Adventures in Jeopardy (Part 8)

The viewing party

Before I left for LA, my friends and I had already determined that there WOULD be a viewing party for my episode of Jeopardy. We had decided to have it at Nanny O’Brien’s because they had a back room with a huge TV that we could all enjoy. And then I found out that my episode was on a Wednesday, which is the day of the week that Nanny’s has their Wing Night, which is a HUGE success. I talked it over with Brian and asked Beth about it, and we decided to move the party to The Board Room in Dupont Circle, where we could have it upstairs with the sound on. Beth was so excited about it, she said she was going to have a viewing party there even if we weren’t there! Haha!

So, I reserved space with Beth, assuming probably about 10-15 people would be coming to my party. And then I posted the invitation on Facebook… and immediately about 20 people responded that they were going! So I told Beth it looked like it would be closer to 20-25 people for the Happy Hour. Because I know a lot of people outside of DC, I decided to post two invitations: one to the physical party at the Board Room and one just to let people know when it was on so they could watch wherever they were in the country. The outpouring of congratulations and fun was just amazing to me. The only problem was that I had no way to show it to my friends who do NOT live in the States! Oh well.

Anyway – it was finally May 1, and I made it to the Board Room and some of my friends were already there. Beth had set up a sign on the stairs to indicate that it was my party (Yay!), but the few people that were already there were still downstairs, except Eddie who had already staked a claim at the bar. I was in a bit of a whirlwind, because people just kept coming! I’d get through saying Hi to one group of friends and then another bunch of people would come in. I had friends from college, friends from Bob’s, friends from Cleveland Park, and even friends from Facebook! I counted 65 people at one point, and still more showed up! And the all introduced themselves and had great conversations, and many drinks. It was very crowded in that upstairs bar, but it was a blast! Eventually, I ordered a bunch of pizzas from Flippin’ Pizza, so we all could sit, eat and get settled before the show started.

There was actually another small party in the area as well, who were planning to watch basketball. We told them that we were going to be watching Jeopardy with the sound on, but then they could turn it all back to the basketball if they wanted. They were excited to join in – in fact, one girl said, “Oh we like to play along!” I responded, “Funny, so do I!” heeheehee

Watching the show was hilarious. Everyone was cheering and booing, and laughing and saying “Shhhh!” whenever I said anything on the show so they could hear me. I think every TV in the bar was tuned to Jeopardy for that half hour, and it was really a great, raucous party.

Omar took a picture of me, with me on TV -- VERY surreal!

Hanging with the Williamssss!

And as Double Jeopardy wound down, everyone was getting anxious and they were yelling “WITHERS! It’s BILL WITHERS!” at the screen, but… I still didn’t get it, and ended up not making it to Final Jeopardy… AGAIN. I looked around and everyone’s face was just this gaping expression of disbelief, so I stood up, spread my hands and shrugged, “Did I forget to tell you that I LOST???”

Much laughter and silliness ensued, and continued into the night...

Thus endeth my Adventures in Jeopardy. Except that I get called "Jeopardy Girl" on quite a few occasions, and I am a big pusher of doing the online Jeopardy tests. Because, that's the only way to get on the show these days!

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Thanks to ALL of my friends and family for all of the support they gave me throughout this adventure. I really could NOT have done it without you!

I cannot even express how amazing that night felt to me. I kept telling people that I felt like the Grinch in that my heart just kept getting bigger and bigger as more people showed up. And my heart was pretty big to begin with! I loved that although a lot of my friends hadn’t met each other before, they all got along and talked and laughed with each other.  This whole experience was really a once-in-a-lifetime, amazing and awesome whirlwind ride. I can’t believe it sometimes that I’ve actually been on Jeopardy, and that all of those people actually came to a party for ME. I always joke around that I’m the center of the universe (note the t-shirt), but that really is a joke to me. So it was very weird to ACTUALLY be the center of attention – and boy, was that a LOT of attention! But it was also fabulous. Absolutely FABULOUS!

(And I looked mahhhvalous, dahling!)

Added 03/11/16: I just found a link to the actual questions from my episode!