."

B:  So what do we do first?"

ME:  Well, first we should...you know...wait, what did you just say?

But the day wasn't a total waste.  We chatted with an actual extra, and managed to get close to the filming due to our "contacts."  Of course, I didn't take a picture then.  No, I waited until we were walking away.

Awesome pic, right?  In case you were wondering, yes, I did take this literally as I was walking away.  I figured it couldn't be worse than the blurry photos I take while standing still.

The best part was when we stopped for lunch and a hot beverage:

Besides it being a fun time, lunch was also where I met Stephanie, waiting for a pick-up order.  I knew she worked for the show immediately because of her accent specific to the region where the show filmed.  Not, of course, by the puffy vest she was wearing with SHOW'S NAME embroidered on the back.  Stephanie was the tutor for the little boy in the above picture (not Brodi.  The one above that).  This struck me as the COOLEST JOB EVER.

Which is probably why I will never be famous.