Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Me! Me! I Want to be a Millionaire!
Amy Edgerly

This year, my birthday really sucked. I won't bore you to tears with all the reasons, but let's just say it wasn't mine, or anyone else's, idea of a good birthday. Stuff happened that shouldn't have, and stuff that should have happened, didn't.

This year on my birthday I woke up with a feeling -- a feeling that started small, like a seed, and then it grew and grew and grew with the watering it was getting from all the stuff that was and wasn't happening throughout the day. So I did something that I just couldn't help: I cried all frigging day. I couldn't stop. I just kept crying. Like I said, it sucked. That was October 20th.

On October 22nd I was back at my desk at work. When everyone asked how my birthday weekend was, I had nothing to say, and that just made me stay in my dark blue mood.

About halfway through the morning, my phone rang. When I answered it was my dad and I thought he thought he was funny by telling me that Who Wants To Be A Millionaire had called and left a message for me at their house. I believed he was trying to joke with me. I was not in the mood to be messed with. But he played the message on the answering machine to me so I could listen over the phone. Oh yeah! It was them! Guess whose mood changed drastically in just a few seconds?!?

Several phone calls, and a few hours later, I had plane reservations, hotel reservations, baby-sitters, days off from work and I was going to New York to be on WWTBAM!

No, they didn't call me out of the clear blue, I had auditioned a couple of months earlier, but had never gotten the postcard in the mail saying they were putting me in the contestant pool. I just figured that they didn't want me, I didn't qualify or something happened and I forgot all about it. The timing couldn't have been better, let me tell you, I was one excited person!

My husband and I left Houston early on the following Sunday morning, October 29, and flew to NYC. This was my first trip to the Big Apple and I was really jazzed about it. There was so much I wanted to do and see in the three days we were there.

But as one might imagine, I was also just slightly frightened, somewhere in the back of my brain. After all, I was 1) flying; 2) to NYC; and 3) going to be in the ABC building. This was just a few days after the initial anthrax incidents, one of which occurred at ABC. But I sucked it up and pushed it aside, because 1) I AM a biker and 2) no way in hell was I going to miss my one chance in a lifetime to be on that show and 3) maybe win a truckload of loot! So there to the terrorists!

We landed at La Guardia Airport that afternoon and were met by a limo driver holding up a sign with my name on it. Way Cool! That was one of the the first cool things to happen.

He drove us into Manhattan to The Lucerne Hotel on 79th and Amsterdam. This is one of those hotels with the doormen in uniforms out front that won't let you even touch the front door, let alone open it. WWTBAM really took very good care of us with the accommodations. Our room was wonderful and was totally first class. I felt like I had already won the million!

A couple hours later, I was due at a meeting for the show. This is when I got to meet the other 9 contestants who were also on the show I was scheduled to be on, along with a couple of the producers.

We had a really diverse group of contestants: a mailman from Tennessee, a journalist from Massachusetts, a bartender from Connecticut, an actor from Los Angeles, a cleaning lady from Buffalo, a photographer from D.C., and yours truly, a biker journalist from the Great State of TEXAS!!

They gave us the rundown of our schedule and the rules for the taping the next day, they checked our wardrobe, (yes, they have to approve what you are going to wear on the show) and we handed in our list of possible phone-a-friend lifelines. Then the evening was ours and we were free to see the city.

I have a sister, Jan, who lives in Stamford, CT with her family, and lucky me - I got a free trip to NYC so I got to see her. This birthday was getting better and better all the time. Jan, and her husband Paul, drove into the city to pick us up and take us to dinner.

At this point I have to mention with much pride that my brother-in-law, Paul is a Captain in the Stamford, CT Fire Department. Not only has he risked his life on many dangerous events, but he also helped with the rescue and recovery efforts at the WTC, but he had also just the night before been awarded the honor of being named "Fireman of the Year for the State of Connecticut". Yea, Paul!!

Jan and Paul drove us to Little Italy in the Bronx, to a most charming little restaurant called Dominick's. Dominick's is wonderfully charming and authentic New York Italian restaurant: the walls are paneled, the tables are long and uniformly lined up against the walls, creating an almost cafeteria like layout, but which looks like a whole bunch of family dining room tables with the leaves put in. There's a little bar near the entrance, over which a World Series game was playing on a little suspended TV. It was very close to closing time when we sat down, so when the owner, Dominick came to the table, he said "I don't-a have much left. I gotta little veal, I gotta little pasta. You want that?" We said "Sure. Four veal parmesan dinners, and a bottle of Chianti."

A minute later, out comes the dinner salad (fresh and wonderful) and the bread (a Little Italy specialty, and no wonder). And not but a few minutes after that, 4 plates piled mountainously with Veal Parmesan and pasta. And this veal -- mmmmwow! My mouth and stomach were so happy! Two huge cutlets each plate, so tender you cut it with a fork. It was absolutely "To Die For" as the saying goes. Don't even get me started on the sauce!

After letting Dominick close up, we go to another place close to the Lucerne and finished watching the game, which the Diamondbacks won, sadly. Funny how when I found myself in New York, I suddenly turned into a staunch Yankees [or was it Mets, Larry? I forget.] fan. We took pictures together outside and hugged and said our good-byes and went back to the hotel for some shut-eye; 'cause ABC was picking us up on the lobby at 6:45 a.m. the following morning and I was still on Texas Time!

At 6:45 a.m. the next morning, which was Monday, we had our happy butts in that lobby, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. A van took us over to the ABC studios where we were security checked at the door and ushered in. Once we set foot in that building we were under contestant quarantine. No paper, books, pens, pencils, newspapers, or magazines -- nada. We were even escorted outside and babysat for our smoke breaks. They fed us breakfast and we spent the morning giving our last minute personal interviews to the producers. Then it was off to rehearsal.

Rehearsal was fun. After the show's lawyer explained all the legal stuff to us, we got down to business. They assigned us our fast finger seats. They explained how the cameras were going to work for the introduction. They let us practice with 5 fast finger questions so we'd have a feel for the machine. Then we each got to take a turn jumping into the hot seat, "just in case".

You might not have realized this, but the hot seat is a very high, very cheap piece of furniture; and if one does not hop into it with just the right amount of force, one could end up flat on their back on that glass floor. (Which by the way has a concave flooring under it with broken mirror pieces glued to it to reflect the lights). Anyway, I managed to answer 4 out of my 5 practice fast finger questions correctly, but none of them in the fastest time. Still, my confidence level did not waiver; I was having such a blast anyway.

After our practice session lunch was served, and then took us up to makeup. Here we met the gal who was the holdover contestant from the last taping and the first hot seat contestant for our taping. She was a truck-driver and biker chick! From Delaware and she looked and sounded just like Bret Butler, the comedienne! She was really cool. She was in one makeup chair while I was in another, and some other female contestants were also in the room fixing their hair, and we were just cutting up left and right, entertaining the makeup artists. They said we were the most fun group they'd had in there in awhile. Usually contestants are quiet and nervous they said. Well, not us! But then we had two bikers amongst us!

Before we knew it, it was time to line up and hit the soundstage. The audience was already seated and was being warmed up by a comedian. We had seen people lined up outside to be in the audience as early as our first smoke break, and it was COLD out!

We each got introduced in turn and got our own little round of applause (wouldn't that be a great self-esteem booster to have one of those every day?) and took our assigned seats. But before they started taping, out came the man we'd all been waiting for -- REGIS!!

Regis was exactly like I had imagined he would be: dapper, pleasant, funny, relaxed, and personable. He came around to each of us, shook our hands and we said our names for him so he could pronounce them correctly. He gave each of us a "nice to meet you, (contestant's name here)" before moving on. He was very nice.

Then it was the time we had all been waiting for, we taped the show. (More on this at the end of this story!)

The next thing we did was go back to our hotel, collect our $150 cash spending money, courtesy of WWTBAM, and started celebrating!! The coolest thing about being on the show was meeting two new friends, who just so happened to be staying in the room right next to us.

They were the cleaning lady from Buffalo, Debra "Merv" Griffin and her old man Robert Granger. And they are bikers!! We buzzed them over, poured some cocktails, toasted ourselves for getting so far, and then hit the streets of New York to look for excitement and adventure!

We grabbed a cab for our first stop, Central Park, Strawberry Fields, the John Lennon Memorial section of the park, directly across the street from his last home, the Dakota Apartments. We took pictures to commemorate our trip there, walked around, talked to several of those so-called rude New Yorkers. There were some little old men who were walking dogs who would stop to help give us, four leather clad long-hairs, directions, or tell us which apartment window was John Lennon's, or explain that was an Osage Orange tree that drops those huge fruit all over the park -- those rude New Yorkers, I think not!

We found a pond that looked curiously much like the pond where Treat Williams and Beverly D'Angelo skinny-dipped in "Hair", but there was no way to be sure of that.

When we had completed our park venture, we decided it was time to find some nightlife. We grabbed another cab and we set off for more exploration of the City and entertainment! Since I can't begin to remember all the establishments we graced with our presence from that point on, I will suffice it to say that we had one hell of a party night.

"Merv" and Robert became our friends that day, not just acquaintances. They've even given us a ring once or twice since we have returned back to our normal lives. We even look forward to seeing them in upstate New York sometime when it's warm enough to ride. They were phenomenally cool and an additional ingredient in enhancing our total enjoyment of the trip.

We had most of the last day in New York to enjoy ourselves because our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 6 pm. We walked a long stretch of Broadway, just to say we did it, then flagged down a cab and rode down to the place we had to see before we headed out. We got as close as we could get to Ground Zero.

As soon as we, actually even before, we stepped out of the cab, there was a noticeably and a distinctly different smell in the air. The smell of smoldering fire and ash and dust that just hung in the air like a smoky gray ghost. There were barricades up all around with a two-block border surrounding the recovery area. Policemen stood guard on each corner; some wearing facemasks to protect their lungs, or to just keep out the smell.

We walked around as far as we could and took pictures where and when we could, but they didn't turn out very well. In the sense that you can't see in the photos what we saw with our own eyes and the eyes of others seeing the destruction before them. We saw glimpses of about 4 or 5 stories of a black burned out building, surrounded by piles and piles of concrete, with an American flag waving from one of the used-to-be windows, at least I think it had been a window -- maybe it used to be a wall...

We stopped by Trinity Church to read some of the messages of heartfelt sympathy and hope, some of which were even from people from Texas. I wanted to add one of our own, and a woman was standing there handing out markers to those who wanted them, but I just couldn't find any words. Pretty sad coming from a writer, isn't it? But understandable at that moment when my heart was too full for my brain to adequately function and put what I was feeling into words.

We both paid our own silent tribute to those lost and those saved and those left behind to mourn and struggle and work to recover, and then we moved on, as all of us must do... somehow.

Next, we were off to the Village and simply walked around window-shopping. We ate at a wonderful Greek restaurant, then decided to head back towards the hotel. We were let off near 79th and Broadway, we did a little last minute shopping, and then it hit me! I had almost forgotten to eat New York style cheesecake while in New York!! Luckily, there was a diner right across the street where we were served the largest piece of cheesecake I have ever seen, which only cost $3.50. After that, it was back to the hotel to meet our driver to take us to LaGuardia, and catch our flight home and back to normal life!

We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, even after going through security, so we took a seat at the airport lounge and watched TV while drinking a beer. The local news came on and there was a reporter standing right outside the airport we were in, reporting on the heightened terrorists threats for that day due to President Bush being on his way into town to attend a World Series game. Imagine how we felt sitting there listening to that!

However, even with all the "threats" and the worry, we still made it home safe and sound. And it wasn't until then that I realized that President Bush and I had been in the same city, at the same time, twice in one year, and neither city was the one I lived in which happens to be where his father lives! (If you remember I mentioned that we had also both been in Omaha during the College World Series in my Part 1 story on What I Did on my Vacation). And, come to think of it, that brings up that in both instances, we were in the same place at the same time because of baseball. That may be neither here nor there, but I think it's kind of cool. Maybe next time our schedules coincide, I'll actually get to meet him! Hey, a girl can dream.

One of the legalities for us on "Millionaire" was that we couldn't tell anyone the outcome of the show until after it airs. So, I wasn't going to say anything more in this story, except I am very grateful that I got a free trip to New York City. I was going to write that the date the show was to air was December 27th, but I got surprised on the 13th when it actually aired! I wasn't anywhere near a VCR so I couldn't even record it. But our new friends "Merv" and Robert got a call from ABC before it aired so they taped it and have promised to send me a copy. So maybe we'll still have that "viewing party" at the 'Line nevertheless!

So, I didn't win a million dollars and I didn't even make it into the hot seat, so what? I still got to visit one of the greatest cities in the world for the first time, saw some sights at a time in history that will never be again, met new and great people who I now count among my friends.

So, the movie is right, "It's a wonderful life!" I may not be a millionaire, but I'm pretty darn rich if you ask me. And my birthday turned out GREAT!

I got to do things and go places that I never would have under any other circumstances and I experienced things that few will ever get the chance to. I'm happy.