In Which Putting The Team Together Was The Only Thing I Knew

Star Wars trivia is as intimidating as it sounds. You may think you know Star Wars until you meet those who really do know Star Wars. Then you can be like me and know really nothing about Star Wars and still enter into Star Wars trivia, and then really hope to win.

My officemates-turned-trivia-team joined together once again to compete. I was helpful in that I wanted to win. I also nodded a lot to support the team. I knew not one answer.

In fact, this is what happened right before heading to trivia:

I also was very supportive when my teammates challenged certain answers. Supportive here means helping to catch the attention of the hosts and then again nodding feverishly at their claims. I'm very good at, "Yes, what they said!"

When people challenge, it can get heated. Teams start countering as to why the challenge does not make sense. The hosts cringe a little inside. The thing about my team is that we all teach for a living. We are so used to a room full of people sending dagger eyes our way that challenging is really no biggie. We lost the challenges for the most part. I turned to my teammates, and seeing their faces, I realized that it was quite possible they were heading home to watch hours of Star Wars just to make sure the right answers were really right.

The tea I had was delicious. We came in not last. So, you know, mission accomplished. All good things happen at Sip This trivia night.

Who Knows Harry Potter?

I don't know Harry Potter. Trivia this month was all about Harry Potter, and I haven't read or seen a movie in more than a few years. I did what I do best concerning all kinds of trivia: I put the team together. This month's team was SD and B, my officemates. We didn't do so hot during movie trivia, but in not coming in last, we had a glimmer of hope here. Also, SD has listened to the books several times during long car rides, so this was all her wheelhouse.

The night before trivia, I went onto Goodreads and took all the Harry Potter quizzes I could find. I earned 2 out of 10 and 7 out of 20. Things were not looking too swell for me, so I did what any teacher nerd would do: I took notes. Then, because I'm really a teacher nerd, I made a study guide from my notes.

I went to trivia early the next night to get in some studying time. B was already there, studying from her own notes that she took while re-watching the movies. That meant SD had books covered, B had movies, and I had random notes that I couldn't remember. Sweet. SD showed up soon after and we were all ready, really psyched about our chances. Until two teams walked in dressed in Harry Potter attire. Then I pointed out that the rest of the teams were quite a bit younger than we are, meaning they probably had more Harry Potter in their lives during more impressionable times. As trivia began and we were called upon to show our answers rather quickly, I suggested that perhaps our team should get more time because we were older, and therefore, we have more stuff in our brains to sift through to get to the answer. That did not happen mostly because I didn't suggest it to anyone other than my teammates, who by the way concurred.

There was a written portion, again, and something about being able to write answers down for a lot of questions all at once speaks to me more than answering one at a time. Not that I knew any of the answers. I tried, though, by doing things like pointing at a quote and saying things like, That sounds like something Dumbledore would say. See? Helpful.

There were two questions that related directly to things I had written down and discussed with my team right before starting. So all that study guide making had come in handy for two solid points.

And in the end, we did not come in second to last. We did not come in last. We tied for 6th place. 6th! Things are looking up.

The Billiard Room!

Another round of trivia at Sip This has convinced me of one thing: I am really good at not coming in last. Trivia night consisted of movie trivia that we did not know, we being me and two of my office mates B and SD. I'd attempted to also get EA to join, but she was teaching a night class. Upon hearing that said class is Film & Lit, I'd attempted to get her to bring her class as a sort of field trip. She wisely declined.

Right before starting the night, I told B and SD, that the first question was usually something really simple. And then came this: what was the profession of the character Jason Segal plays in Pineapple Express?

And so began a very slow crawl to not-last-ness. Without even a glint of hope of winning, we scrappled to keep afloat as best we could. We were really good at envisioning actors and films in our heads without being able to name them. This does not work in trivia.

There was a written portion. We are teachers. We can work our way around a quiz, right? Wrong! Not even in written form could we get all the answers. We did get some, though. And some is more than none.

Most appallingly, B found out that neither SD nor I have read To Kill A Mockingbird. She found this out when writing the answer Atticus Finch and double checking with us that she was spelling it correctly. I was like, I don't know--I haven't read it. She gasped out loud and I responded with, I know, it's terrible. I mean, for an average person, it's not that terrible, but I teach literature at the college level. I should have read this book by now. I keenly distracted her from this distressful news by asking if she'd read Go Set a Watchman (she has not).

In the end, the team that won the past three trivia nights did not win, and there was a tie between two teams. The tie breaker was to list the Best Picture Oscar winners for the past five years. The team next to us got them all right and won the night. Proof that we did not cheat in any way. Because we're teachers and we aren't allowed to.

My own stellar moment came with the question: In what room was the maid murdered in Clue? I can't remember who killed poor Yvette, but I surely knew without hesitation that she was strangled in the billiard room. I spelled it right and everything. Spelling did not earn us any bonus points, nor should it considering, again, we are teachers of English and should know such things.

Meaning we should know about literature, like Harry Potter literature, and SD has listened to Harry Potter lots of times. So, folks, I need two more Harry Potter people. I'm putting together a crack trivia team....

Sabbaticalling: Weekly Roundup #5

That darn snow cost me another poetry reading plus a planned trip to Poets House. However, that darn snow caused me to stay home and not head towards that terrible crane accident at which the subway I would have taken was not stopping. Scary accident. Prefer shoveling.

Books read: I finished the Hemingway book, a collection of poetry, and a Y/A novel. I scattershot-struggle-read something else that was so odd that I don't know what to call it other than it was Not For Me. (FYI: If you ever click the link to see my Bookshelf page about the books I've read, it's mostly in reverse chronological order except for when I read a book by an author I've already read. Then I move those previous books up to group them together. Because I'm a Virgo and I can't not do it that way). Anyway, the Y/A novel, We Were Liars, floored me. It's one of the best pieces of contemporary writing I've read in a long time.

Journals and mags read: The Rumpus, back issues of Fence and This, and McSweeney’s. I also jumped around to some new journals and mags, taking in the variety that's out there. I'm not sure why people still start new journals when so many already exist. Maybe we should start really supporting the ones that already exist. (I think the Virgo in me is really acting up these days--I'm now trying to consolidate the entire literary world into a well-organized bookshelf. Someone save me from myself please).

Listened to: The Catapult Podcast. I love listening to this podcast of hyper-contemporary writers reading their works. Each episode is about half an hour to forty minutes. Usually, it's what I'd listen to during a commute, as is how I listen to all my podcasts, but since I have no commute, I went for a few walks this week so that I could listen. I also listened while cooking. I'm behind about five episodes, but I think I'll catch up soon.

On Writing: I did not have my weekly workshop this week, so I guess it's no longer weekly. We will meet up again this coming week. The break actually proved beneficial as I was able to send feedback to my online poetry workshop, a group of five of us poets who have been sending work to each other monthly for...okay, I'm not sure how long but I think it's been two years. Wow. That amazes me. Poets who stick to something for more than a few weeks.

I also blogged a poem on my Tumblr, which I rarely do. I wrote it this past week and thought, hey this belongs on my Tumblr asap. So that happened.

I blogged some more right here and I'm blogging right this very second.

In keeping with blogs, I wrote my first tally post for Poetry Has Value. I spent more than I earned concerning poetry in January because I bought and used stamps. However, I made money with some prose writing, which tips the scales in my favor. Paid for writing. Huh. What a concept. The posts on PHV should go live soon.

Additionally, I wrote and revised more of my own poems, and I got giddy with it because I think I'm actually making some headway with the creature/critter collection. I revised the other current collection-in-progress some more, but not too much. I have to stop looking at it for a while and then revisit to see if it's final or not.

Finally, I started a list for McSweeney's. Because McSweeney's haunts my dreams.

Submitting: I submitted poems to twelve journals, three of which were via snail mail. I also submitted my collection to one press.

This is how I track submissions to paying venues. Because I'm a Virgo.

I received one rejection balanced out by one acceptance. Yeay for acceptance! More on that soon. With acceptance comes the task of withdrawing from other places, which has begun but has not been completed yet.

Last but not least, I GOT A HAIRCUT! Back in, like, November or October, I told my officemate SD how I was looking forward to sabbatical mostly so I could get a haircut because she had just gotten one and I was jealous. I finally got one. It's so short and I love it. Of course, "short" here means not down to my waist and only past my shoulders. It's all relative.

That's 3 1/2 inches GONE!

The Most Professional Way To React To Free Stuff

So, like, I'm a professional and stuff, which is totally believable because, like, I teach and stuff.  Which is exactly how I must have seemed to the good people at LIU who visited campus to talk to SD and me about our upcoming AA degree in Creative Writing. Because in addition to asking, "And what exactly do you do--do you teach?," I found myself realizing aloud, "Hey, I actually attended your college!" Granted, I'd attended the campus at Southampton, which is now under a different university system, but at the time, it was indeed LIU.

To top it all off, at the end of the meeting, SD is wrapping stuff up all professionally, taking down emails, setting up a plan of action of whose doing what next. And then, pulling off this profession act by scribbling things down next to her, I offer free copies of the literature journal to them, and SD offers copies of the student lit mag.

In turn, they offer us bags.Tote bags emblazoned with their logo. And the bags had things in them. Keychains. A small glass container. Candy inside of the small glass container. But without even knowing they were actually full of stuff, out came the bags and SD and I acted real professional-like.

We squeaked with delight and semi-clapped and gushed about how we love bags.

This is the same reaction we had when we found out we were getting not only free bags but also free ice cream at the FOX summer preview event.Which is exactly what I brought up as SD did damage control, explaining how we simply get excited easily.

Which is what professionals do.  Clearly.

Fox Free Preview With Even More Free

Do I look suspicious?

I won free passes from Fresh 102.7 to go to the FOX Fall Preview at AMC in NYC.  I'd already had plans with my officemate to go to dinner, so we had salads in Bryant Park first.  I'd arrived at the park a bit early, so I sat by the carousel because I liked the music. I felt like I was kind of in Paris, and I'm in the middle of reading The Paris Wife, which is amazing, so it was as if I was in the book.

I was keeping to myself, reading my book, sipping my free Dunkin Donuts iced coffee (this DD gift card I have is lasting forever!), and listening to the carousel music.  Usually I'm one to avoid where kids go to scream, but no children were screaming.  It was a perfect evening to wait in the park.

And then came along imperfection.  Some guy came over and pointed to the empty chair on the other side of my table, asking, Can I sit here? I do not feel like talking to people, I want to be anti social, and you seem to be quiet and reading, and I don't want to deal with anyone right now.

Then he did a shaking shuddery motion as if to shake off the thought of talking.  I glanced up and said a quick, Sure no problem, and went back to my book.

A quick search on Bing will offer the definition of anti-social through the Oxford English Dictionary as "not sociable" and "not wanting the company of others."  This is what I understood this dude to mean when he said he didn't want to talk to anyone.

Apparently, he either forgot he wanted to be anti-social or he doesn't know how to look up words in a dictionary because after a few moments of silence, he piped up, Are you in the FDNY? You look suspicious like you could be.

Now I've been accused of being lots of things--usually by irate students--but a police officer is not one of them.  So I responded, Me? No, I am not.  I sipped my coffee, barely looking up.

Mr. I Don't Know What Anti-Social Means then replied that he'd been in a park and met a woman who looked like a tourist who was actually an undercover cop.  He said he never would have thought it because her cover was so good.  Then he indicated my sunglasses and large book and repeated that I looked like I was undercover NYPD.

Apparently, Mr. I Don't Know What Anti-Social Means frequents parks and asks strangers if they are undercover.

For the record, I wear sunglasses because the sun is bright.  I wear big sunglasses because I can't get over the fashion trend of wearing sunglasses the size of my head.  The bigger the better, really.  And I read books because I like books.  I didn't explain this to him, though.  I simply responded, Nope, I'm just reading my book, waiting for my friend.

The conversation ended there with him nodding and agreeing to accept the fact that I was not undercover NYPD (though I could have been a Russian spy or something! Maybe he asked the wrong question! But I'm not a Russian spy.  I have been asked if I'm Russian before, however.  See how it all comes around?)
A few minutes later, he once again spoke up, but this time it was more of his being a detective, saying, Here's your friend now!  Maybe he was relieved that I actually was waiting for a friend and not simply blowing him off.  SD appeared from behind me smiling, and I greeted her saying, He thought I was in the NYPD.  She laughed and we walked away, not really knowing where we were going except for away from him.

After walking a loop to check out the food stands, one of which had a delightful selection of waffles, we settled on salads from Pax and eating al fresco.  And then it was time for the previews.

Only no one knew where we should check in.  Neither of the tables set up in the theater's lobby was for FOX.  I asked someone at the box office, and they told me to go up to Customer Service.  I asked Customer Service and they told me to go up to the theatre where the preview would be.  Then after waiting around a few minutes, someone told us to go outside because there was a line.

 When we went outside, we saw a line that was totally not there before.  We waited on this line for about 45 minutes and I didn't have a ticket like everyone else.  When we got to the front of the line where the guy told us to have our tickets out, I explained I had no ticket.  He said, Did you win passes?  I said yes, and he said to go into the lobby.

There in the lobby, where I'd first gone, was a table set up with FOX stuff, and the woman who had told us to go outside on the line was at the table, checking IDs.  So really, we were back where we started.

Really, it didn't matter because we got in before they had to turn people away (they always give away more tickets than seats to ensure that the theatre fills).  They also gave us each a free small popcorn and a free small soda.  SD was like, I'm glad we didn't have waffles for dinner, and I concurred because once we got into the theatre, they also gave us ice cream. So let's recap so far: FREE tickets, FREE popcorn, FREE soda, and FREE ice cream.

Then when we found our seats, we saw that we had swag waiting for us.  A tote bag for Scream Queens, a t-shirt for The Grinder that has Rob Lowe's head on it, and a hat for Grandfathered.  All that for FREE.

The staff encouraged us to take selfies and spread them on social media with the hashtags for the shows.  Then they told us about each show and I think we run in different circles from some of the girls who were there because the staff was announcing the names of some of the actors and girls were cheering and shouting and we were like, Who are they talking about??  BUT we knew Fred Savage and John Stamos and Rob Lowe.  We also knew Emma Roberts and Ariana Grande, so that bridged the gap.

We really liked Grandfathered, we kind of liked The Grinder, and we had no idea what to think about Scream Queens.  That show is supposed to be funny thriller killery, but mainly, it was over-the-top mean and offensive.  Like, the girl kills someone in a fryer in a kitchen, and that's not the mean, offensive part.  The mean-offensive part is how she talks to everyone around her and then there's a character who's deaf and sings Taylor Swift songs and the joke is that she's deaf and then SPOILER ALERT she gets killed.  The only part that was remotely funny was when Ariana Grande's character was fighting with someone who was trying to kill her, and instead of screaming at each other, they were texting each other. 

Every time a show I watch ends, I do my best to not replace it so that I have more time to read and write.  This whole FREE passes thing might make me check out some FOX shows this season, which is totally the point, but even so, free is free is free.