And Alex....

 

I kind of feel weird even covering this one, but a surprising number of people asked me if Alex was a jerk. My initial response was "No! Are you crazy? Why would you even ask that?", but it was asked enough that I have to wonder if a lot of people have this impression, and since I disagree with it, I want to confront it head-on. 

That being said, I can't quite hit it head on, because Alex is the person you spend the least amount of time with really, which is important for the integrity of the game. He comes on right as the game starts, and all the time you spend with him is filmed. In Prisoner of Trebekistan, Bob Harris (no relation, that I know of) mentioned that he gets asked a lot what Alex is like, and he told different anecdotes, and let people draw their own conclusions, and I'm kind of going to do it that way. 

First off, let's go over possible reasons why people may think it. I was told that there was a video on Youtube of him swearing and cursing people out. I could not find that. There were some weirdly edited videos and some of people filming the television and laughing in the background, where you can't even tell what they are laughing at, but nothing impressive there. I know he does have a somewhat reserved manner, but he's Canadian, and it seems appropriate. He is also self-deprecating, which not everyone likes, but it works for me. 

It could be a matter of the corrections he does, but those serve a purpose. One of the things Maggie told us is that they work really hard to get things right, because she has heard people say that something has to be right because they saw it on Jeopardy! Therefore, having a correct pronunciation given is important, and when they do those clarifications like "You were thinking of..." that actually shows why the person's response was not way off base, even if it was wrong. Actually, even with my game, there was a moment that could have been misconstrued. In the Shells category, I guessed "Awl" when the correct answer was "Auger". Alex's "No" is broken into two syllables, and it could have been taken as condescending, but what I understood it as is that when I started to say "Aw-" he thought I was getting it right, and then had to adjust. There wasn't any bad will there. 

 Without strong evidence of jerkiness, I have to attribute any rumors to haters, which is a real thing, especially on the internet. Apparently, some people may just have nothing better to do, or no desire, anyway. 

 I have my own reasons for thinking Alex is not a jerk. My first impression of him was that he has kind eyes. It is just an impression, but I have never met anyone with kind eyes who turned out to have a bad personality. Also during the visiting he was nice, and made a point to praise all of us, and that was good. 

 For other indications, look at what a great set it is. I can't remember whether I had the conversation with my friend Cathy the night before I left, or with one of the other contestants in the green room on game day, but I was talking about how great the group of people I work with is, and the person I was talking to said that is really a sign of good management, because those things carry on down. Having been in highly dysfunctional workplaces, I have seen the reverse of that as well, and it is true: leadership matters. 

Now, you could argue that Alex is not really the boss--that maybe that would be the executive producer or the head of Sony, or something like that, and that is entirely plausible. Even so, all of those awesome people love him. Of all of the references to Alex that came up during the storytelling and preparation and even at the audition, all of those references were affectionate. They were so proud of him for chasing down the robber. 

Even when I was in the audience, and there was a crew member behind me running some equipment, and he heard me explaining something about the robbery to the guy I was sitting next to. Even he weighed in, saying that he knew all Alex cared about was the bracelet his mother gave him (we were wondering if he had gotten his stuff back, and at the time he hadn't yet), and there was a protectiveness in his voice that was really kind of touching. 

If Alex Trebek is a jerk, they've got the most brilliant cover-up ever. The CIA should take lessons. And I also hope he gets his mother's bracelet back. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/27/alex-trebek-chases-down-burglar_n_911550.html

The Best Set in Hollywood

Okay, I don't technically know that, and it's not technically in Hollywood because the studio is located in Culver City. Nonetheless, I would be really surprised to find out there was one with more laughter or with more caring people.

I mentioned the rapid-fire patter as we were going over all of the preparation, but I can't adequately explain how fun it was. Not everyone is as high-energy as Maggie, but everyone is pretty funny. There is a lot of joking, and random bursting into song, both in the green room and on the sound stage. There is also just a lot of caring. And that's not just with the contestant crew. We spend more time with them, but everyone, from make-up to the person who wires you with your microphone, is super-nice and doing everything they can to put you at ease.

We know it's not logistically possible for everyone to win, but it really felt like they were rooting for each of us, and they cared about us as individuals.

This brings me to a story from years back. The stage manager, Glenn, used to be the contestant coordinator, like Maggie is now. I remember him from my very first try out for the college tournament. At one of the Portland auditions (I believe the one where I played the practice game, but did not do well) as I was exiting I remember him giving me an encouraging look. And that would have been nice anyway, but the other crazy thing is I remember a look of recognition, like he remembered me from the other times. And I remember thinking, that's crazy--they must see hundreds of people. Well, they do see hundreds of people. I know for the last online test I took, there were 100,000 people who took it. Out of that, they need 400 for the season. I'm not sure how many make it from the test to the auditions, but I would guess at least 1200, probably more. And yet, when I saw Maggie that day, she mentioned something about the audition in Seattle. I don't know how many people it is even possible to remember, but I know they are paying attention, and I am pretty impressed by them.

If you are thinking about trying out yourself, that may be one of the best reasons. They're good people, and a lot of fun.

The Big Day

Despite some disappointments, the day was a lot of fun, and most of the credit needs to go to the crew. I love this group of people. They take really good care of you.

The first few hours were a sort of organized chaos. Contestants have to do several things, and they are sort of happening all at once, so some of us were getting made up, some were going over final paperwork, some were practicing Hometown Howdies, and some were practicing interviews.

Remember those five interesting facts? The staff narrowed that down to three to give to Alex, and then Alex picks what to ask. I have seen at times he will pick kind of a common theme for all three contestants, if there is one. Richard told us what three were on there, and we could indicate if there was one we wanted to be asked about more, but it is still up to Alex. My three were the screenplays, the claw machine, and the greyhounds. I said I preferred the screenwriting thing, because honestly, I think the more people who know I do that, the better. Alex went for the greyhounds, which was fine because they are wonderful dogs, but not everyone thinks of them as pets, and the claw machine one would have been great too, because I am really proud of that. I just won a stuffed monkey Friday night!

Maggie worked with half the room on practicing the hometown howdies, while Richard worked with the rest of us on going through each of the interview questions. There was also a lot of instruction on things that people have found helpful, experiences that other people have had, what will count against you, what won't, and lots of random bursting into song. It was all very rapid-fire, but it served the purpose. When you are on stage and Alex asks the question, you are ready. When it is time to tape the Howdies, you are ready. And most of all, there was so much laughter and information that there was not a lot of time to shrink inside yourself and freak out.

That kept up as we went to the stage for our practice games. We were rotated in and out in a stream for the length of about two full games. That gave everyone a chance to practice with the buzzer and get in the habit of selecting categories. One of the things I had put down as wanting for my game was the chance to make it a true daily double. I got to do that three times during the practice games (getting up to $60000--probably more than I would have wagered during an actual game, but it worked out).

After the quiz show scandals in the 60's (for more on that, watch the movie Quiz Show--Rafe Fiennes is remarkably beautiful in it), several steps were put into place to prevent another such occurrence. One important part of this is that there is a compliance person who oversees everything. For every game, he is presented with six scripts, and he chooses one. For the contestants, you have the returning champion, of course, and everyone else has their name written on cards placed face down, and two are picked for each game. So when sometimes there is a category that one of the contestants just owns--that is pure luck. One of the reasons that I wanted to be on the Halloween show (which again, was pure luck), was that I was hoping for really fun categories. "Trick or Treat" and "Halloween Candy" were okay, but there may have been much cooler, spooky ones that did not get picked, and there is just no way of knowing.

Evan and I were picked for the first game, so we and Sunni got our make-up touched up, got miked up, and off we went. It's funny how excited I got when I saw Alex peeking around the corner. I mean, I knew he was going to show up--it wasn't a surprise--but I still felt like a total fangirl.

The show tapes pretty much like it airs. They do pause during the commercial breaks. In every break, they bring you water, and check to see if you need your makeup touched up, and how you are doing. While this is happening, Alex is fielding questions from the audience. I was pleased to learn that he gets irritated when people jump around the board, because I do too. I was very proud that we cleared out the board in both rounds. I hate it when there are questions left.

During the first break we took turns getting our picture with Alex. Right after our picture was taken I shook his hand and said it was nice to meet him. Alex looked surprised by this. It wasn't a freak-out like you would get with Howie Mandel, but I think people usually don't do that.

From my point of view, it was like when I had the picture taken with the koala, and everything happened so quickly, and they are trying to get you to look at the camera, and they grab it back, so that I have no memory of holding the koala, which I would have wanted to remember. I just didn't want Alex to be another koala.

One thing that was a little different for us, but will happen a lot, is that Alex stayed at his podium rather than coming to us during the interviews, as he was still injured. He was not wearing the boot on camera, but he was wearing it off-camera, and walking around too much wouldn't have been good.

The one thing I really found awkward was during daily doubles. It is traditional to put down your buzzer and clap, and that was my intention, but trying to put the buzzer down so I would not lose it, but could get it quickly again, and to get it down quickly enough to clap at the right time, was a little too much for my level of manual dexterity.

Something they are quick to instruct us on is that at the end of the game, do not jump up and down, or jump off to go congratulate the winner. The reason for this is that we are on raised platforms that go up and down to try and get everyone to a similar height. Since Evan was pretty tall, Sunni and I were both fairly high up. They do help you down, and all of those striped areas on the stage are steps actually, and they are also very careful with you coming around there. No one wants you to fall. We had no accidents while I was there.

After the game, and we had been unhooked from the mikes and lowered from our pedestals, we chatted with Alex at center-stage over the end credits. Mainly we talked about how it was a pretty good game and everyone did well. If you were watching and noticed a part where Alex looked surprised, that is probably when I made a reference to it being okay that Evan won because he had the growing family. He had mentioned that his wife was pregnant backstage, and so I let the cat out of the bag to the host.

Regarding Evan, I know many people on online forums and Facebook expressed some irritation with his mugging, and okay, he was pretty hammy, but he was a nice guy, and I didn’t have a problem with him. Honestly during the game you don’t even know what other people are doing—I just knew he was like that from the practice game. I did not notice how hard he worked the buzzer until I watched it at home. He may have been on to something though. Maybe I needed to flail more.

I went into the audience for the next game. It was interesting to watch from the audience side, and if you get a chance I recommend it. I was the only person who did not have any guests, but they seated me next to a pretty interesting group. Three of them were from England, and they met up with the fourth in Vancouver BC, and were on a road trip that was going to end up in New York. The question on Kate Middleton’s dress led to me finding out that one of them had gone to school with Prince Harry. How’s that for random? They were fun to chat with, and since they had just watched me they were very interested in what it was like, and I was able to answer a lot of their questions.

For other celebrity sightings, Jimmy from the Clue Crew was in the audience. I saw Johnny Gilbert, but did not talk to him or anything. Oh well, at least he announced my name and where I was from. How often does that happen?

I left after the second game. I sort of wished that I had stayed, especially when I found that after the second game aired they went straight to the Tournament of Champions, so I had to wait a long time to find out how the others did. At the time though, I started to think that maybe if I went to the airport right away, maybe I could get an earlier flight. Since you can potentially be at the studio until 6, the first flight I could trust was at 9:30, getting me in to Portland at 11:30. I was working the next day, and a few more hours of sleep would have been good. Sadly, I could not get an earlier flight.

Also, though, I needed some time to be sad, and feel the disappointment, and call my mom. So I spent a long time at the airport. I got some reading in, and I charged my phone, and I was amazed to see a Best Buy Express vending machine. Seriously, who would buy an iPod from a vending machine at an airport?

The Look

I got several good compliments on my appearance, so I thought I would devote some time to that. People mainly commented on the dress, the makeup, and the hair.

First off, it makes a huge difference having makeup applied by someone who knows what they are doing. If I could do that, I might wear it more often. We had two makeup artists, and actually I sat with both of them because (I hope I am getting the names right) Sandy did the main job and then Melissa touched me up later, right before filming. Sandy does Alex Trebek's makeup as well, and he thanked her in his speech from when he got his lifetime achievement Emmy, so that was pretty cool, and she was really nice (as was everyone, but more on that later). She told me that I cleaned up well.

The dress was a knot dress by Merona, ordered through the Avenue. Emily was telling me that she had one like it, so I joked that I hoped we did not end up in the same game, but she also had it in two colors, so we did not need to worry. She wore the green one in her second game. She got hers from Old Navy, and I hope she didn't think that I was one-upping her when I said mine was from the Avenue. That didn't mean that I shopped at fancier stores--it means I shop at stores for big girls.

Actually, shopping is never very fun for me, but between Catherines and the Avenue in person, plus the Avenue on line, I ended up with one pair of pants, four tops, two dresses, and two skirts. That may be overdoing it, because really I don't like one of the skirts and one of the tops that much. At the same time, though, I cleaned out some old stuff while I was doing this, and the green skirt that went out I had in 2002 for sure, if not sooner, and the black skirt was older, so I was probably due. I do love the red dress. It's a power color, and the sleeves don't do any of the common sleeve errors that irritate me so. My only concern is that sometimes I worry that the neckline is going to sink a little too low. It's the closest I come to dressing trampy.

Many people have assumed that the hair was done professionally too, along with the makeup, and no, that was all me. I think I can explain why it looked better than usual, though, in that after conditioning and brushing like always (and maybe I did brush a little longer, but it was the usual process), there was no walk to the bus stop, and journey on public transportation, marching through city streets, and then repetitively running my fingers through the tangles in my bangs while I sit at my desk (that New Year's resolution about not running my fingers through my hair didn't really pan out). I do clean up nicely, I just can't maintain it.

Nonetheless, it was nice to have cleaned up nicely. I thought about changing back at the hotel before going to the airport, but I decided to stay that way, and it was kind of nice. I got compliments from the shuttle driver, and guy delivering bins to airport security, and kind of by the girl who noticed that noticing and was slightly jealous. Plus, Emily also told me that my smile lit up the stage, and then all the compliments that came after the appearance. It was fun because one of my other big regrets, besides not winning money, was not losing weight (ever, but especially before taping), and just being able to look better. Somehow I was still pleasing to others. It's important to remember sometimes that other people do not see you the way you see yourself.

Now I want to go off on accessories a bit. I was hoping I would get in on the Halloween taping, so I wore Halloween jewelry. (I can only hope I would have had time to change if it ended up being a different show.) I had my bat earrings, and a Halloween bead bracelet. The earrings were tiny, so you could not really notice. Normally the pair I wear on Halloween is the big spiders, and those would have shown, but Jeopardy is a dignified show. It's not Let's Make a Deal.

The bracelet was one that I saw and bought three of, and sent one each to my friends Karen and Ericka, because I tend to send the Halloween cards, and associate them more with that holiday than others. The other jewelry that I took with me, and never got to wear, all ended up being meaningful.

There was the manatee necklace that I mentioned wanting, and my sister Maria gave me one she had bought for herself. There is the turtle necklace my brother and his wife brought me from Hawaii, and the half-formed pearl necklace that another friend brought me from Rarotonga.

The origami crane earrings were made for me by my friend Jennie back in high school, and the flower petal earrings were a gift from a family I knew on my mission. The key earrings are also from Maria.

Looking for something to put them in, I got a free gift with a clothing order once that was a gold bracelet with all of these good luck symbols, and it came in a purple pouch. Well, I could use some luck--might as well bring that along too. I was carrying some good associations in that pouch. I didn't get to show off most of them. I guess I just need to wear jewelry more often.

Hometown Howdies

If you go to http://www.jeopardy.com/showguide/thisweek/, you will see small video clips for the contestants for the week. These are recorded for airing in the local market. I have not heard of anyone seeing mine on television, but some people did go see the clip on the site.

You actually record two. The short recording is very basic: "Hi, I'm so and so from here. Watch me on Jeopardy!" The long one is a little more involved. In addition to your name, you give what you do, so now instead of just so and so from here, you are so and so, a this from here. Then you need to say something cute that relates. For example, the hotel clerk said "Check in with me on Jeopardy!" and the retired math teacher said "Watch me be calculating on Jeopardy!"

I was having a hard time coming up with something, mainly because there is nothing interesting or cute about being a document specialist. It left me needing to work with where I was from, and that was hard too.

I was thinking about trying to work something in about Powells, which is pretty well known, but of course that is Portland, and using Portland could have been easier, but I was deliberately saying Aloha, and I wanted to stick with that.

Ultimately I had to think about why I was saying Aloha. Saying Portland would be easier, and I’ve done it in the past, but this time it didn’t feel right. It's just that Aloha has been trying so hard to revitalize itself lately, and I want to be a part of that. I'm thrilled that there is a business organization now, and that they had a tree lighting and are putting in a library. Those are great things.

I'm always going to be an Aloha girl. First of all, I'm strongly loyal, and Aloha has been home since I was six. Also, I have a thing for underdogs, and we’re that too. It’s easy to pick on Aloha as trashy, but it’s also an oversimplification, and I think this place has some grit.

So I love my economically suffering, unincorporated area, and I had to make that work but wasn't sure how, and then I thought how the heart of the community is the high school, and it had to relate to that. Warrior pride, you know?

At first I was worried about it sounding too weird or obscure, but again, this is for the local market. The Warriors just won the football championship last year, and some of the other teams have been doing well, and so really anyone who watches Jeopardy on KATU could have heard of us. Now it felt right, and I nailed it on the first take.

"I'm Gina Harris, a document specialist from Aloha, Oregon. Watch me fight like a warrior on Jeopardy!"

A little information about me

One of the first things you do after being selected is fill out paperwork. There is a legal agreement that needs to be signed, and you answer various questions.

The most basic part is the five fun facts, which I mentioned in the part about the audition. I kept mine basically the same, except on the screenwriting one, I took out the part about "After you've selected me..." and added a bit on quantity.

If I can just clarify a bit on 1 and 3, I really only know that Julie and Maria and I are good at claw machines. We haven't really tested any other family members, but I would think their odds of doing well should be good. I have included a photo of the shelf at work where I am storing the prizes now. Some will end up in the toy drive. Maria used to give a lot to her kindergarten kids. It just depends.

On three, well, I think I have to blame it on Destiny's Child doing a cover of Emotion. I started hearing other songs that I thought were remakes of BeeGees hits, and after I realized they couldn't all be, then I realized I could do it with any song (though the Destiny's Child/Beyonce oeuvre is a surprisingly good fit). Anyway, I used to think it was weird, but then I found out that a coworker of mine can hear any song as it would sound performed by Bob Dylan, and her boyfriend can too. So if there is a guy out there who can do it with the BeeGees, we may be soul mates. Call me!

Part One

Name: Gina
From: Aloha, Oregon
Occupation: Document specialist
Booking Date: 9/21/11


1. I come from a family of skilled claw machine operators.
2. We are on our 15th (and 14th) adopted retired racing greyhounds.
3. I can hear any song in my head as it would sound performed by the BeeGees.
4. I speak French, Spanish, Italian, and Laotian.
5. I have written 6+ screenplays. I have not sold anything, but I read that the average before a sale is 9, so I believe I am still on schedule.


Part Two

Have you ever been at a turning point in your career?
I worked in the tech sector for many years, but when I had to choose between keeping my job or going to Australia and New Zealand for a month, I chose the travel. After a rough patch, I now work in health insurance, and under similar circumstances I would change again. All the Aussies and Kiwis were very supportive of this.

What is the one mistake no one will ever let you forget?
When I first got glasses, in 9th grade, colors and shapes were more intense, and I had just never seen things so sharply. This may be why I told my father that I never realized his eyes were so blue. His eyes are brown.

What is your funniest travel memory?
We were at an animal park in Queenstown NZ, and our very frugal Scottish guide had bought us some food for the animals. You could fill a coffee can for 2.00 NZD. When we were down to about a quarter of the can left we got to the goats, and they swarmed my sister Maria. She panicked and dropped the can, leaving it to the goats, and Chris’s response was “Two dollars wasted!”

Do other people think you have a funny quirk or habit?
Even when I know that a question is rhetorical or facetious, I have to answer it seriously. I have one friend who enjoys this a little bit sadistically.

Everyone has a special talent or quality? What is yours? How do you use it?
I am really good at keeping my head in stressful situations. To better use it I have taken Community Emergency Response Team training and other trainings to be ready for anything.

Part Three: More questions

Who or what first got you interested in learning/knowledge/education?
I think it was learning to read. I did not have any kindergarten or pre-school, so the teachers expected me to be a little slow, but I caught on to reading, shooting from the lowest reading group to the highest in a few weeks, and I was reading everything I could get my hands on. I still love it.

Do you have a favorite teacher from your past?
That is hard to choose, but Mr. Pitzer was probably the most influential. He taught AP History, and was a good teacher, but he also led me to Professor Brown, which led me to Professor Taylor, until it was only natural that I became a history major.

What is your first memory of Jeopardy!?
When I was seventeen I was working in retail, and it would usually be on in the break room when I would take my last break. I would play along and my adult coworkers were impressed, and that’s when I first started thinking it would be something I would like to do.

Why did you want to be on Jeopardy!?
I guess I want to see how I can do. I don’t have a lot of competition playing at home. Don’t get me wrong—I would love to win money, but also it is a show that I have watched a long time, and enjoyed, and I would like to be a part of it.

Is there anyone you would really like the chance to compete against on the show?
Not necessarily compete, but I really enjoyed Bob Harris’ book, Prisoner of Trebekistan, and I always remember when Wes Ulm was on.

What do you hope will happen from your Jeopardy! appearance?
I hope it will be fun—that I will enjoy the playing, and the interaction. I would like to do well and acquire some money for more travel, too. I would love to get the chance to make it a true daily double. Also, I hope I will get the game that occurs on Halloween, because that’s my favorite holiday and I bet the categories will be fun.

What are your expectations about your appearance?
That I will probably start out a little nervous, then get into it, and that I will watch my game with friends and family, so I should probably plan on ordering pizza.

What is your educational background?
I have a BA from University of Oregon, with a dual major in Romance Languages and History.

Why did you choose your majors?
I have always loved language. I started French and Spanish in high school, and then continued with those and added Italian in college. My mother’s family is all Italian, so it was important from that aspect, but it was not offered until college. For History, I was taking some classes and wanted to keep taking more, but I was going to have to stop and start taking other social science classes unless I made it a double major. The choice was easy.

Tell us what you do for a living?
I am a document specialist for Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield. That means that when groups have new policies or renewals of existing policies, I do a final check on them to make sure all of the information from the different sources matches up, so that everything is accurate. Then I publish it to the internet so members can view their policy and member services can provide assistance, and I get contracts sent out to the offices. It’s not an exciting job, but it’s important, and I work with a great team of people.

How did you get your job?
My sister works for the same company and let me know about the opening.

How did your career come about?
I majored in subjects that I liked instead of ones that were practical, so fairly randomly.

Do you have a dream job?
I write screenplays. Eventually I would like to be selling some screenplays to other filmmakers, but probably shoot one independent movie a year so that I do sometimes get creative control.

Preparation

Sorry for the delay friends. I was hit up by a nasty virus or two, which will eventually be detailed in “When a secondary infection is good news.” For now, I really want to finish this series on Jeopardy!

I realize my preparation efforts may not be of the most interest, because on one level they did not work. That may be kind of the point though, and also, I did more then one kind of preparation.

I tried a three-pronged approach for the intellectual preparation. First was catching up on my Smithsonian magazines. I am always behind on reading my magazines (other subscriptions are Shape and Psychology Today), just like I am always behind on books. It’s part of being overly ambitious.

I love Smithsonian specifically because it covers such a broad range of interesting things. In every issue there will be art, history, technology, biology, and popular culture. Taking time to catch up on those was a pleasure.

I also looked into books covering basics. Ones I ended up reading were from Kenneth C. Davis’ Don’t Know Much About... series, including Geography, the Universe, Presidents, and Everything Else. A friend also loaned me one called What are the Seven Wonders of the World, which basically went over things by numbers (three fates, three types of pillars, ten plagues of Egypt, etc.), and I checked out Bartending for Dummies and an ESPN almanac.

That was a mixed bag. The Seven Wonders book was pretty interesting, though it varied from topic to topic. Bartending for Dummies made sense to read, because Potent Potables comes up regularly, and I don’t drink, but I’m not sure how much I’ve retained. The Davis books are great. Well, the big ones are. The “Presidents” one was for kids, and the “Everything Else” one was done quiz style, and felt really disjointed. However, “Geography” and “Universe” were good, and I totally see myself reading more like them later. It’s not really that I don’t know much on the topics, but he reviews in a really good way, laying things out and building on them, and his style works for me.

The final prong was taking cards out of trivia games and reviewing them flash style. The result? Completely minimal. The only question that related at all was during a practice game, on Wyoming being the Equality State, which I had just read the night before, and actually I already knew that. It was fresh in my mind, but actually, I think I was too slow ringing in on that one anyway, so it was pretty pointless. I mean, reading things I enjoyed was good, and it’s gotten me where I am, but basically, I already knew enough.

And so, I never actually cracked open the sports almanac. Don’t get me wrong—I like playing and watching sports—I just have never cared about the statistics. If I at some point find an awesome book about sports history, I will read it, but I no longer feel any need to memorize cities that hosted the Olympics or World Series winners.
Ultimately, I guess I do not recommend cramming. If you can answer about 2/3 of the board, you should be okay. There can always be some stumper in Final Jeopardy, or even on a Daily Double, that throws your game, but since it is not possible to know everything, knowing a lot has to be the goal.

There was some other preparation though that was important, and I do recommend. First of all, even though I was thrilled to get the call, I then started having moments of doubt where what if it was too soon? What if I was not really ready for Jeopardy? (This was thinking I did not know enough, but maybe later on I would.)

I had a journal writing session where I went over things, and all possible outcomes, and knew that even with the worst possible outcome, I was okay. I am employed. I am getting by. Maybe if I did badly I might have some humiliation going on, but I have supportive friends and family, and nothing could really be too awful. (I was only thinking game outcomes—not like plane crashes or earthquakes or things like that. My anxiety was fairly specific.)

The other thing I did was I went over possible winning amounts, and what I would do with them. This was good because even people who do well normally don’t win life-changing amounts. Tournament winners can start new businesses maybe, and people who win a few games can get a down payment on a house or take some awesome trips, but usually you need to stay grounded. So my super-mega hope was to win thirteen games, and then come back and win the Tournament, and yes, not getting that is a little disappointing. But I can also totally live with what happened, and I knew that going in.

How I got there, or my road to Jeopardy!

My first memories of Jeopardy are from when I was working at K-mart. I started my junior year, and worked there until a few months after high school graduation. My evening break was usually during the time it was on, and other people would be watching it in the break room. This would have been around 1989-90. I would call out answers, and amaze the adults, and they would say that I should be on the show.

That was a nice thought, but I never thought of it as a real possibility until my senior year at U of O, when I saw an ad to try out for the college tournament. I did apply, and I was invited to audition. This happened in November 1995.

I actually wrote a little about that time at http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2006/06/my-weekend-with-baywatch-babe.html, but it doesn’t really mention much about the tryout. Obviously I did not get on, and that was discouraging, but one thing I realized is that with a tournament there are only fifteen slots, so your odds of getting in are much worse, though the cash guarantees if you get in are much better. We took a written test on the Jeopardy sound stage, and since I did not get called back to play the practice game, I knew I had missed too many. I can tell you that one of the questions was about the author of Trees, because I could not remember Joyce Kilmer while I was in there, but the moment I left the studio I did.

I was not at my best then. Things on my mind included my father leaving my mother, the dorm RA being missing and presumed dead (that presumption was correct), and desperately wanting to talk to “Mitch”, but also having been stupid with him and being fairly sure that he saw through it. In those ways, it was a kind of rough weekend. On the plus side, I came to an epiphany that we desperately needed a vacation, my family bought in, and that started our Disneyland tradition. Also, life did go on.

I am not sure exactly when I started trying out regularly, but I do remember at one point being discouraged, but one contestant on the show, Wes Ulm, mentioned that he had tried out five times before he got on, and he made it into the Tournament of Champions. Actually, he was in the same tournament as Bob Harris, author of Prisoner of Trebekistan. Also, a few seasons ago a tournament winner, Vijay, had tried out nine times, I think, so part of it is just realizing that it is hard to get on.

The process has changed some now. My first two times at least, there was not an online test, and only people who got enough right on the written test played the practice game. (They stop counting when they hit the right number, and you never find out how you did, if anyone is wondering.) Now with the online test, you still do a written test at the audition, but everyone plays the practice game—maybe I should call it an audition game—but also everyone there has been somewhat qualified by the online test.

So, you take the online test, get a mysterious number correct, and get invited to an audition. At the time you take the test, you are asked to pick which city would be best for you. My first non-Teen Tournament audition was in Seattle, then there was one in Portland on the waterfront, two in Portland on Alder. Those were all pretty easy to get to.

The next invitation was for Los Angeles. This was a concern, especially as I was unemployed, but Julie let me use her frequent flyer miles for the airfare, and I had Travelocity bonus points for the hotel. What I did not have was good health, which was somewhat related to the lack of insurance, but there were some bad decisions there too. While I was in the emergency room, getting IV antibiotics, Mom came in and told me that our cousin had died. I’m not sure how that compares to my first audition weekend, but it ended up not being an audition weekend. I had to cancel, and it was really a bummer. On the plus side, we were still able to use the credits and miles for other things, so that helped a little.

The chance came around again, this time in Seattle. One thing that is really important is that I tried to improve every time. The first few times I did not pass the written test, and then when I did, I did poorly in the practice game. The next time I was looser with that, but I still was not called. All you know is that if you did okay, you are in the file, and may be called over the next eighteen months. I was thinking it could be two things. Maybe I had too many blackout dates (that tryout was the year I was going to Australia), or maybe it was personality.

The dates were easy to fix—I put none. Sure we had booked a trip to Disneyland, but that’s the same area. I would make it work. We were booking a trip to Mexico and a cruise, but we could reschedule. I was going to be free.

Personality was tougher. I told myself that I would have to make small talk with the other people trying out. In a stressful situation, I like to turn inward, but this time I was going to force myself outward. That was a mitigated success, as I did make some small talk, but other people withdraw too, and I can’t handle rejection. I did some visiting. During the interview, though, I was charming. I flashed my smile, made jokes, and when they took my photo I stuck my chin out, lowered my eyes, and started looking up as they took the photo. That’s supposed to be good.

There was one more display of confidence needed. For my five facts about me, instead of just putting that I am an aspiring screenwriter, I put “After you choose me for this, I hope to someday return to the Celebrity Tournament as a successful screenwriter/filmmaker.”

Honestly, I’m not sure that I was doing the eye/chin thing right, but something worked. The audition was on a Tuesday and they called me that Friday. Oh yeah.

I Lost On Jeopardy! (Baby)

In trying to think of those people whom I know read my blog upon occasion, this is old news—it is pretty well known now that I appeared on Jeopardy and then lost. Still, I think it is worth blogging about. For one thing, in the questions that I have fielded since then when talking to people in person, the same things come up over and over, so there may be some value in just putting the information out there.

Also, writing about things is how I deal with them, sometimes via blog, sometimes journal, and every now in then in the random letter to the editor. (I am not usually consciously working out things in my screenwriting, except for that one time.)

So, I did not win. There were some negative emotions about that, even to the point of wondering how much I should publicize it. It turns out, people generally think it is cool to see someone they know on television, and no one has been too mean about the not winning part.

Also, I did not really embarrass myself. Most people who were watching thought I did great, and this is an area that I want to write more about, especially because I have a greater appreciation now for what it is like up there.

I answered seventeen clues correctly. There are sixty-one total clues, counting Final Jeopardy!, but of course everyone gets to answer in Final, so lets call it sixty, with me getting just under a third. Not bad, though of course which ones you get are important for point totals.

I knew twenty-two other correct responses, but I just could not ring in quickly enough. It is a game of general knowledge, but it is also a game of speed. As Alex finishes reading the clue, there are lights that go on. Ring in before, and you are locked out for half a second. Wait too long, and someone else gets in. It turns out, and this should not be a surprise, that I am slow.

Well, that’s physically slow, not mentally slow. When I was practicing at home, I would practice identifying the correct response right away, then focusing on the last syllable of the clue (then pressing on the side of the remote—I did not really have any good approximations of the clicker). I was good at this, and when I knew the answer I would start clicking right away, but my timing was just not great. As it was, I was shocked any time I actually made it in.

We play practice games before filming, so you can try different things. Some people do better using their non-dominant hand. Actually, Ken Jennings is one of those. He is right handed, but plays left-handed (probably to keep from ringing in too early). Maggie (the contestant coordinator) was telling us this in the green room, and I suddenly had this vision of him playing Watson, and in a Princess Bride moment suddenly saying “I am not left-handed!” then switching to his right and winning, but it didn’t happen. (Actually, I was rooting for Brad, but Watson played like a machine.)
Anyway, I mention this because I think most players up there are in the same boat. In any given game, probably all three contestants know a good 60-70 percent of the board, but they may not be able to prove it. The third place contestant in the game after mine ended with fairly low points, but I saw him in the practice games and he knows plenty of stuff, and he was not even terrible with the buzzer—it’s just how things worked out.

In other statistics, there was one where I guessed, but got it wrong (auger shell), three where I could have gotten it right, and probably even rung in first, but I was unsure and hesitated (oil as an export of Angola, conch shell, and Charms Blow pops), and six answers that I absolutely should have known but could not think of, and eight that I simply did not know. I did know all the daily doubles, even though I did not get them.

My two worst categories were Hospitals and Follows the Band. No one did really well in Follows the Band. I had no idea on Little Monsters (Lady Gaga) and Apple Scruffs (the Beetles), and I did know Parrotheads (Jimmy Buffett) but was not fast enough. I should have been able to figure out that Blockheads was for New Kids on the Block, but was still trying to figure out the category at that point. I’m embarrassed that I did not realize that Phans was for Phish, because I have seen Phish Phans before, but I thought it was someone being clever, and did not realize it was a thing. The only thing I could think of was Liz Phair, and I knew that was not right, so I did not ring in.

That brings us to Final Jeopardy. This is also somewhat embarrassing to admit, but the truth is, I was already mentally defeated at this point. I had 10600 points, but I was in third, by a fair amount, so the only chance to win was if I could get the response right while the other two missed, which was a long shot. I wagered accordingly, but I was not mentally there, and I made a key error.

Some of it was contextual. The category was 19th-century quotes, and it referred to the goal of a certain group being the abolition of personal property. It has been a Civil War Anniversary this year, and I had just read articles about the raid on Harpers Ferry and the attach on Fort Sumpter, and of course a big issue was that the slaves were considered to be the property of the owners, and abolitionists were a threat to that mindset, so that’s what I put down.

If I’d had my wits about me, I would have realized that when the correct response is “Abolitionists”, there is no way that “abolition” is going to be in the clue, because that’s way too easy.

I don’t know if I would have been able to come up with the correct response regardless. If I had been in the middle of my progressive reading month, maybe. If I had ever read the Communist Manifesto, probably. I had some economic theory reading coming up, but I had not gotten to it yet. Also, I tend to associate Communism more with the early 20th century, but yes, the thoughts were already out there long before they became a major influence on world history, and that’s good to remember.

The thing is, even if I had gotten it right, so did the other two. The scenario I needed happened in the next game, where only one person knew the answer, and it was one I knew, but if we had gotten that clue in my game, chances are that Sunny the English professor would have known it too.

For irony, a few days after filming, I clicked on a link that someone had posted to Mental Floss. It was a list of words with no counterparts in other languages, but it linked to one on nicknames for fans of musical acts, and every single one was on there. Seeing that earlier might have helped. With the other things though, like if I had not hesitated on those three, and gotten them, well, the impact on the score would have been minimal.

Really, the only thing that could have changed the outcome would have been for me to be faster, and have gotten more of the responses that I knew. That not only raises the score, but being in control of the board increases your odds of getting the daily doubles. Those have a huge impact on Evan’s score.

Genetically, I’m pretty sure I don’t have much in the way of fast-twitch muscle fibers, but I can’t help but think that maybe I should have spent more time playing first person shooter games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFoqZ-azKBs

Convalescence

I was silly to think that I could start posting regularly again while Mom was in recovery. Yes, it has been better than last time. I am taking better care of myself, and she is doing better herself, and there is no refinance going on, but I have been working on two major projects and trying to overachieve, and it just hit me all Friday where nothing was going right and I felt like I had lost all ability to cope.

Saturday and Sunday I forced myself to spend eight hours in bed--I was not able to really be asleep the entire time, but I was still at least partially resting, and it helped.

I do have much to write, and I will get to it, but I did want to post a little today about being grateful for my relationship with God. As I struggle with being relentlessly human, I am grateful that there is a way for repentance to work. I have a bad tendency to try and save myself, and then be forgiven and blessed. It's funny, because for all the things that Martin Luther got wrong, that's the one thing that I really relate to, is how it must have felt for him to realize that he did not have to save himself; it would be done through God's grace. I still constantly don't try and let it work that way.

Despite that, or because of it, I do know that God listens while I pray, and that He loves me, and I take great comfort from that. I am grateful for the answers that I receive. They are there. I am grateful that He has infinite perfection to cover my seemingly infinite shortcomings.

I'm not really sure when I will get it right, but I am grateful that I still accomplish some things even while I am not accomplishing everything. Imperfect people can still do good and understand some things and be loved, and that keeps this world from being one of despair.

I am not where I want to be, but I'm getting by.

Post Op

Today is the first day of school, which does not have a lot of meaning in my household, but it seemed like a good place to restart. More to the point, it is almost a month after Mom's surgery. We are not quite done with the disruption to our lives--that will take about another month--but still, things are better.

I am glad to say that I was not driven nearly as close to the edge this time. I have actually not written about that yet, but trust me, it's a good thing. The dogs dealt with it better, and I was more careful, which helped.

Also, Mom's recovery has been much better. I think there are a few factors in this. One is that this was the second knee replacement, so she has two good knees now, instead of one good and one bad. Also, this knee was never quite as bad, so they were able to get out of the surgery more quickly, which makes a difference. She did not really even go under full anasthetic, but they used a combination of medication and nerve blocks, and it worked well. Finally, it is warmer, lighter weather (not as light as a typical August, but still brighter than December was.) I think this has been a big help psychologically for her. Doing it the week of Christmas was convenient from a time off perspective, but it was gloomier in many ways.

That is not to say it is all hearts and flowers. There is still a lot of pain that is just inevitable. The patient will have two months of pain, and there is really no getting around it. Over time pain fatigue sets in, where you just can believe how long it has been hurting, and knowing it will be a few more weeks is not comforting. For one weird kind of bright side, Mom thinks this time is worse than last time, because she does not remember it hurting so badly. It did--she just blocked it out, and since none of us were on oxycodone at the time we all remember. So, she will probably block this out too at some point.

There are a few things that experience did not improve. In terms of getting a clear answer on taking the patient home, it was still just as impossible. I think they are afraid of giving a time and then having a complication arise. Still, we got her home roughly when we expected.

I thought about doing a guide to OHSU on the travel blog. Not that you would willingly vacation there, but if you need to go there you might use vacation time for it. It still doesn't quite fit, but here are some key things.

One is that I was surprised when the cafeteria was closed that first time. Well, even though it is on the floor where you check in, and where the waiting room is, that is not the main dining hall on Floor 9. Go to Floor 3 for that.

The other thing is that based on my experience, there are only four floors in the fourteen story hospital where things actually happen:

9 – Check-in and waiting
10 – Patient rooms
3 – Main cafeteria
6 – Pre-op/anesthesia

Okay, maybe part of my experience is that both times we have been with orthopedics, with the other floors being used by other departments. However, I ended up on one of the other floors (I won’t say which in case this reaches the wrong eyes), and there were no signs or windows—just long passages with a couple of people in scrubs scurrying off.

Based on this, I can only assume the other ten floors are used for horrible experiments. It’s so obvious.

Family Scripture Study

I just lapped myself in the Book of Mormon. My personal reading Saturday night ended in Alma 43, and our family reading on Sunday did too.

Growing up, we were not a family that read the scriptures together and prayed together, though there were periodic attempts at Family Home Evening, though my father went with pretty unusual topics. We prayed at meals, which could not have been more formulaic if we had specific recited prayers, but after my father stopped speaking to me the prayers kind of ended, and family dinners were happening less too. I did not mean to sabotage the spiritual growth and intimacy of my family, but also I kind of didn't.

I tried to read in the scriptures daily, but when I would finish something it would sometimes take me a while to get started on something else, and everyone had read the Book of Mormon at least once (probably twice), but things changed slowly and then built up.

It started with Brother Maurer co-teaching a class with Brother Weed on the teachings of John. We did not know Brother Weed yet, though we would become quite fond of him, but we already liked Brother Maurer a lot, and my sisters thought we should take the class. Obviously, this covered the Gospel of John, his three epistles, and Revelation. They generally covered three chapters a week.

The classes were good, but somehow we ended up missing quite a few. One night when they were asking me if we could skip (again), I said it was okay as long as they read all of the chapters personally, so that they still knew the material.

They agreed, but the reading was slow in happening. Finally I suggested we read them together on Sunday nights, and we started doing that, three chapters a week.

I totally see the value of starting your children on things young, because there was resistance to building up these habits. Sometimes it went smoothly, sometimes there were protests, and pretty much any time there was a fight, it didn't happen. Most of the time, though, it did, and as we reached the end of Revelation, it didn't feel right to stop. We decided to just read the rest of the Gospels too, and it just worked out that with a few extra sessions around Christmas, we were able to read in Luke 2 on Christmas Day. As we finished Luke it was natural to read the Acts, and then we just kind of gave up and read the rest of the epistles. I was worried about this, because I get frustrated with Paul, and most of the epistles are his, but it was okay. Finally, we had read the entire New Testament, and it didn’t feel right to stop.

During all the time that we were snowbound (back in 2008), there were some times when we wanted to read, but Misty was not there, and it did not feel right to go on in our Bible reading without her, so we read a little in the Pearl of Great Price. That seemed like a logical next step, and it’s not a huge commitment because it’s not very long. We started that, and I realized that everyone really needed to be familiar with Genesis first. We shifted to that.

After reading Genesis together we read the Pearl of Great Price, and at that point we realized, okay, this is something we are doing, so we started the Doctrine and Covenants. Since the section length varies so much, instead of going by chapters we moved to doing eight pages a week.

Now we are in the Book of Mormon, right at Alma 43, and doing ten pages a week (meaning that we can finish it in a year). Again, this is probably what everyone has read the most, so that may help for familiarity, and it is good to be reading together. Now people almost never try to get out of it, or get out of it without trying but due to fighting. Somehow, for all our heathen ways we are a scripture reading family.

I am having concerns about what comes next. The obvious choice is the Old Testament—it’s all we have left. It’s also really long, and in parts quite dense. My first time through, all I remembered from the Chronicles was a long list of begats. My second or third time through, I started to notice some more things, but honestly it was only the last time through that it clicked, and I saw a really dynamic counterpart to Kings.

Christ himself referred to “the Law and the Prophets”, so we could read just the Pentateuch and the Prophets, but that still gives us Numbers, and Leviticus has a lot of symbolism and meaning that is cool, but that doesn’t make it easy reading. Besides, there are good things in the History and the Poetry, though I can’t imagine reading Song of Solomon together. (I wish they had just left that part out. The justification of it as a metaphor for Christ’s love for the church is iffy, in my opinion, but I feel too guilty skipping it, because it is there.)

Really, it will just be quite the undertaking. We did not do the New Testament in straight front to back order though, so maybe we will do something more creative with the Old Testament. I don’t know, maybe we should work through a Conference issue first. We still have a few months to figure it out.

But I know that just as it took me several times to get Chronicles, and it took us many tries for scripture reading to become a habit, that persistence is the thing. You have to stick with it, and then the rewards come.

Alma 53 – 58
8017 steps

Why and How We Pray

This is not a treatise on human prayer, though that would be a worthy topic. This is specifically about our family prayer--how we got started and what we do.

It is a pretty well accepted thing in my church that families should pray together regularly, but my family didn't really. A few different things came together to get us doing it.

The idea for praying for specific people to help them along towards marriage actually came from ET (if you know her, this does not surprise you), who told me once about talking with one boy about why he was not married, and they discussed his issues, and then they prayed together and said she would keep praying for him. I remember thinking that it was cool, and that probably a lot of guys could use additional prayers, and it helps the women too, because it is more the male half of the equation that is the stumbling block.

However, the whole thing may also go back some to back when I was eighteen or nineteen, and there were people that I prayed for, and it occurred to me that they might not have anyone else praying for them. If you come from a religious family, it would seem logical that you might have parents and siblings praying for you, but many people don't, and it struck me as a little bit sad and lonely.

From the conversation with ET I had in mind that maybe I should get different girls in the ward to pray for different guys--like we could make it a project. Still, it seemed a little bit arrogant to start, and also, without the conversation part, would it work? With the first one, he had the desire, and he was willing to work on it, so the prayer was just extra help. If we just started praying at random guys, would that really do any good?

Anyway, that was something that had been on my mind for a while, and then when my sisters and I were going to Australia and New Zealand, and were going to be traipsing around on the other side of the world for a month, changing locations every day or two, we had some worries and I proposed that we make a habit of praying nightly while we were on the trip. One thing that I had seen from the scripture study is that once you start doing a good thing, it seems logical to carry on, so this was a good introduction to family prayer. It looked temporary, but it wasn't.

There was something else that helped. I wrote some time ago about feeling like I wanted to be out of the singles ward, but feeling like I was still needed there, and this was true for my sisters also. I proposed to them that if we needed to be there because there were people who needed us, then maybe we needed to work harder on helping these people, so that we could be finished.

That sounds like we were trying to pray people married, or at least out of the singles ward, and that is largely true, but not exactly right. Again, I knew that just randomly praying at an unwilling suspect won't do much. What I have found, though, is that praying leaves you open to inspiration, and so that as we would pray for people, we would be better able to know what was needed, and what we specifically could do. It's not like it was going to hurt anyone.

So even though we were in complete understanding and agreement that really we were just hoping to help people, and marriage is tricky, in starting out we nonetheless picked three very marriageable men who (we felt) just needed an extra push. They were all good, nice, employed, perfectly fine men, for whom we could hope that a little nudge would be sufficient. There was certainly no harm in it, it could help, and having three extra people in your prayers is not a big deal. Of course, it did not stop there at all.

I cannot promise that the following is in the exact order, and obviously it would not be fair to use real names, so I have everyone numbered on a list, and we'll just see how it goes.

I think the next step was that while commiserating at a bridal shower, we mentioned what we were doing, and Fifteen asked that we pray for her. How can you say "no" to that? Actually, that was what happened with Eighteen and Nineteen also, though at different times.

Sixteen was different. The truth is, we think she and Two may be perfect for each other, and it occurred to us that maybe we should work that angle from both ends. We have given Two our opinion, though he was noncommittal (like so many of his kind).

Actually, we have let many of them know that we are praying for them, and have made suggestions to some of them. I did make a suggestion to Three, but he was already in progress on his eventual wife, and that was absolutely fine. When he moved out of the rotation we added in Eight. I had a great talk with Eight, and he did start trying my suggestion, but then gave up when it didn't seem to be working right away (you can see why a lot of them need nudging).

Five and Seven were ones that we thought needed a lot more than a nudge, which is why we did not start with them, but then we felt guilty not praying for them, because they certainly need some help, even if it is at a different level. Six is really just because we love him, and we usually hang out with him and One together, though honestly he is young enough and dating enough that I don't worry too much about him yet. Oh, and Four is because we love his parents, and he was a source of worry to them. Actually, I gave him lots of advice, and again, I can't take credit, but he also is married now, and I think it's a good move. We did think he would need more than a nudge, but when it did happen it all happened very suddenly.

Incidentally, when Three was engaged, it felt weird dropping him. We sort of did it gradually, sometimes just leaving him in, and sometimes praying for him and his fiancée, and all the engaged couples, because there were quite a few at the time.

Nine was not a source of worry, but our then-engaged home teacher, who was also Nine's roommate at the time, knew what we were doing, and he said we should add Nine, in Nine's presence, and we were good with that. Ten was going through a hard time with a girl, and he is a really good guy and I hated to see his hurt and was really worried about him, so he got in.

With Eleven, it was not even dating--he is young and has plenty of time--but he was having health issues. I am actually thinking maybe we should rotate him out, because he is doing really well now, but evicting someone still feels weird.

Really, with Twelve, Thirteen, and Fourteen, it has not been about marriage for any of them. Thirteen struggles on and off with his testimony (and maybe depression), and he is Six's brother, so that makes us care even more. Fourteen desperately needs to grow up. He is not a bad guy, but his wisdom really needs to catch up to his chronological age, you know? He does seem to be making progress now. Enough to rotate him out? I don't know. And Twelve, well, sometimes he goes through rough periods and makes bad decisions. He has never been anything but good to us, and we are going to be there for him. I know we will be praying for him for a long time. Certainly at least forty-four months minus time served and good behavior, but probably even longer than that.

Seventeen was another person who was just having a rough time, and whom we care about. Eventually we added her boyfriend Twenty-three, because maybe the best thing that could happen for her is that he mans up and quits dragging his feet.

Twenty and Twenty-one we added when they started aging people out of the singles ward, because it was going to affect them and they seemed pretty marriageable. Actually, Twenty is engaged, so that may be working but we are keeping her in the prayers at least for now. Twenty-two is a friend whom we reconnected with, and she was having a hard time, so we are being there for her, and we will continue to do that.

So there it is. Really, it is only twenty-one people (not counting temporary add-ins for specific issues), because two have graduated, but still, it is kind of a lot. It is especially an issue because with the things we need for ourselves, plus everyone else, well, I kind of like the gratitude expressed to take about as long as the requests, and we have a lot of requests. Actually, initially we had an issue with Mom praying with us, because she would hear us asking for everyone else, but not us, and she would start giggling. She is better about that now. Furthermore, I am always the one saying it, because my sisters use the excuse that they might forget someone, and it is hard to argue it.

Also, even though I call it a list, it is not a list, and I don't want it to become one, because I think that would take away a lot of the good with it. These are people we are thinking about, and checking on, as much as we can, and coming up with ways to help. It would seem that if we were to keep adding in, at some point the prayer would become vain repetition

At the same time, I am amazed at how much caring we can take. With Facebook where we can see updates on so many so often, my personal prayers have often added people in based on that, and it's amazing to me sometimes how many people can be in my heart and mind at once.

And, of course, there are so many people who still need blessing. We all love A, and at least I love B (though my sisters get annoyed a little more quickly). C and D may be too bitter to help right now, but is that any worse than being too messed up psychologically to be ready for marriage? And yet we still pray for Five and Seven.

Actually, someone suggested, and there may be merit to this, that Five will not move on before his brother does, so maybe we should be praying for E. And I could totally come up with F, G, and H--I don't even need to try hard.

Maybe it will be okay if we are still staying under thirty.

17308 steps
Alma 49 - 51

Pruning

Last year I waxed poetic a bit about picking blackberries, but that is not my only meditative horticultural pursuit.

The truth is, we have several overgrown shrubs. We have four lilacs in the front of the house, and then in the backyard we have three butterfly bushes, and it looks like it’s four roses of Sharon, but really, the two on the right are a single entity that has spread. A lot.

The roses of Sharon had the added disadvantage that there were big evergreens on the other side of the fence that were crowding them out, so they have grown out as much as they have grown up. Otherwise, though, most of the issue is ignorance and neglect. Mom took care of the yard, but as she was losing her abilities to keep up with it, I did not immediately pick up the slack, and also, she did not have a lot of knowledge. I only know what things were specifically done wrong now because I found it on the internet.

Last year I started with the butterfly bushes. I did check out a book with general information on pruning, but I didn’t start looking up the specific species until later. What I did was not necessarily bad, but you can be a lot more severe with butterfly bushes, cutting them back to 12 inches if you want (after they have bloomed), and honestly, I think that’s what I am going to try, because those things grow like crazy. We found out after they were deeply rooted that they are considered an invasive species. They sure do work for attracting butterflies though.

One thing I have learned is that you are supposed to deadhead lilacs every year. That is when you cut off all of the faded blooms after they are done. If you don’t, the tree tries to grow bigger, and puts more energy into that instead of producing blooms.

It will not be possible this year. There are so many of them, and so high up. Next year I think we will be giving a lot of bouquets to people so there won’t be as much work afterwards. That would be nipping it shortly after the bud. One man did come one year and asked if he could use our lilacs for his daughter’s wedding, which was nice and kind of gave us a free pruning. I hope the guy who came and offered to prune this year did not want them for a sweet ulterior motive, because we said “no”. (It was Sunday, and it seemed like he was just looking for work.)

I do have some limitations. Pruning an overgrown shrubbery produces much more debris than you would guess just by viewing it unpruned. I generally fill up the debris bin in one hour, and it only gets emptied every two weeks. Therefore, I prune for about an hour once every two weeks.

There are some good things about that. Fighting trees does wear me out, so only doing it once every two weeks is probably for the best. More than that, and this is where I start getting philosophical, it is a project where you need to take the long view.

When I first started last year, I felt like it was going to be a three-year project. That is probably still right, but it could be longer. The first year was going to be thinning, so I could see what I had to work with, and then there would be shaping, and in all likelihood there would be more shaping as I saw how my initial shaping choices grew out.

I can see that a lot of the new growth, in addition to being too crowded, is very brittle. The tree was trying to do too much, and ended up not having enough resources. I see places that I know will need to be trimmed, but other things need to be clipped first before I can even reach that place, so it waits. Patience is required. Sometimes there are branches that are both good branches, but they rub against each other, leaving the chafed spot open to infection, and so you need to choose one to keep and one to let go. Those are all good lessons for me. And yes, a lot of times I end up lopping both branches off, but metaphors can only go so far.

It’s funny, because I used to hate yard work. I hated the feeling of dirt in my hands, and there was no comfortable position for weeding, and I would get little splinters from the bark dust (I hate bark dust), and so it still seems crazy to me when I dream about having a farm. But that dream is not all a response to reading “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”. Some of it is how much I have grown to love the work that I do outdoors now. It gives me a real sense of peace. Maybe I did not know how to value it before.

My appreciation for the current pruning schedule notwithstanding, I do worry about not getting to all the trees at appropriate times, so if anyone feels like they could use the leaves and twigs for mulch, just let me know. We’ll arrange a time for pickup and I will make time to give you as much as you want. Or, come pick your own dead lilacs. I will share.

Alma 31 – 33
10539 steps

Other Holidays

I don't know that anything that is left is quite as interesting. For New Year's we had a friend visiting, and it was a ridiculously loaded day. We went to the Forestry Center to see the Polar Bear photography exhibit (very last day, but we could not get there sooner), then Julie, Maria, and Lilliana went to go see a movie (Morning Glory, I think), and then Lilly and I went to the Pink Martini show.

Valentine's Day was largely dominated by my getting over food poisoning and missing the Fanconi Anemia walk. I wasn't really focused on being perpetually single, because I had already gone over that. I did try and thing of things to do to for others or with others, but again, that food poisoning thing really drained me. Well, draining sounds gradual, and it was pretty sudden, but there was no extra mental energy to be had.

Saint Patrick's Day was focused on the Shamrock Stride, and that I did make that. Our team captain also had brought green leis, so I had something green to wear on the day itself. My wardrobe is pretty green deficient. It's not intentional, but I haven't worked really had to correct it either. People feel less free to pinch you in the workplace than at school, so it's less of an issue.

For Easter we went to visit Lilliana, so I guess we have a holiday thing going on. I made Easter dinner at home the next week, so it was late, but I still did a great job. That sounds braggy. It was really the cake. I got a chocolate rabbit, some jelly beans, and coconut to decorate it, and I knew my sisters would like it, but they were skeptical, but then I was vindicated. I do sometimes get ideas where the execution does not go well, so I understand the skepticism, but I knew this one would work and I was right.

The interesting thing about Mother's Day was that the night before someone asked about it, and I totally forgot that it was Mother's Day, and yet we had already got Mom gifts, and dinner had been planned with her in mind, so it totally worked, and I guess I just realized how unstressful our holidays have become. We do special things for them, and we decorate, but it's mostly hassle-free, and I like that.

Father's Day is a little tougher. It makes me grumpy seeing all of these posts and profile picture changes and church talks and all these reminders of what fathers can be, and often are, and then I feel grumpy for being grumpy. No one should refrain from celebrating just because I have issues with my father, and regardless of his faults, he certainly could have been worse. I like it being over. I may have to find a better way of dealing with it.

For Independence Day, we took Mom to Fuddrucker's for lunch, then went to see Midnight in Paris, and it was a good day. It was pretty low-key, and again, I am totally fine with that, though I was more aware of the damage caused by illegal fireworks, and upset by it. I think I am going to make it my mission to try and get Aviary a lot of business when they reopen after repairs. They were a new restaurant that was doing fairly well, and then a stray bottle rocket has shut them down for a month. The first year for any restaurant is really crucial, and it just angers me that someone's stupidity and carelessness could sink someone else's dream. So, knowing nothing about them or their food, I will be trying to get people to go there. Not logical, perhaps, but very me.

I'm hoping for an uneventful Labor Day, and we probably will celebrate Sundae Sunday this Sunday. We did last year and we still have chocolate syrup left over, and we do have ice cream, so might as well.

Alma 21 - 26
13032 steps

Christmas Carols

This is a story about making contact, and it going really well.

One hardship for my sister Julie is never getting enough Christmas music of the right kind. She has gone to many shows and come back disappointed with the selections. Even at church, her favorite Christmas hymns often get passed over, while we just keep singing Silent Night over and over again.

When I saw that our stake was having a singalong evening, I thought this might be the answer. To my surprise, my sisters agreed.

I also felt that I should invite two friends we had not seen in a while, Tricia and Cathy. We did not hear back from Tricia, but Cathy thought it sounded like fun, and agreed to meet us there.

The evening itself went pretty well. We sang hymns, carols, some really old carols, and then we finished on the Hallelujah Chorus (probably the weakest part of the evening--it may require a little more working up to it). All four of us enjoyed it, and then after the singing was over we stayed chatting for quite a bit. If it had just ended up being a pleasant evening, that would have been good enough in itself.

It was more than that, though. First of all we realized we missed each other, so we arranged to get together again. That was fun--but wait--there's more!

Cathy is very talented musically, unlike us, and Julie and Maria asked if she could give us voice lessons. It was not supposed to be any huge undertaking, which was fine, because teaching voice is not her specialty, but she thought she could give us about four weeks of instruction, and that would be about right.

Well, I'd be lying if I said that there were not weeks when we talked more than we sang, but nonetheless we did learn some stuff musically, and we had fun. We went over meter, and and how to lead music, and did lots of practice, focusing on Pink's song "Perfect". We have some things we can work on to become stronger vocally, but I can tell that they seem more confident singing. (For just singing hymns in church I was already pretty confident anyway.

What's more, Cathy is going to start knitting lessons. I can't swear that our lesson-taking, getting-out-there-and-doing-stuff selves are the inspiration, but it's still cool.

Good stuff.

July Ensign
9303 steps

Toy Drive

The sadness over losing a friend did not mean Christmas was awful. Mom being in the hospital for most of that week was stressful, as was finding out a friend was in jail, but there were some good things too.

One was that we did a toy drive at work that was fun on multiple levels.

Way back in October, we did a drawing for prizes, and one of the crew got a foam pumpkin for décor, which he discovered was hollow. Messing around with it, he cut a slot to turn it into a bank, and began accepting donations. Donations started pouring in, so we switched to a bigger bank (a panda), and Scott decided we were saving for a pizza party, which sounded like a good plan.

When the toy drive was announced, Lisa S suggested that we take part of the money for toys. There was a prize for the floor with the most participation of a party, so then we could possibly get two parties, plus help kids. Everyone was okay with that.

Our group manager and supervisors were touched, and said they would buy us pizzas, and it could all go to the kids. That’s when we went nuts. People started bringing in treats and raffle prizes for people to give panda donations, and just putting in whatever loose change they had. I don’t remember how much we raised, but I think it was around $340.

Michelle’s husband works at Sears, so they went shopping, using his employee discount I think, and got a ton of toys. In addition, many people bought toys as well, and we blew away all of the competition, even the spirited third floor. That felt good.

Our pizza party was great. The prize party was this cold cut spread that for some reason looked absolutely disgusting to me, so I did not touch it, but still, we won, and I was amazed at how competitive some of us felt about it. It will be interesting to see how the upcoming food drive goes, because after collecting it we also make art of it.

There were two other revelations for me. One is that Walgreens had some amazing deals on toys. I never thought of them as being a place to shop for toys, but they had some really good ads, so I went in, and they had awesome toys!

That leads to the second revelation, which is that buying toys is really fun. We don’t really shop for Christmas, and the youngest people in the immediate family are 34, so it’s just not an issue, but it is so fun. And I can see that for some parents, who are worried about money, and giving their kids everything they want, so that their child does not feel bad when their cousins are bragging (and yes, I do see some things wrong with this) lose some of the fun, and I get that, but I had fun. One the one trip I ended up with four big shopping bags and I had gotten some deals, let me tell you.

Also, I may have some issues with impulse control.

Alma 36 – 39
12093 steps

Christmas cards

For Christmas, there are actually three potential topics. Two of them are good things, and one is sad, and it is probably the least Christmas-y of all three stories, so I guess it should go first.

It really goes back to the reunion, August 2010. As wonderful as it is to see everyone who is there, you always notice people who are not there. I ended up going through the booklet and circling the names of people whom I did not see at the reunion, and who were not on Facebook, and who did have addresses listed, and I was going to write to them and say "hello", and maybe encourage them to get on Facebook. The difficulty I ran into, and maybe it was silly to even worry about it, but I wanted to send cards, not just letters, and I could not find any that I really liked for what I was doing. I decided to do it at Christmas, and send Christmas cards.

For the most part, that went pretty well. I did not get any physical mail back, but two of the people I wrote to are on Facebook now, and one messaged me through there when he got on, and it's cool. So far that is not sad. The sad part is that before we got to Christmas I read that Gary Krumholz died.

I've written a few times about having your classmates die and how that feels. Well, it feels wrong, always, and there have been a few times where along with the sense of loss there has been some sense of guilt, wondering if I could have helped in some way. In this case, I had circled his name and address, and I was going to be writing out a card to him in a month, and I'd waited too long.

I made myself look. It was weird, but even though I knew that I would have and must have circled his name, and I had to look it up and see that mark, telling me that I was going to write to him, and now it was too late.

Most of the people were on the list were athletes on one of the teams I managed (Men's Basketball and Soccer, and Combined Track and Field). Gary was the one non-athlete. He was in band, actually, which was the one extra-curricular activity that I had the least to do with. We had gone to Five Oaks together though, and even though we did not hang out a lot of that, we had good talks when we did. He showed appreciation for me more openly than any other guy I can remember, which I am grateful for, though we were never an item. I would have liked to talk to him again.

I don't know that I could have. They found him in November, he was reported missing in October, but I don't know when he actually left. If you are an adult living alone, it can take a little longer to figure out when something has gone wrong.

And really, it was not a ridiculous amount of procrastination. The reunion was in August, I sent cards out in December, and it was a perfectly reasonable schedule. It just still wasn't soon enough, despite all that, and that one is going to sting for a while. What can you do?

I guess, as always, what we do is remember that life is unpredictable, and to appreciate people while you have them. It's not that I believe death ends everything--not even close--but this time here is important, and there are things that change when it runs out.

Gary, I'm sorry I missed you. I'm glad to have known you.

Alma 12-15
10656 steps

My Thanksgiving

At one point, I really thought three to five of us were going to be doing the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day. It's an activity that I could earn Regence Rewards points for, and seeing that, I was just kind of intrigued. Maybe we could be the kind of family that does physical activities on holidays.

I discussed it with Julie and Maria, but we did not get very far because at one point it looked like Mom might be in the hospital. That ended up not being the case, with her surgery happening a month later, but it was still good that we did not sign up for the walk. Mom was doing home visits for the golden retriever, and as she went for her first visit, her car would not start. The alarm had gone out, and it was one of those alarms that instead of making loud noises, just keeps the car from starting. Julie and Maria needed to shuttle her back and forth, and it would have been a real pain. The three of us did go take a walk at the Nature Park, and the repair ended up being relatively painless the next day, so all was well that ended well. Will we trot this year, or simply walk in a nearby location where there are no lines or entry fees, but also no Regence points? We shall see.

There were a few things that struck me about the holiday, so that was what I really wanted to write about.

One is that some people are against Thanksgiving because of Indian genocide. That was not going to be me anyway. I mean, I don't even hate Columbus. Regardless of the Native American/Immigrant American issues, I still think Thanksgiving can and should be a wonderful holiday. First of all, relations did deteriorate later, but at that time they were good, and these moments of harmony are precious things. Also, it was a Native American tradition to celebrate gratitude then, so really, it is honoring them to carry on the tradition.

Finally, it is simply a beautiful thing to celebrate gratitude. It is important for increasing personal happiness and humility, and so it is something that makes the world a better place. Some will say that is actually more of a reason to not have a Thanksgiving, because it should be something you do daily, and it absolutely is, but that extra day still helps. It is good for the people who don't think of it regularly to have a reason to think of it, and it is good for those who try and incorporate it all the time to have company, and additional time to focus.

I know for me, Thanksgiving is the most peaceful and least commercial holiday. I know with store ads and football it is not peaceful and non-materialistic for everyone, and I totally admit that the last hour before we eat is really hectic, but mostly it is a peaceful, relaxing, family day that inspires good behavior as I reflect on my blessings.

I suppose it is because I care so much about the Giving Thanks part that the second thought bugs me so much, but I hate the term "Turkey Day". I suppose it is the equivalent to using X-mas instead of Christmas, but at least the X is a symbol of Christ. Well, no, actually I never really use it anyway. I just remember the day before Thanksgiving thinking how "Turkey Day" trivializes such a wonderful holiday, and realizing that the person I was about to see would say it, and she did, twice, in the first few minutes. Sigh.

I will keep my Thanksgiving.

Alma 9 – 11
29213 steps (I did my Terwilliger/Sam Jackson walk today)

My Halloween

My last posting before the gap was October 4th, and then things started getting crazy and overwhelming, followed by maddening and depressing. We'll go into that more later. I just mention it now to explain that I was fairly busy and stressed.

I should also point out that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love the creativity that comes with it, as you dream up costumes and spooky settings and pumpkin designs. Naturally, creativity requires some mental capacity, and executing it calls for some time.

There were a few things going on at work. Obviously, Halloween itself was on the weekend, but the Thursday before (because so many people are out on Fridays), there was going to be judging of costumes, desk decorations, and of the scary Halloween treats that people brought.

I have a go-to Halloween treat. Back in college one year, when I was really hyper, I made skull sugar cookies for my Spanish class. They were inspired by the Day of the Dead confections. I don’t do bright colored fancy streaks, but I will scratch on teeth with a knife or toothpick, and make eyes out of inverted chocolate chips.

I am never really satisfied with them, because I am shaping them freehand, and the details could be a lot clearer, but people like them. It made my Spanish teacher’s day (because she had an otherwise bad day, but she said the one good thing that happened was the cookies).

Decorating the cube sounded great, but I did not have time to come up with anything really clever, so I just pulled out the stuff I already had and arranged it around my cube. It was overwhelmingly plush. I mean, I like stuffed animals, but I think it gave the wrong impression. Since right across from me there was a giant rat attacking people in a graveyard filled with green mist, I felt somewhat lacking. However, I do think the spiders milling about and then forming a column marching away from the web was good, because you could tell they were bent on world domination.

Someday I have this really ambitious idea of working with my natural curls to create snakes and have this really amazing Medusa costume, but that was not going to be 2010. (Odds are against 2011 as well.) I bought a witch hat, and paired it with my fancy red blouse and a black skirt and my spider earrings. Initially people thought maybe I had a date or something, until they realized the clothes went with the hat.

There were two basic problems with the costume (besides needing to keep an eye on my cleavage, since that neckline kind of borders the danger zone). One issue was that with my thick hair, once I put on a hat I can’t take it off. I get really bad hat head. So I was wearing it all day, and on to the Max station, and on the bus, all the way home. It would have been a little better on Halloween itself, but this was three days before, and no one else was dressed up. (Obviously someone else at work was wearing a costume, because I did not win the prize, but no one else on my team was, though one outfit did reference Wednesday Addams.)

The other issue was that not wearing this particular shirt much, I was not aware that with a little bit of moisture the color would run. I have a pink bra, and a partially pink slip now. I guess I need to wash that with some vinegar or something.

So, I did not win any prizes, and at times I felt silly, but I tried, and I did add to the general mood. People enjoyed my contributions, even if they did not live up to my dreams. And at the time, that seemed to be the story of my life, but it wasn’t awful. It was okay that I was accomplishing something at all.


Alma 4 - 8
17086 steps