9 out of 10 ain't bad... unless its 9th place out of 10...

Most people who know me know I'm in to trivia.  You might say I'm one of "those people".  Yep, I'm totally one of those people.  I like trivia.  I think I've blogged about it before, and I'll probably mention it again.  I sorta fell into a trivia group at Hey Joe's not long after I moved to Cleveland- almost 2 years ago! Its a funny story.  I was being trained by a fellow DHS attorney, Ann Marie.  Her husband, Brady, is the food services manager at the Clarksdale hospital.  Since we were training in Clarksdale, we went over there for lunch one day and Brady brought along a co-worker named Rebecca who was a recent transport from Texas to Cleveland.  She mentioned that one way she'd made some friends was through trivia and invited me to go.  Naturally, I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever heard of and really, really wanted to go and make some friends.  So, I played it cool and was all like, "yeah, baby, whatever," Danny Zuko- style. 

But secretly, I was so excited when a few days later when she messaged me about going.  It just so happened that that particular week, the trivia crew had decided to take a field trip to Vince's in Leland for trivia and skip Hey Joe's that week.  I rode along and met some of the people who would turn out to be some of the greatest people in this area and people whom I'm glad to call my friends (they aren't the same people, natch.  Just kidding).  I hope they'd say the same about me, but in reality, they probably just tolerate me.  Doesn't matter, cause they ain't getting rid of me! Who's got the last laugh now, huh?!

At the end of the night, we all walked out to our cars and I made a joke like, "ok, guys, well, go ahead and vote to see if I'm in the group or not and let me know.  Hahaha, LOL, JK."  They were all nice enough to not laugh at me till they got in their vehicles.  I'm still waiting for the results of that vote.

The next week, Rebecca invited me again, and I went, this time to Hey Joe's.  Looking around that table, trying to keep all the names straight, I never thought that Hey Joe's trivia would turn into one of my most favorite places and events in all my time here.  I love it-- it relaxes me and I look forward to it each week. 
The first few weeks and maybe even for a couple months, I was so nervous about going- I wanted to go, I was excited to go, I wanted to be friends with these people, but I was so scared to go alone and worry about if they wanted me to come or if they just tolerated me.  There were a few times I didn't go because I talked myself out of it and at least twice where I walked in the door, got really nervous and turned around and walked back out.  Its kinda amazing to me now how worried I was.  Though I'm sure a few of those original members are reading this and saying, "wow, we wish you still felt that way and would stay home!"

Our trivia group has had some changes-- people moved away, people joined the group, people's schedules changed or their interest in trivia has waned.  Its actually a very different group of people now that it was when I started.  Luckily for me, these "trivia people" have turned into actual friends who I get to spend time with outside of trivia even if they no longer come often.  But I still love Wednesday night's at Hey Joe's. 

Our group is one of the trivia powerhouses's, if you will.  And you will, cause its MY blog!  We usually do pretty well.  The prize is a $30 gift card to Hey Joe's and we will save up our winnings and then one night decide to pay for everyone's meal.  We've done this a few times and its always a nice bonus.  There was a time where we won almost every week.  Lately, we've not been doing so hot, but our group has dwindled down to a much smaller group than it first was. 

Trivia consists of all types of categories- there is always a music category, but the other categories can range from Movie Quotes to the Oscars to Sports to Current Events to Food and Drink to US History to Literature and all sorts of places in between.  Sometimes the questions are recycled which is usually annoying, cause then you are like, "man, I remember this question.  I remember I didn't know the answer then and I STILL don't!"  You'd think we'd learn from our mistakes.  But we never do.  Its still fun though!

One of the reasons our team is so dominant is that we are pretty well rounded.  Laura Beth is all over the music, Kirk can remember almost all sports questions, Andrew and Marshall (when they come!) are good at current events, Nameless knows a lot of history, Awesome McAwesome hasn't ever missed a Broadway show-related question, John Mark knows random Americana music and sports stuff, I can handle my own in TV/movie categories, etc.  Others fill in the gaps.  Together we make a pretty good team. 

We used to be much better than we are now-- mostly due to Will.  Will's trivia dominance is matched only by his desire to win honestly (no cell phone cheating for this guy).  Unfortunately for our team, Will changed jobs about a year ago and hasn't been back since.  Till last week.  It was a small turn-out but we had a great time.  We didn't win but it was nice to just sit around with some of my favorite people and have a good time, laughing and joking about nothing in particular.  It's a great way to spend a Wednesday night!!

Katy and Nameless, who is again Faceless.  I'm beginning to think he doesn't want to be on this blog.  I bet he purposely turned his face!

8 out of 10 isn't bad.  Unfortunately, it wasn't good enough to win this time!

Will and Awesome McA laughing.  Probably over a dead baby joke. 

Keep Cleveland Boring is the local events group that keeps Cleveland fun.  They handle concerts, movie nights, special events, festivals, etc.  I bought this sticker for Nicholas. 

And remember Rebecca?  The girl who originally invited me to trivia?  She came like twice more and never returned! But I appreciate her introducing me to Hey Joe's trivia!