Last night 18 District residents, myself included, hopped in the wayback machine and arrived smack dab in the halcyon days of 3rd grade as the D.C. Bee, a spelling bee for total nerds adults, kicked off the first of its five planned preliminary rounds at the Warehouse Theater. Pulses raced, vocabularies expanded, and dreams of victory were dashed in a single round. Luckily, no one peed their pants.

You too can relive your elementary school fantasies and compete in the Bee. Future prelims are scheduled for April 10, April 24, May 8, and May 22, with the contestants who win the top 3 spots from each date returning for a championship round on June 5. Prizes include a modest bar tab at the Warehouse for a win in the early rounds, and the final winner takes home a package including $100 cash, a trophy, and various sundries donated from an impressive list of local businesses serving as sponsors.

If you think you’ve got the skillz, allow DCist to proffer a few tips, based on our own experience, which just might increase your chances of winning. You might want to take them with grain of salt, however, since I, having been so close to victory I could almost taste it, plan on competing in future rounds and may just be looking to sabotage the rest of you.