The Call came toward the end of January. Or rather, it came a few times at the beginning of January; but for a variety of reasons that are too silly/embarrassing to recount, I didn't pay any attention until Robert finally emailed me to say, "Hey, crazy, we've been calling you! Listen to your voicemail already!" (He used nicer words, but that was the general idea.) Again, it took me a day or two to get over my sheer, gut-twisting panic at the idea of actually going on the show for me to call him back... But then when I did, it was all over in a flash: he asked a few questions about my eligibility (whether I knew anyone who worked at Sony, etc.) and then said, "February 14th and 15th. You ready?"
