Nougat and Leroy...

22 July 2025: Every Tuesday night, I get to realize again how much I enjoy hosting trivia. It's so cool to see the teams gather week after week--people who just like hanging out with each other. It makes me happy and hopeful.

They make me laugh, too. For instance, this post's title comes from two separate funny guesses to a question: The Three Muskateers were Athos, Porthos, and who? 

"Leroy" just made me chuckle.

"Nougat" took me a second and then I burst out laughing.

Long, good day

17 June 2025: 

Things I did today: slept in a tiny bit because I slept awful the night before, mowed the lawn, had lunch with Tim and two recent graduates, helped do a bit of advising for the last group of entering first-year students, did some planning for next semester with Tim (we are taking our students to the Poe House), did some research work, hosted trivia, played with BabyCat and the laser pointer (a promise I made to her yesterday), and listened to a heck of a thunderstorm roll through (with Jo hiding under my chair). 

Not the most exciting post, but I kind of like days like this. 

Sweet treats...

15 April 2025: A "sweet" day here in lots of ways. Spent a lot of it getting stuff done and working from home (always sweet!): grading (work, yes, but sweetly moving at times), mowing the lawn (sweet satisfaction), writing a sympathy card/letter (so bittersweet), and, as always, so many emails (some of them sweet?). Being home with Veronica and Jo made it all sweeter.

Since I got home from trivia, I've been thinking about the sweet treats some of my regular players sent me home with. Shirley, one of my absolute favorites, gave me two homemade Easter cookies. She also (for the second time!) gave me a clipping from a recent newspaper piece about an event I did. That's just such lovely energy. A member of another team--who wasn't even there tonight!--sent little Easter treats for her teammates, along with a special bag for me. 

What to say about all that sweetness, literal and figurative? Nothing but that I am very blessed and that this silly once-a-week hosting gig makes me happy. 

Attempted bribe...

14 January 2025: One of my trivia teams tried to bribe me at the end of the last round tonight. For a fraction of a second, I got excited. (Picture taken after I got home.)

Back from a trivia break...

7 January 2025: It's so strange to both want the semester to start (to see people, to get back in the classroom, to get back on schedule and back into a routine) but also feel pre-tired and a little overwhelmed. I think it's just the blahs from the snow and everything else. I know routine will serve me well.

Grateful, therefore, to have a tiny bit of that routine coming back tonight. For the first time since mid-December (thanks to back-to-back holiday "eves" falling on Tuesdays), I'll be back at Rumsey for trivia. A tiny bit nervous about the ice, but mostly glad to see my teams again. 

Quiz-n-Dish

24 October 2024: A couple of weeks ago, Amy asked if I would write a trivia game for a potluck she was hosting in her office for the folks on campus who don't get "off" for Fall Break. I was happy to do it, but a bit nervous about my game-writing skills. Anyway, today was the day and I think it went well. Of course, it was a friendly crowd. Shepherd has the best staff in so many ways. 

Anyway, after that, it was back to grading and a bunch of other work for me, but that's okay. Even a mostly work-filled day has a different vibe over Fall Break. 

Trivia mood-lift...

24 September 2024: Got an annoying and upsetting work-related email towards the end of the workday. Once I found myself really thinking about it, all the anger and tension filled my body. But then I remembered that in just a little while, I'd be at trivia and that, for a couple of hours, I'd be having a good time. Worked like a charm.

Back at trivia!

10 September 2024: After missing last week, it was really nice to be back at trivia tonight. It was only one week, but I missed my teams. And so many people asked how I was doing and said they were glad I was back.That feels good. One guy--a guy I really like, along with his wife--even brought me some tomatoes, as he promised a couple weeks ago. It was a really nice night. 

Trivia=medicine?

26 March 2024: Felt kind of lousy and definitely slow all day long as this cold persists. Yet for the three hours I was at Rumsey Tavern, I felt pretty darn normal. I joked with the crowd that they were medicine. And the crowd was really big--sixty-five people and twelve teams. 

By the time I got home, the adrenaline wore off. Feeling stuffy and a bit clogged in one ear. Oh well. Still think the worst of this is on its way out. 

Second week back...

19 March 2024: Started the day off with an 8:00 a.m. meeting on campus. After that, I took a walk and then came home. From then, I worked more or less straight through until 6:00 and got a lot done, which feels good. Even better, though, was having a set-in-stone reason to stop and something fun to do: host trivia for the second week back. Another great crowd and just a fun time.

Hosting again!

12 March 2022: Tonight was the first night of my new, regular trivia hosting gig at the newly reopened Rumsey Tavern. It felt great to be back at it. Even saw a bunch of new faces. The place was packed. I am just excited to have something new and social (and non-work-related) on my weekly calendar. 

Done (for now)...

22 January 2024: Finished the last week of guest-hosting trivia this evening. Glad it's done in some ways, but also still grateful for the chance to do it once in awhile. The people are so lovely and it's nice to fall back into the role. 

Spring 2024 Semester: Off We Go!

8 January 2024: One day of teaching in the books and it went pretty darn well. It's always so energizing (verging on overwhelming) on the first day and I managed to get everything on my list done--and guest-hosted trivia this evening. Not bad! 

Sub shift ended...

10 July 2023: Finished my last of four weeks substitute trivia hosting. Like I've said before, I never really look forward to it but then always have fun. The people are nice, the gig is fun, and I think I'm pretty good at it. But man, those four weeks flew by! 

Good distractions...

26 June 2023: Very long day, with a hard Faculty Senate meeting. Grateful to have had guest-hosting trivia to rush off to. A couple of hours of distraction. And then home for a Listen to Sassy watch-along to Pretty Woman. Not a bad one-two distraction punch. 

Substitute hosting...

19 June 2023: Started a four-week gig substitute-hosting trivia at Captain Benders. That's a long stretch but I am more excited about it than I thought I would be. And for that two-plus hours, I didn't think about the bad stuff at work (which occupied most of the my day otherwise). 

Guest hosting again...

11 July 2022: Guest hosted at trivia again tonight and it was, as it always is, fun. With rising cases numbers everywhere, I worry about exposure, so I am glad it's not a regular gig (for now). But if we ever get back to something close to normal (long-term), it would be nice to do it every week again. 

Guest hosting...

28 March 2022: Guested-hosted trivia at Captain Bender's again tonight, the first time since December. I was dragging--late to bed last night and didn't sleep well and then a long day or work--but I had a good time. The teams were fun and friendly. One even tried to talk me into joining their team next week, which was sweet. 

A bit like riding a bike...

4 October 2021: Hosted trivia for the first time since March 2020, filling in for Chuck and Bill at Bender's in Sharpsburg. It went just fine and, as the post title suggests, I fell right back to the old routine. It wasn't as much fun as it was at my other venue with my regulars, but it's good to know the "skill" (ha) is still there.

Technical difficulties

28 May 2019: Major technical difficulties for the first few rounds of trivia tonight.. Long story short, the projector wasn't working so we couldn't show the questions. The actual cause and whole story is too complicated (and boring) to explain, but for a while, it was so freaking stressful. Oh, and my cellphone battery was dying as I tried to get tech support from the guy who writes the game/runs the trivia company. And the AC was out in the restaurant, too, so you know that really helped with the overall vibe.

But at some point I was just like, "Okay. We'll just read the questions out loud and do our best." And we did and it was okay. It felt good to just decide not to freak out about it and just do our best. It was enough. Sometimes it's worth remembering that. And our teams were kind, understanding, and gracious. They got it. So it was okay.

(By Round 4, tech support showed up in person and fixed things, which was great.)