(One paragraph from the previous entry:)
After the taping of our show ended (I came in third, so I would get $1,000, not the $6,300 on my lectern at the end of the game, Pat came in second, so he would get $2,000), Pat and I were told we could stick around for the taping of the next show or go back to the hotel. Pat decided he’d like to stay for the next show and I didn’t want to go back to the hotel alone, so I stayed too. After the next show, Jack (who had won our game but lost the next, so he won two days all told) and another man (who’s name I can’t recall – oy! – I feel bad because he was really nice and I introduced him to my Mom in the hotel later on – he was a tall handsome African-American man who I think was in his late 30s to late 40s – I’m a terrible judge of age, though) lost to Samantha, a local who wasn’t staying at the hotel. So the four of us went back to the hotel (we split the cab 4 ways and it came out to, with tip, about $4 a person).
Because I now had a lot of time and nowhere to go, I called my cousin who lives just outside Los Angeles (we had spoken on Monday night about her taking us out Tuesday night) and she told me when she’d be there (and I told her the address of the restaurant we wanted to go to – it was the same kosher restaurant that sent food for my Mom when we got there – it was the only kosher restaurant I had called that had food on the menu that I’d be able to eat with my restricted vegan diet rather than them saying they’d make something for me). My Mom and I hung out for a while until she got there. It was a lot of fun going out with my cousin (who I think I’d only seen once in 20 or so years) – she also took us grocery shopping.
The next day, a long time cyber friend of mine (10+ years I think) who lives in Los Angeles and whom I had never met before had the opportunity to meet in person (whenever he was east, we never could get together). So he came and picked us up and took us again to the same restaurant. We had a wonderful time with him (my Mom found him charming). I was disappointed that we didn’t get to meet his wife (she was at work that day) but at least I got to meet him. After lunch, he took us back to the hotel where we packed and got ready to go to the airport for our
"red-eye" back to the east coast.
The trip home was uneventful. But after that came the waiting. Well, first I had to take care of some business. As I mentioned earlier, there was a question that I thought my answer was correct that I was called wrong on. So I checked some sources, just to make sure I wasn’t grasping at straws, and my sources said that my answer was also correct. (The "answer", in a category that the "questions" needed to start with "SP", was something to the effect that “this started in 1957 with the launching of Sputnik” and I buzzed in and said, “what is the ‘space race’?” and I was called wrong, Pat buzzed in and said, “what is the ‘space age’?” and was given credit for a correct answer.) So I called Robert and he told me I needed to write a letter to Maggie and explain the whole “deal”, which I did. This was back in November, within a week of returning from California. I didn’t hear anything for a long time….
Being home, I now had to wait almost 2 months before the show I was on would air. We got home November 13th and the show wasn’t aired until January 12th. But we had to get ready to go to my nephew’s Bar Mitzva in December, so the activity of getting ready for the Bar Mitzva and being at the Bar Mitzva and visiting with my brother’s family helped. I kept telling people to watch me on January 12th.
January 12th came along and I tried to remind everyone I could (my family, my cousin who I saw in California, my friend who I saw in California, though he missed it since he thought it was Tuesday, not Monday, my High School classmates – we have an on-line yahoo group – my best friends, etc.). Because at the time we got Jeopardy twice in our viewing zone (once from the Long Island affiliate at 5 pm, again on the NY “owned and operated” at 7 pm), I taped it twice. Another friend taped it and I ended up with enough copies to send one to my sister (who lives out of the country) and another to my brother (who has a computer but no TV) so that my nieces and nephews could see me. My other brother, who lives near my sister, came to visit in early February and saw it then.
A few weeks after the show aired, I finally got a letter back from Jeopardy about the “space race” question. They checked their sources and also came to the conclusion that I was correct. But, they reasoned, I wouldn’t have won anyway (they didn’t take into account the part that this threw me – I could, in my brain, hear my brain yelling at my eyes to look at the lights but my eyes fell into the “being at home” routine of keying into Alex’s voice, so I was slow on the buzzer and, because of that, there were two “answers” I buzzed in on, since I could get through because no one buzzed, that I knew I had the wrong “questions” for – I lost a total of $3600 on those two “answers”, this extra $3600 would have put me into striking range of the leader when I later hit the “Daily Double”, which I got correct, but they had their own way of figuring, and I didn’t argue), but I might have ended up in 2nd place, so they gave me the 2nd place prize ($2,000 instead of the $1,000 for 3rd place). And I didn’t have to go back to California! (That second part I was particularly pleased about – I’m not cut out to be a Californian.) This was good, since the trip there, between airfare for two and two days in the hotel, cost me almost the original $1,000. This left me with some money to put towards my business.
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Strong Biblical Women
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Strong Biblical Women 5: Tamar -- Mother of Kings
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Strong Biblical Women 7: Miriam
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One Actor, Two Shows (TV Quiz)
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Why Should anyone hire Me?
Eat a Healthy Breakfast
My experience on Jeopardy
Project:Runway and how it got me excited about designing again
Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb?
My Vocational Experiences
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