Simon in the Morning's "Hunger Games"

Twice a day for the past week, the "Simon in the Morning" show has been hosting their version of the "Hunger Games".

Each morning at 6:20am, and 8:20am, Scott, Jolynn and Jake would announce two "districts", (zip codes), to compete against each other.  One caller from each zip code would call in and be given a type of food to name off.  Each person would name a food from that day's category, and the first person to take longer than 5 seconds was eliminated.

My zip code was announced at 6:20 Tuesday morning, so I called, and actually got through.  I and the person I was pitted against had to come up with various ways to prepare eggs.

I don't remember all the types we came up with, except the other person did say "candied" eggs at one point.   No one was sure what that meant, however, I thought it could mean the candy eggs like you get at Easter.  The last type I mentioned was "poached", and the other person couldn't come up with another type, so she was eliminated.

I was excited that I'd qualified for the trip to see Taylor Swift in Ontario, Canada; however, did I really think I'd win the grand prize?  No, I didn't.  I knew I'd have a 1 in 10 chance, however, I just didn't think it would happen.

On Friday, the final two were qualified for the grand prize, and a few minutes later Scott, Jolynn and Jake were to announce the grand prize winner.

I know that when a winner is picked, it takes time to call them, get it recorded for playback on the air, etc.  That usually means a winner is picked and called right away.  I was at work, waiting to start my day, and my phone wasn't ringing, so I knew I wasn't going to be the winner.  The longer the phone didn't ring, the more certain I was I didn't win.

All of a sudden though, my phone DID ring, and it was an outside line.  The caller ID was KUPL's number!  So, I answered the phone, and there they were on the other side of the line, Scott, Jolynn and Jake!  They asked if I knew why they were calling and I said I thought so; then Jolynn said, yeah, they'd just called to talk with me and tell me who'd won the contest.

 Normally it's hard to pull anything over on me; I'm not a trusting person, and don't take things at face value.  In this case though, already having it in my mind that I wasn't going to win, the length of time it took for the phone call, and the fact that I'm always giving them a bad time, (teasing), I figured maybe they really HAD called just to tell me who the winner had been!  I was totally suckered on that, and I give them kudos for getting me good!

As it turns out, *I* AM the grand prize winner to go see Taylor Swift in Ontario, Canada!!!  The whole process of picking the grand prize winner was even the subject of the Simon 90 video for the day.

Needless to say, that was around 9am; I haven't quite been the same since!  I honestly don't think I really breathed for about 2 hours after I found out I'd won! 

I know I can get very excited about things, so instead of rambling on and on about it from now, until the day of the show, I've told everyone I work with, all my friends and  family, if I start getting hyper again, I'll just say "EEK!"  Translation:  "I'm sooooooooooooo excited!", and leave it at that.  After all, winning is one thing, however I'd like to keep my family, friends and co-workers; not drive them away!