You'll laugh, you'll cry

As a kid, I was all about playing pretend. House, school, oldest sister of a family of orphans who had to raise nobly her younger siblings, you name it, I pretended it.

Then I was a generic 'movie star' like five years in a row for Halloween. Apparently movie stars in the mid-nineties wore big polka-dot, hoop earrings and feather boas.

In ninth grade I was deemed Most Likely to Win an Academy Award at our 'Farewell to Freshmen' dance. I blinked back fake tears and pulled a speech out of my borrowed dress.

Ultimately, I chose not to pursue acting, opting instead to involve myself in a task that involves more improv and winging it: motherhood. But the dream still remains, and I'm always excited for a chance to use my skills. My nonverbal comm group is doing a presentation Thursday about territory, space, and distance, and when we found the selection of videos on Youtube about 'invading personal space' seriously lacking, it was obvious that we needed to make our own.

Cedric and I were the on-screen talent, although Garcia makes a couple cameos. Zach was excused since a) he had class and b) he would totally have cracked up (this is also why Garcia didn't do more). Cedric's poker face improved with time, but MY performace was Oscar-caliber throughout.

*It should be noted that all subjects were completely unaware of the camera/what the HECK we were doing (that's pretty obvious) but after the desired reaction(s) were achieved - or we felt too creepy to continue - we immediately apologized and explained about the project and presentation. Most of them were pretty cool about it after that. Most of them.

*It should also be noted that my husband is secure in our marriage and supportive of my art and that he understands it's not my fault that the guy in the library thought I was hitting on him.

Without further ado, here's a link to one of the videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyaWJssSzvI&feature=channel. To see the others, just click on 'more from janamarie118' (that's me). And yes, there are a couple of Clyde and Will, too. One I uploaded to test that it worked and the other one illustrates the sometimes lack of personal space in children - Clyde climbing into Will's carseat, although Will does object.

Enjoy!