"Millionaire Train Kevin"

Whenever you ride the train, you really take your chances. You can get stuck next to some really questionable people... but sometimes you luck out.

I've sat next to a fanatical Baptist woman, a computer programmer from India, a dude that smelled like onions, and Kevin.

I met Kevin on the train from Albany to Cleveland. I had an 8 hour journey, so I figured that I better make some small talk with the 40-something, ear-pierced man sitting next to me. After we got the initial pleasantries out of the way ("Hi! My name is..." "Where are you headed?"), I was feeling nosy and asked him why he was in New York in the first place. To quote him exactly:

"Yeah... on a whim I decided to go to New York City and try out for 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire'"

Awesome. Gotta love that spontaneity.

After that, I knew that Kevin and I would be good friends. He said that was one of 4 that passed the tests and got an on camera interview. His chances of being on the show were looking pretty good. I told him that I was into film and knew a lot of useless information and he said that I could be one of his lifelines if he ever got on the show. I was psyched. I gave him my email and told him to keep me posted.

That was in June. On Tuesday I finally got an update from "Millionaire Train Kevin". Unfortunately he didn't make it on the show, but he said that he was going to try again. I was pretty sad. I hope he becomes a millionaire someday. He was a cool guy.