AJ and I have had a great extra day- drinking and eating breakfast outside in the backyard, I’ve been reading, we worked on paint by numbers while watching comedy specials, playing Yahtzee while watching Jeopardy, and about to have dinner. It’s been a full, fun extra day.
Hope you’re all having a good one too.
Saturday, February 29, 2020
Friday, February 28, 2020
Jeopardy!
Sooo while I haven't been holding on to this secret for too long, I've still been keeping it a secret for a few weeks now...
I'm officially in the Jeopardy contestant pool!
Here's the longer version of the story: We have some friends that we love to watch Jeopardy with. Earlier this year, they found the information for the online quiz to possibly be on the show, and sent it to us, saying we should try. AJ couldn't be bothered but I decided to give it a shot. This was sometime last month. I thought it went pretty well, although they don't give you a score.
While we were in England, I got an email from the Jeopardy producers inviting me to an audition, so I confirmed. They offer them around the country and I signed up for the Los Angeles one (duh).
They told us we would be given a test, and dismissed if we didn't pass. If we did, we would stay and play mock versions of the game and be interviewed. We also had to dress as we would if we were actually appearing on Jeopardy.
My time "studying" was mainly watching lots of old episodes of Jeopardy. I got nervous on the day of. I got ready and headed up early. The audition was taking place in a hotel conference room, in a pretty dumpy area of Culver City. I meant to bring a small shooter with me to take the edge off, but I forgot, so I went in to the hotel early and had a shot of Fireball (they didn't have Skrewball!). The only other people around were obviously other contestants.
We sat outside the room where we had to pick up some papers and wait. When they came out, they took all of our individual pictures on a Polaroid. They gave us an introduction, a run down of the day, and then we watched a movie with none other than Alex welcoming up and wishing us luck and telling us to enjoy the process, and then we took the quiz. Pretty sure I completely nailed it, although I can't know for sure. They told us they don't release scores because they don't want players intimidating each other, it's only pass or fail.
After that, we all took turns playing mock versions of the game. They taught us how to use the buzzers and we all got Jeopardy pens that were made to emulate the buzzers so we could practice at home haha. I was getting nervous, because the people before me definitely had clues that I for sure didn't know the answer to. When it was my turn, I got to be the champion spot although it didn't really count for anything other than picking the first category. But, I was really proud of how good I did during my round! I was lucky there were some good categories for me... Podcasts and From the French were my favorite. And I even got this clue: Alexander McQueen's brand designer Sarah Burton created her wedding dress, and her sister Pippa's bridesmaid dress. Answer: KATE MIDDLETON! Loved that haha. After our game, they interview us on camera and I think we had a lot of fun and did great. I was pretty happy with it in the end.
After that, they explained to us that we're in their files for 18 months, and if we don't get randomly selected to come on in that time, we can take the online quiz again and try out again. They said some of their best players had to try out more than once. Definitely not very comforting, and the numbers aren't that great either: they told us 99,000 people took the online test. I don't remember the number of how many passed, but they'll meet with about 3,000 people through the US and Canada in the audition process, and about 400 people end up on the show. They said they need to vary locations, professions, personalities, etc, and that it's really a giant jigsaw puzzle for them. So, it's still a wildcard chance to get on the show, but it's been really fun to go through the process and get this far!
I was relieved when it was over. I had been getting almost stressed about it and spent the better part of the day nervous. I went to the better part of Culver City and met with Jessica for dinner and drinks at a really cute shopping area called Platform.
The night was perfect and we had wine and a really amazing "Bee Sting" pizza that featured chilis and honey. I was so exhausted when I got home... and what did I even do? I don't know, but this is how I know I'm getting old.
Fingers crossed for a Jeopardy appearance!
I'm officially in the Jeopardy contestant pool!
Here's the longer version of the story: We have some friends that we love to watch Jeopardy with. Earlier this year, they found the information for the online quiz to possibly be on the show, and sent it to us, saying we should try. AJ couldn't be bothered but I decided to give it a shot. This was sometime last month. I thought it went pretty well, although they don't give you a score.
While we were in England, I got an email from the Jeopardy producers inviting me to an audition, so I confirmed. They offer them around the country and I signed up for the Los Angeles one (duh).
They told us we would be given a test, and dismissed if we didn't pass. If we did, we would stay and play mock versions of the game and be interviewed. We also had to dress as we would if we were actually appearing on Jeopardy.
My time "studying" was mainly watching lots of old episodes of Jeopardy. I got nervous on the day of. I got ready and headed up early. The audition was taking place in a hotel conference room, in a pretty dumpy area of Culver City. I meant to bring a small shooter with me to take the edge off, but I forgot, so I went in to the hotel early and had a shot of Fireball (they didn't have Skrewball!). The only other people around were obviously other contestants.
We sat outside the room where we had to pick up some papers and wait. When they came out, they took all of our individual pictures on a Polaroid. They gave us an introduction, a run down of the day, and then we watched a movie with none other than Alex welcoming up and wishing us luck and telling us to enjoy the process, and then we took the quiz. Pretty sure I completely nailed it, although I can't know for sure. They told us they don't release scores because they don't want players intimidating each other, it's only pass or fail.
After that, we all took turns playing mock versions of the game. They taught us how to use the buzzers and we all got Jeopardy pens that were made to emulate the buzzers so we could practice at home haha. I was getting nervous, because the people before me definitely had clues that I for sure didn't know the answer to. When it was my turn, I got to be the champion spot although it didn't really count for anything other than picking the first category. But, I was really proud of how good I did during my round! I was lucky there were some good categories for me... Podcasts and From the French were my favorite. And I even got this clue: Alexander McQueen's brand designer Sarah Burton created her wedding dress, and her sister Pippa's bridesmaid dress. Answer: KATE MIDDLETON! Loved that haha. After our game, they interview us on camera and I think we had a lot of fun and did great. I was pretty happy with it in the end.
After that, they explained to us that we're in their files for 18 months, and if we don't get randomly selected to come on in that time, we can take the online quiz again and try out again. They said some of their best players had to try out more than once. Definitely not very comforting, and the numbers aren't that great either: they told us 99,000 people took the online test. I don't remember the number of how many passed, but they'll meet with about 3,000 people through the US and Canada in the audition process, and about 400 people end up on the show. They said they need to vary locations, professions, personalities, etc, and that it's really a giant jigsaw puzzle for them. So, it's still a wildcard chance to get on the show, but it's been really fun to go through the process and get this far!
I was relieved when it was over. I had been getting almost stressed about it and spent the better part of the day nervous. I went to the better part of Culver City and met with Jessica for dinner and drinks at a really cute shopping area called Platform.
The night was perfect and we had wine and a really amazing "Bee Sting" pizza that featured chilis and honey. I was so exhausted when I got home... and what did I even do? I don't know, but this is how I know I'm getting old.
Fingers crossed for a Jeopardy appearance!
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
England & Scotland
Thank goodness I was (sort of) keeping up on the blogging as I went - I would be overwhelmed to paralysis at the idea of having to recapture the entire trip at this point. It felt like a lifetime (in a good way!). I can't even believe Belgium and Lithuania were the same trip, they feel like ages ago. At one point I was starting to crash, just from exhaustion and the constant traveling and the living out of a suitcase. But then I caught my second wind and it was just sorta like... well, this is my life now. I live here. That made it sad to come home! But, we had a great time vacationing with Shannon and Luke in northern England and around Scotland.
First things first - got into Manchester and then got on that train heading up to Carlisle! When I used the restroom on the train, walking back I ran into one of the armrests so hard, I still have a bruise on my leg that is now in the green phase...
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| Me and Shannon out front of their estate |
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| We got to see all the puppers running around in the yard and when we yelled down at them, they came running over and barking up at us! Such cuties |
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| The view from Shannon & Luke's suite. It's hard to tell but there are sheep grazing in the field and the Solway Firth out beyond there |
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| So AJ and I had leftovers from our first dinner in Carlisle. AJ wanted to keep this rib and we brought it around with us but he never wanted to eat it. In the end we ended up throwing it away, but not before constantly asking everyone who wanted to eat that friggin rib LOL |
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| Heading into Scotland! |
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| Me and AJ sharing the spacious backseat |
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| Snowy road to Edinburgh |
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| AJ found us a pretty sweet Airbnb in the center of Old Town |
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| Caught a few snowstorms while we were there |
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| We did a lot of grocery shopping to cook in the Airbnb... did you know Squirty Cream is a thing?? Ewww |
We did a nighttime Ghost Tour of the city which was pretty cool, especially because we got to go into the underground vaults of the city that were only recently discovered and excavated in the 1900s.
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| An old sedan people would travel in, talk about style |
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| Pretty dodgy name if you ask me! |
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| Going in AJ - coming out Shannon |
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| Love that unicorn on top! |
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| Where Harry Potter all started... |
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| I also had to take a picture of the anteater since it's my school's mascot |
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| Edinburgh Castle |
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| Apparently there's something special about this bridge... |
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| Shannon taught me the art of being in a pano picture twice! |
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| Lunch at a St Andrews pub |
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| The road to Glasgow |
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| Was that supposed to be a giant golf ball? Literally no clue |
So, Glasgow was so-so. It's a bit more industrial and laid out more grid-like, but the real tragedy was the rain. It was basically non-stop rain the entire time which made it impossible to explore much or really enjoy the city. So on the first night, we walked to a local shopping plaza where AJ wanted to check out the casino. They had pool so we figured we'd stay for a drink and a game. But we got carried away, and then we all signed up for memberships for our free drinks and pretty much loved the place.
The next day was AJ's birthday and we tried to brave the inner city. We walked around, went to a mall, and got a pretty good Japanese lunch.
One thing worth mentioning is, while I was in Brussels watching the Brexit, they mentioned that beginning January 31 there would be a special Brexit-edition 50p coin minted and put into circulation, and I decided that I had to have it. So, I was on the lookout for it. Luke told us the best place would be to try the post office, so we finally found one to stop into. While waiting in line I took this picture of the date since it was AJ's birf.
I was really nervous and embarrassed to ask for the Brexit coin, especially because Scotland pretty overwhelmingly did not vote for Brexit, so they might find it insulting, but no one else would do it for me. Oh well, the lady I spoke to was nice, but she confirmed that they didn't have any here. Shannon took a picture of me on my walk back, thinking I'd be a happy holder of a 50p coin, but nope womp womp
Funny story, I was talking about that Brexit coin for so long, so that Saturday when I said that we needed to stop by a post office, AJ says "I already got you two of them!" I was like what the F are you talking about? Long story short, AJ dreamt it, and he dreamt it so clearly, he was CONVINCED that I had already gotten my hands on not one, but TWO Brexit coins because of him. It actually took all three of us; me, Shannon and Luke to convince him it was a dream and I definitely didn't have any and if I did I wouldn't still be asking about it or wanting to visit the post office!
And in the end, we went back to the casino for the night cause we all just loved it too much.
That was also our Scottish night, so we bought some braised beef to make, had whiskey and gin (not like we hadn't been drinking that the whole week anyway) and then had shortbread for dessert... all while watching Braveheart. Good God that movie is long.
AJ and I set off for home early the next day. It was sad - we didn't want to leave. We had a really good time all throughout Europe, and then with Shannon and Luke in Scotland. Here's hoping the next visit comes soon, since we actually have no idea when it will be!
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| Waiting for the flight from Glasgow to London |
I'm officially home when I'm in my pajamas and cuddling with my fur babies! Anana and Khaleesi couldn't even believe it was us, it had been so long. That made me sad a little. Yesterday we had off for President's Day, which technically was my recovery day, I could have been off today too but I decided to come back in (against my better judgment) and it's been a long road back to normalcy.
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