I hope you all missed me. : )

Nutshell version of the week that was:

MONDAY: Spent most of it in transit. I left my house for Champaign at approximately the time I planned to leave (this is a rarity for me!) and got to the terminal with plenty of time to spare. More time than I thought, since the Greyhound bus was about 35 minutes late. There were lots of people on it but it wasn't completely packed. I was able to get a row to myself and had plenty of time to do some studying for Jaycee Jeopardy, plus I finished another book. The bus got into Nashville around 10:30 and I got to the hotel shortly after. Sat up and chatted and exchanged Lush goodies with oheather78 and Tony, then went to sleep.

TUESDAY: Competition day! Since I'd gotten in so late the night before, I had to sign in for the competition, then go to the holding room by 8:15am. There were 6 Jaycee Jeopardy competitors, including oheather78 and me. The written test completely threw me - there were exactly three questions about the stuff I had studied on the way over, and the rest were about current (2008) Jaycee people and events. I really didn't feel confident about how I did, but when I talked to the other competitors after time was up, I found out that they were all just as thrown off as I was - that made me feel a little better. I changed into more casual clothing (competition dress code was business professional) and went to lunch with a bunch of Minnesota Jaycees at a really good restaurant called Westy's, about a block and a half from the hotel. I do need to mention the fabulous hot fudge pie that we had for dessert - it was delicious and plenty big enough for three of us to share! After lunch I took a ride on the Riverfront Loop trolley to see some of the downtown sights, and made it to the hotel in plenty time to change back into my competition outfit and go back to the holding room for callbacks. From the field of six, three would make it to the final round. I thought it would be nice to make callbacks, but I wasn't going to be devastated if I didn't, and I was actually pretty calm. Of course the Jaycee Jeopardy callbacks were toward the end (after they introduced ALL the members of the awards committee, and the head of the committee talked about the process, and they thanked the judges, and explained the procedures...blah blah blah. I was ready for them to get on with it!) However, I didn't have to wait long once they got to Jeopardy, because the first callback started "From the great state of *pause* ILLINOIS..." Me! To say I was surprised was an understatement! oheather78 made it too, and so did a girl from Nebraska. The final round consisted of six questions, and we had to write the answers down on a card and hold it up. The three of us ended up within a point of each other on the final round, and those scores would be combined with our test scores to determine placement. I was just happy that I got a top three finish and didn't care where I landed in the top three. : ) After competitions, oheather78 and I were totally exhausted and didn't feel like moving, so the three of us ended up staying in for the evening and ordering a pizza. (From a local place, though!)


And my computer's having network issues, so I'll continue the story tomorrow. : )