I’m back from my Jeopardy! taping.

I drove up this time, by myself (though Christopher wanted to come, he had to work), and, rather surprisingly, in a light rain. Just my luck to have to make the drive on one of the very rare rainy days in SoCal.

I went up early on Sunday, trying to beat the rain (which I did until Los Angeles County) and took the Pacific Coast Highway because there is less insane traffic that way. It’s a much less stressful drive, taking the PCH, and even in the not great weather, it is so much prettier than the usual 5 to 405 cement nightmare.

I got to LA before noon and, after a stop at a mall to buy a black belt that I forgot to pack and a quick drive by the studio to make sure I knew the route, I checked in early and got to work reviewing. I spent several hours going over my index cards (of the material I was less sure of). After I felt comfortable with that info, I put it all away, watched bad TV, and did the NY Times crossword puzzle. In the evening, I watched a bit of Masterpiece Theatre’s new version of Henry VIII, then went to sleep…somehow.

After a decent night’s sleep (only woke up twice to look at the clock–just in case I overslept), I bathed, got dressed, and headed for the studio—yet again. At the studio, everything was just as it was the last time’except I knew what to expect and that I was guaranteed to play sometime that day.

I did indeed get to play, but I can’t share with you anything that would give away the results, so you’re just going to have to put up with some non-game-specific info here and watch the week of January 10, 2005 to see what happens.

I can tell you that from the second they told me that I was playing the next game, things got very blurry. By that I mean I remember getting my make-up refreshed and getting miked, but there are other parts that are buried somewhere deep in my memory banks that I just can’t access now. It’s not that it was stagefright, but rather that I was extremely focused on the game-playing and thus didn’t notice any of the outside distractions. Game-playing and breathing.

I did re-work my ‘Hometown Howdy’ and managed to get that done in one take. In fact, my AdLister friends especially will have to look for it online (there’s a link on that map page) in January, even though I probably won’t be able to bear to watch it. But that’s just because I don’t think I’ll be able to ever watch myself on TV…except maybe to see if I appear in the Biography episode they were taping my first day on the set (when I didn’t play–see Part 4 for info).

I’m sure I looked incredibly stiff at times, and that really doesn’t bother me. I mean, I wasn’t there to get a modeling contract (like that would even be vaguely possible–HA!) but rather to play the game’and as everyone who knows me knows, I loathe being in front of a camera of any sort! Also, sometimes, I just had to slightly squint to read the board more clearly in the lights, so that probably made me look a bit angry. But I wasn’t. I was loving the challenge and really into it.

Most of all, playing the game, on the set, for real, causes time to change. By that I mean that I felt like I had plenty of time to ring in and answer each individual answer/question, however the almost 30 minutes of a game (including commercial time) go by in, like, 2 minutes. It’s some strange warp. It goes so fast that, during a game, the only time I had any clue what sort of position I was in was when we stopped for a Daily Double (during commercials I just wanted water and to listen to what the coordinators were telling us).

A lot of former contestants have expressed their opinions about the difficulty of ringing in. It’s not easy to time it right, but I found that I got in first more often than not (when I tried’there were a few clues I didn’t even attempt). Some people advocate waiting for the lights on the board that indicate that the buttons are ‘live’ (lights not visible on TV), others say to time it based on Alex’s voice. Me, I found that a combo worked best. What I did was read the answer myself and, if I knew the correct question, I would look down at the bottom of the board for the lights. At the same time, I would listen for Alex’s voice to finish. I didn’t listen to his words, but instead just listened for the fall of his voice at the end, and that told my brain to be ready to have my thumb hit the button the instant the lights even vaguely looked warm. Like I said, it seemed to work pretty well. I didn’t find myself getting flustered at not being able to ring in. There were times when someone beat me to the punch, of course, but not enough to make me concerned about my timing.

Over all, it was a great experience, and I have to express my thanks to all the contestant coordinators at Jeopardy!. These people are really great’helpful, funny, encouraging, and you simply feel like they are in your corner no matter what. Also, just about all the other contestants were fantastic too. You have this strange temporary bond with these people; everyone seems to want everyone to do well. The other contestants, who are in the audience waiting for their turns, feel just terrible when watching someone tank; all are thrilled for each winner. And these are honest feelings’not some attempt at being polite.

Most of all, I have to thank my husband for his incredible support. He quizzed me every night after work (and for as long as I wanted), traveled with me to LA twice (which meant a lot of sitting around for him while I was busy), spent money we didn’t need to spend on all the travel, took time off from work, was a great cheerleader (especially when I got overwhelmed with all the material I felt I had to study), often asked what else he could do to help, and taught me all I know about pirates (Arrrr!). I don’t think I would have been able to do this without him.

So that’s about it. When I can give more detail about my Jeopardy! experience, I will definitely post more info.

I will say that watching the show now, at home, on our couch, is a completely different experience than it was before this adventure. And I’ll still watch it whenever I can.