A Girl and a Wheel and to Be Cheesy, a Dream...Chapter One

WHEEL…OF…FORTUNE!!!!

That’s right kids, what a crazy crazy day. Let me set the scene here. I’m sitting in the dark in my hotel room at…2:15am their time, 5:15 my time. My super-duper friend Amy Dodd is sleeping like a gem over there and my sleep patterns have gone down the drain due to adrenaline, time change, and freaking out about moves I could have done differently. Since I’m up, I’ve decided to get this inevitably long blog going. I’ve decided to break it up into 4 parts: Pre-WOF Day, Pre WOF Game, WOF Game, Post WOF Game. I know there are some of you who just don’t want to read a blog that is the length of a John Grisham novel, but let’s face it, there’s no way around it if I want to do this thing justice. So…read what you want, skip what you want. I do need to say, though, that you have been the best supporters ever! I have felt like a celebrity the past 3.5 months, since I got the random “invitation only” email inviting me to try-out for the Wheel in Boston. And please. I am NO celebrity. If I WAS a celebrity, I’d treat this thing like it was no big deal. But goodness gracious there’s no acting cool here. It was A HUGE DEAL and so I must write lots and lots about it. But anyway, you have sent me FB messages and called me and yelled “BIG MONEY” at me in passing. It’s been so fun!

Since the episode won’t air until March 2 (put it in your calendars immediately!), I cannot and will not mention the outcome or hint knowingly toward any outcome. Enjoy the first 2 installments of my Wheel of Fortune craziness (“installments”!?!?...who AM I!?) and stay tuned for after March 2, when I will post the game and post game details. Weeeeeeeee!!!!!

Pre-WOF Day

More than a year ago, who knows exactly?.....Phebe and I become ridiculously addicted to playing Wheel of Fortune on Facebook. No seriously, it was a problem. I'd have to rip myself away after 2 hours because the dishes in my sink had GOT to be cleaned. I stopped being social, stopped eating and sleeping...just kidding. It wasn't that bad. But you get my point. And I don’t feel as ashamed sharing this because look where it got me. So judge all you want. But I was on Wheel of Fortune J

So randomly, I decided to just up and look up the application to be a contestant. I keep saying that I did this just for kicks and giggles. I applied on the WOF page, thinking that nothing would come of it. All they asked for was my basic personal information, name, address, what I do for a living, whether or not I am in the military…that type of thing. I clicked on submit, thought briefly about how fun it would be to actually spin the wheel, then got up and hung out with my girl Ruby. Or grabbed a healthy snack. Or cleaned my bathroom. Or something.

Fast forward, I don’t know, 6 months later? I check my email and lo and behold there’s some random email with WHEEL OF FORTUNE, all letters in upper case, in the subject line. Weird. I open it and I’m pretty sure my jaw dropped a bit. It was an “by invitation only” email asking me to join them at the auditions in Boston a couple of weeks later, in late September. I read it, giggled a bit, and then saw the date. It was during work. I had already taken my 2 personal days for my Ironman, used another day for the road trip back. There was NO WAY I would be allowed to take another day off for, haha, a Wheel of Fortune audition. How silly. And THEN it was cemented in my brain that it wouldn’t happen when I saw that I had an IEP meeting that day for one of my students…an extremely important meeting attended by all the important people that have to do with this kid’s education and such. No way. Shoot. Blast. It just wasn’t going to happen. Until I thought to myself, “I should at least ask. No hurt in asking…” So I asked. And my super awesome boss replied:

"Combine this with the triathlon and you win the prize, hands-down, for creative excuses to miss school. Wouldn't the best move, given the need for speed, be to RSVP yes? I'm betting it will be fine, but if for some reason it's not, it will be easier to say "sorry Vanna I can't make it," later, than to respond too late. That's my recommendation. That, and buy vowels early and watch out for "Bankrupt."

No. Way. Holy cow I was going to audition for WOF. Whatever, nothing would probably come of it. But I was going to try, gosh darnit. So to get ready I re-familiarized myself with the game on TV, read up on Wheel strategies, and my two awesome friends helped train me one night while watching the show. Brett did beat me, but it made me stronger. He also did a little pretending and he was Pat asking me about myself and I'd give my shpeal. I felt like I was in that hockey movie when the coach is yelling at his players and making them skate as fast as they can and keeps saying, "AGAIN!" Brett was relentless. And I thank him :) Faith gave great pointers, like when I say a letter, don't say it in a questioning tone like, 'L?', but rather say it with confidence. Thank you, Faithie Cakes!

So fast forward to September 28^th. My great, I’m-totally-comfortable-with-Boston-and-will-totally-drive-you-in-during-rush-hour-in-style friend Chris drove me to the audition. I made sure to look my cutest, and to look like I would be a great contestant. Not quite sure how to do this, or what that meant, I still felt like I looked the part. Great. So it was held at the hoity-toity Lenox hotel, and conveniently, Ryan Reynolds was in the middle of taping for a movie right down the street at the same time, so I suddenly felt like I was in Hollywood. Ryan Reynolds, cameras, the wheel. What else did I need to feel like a total superstar living in a dream? But, as you know, it got better!!

During the audition we were squeezed like sardines into 70 chairs in a conference room. At the front was a screen and a pretty pathetic looking wheel that did the job. We sat down and filled out some paperwork about ourselves using (GASP!) little pencils that said “I auditioned for Wheel of Fortune.” Obviously I was going to keep this pencil forever and display it in a shadow box or something. So there was a puzzle guy who sat behind his computer and put the puzzles up on the board. He was like the old, grumpy, and not-nearly-as-pretty-and-blond Vanna White for the day, since he flipped over the letters as they were called out. There were 3 other staff in the room telling us what to do and I wanted to be friends with all of them immediately. They had enthusiasm that would put mine to shame. I was like a shy kid on his first day of school compared to them. Just being in their presence made me want to jump up and down and do toe touches. So, obviously, they were the perfect people for this job. And I immediately wanted to look into how to join them as contestant staff. Maybe some other time, when my veins are MADE of 5-hour energy. Seriously. Crazy.

So staff would yell out a person’s name, person would have to stand up and depending on the puzzle up on the screen, yell out a letter just like realsies. Depending on whether the letter was up there, you’d call out another letter, buy a vowel, and solve if you could. They were looking for enthusiasm, presence, logical thinking, tone and volume of the voices. Here was my winning strategy going into it. Be as obnoxious as possible. Don’t leave anything behind. Now, being pretty enthusiastic already, I felt confident that turning it up as many notches as possible would be ideal. So this is what I did. I knew that because my cheeks hurt, my hands hurt, and I was annoyed with myself about 10 minutes into this 3-hour thing, I had done my best and SHOULD (fingers crossed) get a spot. So anyway, they called my name, I stood up and it was a new puzzle. I shouted (loudly, with confidence, and with a smile on my face and a clap afterward whatever happened) “N”!!!! Buzzer buzzed. No ‘N’. Are you kidding me? I sat down clapping and laughing heartily and questioned whether that was really what they would base their decision on. Thankfully, they called my name again because they wanted to see me again. I got to call more than one letter. Woo! I gotta say, I was SO shocked with the lack of enthusiasm some people brought with them to the WHEEL OF FORTUNE AUDITION. I don’t care who you are, how little your voice is, or how much confidence you’re lacking, because girl, you are at an AUDITION for the Wheel. This display could get you a spot on the Wheel, where you would go home with a minimum of $1,000. You best reach deep inside of you to find that presence and strong voice and enthusiasm. Well, so many people didn’t. I found that to be a huge surprise and an even more huge advantage for me. So please, keep up the shy, questionable letter callings-out.

So then we had to take a 5-minute test that consisted of about 16-18 word puzzles. There were a number of blanks and some were already filled out. The WOF category was there for you. I would be lying if I didn’t say that I got all of them. I was psyched. I had thought that since people were here for the Wheel, they’d all be good at this and I would be just one of hundreds who got them all. Not so. After asking the girl next to me how she thought she did, she answered by saying that she only got 4. Look at me now, people who judged me for doing so many Variety puzzles! Mmmhmmm. So then they took the test in with our questionnaires (in which I used my teacher card and my Ironman card…I shared both of these things, thinking the well-roundedness and accomplishment would surely get me in) for about 30 minutes to grade them and read up on us. We all returned to our sardine spots and they announced 24 people that they wanted to keep. The women on either side of me had to get up and leave. Their names were not called. Mine was. Just hearing my name called, I was on cloud nine and felt like I was on a reality show and the others liked me and I was not voted off the island. SWEET! So then, they had us actually go up to the front of the room, 6 at a time, and pretend to spin the wheel and call out letters. After they had seen us all for a good amount of time, they had us do a mock introduction, as if we were telling Pat about ourselves during the show. Again, I played the teacher and Ironman cards (GREAT cards to play if you have ‘em). Again, I was crazy enthusiastic and clapped for the others when it was their turn. I laughed and smiled and drove myself nuts. We also had to pretend to spin the wheel, as if it was in front of us. Again, I was not impressed with some of the acting skills displayed by my “competitors”. But I found this to be another advantage for me. When it was my turn, I bent way down, put my arm way out to the right, did the wheel-spinning action, and of COURSE of COURSE, yelled “BIG MONEY!!!” as loud as I could. So we did that for a bit, other people took their turns, it was great fun and while I hoped I would get a letter 2 weeks later, I had my “I auditioned for Wheel of Fortune!” pencil and no one could take that away from me.

Fast forward 2 weeks later. No letter. Oh well, it was a fun audition. Hold up! Fast forward 2 weeks and 2 DAYS later, however, WINNINNNGGGG!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw “Wheel of Fortune” at the top of the envelope. I laughed and danced and giggled all the way up the 3 flights of stairs to my apartment. Glory be I’d be in their files and would eventually be a contestant on their show. Tens of thousands of people apply for the show and only 600 get on the show per year. What the heck. This is when the “surreal” started to happen. I called my family, unabashedly wrote a Facebook status in all caps, and read the letter over and over. It was a very confusing letter and didn’t quite understand all they were saying, but gosh darnit I was going to be a contestant!!! This letter meant I’d get a call within something crazy like 18 months. So I realized that I would have to just forget about it, move on with my real life, and be surprised all over again when I got the call.

Fast forward another month or so. Got out of the shower, saw I had a message, and GASP saw that I didn’t recognize the area code. Omigosh could this be it? Or was it just the American Red Cross calling me again or unbeknownst to me did I somehow subscribe to another stupid magazine (how does this happen, anyway!? I’m so bad at being a mature, responsible adult…)? Oh, no big deal, it was just one of the crazies from the audition, Shannon, calling to ask if I was ready to come out to LA in 2 weeks to be a contestant. HOLY. CRAP. My friend Amy Dodd was visiting that week and was in the kitchen. I ran into the kitchen and started jumping up and down and started shrieking, but just quietly so I could hear what good ol’ Shannon had to say. I got off and hugged Amy and we were awkwardly jumping up and down at the same time. Then immediately after Amy got a restricted phone call and yells, “maybe that’s the Wheel calling me, too!” Oh, Amy J

So planning on people coming, what to wear, how to study, all took a toll on me. I eventually ended up taking Amy D with me (my other potential guests, Amy F and Phebe couldn’t for other reasons…boo!) and wearing a purple top and white corduroys and let’s not forget the cute earrings, and I watched a ton of Wheel episodes on YouTube and played the game on Facebook. My intense training was during Thanksgiving so my brother and his family were home. I felt so bad but am thankful for my family, who understood when I was glued to my computer and I would almost always answer their requests with, “…after this round.”

Wow. You made it through the first installment. Good for you! You are a true supporter. I have a 6-hour plane ride today. Gotta charge my computer battery so I can write the next chapter way up in the air. Which is exactly where I have felt I’ve been for the past couple of weeks, so it works really well.