As some of you already know, trivia is kind of my “thing.” I started playing pub trivia casually and sporadically in 2010, then started playing more competitively and regularly in 2012. Me and a few others continued in this fashion until March, 2020, when all of that screeched to a halt because of COVID shutdowns/restrictions. We’ve been playing virtually ever since, though we did try playing three in-person games – one outdoors, two indoors.

Fast forward 18 months, and live in-person trivia is back – though in a much more limited capacity than it was before. One of the trivia leagues in which I used to play is even holding an in-person tournament today in Plymouth, MI. A friend of mine invited me to join her team for this tournament about a month ago or so (give or take), and I declined for a number of reasons – my busy work schedule which requires me to work some weekends, but the big reason I said “no” was because…

I really can’t get sick right now. I’m well aware that being vaccinated and boosted means if I catch COVID, it will be mild. But it also means I’m sidelined from work, since I can’t show up to work if I have any symptoms. As much as I’d love to get paid for sitting on my ass, it’s such a busy, busy time of year at my workplace – and we’re so short staffed. Me being off work means my work just piles up until I get back to do it. I’m doing everything I can to stay healthy, avoid unnecessary risks and still keep my sanity.

That last part about keeping my sanity is a challenge! Just last night, my husband and I wanted to go out for drinks and use an “igloo” at a local brewery, but they said it was a 35 minute wait. So we went to another local watering hole which has a heated outdoor and semi-enclosed patio and we wound up having it virtually to ourselves and enjoyed happy hour pricing! God it feels so good to escape the house every now and then.

It’s simply not worth the risk to get even a taste of this virus. Not now, anyway. The thought of sitting unmasked in a room full of a couple of hundred people for 2-3 hours…nope. Can’t do it!

That being said, I’ll still be cheering on a team from afar today, which will have a couple of their own team members and a couple of players from another team. A trivia “comrade” of mine was all too happy to be able to use the trivia seat I declined to use today. Best of luck to them!

And another trivia league is hosting a virtual trivia tournament today for cash prizes. However, I didn’t pay enough attention to my e-mail last week and missed the registration deadline. Which is fine – I didn’t try too hard assembling a team for this, and most of the people I did talk to about it didn’t seem interested. Oh well. I’m not a big fan of “speed trivia,” anyway. Being timed on answering questions you can look up the answers for is not exactly my idea of a good time. Ideally you need a crew of about 20 people to even have a chance of winning some money.

I still plan to try going out for a “real” trivia game – hopefully before the end of the year. But that all depends upon my work schedule. I’m not going to risk bringing a real team for this. My trusty trivia pardner and husband is the only teammate I’ll need! In fact, he has been a real help in the past few virtual games, including one about ’80s movies we played a couple of nights ago.

On that note, maybe I should work on that recap now, then?