Slice of Life - Day 1 (Deep exhale)

The fact is, I’m not all that comfortable starting this blog. Somehow I got caught up when a colleague asked me if I was doing it, and then another colleague mentioned it. And then I signed up.

This is what I do. I am generally an overly cautious person. It runs in the family. Seriously, my favorite picture book character is Scaredy Squirrel, because I finally saw a character that reflected myself. Fear is a great motivator, however…

Every now and then I do the OPPOSITE of my normal, anxious self.  For example (in random order):

• I was an extra in a Johnny Depp movie, playing a bank customer when he (as John Dillinger) held up a bank.
• I flew to NYC without telling anyone to audition for the Met Opera Chorus.
• I flew to NYC alone (again) to watch my favorite Russian tenor sing my favorite Russian opera.
• I moved to San Francisco for “love” when I was 25. (I moved back two years later - you do the math)
• I bought myself a ticket to see Madonna in concert. I went alone so I could sit in the 21st row.
• Marched in an anti-Iraq war protest in San Francisco in 2003.

I realize, to most people, these things are no big deal, but I’m the type of person that puts off making phone calls rather than talk to strangers, never once ate in the lunchroom of a job I had for two years, and once just drove home and quit because I got lost on the way to a new job. So this list demonstrates that sometimes, out of the blue, I can shut out the doubt and do something for the heck of it.  I get a certain “feeling” - a sort of giddiness and intuition that I need to do something, that it’s my last chance, that at least I can say that I had the experience - and go for it.  

So far, I’ve not regretted taking any of these chances. That’s what I’m hoping for here.