Okay, so my tape date!
[This blog post is just kind of over-explaining, so if you want to skip this one, feel free to go for it.]
I got the notice that I was invited to play “Surfin’ Safari, which will tape on Friday, March 13, 2020.
I had sort of a lot going on at the time. (That’s mentioned in another post.) So, it wasn’t the best time for me to go on.
And part of me wondered if maybe I would’ve been better on another theme week, or if “Surfin’ Safari” could really be my jam.
But I didn’t want to start pick-and-choosing theme weeks. And even though the timing wasn’t perfect, I felt like I had to push through the fact that I’d gotten used to working nights, and I’d recently been really ill (in the hospital for 3 or so days), etc. Like, it was time to just do this – as, by this point, I was at the very tail end of the one year and 6 months mark.
Again, they made it super clear that they won’t pressure you to go on, and they’ll extend it if you need.
But I didn’t want to take any chances. (And now, knowing that day was basically the last day things were normal before the pandemic, not taking chances is probably even better.)
So, I went on the show.
You got to pick your four people who were going to go as your audience members. I very much enjoyed the friends who went, but my core supporters like my dad, and B, and Alex – they were all doing things they absolutely couldn’t get out of.
So, again, a slight sign that this isn’t the best ever time to be doing this tape date, but whatever. It’s time. At this point, between when I originally sent in my audition tape, almost two years prior, and doing Wheelmobile events for a few years after that, like… it was TIME.
So, on March 13th, I wake up super early in the morning.
I watch a full episode of Wheel just to kind of shake my brain awake. I head out in an Uber pool. (Isn’t it crazy to think we were still using Uber pools – without masks?!
This was truly like the last innocent day, basically.
I was way overly excited and made slight friends with my Uber driver before other people got in. Then the other people didn’t seem as ready to party at like 6am, so i had a little quiet ride to the studio where I tried to just calm my mind, and remember the ‘rules of thumb’ of Wheel of Fortune as best as I could.
And then I got to the studio!