Picking up from last time –
Ben had set up the puzzle really nicely and I appreciated him for that! 🙂
With only one consonant called (and two instances of it), and two vowels bought, I only “missed out” on $1,500 express-wise. The earlier into the round you hit it, the luckier you are, obviously. So, I was pretty freaking lucky.
[And it was about time, right, after the bad luck of all the big chunk of change I missed out on in the first round when the wheel didn’t have my back? haha (And I won’t say “luck” in the second round got me, since I had some game play issues there.)]
So, I had
O _ E _ _ _ _ O _ T
_ O _ _ T _ O _
when I spun.
As I said in my last post, I was reasonably sure the last word was “location.” I wasn’t 100% (of course; I can’t be until it’s actually there), but I was pretty sure.
And I called the letters exactly in the way I thought made the most sense.
So, first I spun, and landed on express. And watching it back now, it’s funny how many facial expressions I cycle through. I can’t tell you *exactly* when I looked down to see it. I know for the most part, I never looked at the wheel, because it wasn’t all that important to me.
The only thing that was important in the first round was seeing if I could land on $2,500 to get the 4 S’s on that. Other than that, all the dollar amounts were about the same to me (aside from the trip). In the second round, same deal, very few letters on the board.
And in this round, I just wanted that trip, and I was going to call the letters in the order that made the most sense, especially because at this point, I didn’t actually know the full puzzle. I’m sure many people did, but I didn’t.
So, even though I’m usually against playing conservatively, nothing is going to stop me from getting this trip, so let’s all just be super methodical and as sure as we can be.
So, somewhere between him saying “uh huh” and hearing the sound, you can see I looked down and the look of just pure shock is so funny to me. And then, I’m sure it’s mainly the studio lights, but to me, it looks like you can see my eyes light up, because I realize this is really happening, and this is mine to lose.
I have nothing but pure safety. No chance of spinning a bankrupt or ‘lose a turn’. I’m in control of the board. I’m good at prize puzzles. I think I know at least the second word so far. I feel so safe and happy and ready. So, my eyes are sparkling. [I have 1,000 lights on me haha.]
Then you can see me be *just* about to say “N,” when Pat Sajak asks me if I’m afraid of the doppler effect, and as much as I’m trying to be nice, looking at the tape now, I feel like you can’t help but see in my eyes this sort of “I’m trying to play a GAME. Can I call my letters please?” blazing out of my eyes. (Sorry, Pat.)
So, then I let out this super annoying laugh sound because I really just want to yell “N.” [And as I already mentioned at the top of all this, it was a rough day where I was super tired and weaning off pain meds from a recent hospital stay, and blah blah, you already read it (maybe). So, just know I’m not usually that annoying (I hope), and I am sorry for being so weirdly annoying then!.)]
So, I use all the air I had just like dying to escape out of my mouth on this very annoying laugh. (Twitter let me know how much they hated it, so thank you for that haha.) Then, I take in a new deep breath and confidently say N, because I am SO. READY. to do this puzzle.
And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow!