Hysteria, Nausea, and Onomatapoeia

Disclaimer: What I'm going to say may sound mean, sarcastic, uncaring, or self-righteous, but I mean it in the best way possible. ;)

Popular guys crack me up. They really do. When I see them sauntering through the hallways with a giggle of girls following them, it takes all my self-control not to snicker, especially when the girls are all casting feral glances at each other. But you know what makes me laugh even harder? Guys who don't even know it. Yeah, the ones strutting their stuff with the girls are funny, but even they are overshadowed by the oblivious charmers.  These are the guys who remain ignorant of their popularity. I had a conversation with one of them recently who bemoaned his lack of followers. Apparently, he hadn't noticed the number of girls who follow him with their eyes. =D Anyways, I've been having a chuckle recently at the expense of these fellows. Pay no attention to the cynic in the corner.

On to the real purpose of my post. I apologize for my lack of posts recently. There was a tournament in Idaho this weekend that I spent most of March preparing for. I competed in Persuasive, Original Oratory, Extemporaneous, and Lincoln-Douglas debate. When all was said and done, I was 5th speaker and 5th LD debater, 8th Extemporaneous speaker, and 8th Original Oratory. My persuasive did not qualify to Regionals. Sad, but oh well. That leads to a tangential musing: I always seem to pick controversial, unpopular speeches. There was Animal Farm back two years ago, and now my Persuasive has gone and ticked off the judges. I guess they just can't handle my message. ;)

In other news, I won my first-ever outround in debate. I call it high cause for celebration.

So, pluses and minuses from the tournament:
+5th in LD, 5th LD speaker
- My flight B round starting as TP rounds ended
------ Getting to the extemp prep room late because of my late debate round
+ Two first places in extemp from that round
+ Breaking in OO and extemp
---- Calvin and Bill's incredibly awkward conversation skills
------ Verve not in Finals
--- Almost fainting on Saturday
+++ A much more subdued tournament because most of my club wasn't there
--- "Your emotions seemed forced and unreal" after I almost started crying in my funny OO on account of exhaustion
--- "Can't you choose a less generic example than Jewish people?"
+++ Exclusive Ballot party
+++++ I Talk Alone - a parody of "I Walk Alone" by Tarja that Jedi Gerbils and I wrote.
+ "Pep talking" Calvin
+ New Friends!
+ "I love your blog!" <-- That was unexpected, but rather cheering. I can't remember your name, but thank you. You made my night.

Yeah, on Saturday, I was feeling really quite faint and dizzy. So much so that when the tournament director asked for a timer, I volunteered without realizing I did until I got into the apologetics round. That was about the worst 80 minutes I spent at the tournament, because I was trying desperately hard to not black out during the speeches.

On Thursday, I was in the second flight for LD. Due to some unfortunate happenstance, the judge didn't show up on time. In fact, we didn't find him until the team policy rounds were ending. This isn't good: we're supposed to be finishing when the policy rounds get out. So we start, and the tournament director was good enough to hold the tournament back half an hour to give us a chance to finish. I get out of my round, only to be told that I was the first speaker in the OO room. I rush over there, and discover that my extemp draw is in 30 seconds. I rush as fast as my high heels will allow over to the extemp prep room, and arrive almost five minutes late because I had to detour to find the postings first. Despite that, two judges ranked me first in the room. And I broke to semis, so I was quite happy. 

After the awards ceremony, I went over to Jedi Gerbil's hotel for an "exclusive" ballot party of sorts. We got Mrs. Incredible and her debate partner, Pooh and Tigger, and Jedi Gerbils and Barrelfighter, and Elsie (the girl whose house I occupied) plus R.B. together to read ballots. It eventually turned to a politics discussion, at which point another guest in the room started listening intently. Apparently, he'd never seen a room full of teenagers in suits and ties intelligently discussing the second election race of Pres. Clinton before. I have to wonder where he's been for the past 12 years.  Yeah, it was a highly successful tournament.

And now, to spend time cum mea familia. As an ending sidenote, I'm so happy to be able to hug people *taller* than me. Everyone I spent time with at Idaho was shorter.

Cheerio,
B