This morning I had my teeth cleaned. Pure luck, really, that my appointment happened to be two days before the scheduled Jeopardy! taping, especially since I’m loathe to visit the dentist and thus haven’t been in, well, in a long time. Had my check last week (no cavities!) and, as I said, my cleaning today. All is just smurfy, though the tarter scraping on the back of my lower incisors has left me a tad sore. Not bad. I guess my religious brushing does some good.

I feel just a touch guilty because Christopher, even though he visits the dentist much more regularly, has genetically “bad” teeth that require more invasive procedures. I say “genetically” because his siblings are just the same; discussions of dentistry at full family dinners make the scenes from Marathon Man seem like nothing. It’s excruciating to hear about the root canals and implants and incredible expense they all have gone through. I usually end up leaving the table when they get started swapping stories—I just can’t take it.

My teeth hurt right now, just thinking about it.

Anyway, with the dentist out of the way and time running short, I’m down to my last full day of studying. I’ve found a website with all of last season’s episodes’ answers and questions on it, and I have been printing those out and trying my hand at them. Actually, I’ve been doing that for the last week or so, but I’ve also been learning new info during that same time. Now, I’m pretty much down to this review. Though I know there is more stuff I should know, I could only learn so much in the time I had to study, and will just have to do my best with that.

Besides, I believe the mind is like a hard drive, with a finite amount of space. I think if I crammed much more into the grey matter I would soon forget some basic things like how to tie my shoes or the name of that tall man who sleeps next to me. Frankly, I was amazed I still knew how to clutch when I drove to the dentist today.

So, tomorrow, after voting at the crack of dawn, I’ll do a little review, pack, and meet Christopher at the train station downtown at 1pm to catch the Surfliner to LA. Once that train pulls out, no more studying. I want to relax and enjoy the view, then relax at the hotel (in fact, I may even take a swim), and then definitely try to get to bed early (though it will be hard to do with the election returns coming in). Let the little grey cells finish building their bridges to each other and burden myself with nothing more complicated than deciding what to eat.

Wednesday, I’m to be at the studio at 8:30AM, ready to go. From what I’ve heard, it’ll all be pretty much a blur from then on. Hopefully I’ll do well. I’m competitive enough to want to win, but I’m not going to be disappointed if I don’t. There’s a lot more than just being smart to being successful on that game.

Regardless, I can’t tell you anything about the results (or the questions) until the episode(s) air. I’ll post something about the experience after I get home—probably Thursday sometime—but don’t look for any details.

In the meantime, please think good thoughts like: no NHL or NBA categories, but lots of French or at least language-related ones. A category like they had last season “Livres en français” which was where they gave the titles of books in French (Autent en emporte le vent) and one had to give the English titles (What is Gone with the Wind?), would be a dream come true.

“Great Power Forwards” would spell doom.