teebax

I received this from the show today!

Thank you very much. I have so many people coming to my house for the broadcast. It's cool to have so much support, online and in IRL. I just hope some major event doesn't happen that day. Jeopardy gets pre-empted quite a bit where I live, and most of the time it's stuff that could wait.

You can't watch until your episode tapes. We were watching The Princess Bride in the green room. No cell phones were allowed, either. I was lucky to be in the second group so I wasn't sequestered for long. I spent most of my free time at the Getty Museum. We went on two different days. It was fabulous. I'm an East Coast snob who was blown away to see a museum of that quality on the West Coast. I need to spend more time in LA. I usually go to San Diego when I go to California. I'll talk more after the tournament airs so as not to reveal any details.

I stayed at the Doubletree for my audition, at my expense. For the tournament, we were at the Culver Hotel. It is gorgeous, and I think it runs about $350 a night. I had a suite. It at one time was owned by John Wayne and Charlie Chaplin. Pretty cool. They flew me out on a Saturday and home on a Wednesday, although they said I could fly back at a later date if I wanted. Since we were all at the same hotel, we were able to have drinks and dinner in the evenings, which was also cool. They also had a wrap party, which I unfortunately couldn't attend because I was really sick. Overall it was a fantastic experience. ETA they paid for the hotel for the tournament.

To be fair, they're paying the money won. They also paid our expenses to travel to the show and put us up in a hotel I could never afford on my own. I think the grant is the only thing that they didn't continue.

I think the grants were a thing when the sponsor was State Farm. The new sponsor is Amazon. I did receive an Echo in a gift bag, which was nice (no sarcasm intended; it's a very cool device.) However, I think it'd give them some goodwill to be continuing with the grants. Even more goodwill could come from increasing them. I used to swipe office supplies to take home. Now I swipe supplies from my home to take to school. Don't get me wrong; I love my job and can't see myself doing anything else at this point in my life. But one of the reasons I was so excited to make the tournament was the grant.

I have in the past. I haven't done one this year, but I'll be doing another one next school year.

My students (and district) have been pretty amazing. I don't know if I mentioned it, but the classroom grant money has gone away, which saddens me. I was looking forward to doing some cool stuff with it. My district, like many, struggles with funding, and I had a whole list of books of which I was going to get class sets. I guess I'll keep begging online for donations. In the past, each teacher received a $2,500 classroom grant. There's a new sponsor this year, and I guess they didn't continue with the classroom grant part. Also, they no longer will announce where we teach. They said it was because of the school shootings and for our privacy, but I was looking forward to my little school getting some publicity. I teach at a small, alternative public high school. We serve students who, for whatever reasons, did not succeed at the traditional high schools. There are two huge high schools in my district and then my school. When I tell most people where I teach, they've never heard of it and didn't know my district had three high schools. Anyway, during the past Teachers Tournaments, they used to show videos of the students wishing their teachers luck, and they don't do that anymore. Don't get me wrong; I'm still thrilled and honored to have participated in the tournament, but the experience was different from what I expected. I was excited for my students to get a chance to do a shout-out on TV. I think part of what changed was definitely having seen how the sausage was made. I think another part is just burnout. I've ate, drunk, and slept Jeopardy since early January when I found out I was auditioning. Now I'm playing my PS4 and just turning off my brain when I get home from work.

I could definitely see that happening. I've started watching again, but it's different now.

Oh, I did something during my introduction that some of you will hate. It was my way of saying hello to all of you, so be gentle with me!

I finally got around to watching some episodes and am impressed with James, but I had to laugh yesterday when he did his pushing in the chips motion. Maggie, the producer, warned us not to do that. She emphasized that we should say what our wager is on a DD, not make a gesture, and that a recent contestant had done that motion. Now I know who she was referring to.

Thanks for the kind words. I have been super busy since I got back and am feeling a little Jeopardy'd out. Other former contestants will have to let me know if they felt that way. I tried to watch a couple of episodes this week, and I'm kinda over it right now. Anyway, I promised to supply an air date. It is Tuesday, May 7. I'll make sure to hop online to answer any questions or comments from any of you. What I can reveal to you now is Alex talked to me for quite a while after taping, so much so that my family that was in the audience asked me what he and I were talking about for so long. I found him to be very kind and personable. We talked about bases at which I was stationed that he'd also been to on tours. He looks gaunt but seemed to be in good spirits, and it really was one of the best times of my life.

He was impressive. I've just started hearing about this guy, but so far I really like him. It's nice to see a young guy who values intelligence running for president. I don't think Bill came off well during the interview by bashing Millenials, implying that the issues trans students face aren't important, and mocking the #metoo movement. Pete held his own.

We were just looking for something to do Sunday. I go to California a lot, but usually to San Diego, which I love. Thanks for the tip about the Getty. That's a great idea.

Modigliani was in a book about artists I just read. I was so freaking excited to get that one right, but I don't think it was a TS, was it?

My only gets tonight were loess (solely based on the clue and not knowledge I had before-hand) and FJ. I think FJ was one of those clues that if you got it right away it seemed really easy, but parsing it out may have been difficult. I know that makes no sense but also know you guys understand what I mean! In other news, I leave for LA tomorrow! I'm a combination of excited and nervous for Monday.

You should definitely take the test! I find when I watch there are some days when I know almost every answer and some days in when I wonder why the heck I think I'm good enough to be a contestant. There's no harm in taking the test.

Wow! Another really close game today. I love when that happens. Dave really lucked out with Jeff and Jonathan finishing DJ in a tie. I had Ahab, peel, fling, knell, liver (after saying gallbladder first), and FJ on a very wild guess. I initially was thinking Earth Day but knew it hadn't started until the 70s, so I went with Arbor Day. Mildly off-topic: I was babysitting my nephew earlier, and I had on some old episodes from YouTube. When Cheryl from the Clue Crew came on, my nephew said, "Auntie, she looks like you!" I don't see it, but you guys can decide for yourselves soon. I wonder why she stopped doing the show. It probably was a big time commitment with all that travel, but it'd be a dream job for me.

If by scary movies you mean horror movies, I'm with you. For me, it's because I don't like blood and guts. Now I love me some suspense. Poe has always been my favorite writer. That was an exciting game with three solid players. Congratulations to Jonathan. We don't often see giant slayers repeat as champs. Yes, I know Lindsey won four games, but she was really sharp, regardless of her buzzer-murdering technique!) I would have been happy with any of today's three contestants winning. This is the first time in ages I wrote down my gets. I had Marie Antoinette (strange TS), Hedda Gabler, George Washington, and Ozzy Newsome. Of course I had FJ immediately. I was disappointed that Stephanie didn't write anything down. I guess you risk giving a bad answer, but it seems worth it to just pick an American Author and hope for the best.

Thanks for the kind words. Truth be told, I'm terrified I'm going to freeze up and make an ass of myself. I'm taking getting picked as my win. Everything else is gravy.

British royalty was one of my weakest subjects, so I've read about 10 books on it and watched a few documentaries as well. Still, when the category came up, I told my BFF I probably wouldn't get it right. Then I did get it right! Something stuck in this aging mind of mine! I really hope I have a chance to answer "Aaron Burr" on my show. I freaking love that commercial. Speaking of the show, my per diem check arrived today. I was hoping it'd be a fancy Jeopardy check I could frame (I just take a picture to deposit). Alas, it was boring. But it said Jeopardy so I'm still going to frame it. Anyway, it just got really real that I'm flying out there next weekend. Crazy!

They encourage it. FJ was an instaget, but I've been studying The Oscars. I may not have remembered Spotlight otherwise. I'll always remember Moonlight because of the fiasco during the broadcast.

The women authors category bothers me because women is a noun. Why not call it female authors if you want to narrow it down?

Not sure what you mean by that. I think I'm pretty good.

I've tried to be more sympathetic to the contestants since I found out about my upcoming appearance, but I can't lie. I'm not a fan of the champ. She's definitely knowledgeable, but I can't stand the buzzer clicking and facial expressions. I'm also hoping they replace that buzzer before I get there. She's destroying it! I wonder if it sounds that loud to the contestants.