Reporting back from an epic weekend

Special report from the Austin, TX news desk! I'm extremely happy to be back sitting on my couch after a whirlwind adventure among the crossword elite, two of my fabulous friends who came to support me, the cast of a Broadway show I did not enjoy very much, and a plane full of people who were both wonderful and rude about the eclipse. Here's the long and short of it:

The crossword tournament
I am definitely going back next year. And you should come with me. It was so FUN and there were multiple groups of friends who sat together and goofed around and competed against each other. Everyone is incredibly nice and I met many new friends. Seriously, let's get a group together next year.

As for the actual competition, the chances of me ever winning the whole damn thing are slim to none. There are people there that don't actually read all the clues—they just get the general gist of the theme and skim key words. These are not people like you and me. These are savants who finished college at 15. Here's the good news though: I did damn good. I placed 177 out of 778 contestants. AND, were I not a rookie, I actually would have won a trophy. (Rookies aren't eligible for the lower two brackets for some reason.) So I teetered on the edge of winning something my first time. I couldn't be happier.

P.S. If you want to try the special Connections puzzles they made for the tournament, go here. They're hard. Oh and I also found out about a regular virtual competition that takes place, so I am all in for that.

The Broadway show
I will watch practically any play in a theater and this was proven true last night, with Six. It wasn't horrible. But it wasn't really a play either. It felt very much like a K-Pop concert. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But I think the only people who truly enjoyed it were the large amount of tweens in the audience. Hamilton was great, but I'm afraid Mr. Miranda has cursed us with a glut of pop history shows to sit through for several more years.

The eclipse
I was in an airplane during totality so I saw it from above, but didn't get to experience the physical feeling of it, which I'm super sad about. These pictures don't do it justice (do they ever?) but it was incredibly cool and eerie to watch the plane interior and sky around us go from night to day in two minutes.

Here's the baffling part: there were many MANY people on the plane who kept their windows closed the whole flight. Or wouldn't get up to let people on the other side of the plane see their view. (Ahem). It just reinforced the fact that Elaine Benes expressed many years ago: People. They're the worst.

And now I'm going to order delivery of the biggest plate of enchiladas I can find and watch Kristen Wiig's SNL from Saturday. I love home.