I would imagine almost all of you receiving this letter already know my BIG NEWS of the year (almost of my life!). Unless you were traveling in Outer Mongolia, live under a rock, or have gone deaf and missed my shouting from the rooftops, you already know that I was on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”. This was my second shot at the show, but the first time I was in the Hot Seat and actually had a chance to win money. I was able to walk away with $50,000!!! To put that in perspective, it means I can now be debt-free (and hopefully remain so), and (here comes the braggy part) it was the highest amount in my 10-person tape day group. There have been others who won $50K and some who won $100K, but only one individual -- yea! Madamemeisha! (a family did this too, but that was three heads instead of one) won $250K. The full season has not yet aired so that could change, but all in all, it was a good outing. For those of you who may have missed the actual show and are dying to see it, you can see photos and the questions I answered at http://www.angelfire.com/ky3/nellylunat ... ensen.html. (Thanks nellylunaticsfan for this handy link!)
In brief, as I’m sure I’m much more fascinated with this than most of you are (that would be my other friends, not you guys
), I’ve been trying for about nine years to get on the show and in the Hot Seat. There is a permanent audition site in NYC, but every summer they go on the road across the country to get a broader range of locations and contestants. This summer they came to a casino/resort near Sacramento (site of my initial success in 2000), which was the first close-by location in six years. I figured if it seemed like all went as well as possible and I wasn’t chosen, it would be my last attempt unless they came to the Bay Area. I passed the test (30 multiple choice questions on all kinds of subjects in 10 minutes), had the 1-minute-are-we-interested-at-all interview, and then got a 4-5 minute on-camera interview. It all seemed to go very well, and in July I received the Happy Face card telling me I was in the contestant pool. On August 19, after a yucky day at work, I arrived home to THE CALL! When I was able to call back the next day, I was scheduled for a Sept. 9 taping.I figured I would be going alone as everyone else would be working, and my sister, who is my usual partner in crime on these adventures, was booked for Hawaii the same week. But a friend from Rockford who I’ve known since we were two, said she would be interested in coming in from Wisconsin. So Laura (Hughes for those of you from Rockford) and I rattled around NYC for a couple of days before the taping.
I think this was fated to be an excellent trip. Out of all the things that could go wrong, absolutely NOTHING did! Millionaire has a special arrangement with the Lucerne Hotel for $240 a night (shocking to my Motel 6 mind but I soon realized it was a really good deal for NYC) so we stayed there. Very nice hotel and super friendly staff. For two hicks sort of from the sticks, that helped make the stay even more pleasant. In fact New Yorkers did nothing to live up/down to their reputations for being rude. We met only nice people the entire time everywhere we went.
The first day I fed my Pizzeria Uno’s addiction at the restaurant just blocks from the hotel, and then we walked around figuring out where subways were and where the ABC studios were. The next day we went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Both were really interesting, but I would have liked more time at Ellis Island. On Tuesday I was at the studios all day long (those details were much like my Millionaire story from 2001 -- also Frogman -- so I won’t bore you with those, but should you really feel you are missing out, let me know, and I can e-mail that story to you in all its glorious detail). Laura only needed to be there part of the day so she did the thing she most wanted to do and was part of the crowd at the Today Show.
I was the final contestant of the day to tape (two others finished after me the next day) so by the end of the day I was at $8,000 and had to return the next day. I had used my phone-a-friend (college roommate Kay, who was the music specialist), but no other lifeline. I realized about two months later (yes, it took that long) to realize I misread the question and would not have needed a lifeline, but in the long run it would not have made any difference. Kay was quite surprised at being called because almost all my questions would normally have been directed to the group lifeline at the school where I work in the Library. But she came through and confirmed the answer I thought it was and was quite entertaining in the process. The reason WHY I needed to call Kay on a literature question rather than a high school librarian is that Millionaire COULD NOT CONNECT THE PHONE CALL!!! We never knew what happened, but I had a choice of another PAF or not using the lifeline. Sometimes I think they were trying to bail me out of a dumb choice, but I doubt the legalities of game shows permits that. My third PAF was my cousin’s husband, Steve, who was my sports guy.
Before returning for the second day of taping on Wed., I treated Laura to a steak dinner at Keen’s Steakhouse, It is over 100 years old and has a certain kind (don’t ask me to remember) of smoking pipe all over the ceiling. There are 10’s of thousands of them with many more in storage. It used to be a hang out for actors before Broadway was Broadway. On the wall there is a playbill from the box when Lincoln was shot with his blood on it. Very fascinating place AND the most expensive meal I’ve ever eaten and probably will ever eat. The bill came in a folder called “The Bad News”.
On Wed. we went back a bit later in the morning, and I would be the first contestant up so that made me the “Mystery Contestant” of the day. We had one the previous day as well but never met her. Contestants in the midst of game play are not allowed to interact, at least in the studios, with contestants yet to come so I had to sit in a dressing room by myself with nothing to do for about an hour. You already know the outcome, and if you have looked over the questions, there is nothing I would have changed about my game play (other than the misread). No one at my group lifeline could have definitely given the answer to the $100K question and it wasn’t Googleable in less than 30 seconds so having the PAF then would not have mattered. Because I was also the “end” of the week, I missed out on Ken Jennings (the guy who won $2M+ on Jeopardy and is a game show legend) as my expert. I had Will Shortz, the NY Times crossword guy, who may have been good for some stuff but didn’t know his Letterman either.
Laura needed to leave that day so after she left, I decided to see “Legally Blonde” on Broadway. I also wandered around Times Square checking out all the lights and hordes of people. One of the special times of the trip, however, was being in NYC on September 11. I purposely planned to stay so I could remember those who were in the towers that day. NYC had a reading of all the names on TV so while I packed, I watched the coverage. After checking out of the hotel, I went down to Ground Zero and walked around it. It currently looks like a big construction site, but the immensity of it is impressive. I also went through St. Paul’s Church across the street. It would be very interesting on its own because of the age and beauty of the church, but being there on that day made it more special. I was disappointed that the memorial center was not open to the public that day, but it will be a stop for another time. I was able to sign a beam in Battery Park that will be part of the new Sept. 11 Memorial to be built.
After returning from the trip, I had two+ months to wait for the airing of the show in November. It aired over two days, Nov. 7 and Nov. 24, making it even HARDER to fend off the many high school students trying to pry the info. out of me. But threats of taking away my money kept my lips sealed. If all goes as planned, I should have The Check in hand for a nice little Christmas gift on Christmas Eve (30 days from final show). It is coming to IL so I don’t need to wait much longer. By the time you receive this, I probably have it in hand.
(I'm including this next part because it just capped off a really great year of "winning" stuff.)
The final fun thing that happened this year was winning one round of Fantasy Skating in the US Figure Skating Association’s competition. It’s just a fun contest of trying to pick the top skaters in each major skating event in the fall and winter, no money involved. I’ve done it for several years and at best have been average in success. But for Cup of Russia this year I somehow had the best picks and won first place! The prize is a $25 gift certificate to the USFSA online store, but as a skater, there is plenty to choose from. Now if I can just win the lottery (instead of leaving $60 of our group lottery money behind in a 7-11 – Alzheimer’s or Millionaire sucked me dry of brain cells!), the year will be PERFECT!!!
That's my story, and I still can't believe it went that well. Again, if you have questions, please feel free to ask!
Winnamill
