Last night, I watched the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee. I’ve always loved watching it even when I was a little girl. My love was renewed when I saw the movie, Akeleeh and the Bee.

I almost won the 6th grade spelling bee but I misspelled the word “spur.” I added an “e” to the end. Rookie mistake!

I love words, I really do. But I’m not the best speller when it comes to complicated ones. During the spelling rounds, I was totally amazed how these kids could spell these words. I still remember studying for the GRE and I was NOT happy at all with learning all those new words. So these kids must love it. You can see it in their faces when they spell a word right.

So congratulations, Kavya Shivashankar! Take that money and put it towards you college education.

I made a bet with myself that I would use the winning word in a sentence—but a sentence in my current draft. So I made this bet before I knew the word.

The word is Laodicean. Hmm…a proper adjective. The word means to be lukewarm or indifferent in religious or politics.

OKay here it goes:

“Megan loved all things mystic and she she got it honest from her mother. Her father’s passion involved keeping the city council on its toes, but that only held a Laodicean interest for Megan.”

That would definitely get slashed by an editor. Oh well. A bet is a bet.