Maggie and Tony ran the auditions. Although I met Tony at a Houston test three or four years ago, I finally got to meet the famous Maggie.
To everyone's surprise, my group of 25 (I think) had more people actually from Norman (four, plus a woman from a tiny town nearby) than from Dallas itself. If we had known, we could have carpooled. Several people in the group seemed like they would have a particularly good chance of being selected, based on "interestingness" and general charm, even though Maggie stressed that the combined scores from both tests (on-line and today's) would be the most important factor. Among those folks, I would put a bridge champion that I am willing to bet is Phee's step-father, as well as the assistant principal from Hermillion's school, whom the contestant coordinators seemed to like a lot. (As did I.)
I think I did okay on the 50-question test, although I certainly didn't hit it out of the park. I left four lines blank, and I know I missed a couple of others. . . so far. I haven't yet recreated the whole test to be able to score myself with any accuracy. The worst moment was when I had a Brain Blackout on the name of an author whose name I should know as well as my own. I've read his books, literary criticism, biographical information, etc. The block remained in place throughout the test and, in fact, until the drive back as I approached the Texas border. I'm sure I was the only person in the room to miss that question, although I had a couple of lucky WAGs on others.
Earlier this week, I told Skoop that I just wanted to play the mock game. I not only got my wish, I got it twice! I was in the final full group of three to play, but there was one more person who hadn't yet had a chance, so I got to stay in place and keep playing. I had been worried about clicking fast enough, but I managed to get in first on several questions, so I felt good about that. And, I must say, that signaling button feels so good in my hand.
The interviews followed the game play. Although inevitably there were things I wished I had said, not said, or said better, I think it all went fairly well with a sort of conversational flow to it all. I think I was fairly animated, collected group laughter a time or two, evidently gave a couple of answers they hadn't heard before, and never mentioned most of the info on my "five stories" sheet, i.e. "the good stuff." Perhaps I accidently managed to tell them twice as much.
So, whatever happens from here, I got to play the mock game, have fun, and come home feeling pretty good about the whole experience. I'm in the pool, along with so many of you. Hurray!
P.S. When I got back to Norman, I went straight to pick up Annie and Lizbit. Because the boarding facility is affilliated with a vet clinic where many of the staff members have seen Annie with her worst injuries, virtually all of them wandered back to pet her and talk to her at one time or another. One of them told me she "was making the strangest noises. It almost sounded like she was singing." I came so close to answering, "She's working on an opera, so perhaps she was composing more music." I stopped myself in the nick of time, because that response would have required a long explanation.
