Exclamation point in the title of the show, and in our excitement for this past week. Anyone who knows Reggie knows that he is a trivia freak (and geek). But nothing- not trivial pursuit, not cranium, not pub trivia, compares to his love of Jeopardy!.
Every year, Reg plays the online Jeopardy! quiz in hopes of being selected to be on the show. The show takes the top X% of the online scores and invites those individuals to come to the live audition, which is broken down by region. This year he made it! So this past week we drove down to DC for his live tryout. We stayed at our darling friend, Tara's, new condo, and got to go to all of our favorite DC spots- you know, Crate & Barrel, Coffee & Crumbs, and of course, Mandu for the amazing dolsot bibim bap and aloe sojutini. ahhh how I've missed you, Mandu! It was my favorite happy hour spot in the warm weather months when we lived in DC. Many a work/life drama was dissected over one too many (always one too many!) cocktails on the patio at Mandu with my best girlfriends.
But I digress.
The real reason for the trip was Reggie's Jeopardy! live audition. He spent the last few weeks studying books on Jeopardy! trivia (thanks, Miriam- you're the best!), brushing up on his "weak spots" (ie- poetry, British literature, art history) and watching multiple Jeopardy! episodes (or, Jepisodes) a night.
He had to come up with 5 interesting facts to be used in the personal interview portion of the show (1. manager of the Hebrew Oilers; 2. first generation American; 3. urban farmer; 4. MJ's "Billie Jean" is a cha-cha-cha (in other words, we ballroom dance); 5. he met his wife when he was serving as her resident advisor at NYU- scandalous!)
He had to dress as he would if he were going to be on the show. I think he put together THE classic Reggie ensemble, complete with tie bar:
I took this photo as we were leaving the house to go to the audition. I also should mention it was above 90 degrees and incredibly humid in DC this week- of course!
The audition was at the St. Regis on 16th St (a good omen- we used to live on 16th street about a mile north of the St. Regis). He was there for 3 full hours. Per his report, there was another 50-question written quiz, live mock games (complete with buzzer pressing training) and the personality interview.
The verdict? We have no idea. If he made it into the candidate pool, he'll get a call sometime in the next year, a month before they want him to go to LA to appear on the show.
More importantly- He LOVED it! He said the people were great and very friendly. He also reported back that the questions weren't very difficult and he was a master at buzzer pushing! ha!
We came home last night and today Reggie's twin and his girlfriend came into town- so it's been a bit of a whirlwind. They are staying in the guest room that I have been absolutely salivating to remodel. However, we decided while in DC that we think we are going to put off the gut and re-do of the guest room. The more we talk about it, the more we realized that 1) we could spend thousands of dollars elsewhere for bigger personal return (a great vacation, for example); 2) the chances of us staying in Pittsburgh post-graduation are just that- chances. And even if we do stay and I find an amazing job here, the chances of us staying in our little Callowhill St. house far beyond graduation are slim. So, really? why go through the huge hassle, and the MONEY. Since we made the decision I feel so financially free- like we can actually fix up some other little things in the house that were being overlooked in the name of saving for the renovation. We will paint it, probably put in some new lighting, but as far as a total gut- probably not going to happen. So, to our current and future guests, I apologize for the low ceilings, the huge awkward closet built out into the middle of the room, and the creaking floorboards. You'll just have to get over it as we have. IF Reg becomes the next Ken Jennings, Jeopardy! champ extraordinaire, we'll think about it. But until then, our guests will just have to enjoy the downstairs and the outside areas and learn to close their eyes and sleep in the bedroom, overlooking its many flaws.
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