I'll take crappy conversations for $1000, Alex...

I was having a wonderful day so far: a few good cups of coffee warming up my bod, a smooth drive in, today is Friday, etc... and just now, in the coffee room an attorney strikes up a conversation with me about Jeopardy. It went something like this:

Him: You know, if you got more questions right on Jeopardy! you might be in Aruba right now.
Me: (With a sigh) I knew all the answers; I just wasn't fast enough. You can know everything in the world, the only thing that matters is how fast you buzz in.

Then I explained how a contestant is penalized if they ring in before the question is finished being read.

Him: Well, you're still not in Aruba.
Me: Things could be worse. Instead of being here I could be living under a bridge.
Him: There's still a chance for that.
Me: Definitely, I know it. I'm a realist.

That's the one detail the game show people leave out during greenroom discussions: you'll never have non-Jeopardy related idle awkward chit-chat again. Everyone who knows me knows that I dislike talking about my experience all these years later. Within a year of the show, fine; 2+ years later, not fine. It's depressing and it plants inside my head all the "woulda coulda shoudas" that I can't go back in time and fix.