October 13, 2015 recap/discussion (for csb61)

I actually thought this was one of the least-contrived bonus puzzles yet this season, but I can sorta understand WOVEN not being on the radar.

Surprisingly, T2 and T3 didn't click at all for me.

There are just some words that are difficult to figure out when the two remaining blanks are both consonants. At least this isn't as difficult as some of the similar 5-letter bonus puzzles back then.

Hi csb61! FOUR Bankrupts and a LAT? Yikes!!! OK, I'm going to stop whining about my two LAT's now. Congrats on the YOLO solve though! I look forward to hearing more about the show from you!

Congratulations on the $3,000 win, Catherine! Sorry you couldn't win the game, but I hope you had a lot of fun.

Catherine's great solve is the subject of WoF's latest tweet!

Sorry you had some bad luck, Catherine, but you still did very well! $3,000 is nothing to sneeze at.

Jessie had it real hard, too; sad to see her get the gooseegg prize. Had she spun again and bought some vowels in Round 2, she might have had a chance to correctly solve the puzzle.

Dan pretty much dominated this game, albeit very conservatively (two pairs of multiples left behind, and then he semi-spingles in Round 2). But to tell the truth, that Bonus Puzzle was a big toughie. Too bad he lost the car...

That Round 4 phrase sure rings true!

My rating: 5

I sure hope this week gets a whole lot - and I mean, a LOT - better. It's looking absolutely bleak so far.

Ok, everyone, get ready for my novel...

As I mentioned before, I have been trying to get on the show since 1983. So that was Big Accomplishment #1. I attended a Wheelmobile event in Baltimore in June, made it onto the stage and solved the puzzle. In order to stand out, I wore a home-made Wheel of Fortune skirt. I have almost no sewing skills, so how it turned out as well as it did is beyond me! And for all you Wheel afficionados, I know technically the colors and amounts are wrong (and upside down), but I scrambled the night before a Wheelmobile event a few years ago to put it together (was at that one all weekend, never had my name drawn). I'll show it off in a separate post later tonight since it is now officially retired.

Next step was the final audition and wouldn't you know, I got sick the day before. So I loaded myself up with Motrin and faked my way through it. The great advice from others on this board really made a difference I'm sure! And honestly, there were so many good people at my audition, I wasn't sure if I would make it because, athough I thought I had done well, I just wasn't sure whether I had stood out enough. I did get 14 of 16 on the puzzle test, which probably helped. I received the contestant letter 16 days later and only two days after that, received an e-mail with my taping date, so this whole experience has been a total whirlwind from start to finish!

To give you a little personal information about me, I am a really low-profile type of person, super introverted with social anxiety, which was probably obvious during my Pat Chat by my inability to speak without tripping over my words. I guess in the back of my mind, I never thought I would actually make it, so when I did, and the reality hit me, I was SO close to backing out. I was truly scared out of my wits. But I went ahead and did it anyway. After all, who could pass up this opportunity??!! That was Big Accomplishment #2 - Going in front of a camera without dying of fright.

I'll go through the show as I remember it (yes, believe it or not, I had black-out moments from the stress and there are things I saw on the show last night that I didn't even remember happening).

Toss-up #1: I'm usually really good at round puzzles, but not so much with toss-ups, so I had decided beforehand that I wouldn't buzz in unless I was absolutely sure of the puzzle. I had done about 300 puzzles on my iPad app the night before and felt very sharp, especially since I was in the audience for Monday's show and was solving the puzzles right away (one before any letters were revealed). In any event, I guess I was just overconfident and buzzed in when I thought I knew the puzzle (unfortunately, I wasn't thinking along the lines of the week's theme - so I thought it was "Running Out Of Time"). But between the time I buzzed in (there is a slight lag) and the time Pat called my name, another letter came up and I realized I was wrong. So I was faced with the dilemma: Do I say my answer and have people at home say, "That doesn't even fit!", or do I just stand there like an idiot. So I chose to stand there like an idio. Ugh - what can I say? Thinking back, I probably should have said "Running out of time" since ironically that is exactly what I was doing and maybe I could have gotten some comic relief.

Toss-up #2: As Kevin noticed, I was able to shake off the embarrassment of the early buzz-in on TO1 and my tongue-tied interview and buzz in on the second puzzle. I really must have been just edged out by Dan, because I thought for sure I buzzed in first.

Round 1: One turn. Bankrupt. Really? I laughed that one off and thought that's o.k., at least I got that out of the way. Ha ha, little did I know! And of course, I thought that was the easiest puzzle of the night. At least it had a good amount of letters.

Round 2: Hmmm. Two Bankrupts and a LAT on a puzzle with 15 letters in total!? Really? Obviously, we all struggled on that one. Before & Afters are my favorite category, so I was really bummed that I just couldn't figure out the last word. Fish Tacos? Sorry, I don't get out much!! I knew I was going to have to buy a vowel, but with short words, even buying vowels is a bit of a crap shoot. FWIW, I would have bought an O, but I figured I would spin since I KNEW the Y was up there and hopefully it would have bought me a little more time to figure out that last word. But the LAT did me in. SO disappointing! Should have bought the O!

Round 3: I blew it on this one and I'm not afraid to admit it. After the Ns came up, I was going to spin and call the G. But when I looked up at the ULB (which I did each time, even if I knew the letter hadn't been called - no way was I gonna make another big blunder), I started to second-guess myself and the thought that usually on Fun & Games, the -ING is in the first word. I saw the R and decided to just call the more common letter. Should have called the G, or better yet, should have just bought the I first!

Round 4: After Pat took his place, but before the cameras started filming again, Jessie and I were comparing notes on our bad luck and Pat asked if we were arguing over who was doing the worst LOL. I looked at him, smiled and said, "yah, basically." Throughout the game, Pat was awesome, knowing that we were having such a tough time with the wheel, etc., giving us pep talks and letting us know not to give up and keep our heads in the game, that anything could still happen. As for the puzzle, finally some redemption! What's crazy is that when I watched it last night, I didn't realize so much time had gone by before I called out the answer. I remember knowing the puzzle right after my letters came up, but for some reason it was so hard to get the words out!

Obviously, Jessie and I were both pretty disappointed that we didn't fare a little better, but I really can't complain. It's the highest hourly wage I've ever had!

Oh, and to answer someone's question above, both Jessie and I knew the BR puzzle right away.

Here is my excuse-making segment: Although I wasn't fond of the R2 puzzle, the others weren't all that bad. What made it difficult in our game, besides all the common letter duds, was the fact that in none of the Round puzzles appeared the words "a", "the", "and", "of", "for", "in", "on", etc. That made the puzzle solving and vowel buying hard - buying vowels seemed just as risky as calling a consonant. There were no Es in R2 or R3! And for future contestants, the one thing I wish I had done differently, is to have taken a little more time. I felt like I had to rush and go at the pace that I see on TV, not realizing that they actually do edit some of that time out. I should have slowed down just a little bit to take a breath and try to clear my head.

Because of the way things went, I had been very nervous about watching the show. Yesterday, I was a wreck! But it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I guess it just seemed really awful while it was happening! I watched with a group of friends and co-workers at a restaurant and I sat behind everyone so that I could see their reactions when I kept landing on Bankrupt - that was the most fun of all, except for the loud cheer that came from everyone in the restaurant (even all the strangers) when I finally got a solve! Talk about defying the odds with the wheel! Needless to say, I did NOT run out and buy any lottery tickets that night.

As for the experience itself, it was probably one of the most fun and exciting things I've ever done!! I could have stood there all day just spinning that wheel! Over time, I've gotten over the losing part (I'm a really sore loser by nature) and am remembering all the good things about it instead. And I can't say enough great things about everyone working for WOF. The contestant coordinators are so incredible!!

I'm so happy to have had the opportunity and to be able to say that I (to steal your phrase here) "made it and played it"!

And last but not least... Big Accomplishment #3 - Getting up the courage to post on a message board! Thanks for all your support everyone! MarioGS - you are the best!

Here is my Wheelmobile audition skirt. I should have included it in my list of accomplishments ;-). I don't know why it's sideways though.