Wheel! Of! Failure!

Today I finally had some time to breathe!  We did several things today, but they didn't take up quite the whole day.  We started out the day by going over to the building where my classes will take place.  I checked out the UTLA Center, and then I went up to the 4th floor of the building.  Conveniently enough, Glassman Media (one of the places I might intern) is right there!  I would only have to walk across the street to go to my classes and my internship!  After scoping out that building, we grabbed a quick early lunch at McDonald's and then set off for Culver City once again!  The traffic was particularly rough today - my mom thinks there might have been a big accident.  In any case, we arrived considerably later than we wanted to even though we left early.  Thankfully, we still made it.  We had VIP tickets for the Wheel of Fortune taping today, but we didn't get the best seats (probably because we were a little late).  Nevertheless, it was pretty neat!  They were taping for a Disney-themed week on the show, and I just so happened to be wearing my Monsters University t-shirt!  I had no clue about the Disney theme until I got there!  Some of the pages came around and gave everyone a pair of Mickey ears!  They had all different designs on them!  Mine had a Buzz Lightyear design!  Before the shows began taping, the announcer, Jim Thornton, came around to chat with us and warm us up.  He told some great Disney jokes and asked us some trivia questions!  I never knew how much game show announcers actually do - they interact with the studio audience a lot, and Jim Thornton was fantastic!  Because of the Disney theme, Mickey introduced Pat and Vanna.  They came out onto the stage with their arms linked with other Disney characters!  It's not often that Pat and Vanna walk onstage disconnected from each other!  Then they did their thing, and it was pretty neat!  After 3 days of game show tapings, I'm kind of running out of things to say.  Simply enough, it was interesting and fun to see the show live and watch all the action behind the scenes!  I particularly liked watching the contestants practice before the show!  It was also cool when they changed out the wheel wedges between rounds!  What I didn't know when we got there was that we were in for 3 episodes!  We got to see 2 episodes at the Jeopardy! taping yesterday, but it was 3 at Wheel of Fortune today!  I guess it's best to go with the earlier time!  I named this post "Wheel!  Of!  Failure!" because there were plenty of screwups.  All 3 winners lost in the Bonus Round!  I was hoping that out of 3 shows, there would be at least one winner!  I thought the first Bonus Round puzzle was easy!  Also, there was one time that a contestant who had collected around $16,700 in the round hit bankrupt!  The puzzle was mostly filled in, but apparently she was still struggling!  In addition, one lady who had somewhere over $10,000 had a bad missolve!  She could have banked quite a lot, but she didn't solve the puzzle correctly!  In general, it seemed like there were a lot of bankrupts in the 3 shows we saw.  That being said, the winners of all 3 episodes won over $20,000 in the maingame - it wasn't a complete failure!  Sadly, Pat and Vanna didn't really come over and talk to us.  Pat reminded the audience not to whisper any letters or puzzle solutions, but that was about it.  The stage was always really busy during the commercial breaks, so I can understand why it didn't work out.  Fortunately, Jim Thornton was always there to entertain us between shows.  He gave out little prizes to people who answered his trivia questions!  I answered a bunch of his questions, so I won 4 "blinky pins"!  He also gave some people autographed $1 bills!  After I had accumulated my blinky pins, my mom asked him if we could trade one of those for a $1 bill.  He just gave one to me!  It was sweet!  At one point when he was interacting with me, he noticed my Monsters University shirt.  He brought up the fact that he was a voice in Monsters, Inc.  Apparently, he's the guy who narrates the commercial that Mike and Sulley watch at the beginning of the movie!  My mind was blown!  I had never known that, and I was unintentionally wearing the perfect shirt!  After the third show concluded and we were all done, we asked Jim if he would sign my shirt!  He gladly did!  It was so neat interacting with him!  We eventually hit the road and headed back to the apartment.  The traffic was still bad on the way back, but it wasn't as bad as it was on the way there.  Once we got back, my mom and I said our goodbyes.  She immediately had to turn around and head for the airport, so I was on my own.  I certainly appreciate all she did for me in the few days she was here!  At 5:00, I had to go over to the UTLA Center again for a quick meeting with an advisor.  We just discussed my internship search, my classes, and my résumé.  I have a lot of improvements to make!  Once I got back from that meeting, I just made some dinner and unwound.  It feels nice to sit back and relax!  Unfortunately, I believe I might have lost my autographed $1 bill from Jim Thornton.  It had his name, W.O.F. (Wheel of Fortune), and the date on it.  He also drew a microphone near George Washington's mouth and several stars all around the bill.  It figures that I lost it (at least for now) - it just adds to the "failure" theme!  Since I never took a picture of it, I decided to post a picture of Vanna White's star on the Walk of Fame.  Tomorrow I'm going to check out Glassman Media again and attend a party for the Bradley students at the Skirball Center!