Up at the Lake...

If there's a phrase more evocative of perfection than "Up at the lake," I don't know what that is.

I DO, I DO! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, I DO!

I tried out today for "Who Wants to be a Millionaire."

Idiot question, that...  Only a few people in the world would answer "no" when asked if they'd like to be a millionaire.  Those few people are called 'billionaires' and don't want to have to downgrade from their solid-gold toilet paper.  But I digress...

I drove out to the 'burbs, to a casino to presumably wait in line for hours to possibly get a ticket that would possibly let me take a test that I would possibly pass, leading to a possible interview and a possible post-interview interview.  Apparently, Chicagoland trivia enthusiasts are a little more chill than I am regarding game shows, because I got one of the first few numbers without waiting in line at all.  In fact, there was a bigger line of people queuing up to enter the casino when it opened at 9am.  Daygambling...it's the new daydrinking.

Waiting for my number to be called, I struck up a conversation with the most delightful Victorian-era re-enactor who was sporting a straw boater and bow tie.  I guess when your job requires you to be in Victorian dress, updating your casual attire to the 1910's is like a vacation. We wished each other luck, not knowing if we'd see each other again.  But he was in my testing group.  And after they graded our tests, he was in my interview group.  And then, after the initial interview, both he and I got a chance to do a video interview.  It was truly pleasant to see a friendly face and have someone to wish 'good luck' if only to calm my own nerves.  I hope I calmed his, too.  While waiting for one of the interviews, I also met a travel professional who just happens to be visiting my home county next week and a former college basketball ref that shared lively conversation with me.  They say there are no atheists in foxholes, but I think you can also say that there are no enemies in open calls for game shows, too.

A little history: In 19mumblemumble, there was a call out in New England for people to try out for Jeopardy as they were planning on doing a week of shows in Boston celebrating the 13 colonies.  I figured I had a shot, so I sent in a request and waited.  I got picked for the test and a couple of weeks later, found out that I would be representing the great state of New Hampshire on the show.  Long story short, I kicked ass for most of the game, screwed up a little in Double Jeopardy, then wound up coming in third and no, Alex Trebek is not a dick.  He's a very nice man.  About two years later, I tried out for The Weakest Link and was asked to tape the show but wound up having my shot at THAT show nixed when the show got cancelled.  Going to the tryouts today (I REFUSE to call them an 'audition.') was a no-brainer.

There are a lot of things I'm good to really good at...  Improv, Acting, Writing, Teaching...  But the thing I am excellent at, the thing I will never, EVER be humble about is my absolute trivia dominance.  I will kick your ass.  Every day of the week. Twice on Sunday.  I once won a game of Trivial Pursuit in under 15 minutes.  My husband and I have never placed lower than 3rd in any pub trivia we've attended.  In fact, one summer we supplemented our food budget solely through winning restaurant gift cards on trivia nights.  Our last two trivia night wins fed us for four months.  Disclaimer: you don't have to be smart to be good at trivia.  You just have to have a lot of disparate enthusiasms and read absolutely everything.

So, even if I don't make it on the show, I got to do something I loved today: remember weird shit that very few other people care about.  And, on the way out, I won $40 on roulette. I may not be a millionaire (YET!  YET, DAMN IT!), but I already won big.

Dreams

I just got back from a two month stay in Cincinnati...  Prior to this visit, I had only been to Cincinnati once, and that was for the world's worst wedding, which left an understandably bad taste in my mouth. Literally.  The food at the reception was a build your own sandwich stand with only the finest of Oscar Meyer products.  Moreover, the wedding service was two hours long, the bride had found out about the groom's infidelities the day before the wedding and was still pissed, six of us were jammed into a dusty room at the Red Roof Inn for two days and the bride actually set herself on fire during the ceremony. I later found out that an anonymous "someone" sent one of the bridesmaids unflattering photos of herself, each bearing the caption "Ugliest bridesmaid ever."  Moreover, the drive to the foreboding church took us through an epic cemetery, and both church and cemetery have figured in my most hellish nightmares since that time.  So, yeah...  Up until two months ago, that was what I knew of Cincinnati.  Horrors, self-immolation and salty lunch meat.

Then, I took this job, doing 8 shows a week at Cincinnati's Playhouse in the Park.  I could document every lovely moment, every thing that made me supremely grateful to be able to wake up and go to work each day, every single delightful reason I adored the rest of the cast and crew, but that would lean dangerously to the saccharine, though I'd mean every syrupy word. Suffice it to say, it was a dream job.  And Cincinnati was astonishingly lovely, fun and full of surprises.

When I got home, I found a couple of souvenirs that I didn't want to just paste into an album.  The memories that they invoke were just too wonderful not to be reminded of every day.  So, I put them into a bottle that I call my "Bottle of dreams I never knew I had that came true."  And here it is:

Inside is a ticket from a baseball game where I got to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" with the rest of the cast, standing on top of the Reds' dugout.  At the bottom is a layer of penguin feathers from when we had a behind the scenes tour of the zoo and met Charlie the penguin.  I have been obsessed with penguins since I had a dream a few years ago that I a penguin jumped into my arms and someone said "This is your new daughter!"  Much better than nightmares of churches and graveyards...  At any rate, when Charlie walked in the room, I burst into noisy, joyful tears.  The zookeeper left the room for a minute and when she came back in, she handed me a paper cup full of penguin feathers. "Take this, please," she said, "I've never in my life seen anyone react like that.  You just made my day." I tickled Charlie's stomach and cried some more.

Dreams come true, people.  And sometimes the best dream come true moments are the ones that take you by surprise.

To Russia, with love

So, Blogger says that a fair amount of my blog traffic comes from Russia.  If that is the case, greetings, Russian readers! I have no earthly idea why you'd read this blog, but feel free to leave a comment and tell me...