And Bingo was his Name-O

Our good friend, PJ, made the ultimate brave move last year when he decided to eschew the corporate world and pursue his real passion of acting full-time. Since then, he's been a busy guy, appearing on General Hospital Night Shift a couple of times, working as an extra on the production of "Angels & Demons" and picking up all sorts of great opportunities along the way.

It turns out that in LA, a lot of aspiring actors will take advantage of some of their down time by joining the studio audiences of various talk shows and game shows. The actors make a bit of cash and the show gets a full audience for each taping. It's a win-win situation for both sides.

Through this network of shows, PJ actually ended up as a contestant on Bingo America, a game show on GSN that is hosted by Richard Karn of TV's Home Improvment fame (he played Tim's sidekick, Al). They called PJ just the day before taping because they had a last minute cancellation.

PJ's episode of Bingo America aired last week and he nonchalantly asked Special K to tape it for him so he could see it the next time he visited. When I was in SoCal last weekend, Special K and I queued up the DVR and settled in to watch 30 minutes of a game show neither of us had ever seen, but which we thought was cool simply because we knew one of the contestants.

The game started out with PJ going head-to-head against another contestant, a cute girl named Amanda. (Both Special K and I thought PJ would never be able to concentrate, competing against a pretty girl!) PJ and Amanda competed to buzz in first in order to answer trivia questions (correctly) and gain points on the Bingo board. PJ won the first round, Amanda won the second round and it all came down to a showdown for the best 2 out of 3. PJ wins round 3! We say good-bye to Amanda and PJ is now on to the second phase of the Bingo America journey with $1300 in his jeans pocket.

This next step requires PJ to maneuvre his way through a five-step process by randomly choosing numbers on a giant bingo board that he hopes are "safe" (ie. there is some amount of money hidden behind the number). If the number he chooses is not safe, the host will unveil an image of a bomb, meaning that PJ loses everything he has earned so far. The numbers he chooses are standard bingo numbers: B5, I25, N42, G58 etc. With every step, the odds get increasingly more challenging, until PJ finds himself at the fifth and final level where his odds of losing everything are 2 in 3. By this time, he has earned $6500 and he can choose to walk away and keep that money. Or he can gamble against terrible odds and hope for more cash AND an opportunity to compete for a grand prize of $100,000.

Special K and I are now on our feet, yelling at the TV, "Walk away, PJ, walk away!!"

Most of the studio audience is yelling the same thing.

PJ decides to gamble.

He goes for it.

He asks for O75.

There is a 2 in 3 chance that he will lose everything.

The expose what's behind O75 and .... he's SAFE!! (and earns another $500!)

Special K and I are now jumping up and down and high-fiving each other.

Now PJ is ready for the final round. He stands with the host and faces a giant plastic see-through sphere with dozens of balls flying around inside (think of the machines they use to toss the balls before they announce the lottery numbers).

This final stage of Bingo America is purely a game of chance. If one of the numbers that PJ chose in the previous round as he was picking his way around virtual minefields is the actual number that the lotto machine spits out, then PJ wins $100,000. That's right, $100,000.

Our hearts are pounding as the host stretches the suspense and anticipation to the max. We can barely stand it and we think we can see PJ sweating just a little bit.

I turn to Special K and say "If PJ won $100,000, he would have told you, right?"

Special K looks at me and doesn't say anything. We don't know what to think.

A ball drops out of the machine. The host asks his version of Vanna White to tell the audience what the letter on the ball is:

She replies, "I can tell you that it's a G."

G58. G58. G58. That's what PJ's G number was. What are the odds?

PJ looks like he is going to pass out. Special K and I feel like we're going to pass out.

After almost unbearable suspense, the host asks his Vanna to show the audience the ball.

G58.

G58???

Omigod -- G58!!!!!!

PJ just won $100,000!!! Special K and I were speechless. We stared at each other for many, many seconds, mouths agape, unable to even breathe. I finally managed to sputter "Call him! Call him right now!!!!" and as we finished watching PJ high-five the host and shout out to the audience, we got him on the phone and gushed at him from two different extensions, finishing each other's sentences and recounting every single moment of PJ's journey to Bingo America fame.

It turns out that PJ had to sign legal documents, promising not to disclose the outcome of the show until after its air date. And PJ taped the show way back in August! He has had to keep this massive secret to himself for over three months.

We are absolutely thrilled for PJ and both of us remarked how something like this reaffirms your believe that good things do indeed happen to good people and that this is a clear message that PJ is on the very path he's meant to be on and that this is a brilliant reward for him making the bravest move of all -- pursuing that which he's most passionate about.

We love ya, PJ, and we're your biggest fans!

(Note: I'll post a couple of photos in the next post -- didn't want the images to spoil the story!)

Sevens -- The Update

So, the jeans that mysteriously made their way back to Special K's house last weekend were indeed my long lost pair of Sevens. Same cut, same pocket design, my size. But now they have faded to be about 10 shades lighter, the embroidery on the pockets is unraveling and they just have that worn, slightly pilly look that denim gets after having been around the block a few times. They're at the stage where they'd probably be my favorite pair of jeans had it actually been ME who got them to that stage.

Thank goodness SOMEBODY got a lot of use out of them over the past two years.

And I guess the upside for me is that now I have a groovy pair of painting pants. Add a beret and I will be the chicest painter in Silicon Valley!

The Case of the Missing Sevens

When you live a bi-coastal lifestyle, there are bound to be casualties ... you are certain to misplace things and leave things behind either in hotel rooms, in your apartment on the other coast, or at your boyfriend's place in yet another location.

When I first moved to New York over two years ago, I left a few things behind at Special K's house. There were a few boxes in the garage that I knew I couldn't take to my shoebox-sized apartment in Gotham and since I was moving in the fall, I also left a decent amount of warm weather/summer clothes behind. One of the clothing items I left in California was a pair of cropped Seven for All Mankind jeans.

On a return trip to California not long after I moved, I remember looking for the cropped jeans because I wanted to wear them, but couldn't find them anywhere. Special K and I looked high and low but didn't find the jeans. We checked every closet, cupboard and dresser drawer -- nothing.

Finally, he scratched his head and said "You must have taken them to New York with you". Since I'm a girl and have a photographic memory of exactly what I was wearing on ANY and ALL important dates/moments with Special K, I was acutely certain that I had indeed been wearing the cropped jeans on my last day in SoCal, precisely because I knew I wouldn't need them in NYC for months because winter was on its way.

I couldn't fathom what could have happened to these jeans! And I was NOT happy about the fact that it had to have been a $150 pair of jeans that were the ones to go missing. (Don't tell my mom about the $150 -- she raised me to be a smart, frugal consumer!) In any event, over time, I gradually accpeted the fact that the jeans were gone and hoped that one day, we'd discover them in some random place, smack ourselves on our foreheads and exclaim "Of COURSE that's where they are! Why didn't we think of this sooner??" It actually got to the point where any time I'd misplace something, Special K would casually remark "You can't find it? It must be with your jeans."

So, fast-forward almost two years exactly and I have now completed my NY tour of duty and am freshly settled in NoCal.

In the meantime, a friend and business colleague of Special K's had relocated to SoCal (at about the same time I went east) and while he was getting settled in his new job and looking for an apartment, he crashed with Special K for a couple of months. In that time, he managed to meet a woman who we would all later learn was not completely "there" and was just a teeny bit crazy in a very "Fatal Attraction" sort of way.

Long story short, it appears as though this woman, ahem, "borrowed" my jeans for the last two years and they just finally made their way back to Special K's house this past weekend when his buddy realized the situation.

I am headed to the OC this Friday night for a long anticipated reunion with my Sevens... AFTER they've been vigorously laundered and re-laundered.

Who steals someone else's jeans?? I guess I should just be thankful that she didn't hawk them on eBay for the cash.

K.O.'d!

There is a bakery/sandwich shop just down the street from the office where we end up going quite often to pick up lunch because it's so convenient. Apparently we've been going a little TOO often.

Today, the girls went at noon while I was stuck in a meeting and I didn't grab my lunch until after 2:00 pm. When I showed up at the sandwich shop, one of the cashiers (a guy we see there quite often) says hi and then asks "Where are all your friends today?"

I told him they came at lunch when I was in meetings and then he remembered "Oh, that's right, all three of them came earlier."

And then he added, "You know, we've started calling you guys the Knockout Group".

Wow. Thanks... I think? When I got back to the office, I relayed this message to the girls and suggested we have t-shirts made. Maria had a much better suggestion that we parlay this new found admiration into free food!

Who says there's no free lunch?

Running Man

If you've checked out my Posterous blog, you've seen the photo evidence of the Chicago Marathon and Special K's participation therein. This was Special K's 8th marathon (yes, EIGHTH marathon) and the Gods really made him work for this round of 26.2 miles.

For the second year in a row, Chicago set records in the heat department with temperatures skyrocketing to nearly 90 degrees. (You would think there would be more risk of driving rain and even an early snow in Chicago in October -- not that the city would have a heat wave that Phoenix would be proud of.)

The marathon organizers raised the event "alert level" to red, meaning that it was a set of extremely high risk conditions for runners. The next level would have been "extreme" where the event would have been canceled or stopped midway through. Some runners dropped out of the race due to the heat, many completed the final miles of the course at a walk, and the organizers actively encouraged all participants to slow their pace and take it easy. The fire department even opened up fire hydrants at various points along the course so that passing runners could be sprayed down.

The marathon itself is an event of epic proportions and I thought these stats offered a great snapshot of its size and depth:

• Over 45,000 registered runners


• 10,000 race day volunteers


• 6,800 charity runners looking to raise more than $12 million


• More than 100 countries represented


• Over 1.5 million spectators


• The course snakes through 29 of Chicago's neighbourhoods

I witnessed this at the NY Marathon a couple of years ago and it continued to amaze me in Chicago that people could focus on anything other than just putting one foot in front of the other for over 26 miles, but here's a selection of some of the fun (crazy?) things people ran in/as/doing:

• A guy was dressed as Minnie Mouse with full polka-dotted dress and mouse ears. (No giant Minnie Mouse high heels, however.) He ran the entire race dressed like that.


• Another guy was dressed as Elvis, complete with wig, sideburns, bejeweled disco jumpsuit and giant sunglasses. Imagine how hot and sweaty that get-up was!


• Two buddies ran the entire race dressed as Batman and Robin. Sweaty part deux. And trois.


• And most impressive, I saw one guy running near the finish line while juggling three small balls. The two girls next to me said they saw him miles earlier and he was juggling then, too. I can barely walk and chew gum at the same time!

But the coolest apparel item we saw was a t-shirt with the simple slogan "I run this town" emblazoned across the chest. Of course we bought Special K one of those!

Pre-posterous!!

Between Facebook, Twitter, Yammer, this blog and Kaboodle (of course!), you would think that I've social media'd myself to the max and there would be no more room (or time) for any johnny-come-lately's.

Well, I'm a sucker for a better mousetrap and a couple of weeks ago, Guy Kawasaki introduced me to a site called Posterous.com. Posterous is a blogging platform that lets you post content to your blog directly via an email (and you can still post traditional updates via the web), meaning that I am now a mobile blogging machine because I can easily post from anywhere via my iPhone. (Yes, I treated myself to an iPhone -- I don't think I've blogged about that yet.)

I love it -- I'm in Chicago right now with Special K and Posterous will easily let me photo-blog about the Chicago Marathon tomorrow so I can keep you all up-to-date on Special K's progress.

Here's where you can visit my now post Posterous self: http://orsomethinglikethat.posterous.com/

And I Thought New York was a Small World!

Turns out that Chicago is even moreso... at least for me. Within my first seven hours in the city yesterday, I ran into three people I know, all completely random and unplanned.

First of all, in my hotel, I bumped into one of our Publishers and one of our Associate Publishers (two separate "bumps"... they weren't even traveling together), both in town from New York, with nothing to do with my own reasons for being in Chicago.

Then, the most random "bump" was at a fun wine & cheese bar/restaurant last night that's actually managed by a friend of a friend of mine. Special K (who is running the marathon on Sunday, hence the main reason for the Chicago trip) and I had just been seated at our table and were still perusing the menu when I happened to glance up just in time to see a guy walk in to the bar area who looked an awful like someone who used to work at my old internet start-up way back in the day.

My brain processed "Gee, that guy looks like Eric... nah, can't be Eric.... How long has it been?.... do I really want the wine I just ordered?.... But Eric DID move to Chicago a few years ago for a new job.... that cheese plate looks good.... It MUST be Eric.... I better go say hi and find out for sure..." in about 1.5 seconds and I left Special K chuckling at the table (apparently, I had verbalized a little bit more of that train of thought than I realized) while I went to say hi.

Indeed it was Eric, he was shocked to see me and we have now made plans to get together for dinner with him and his girlfriend tonight after work!

It's a small world and gettin' smaller!