Adventures in Jeopardy (Part 3)

Waiting in the Pool

I was a basket case! My friends were hilarious and many of them were offering to sponsor me, because I found out that you have to pay your way to the show – and you don’t get any money until 90 days after the show AIRS. But, I tried to downplay it all because they had told us that the “pool” is about 3,000 people. And they only have about 400 spots on the show for each season. Now, we would be in the pool for 18 months, so that’s really about 600 possible spots, but still… the odds are not in your favor!

 

Unless you’re me, of course. 

So, time passes and Rich has started saying “Has Alex called” again, and I’d say, “No, not yet!” and would still watch Jeopardy! every night (yes, I DVR it. Shut up.), and spring turns into summer, turns into fall, and…

In October, I got a call from the “Glen from Jeopardy!” I was out with friends and didn’t hear the phone ring, so he left a voice mail. I was at Atomic with Kathleen tending bar, and some of my other friends when I checked my voice mail, and I pretty much freaked the hell out! Something along the lines of: “OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!” deep breath “OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!” And I hadn’t even talked to the guy yet! LOL

I called Glen back the next day, and sure enough, I was being invited to be on the show! OMGOMGOMGOMG!!! I went through the entire discussion, wrote down the dates (in early January) and said, “Oh yes, I would love to come!” and hung up.

And then I realized that the week of the filming was the same week I was supposed to lead a Lean Process Improvement event at work. DANG IT!  So, I emailed my boss, who was on vacation, that I had good news and bad news: the good news was I was going to be on Jeopardy! The bad news was it was that week. I then called Glen back to let him know that I might have a conflict. He said I really needed to let him know for sure by the end of the day.

Luckily, my boss responded with “Of course!” I had looked into rescheduling the event and everyone was open for the following week, but Rick even said that we could have one of the other guys lead the event if we couldn’t reschedule… so… I was in!

I looked around for flights and the cheapest were out of Dulles, so I emailed my sister Cathy to see if a) I could stay with them the night before I left and b) if she wanted to come with me. (Yes, and YES!!!!) So, I reserved the room at the hotel at the studio rate, and booked non-stop flights from Dulles to LAX for January 8 – 11, 2013. We were on like Donkey Kong!

And later that week I saw Rich and just said, "Guess what?  Alex called!" He looked at me funny for a sec and then *ding ding ding* the lights came on! heeheehee

(OK, it wasn’t actually Alex, but I WAS going to meet him!)