*I realized as I was typing this that a lot of it will not make sense to non forensicators or people who dont know my newer friends… so here is a rundown.
Chip- the coach. He’s awesome
Jana- chip’s wife. she is also mega awesome.
Team members on this trip: me, breezey, kate, drew, alex, billy, wheezey, nathan, rocko, josh
Wheezey- gets a second mention because he is my duo partner. I think we work pretty well together. No drama. No stupidity. Good common sense.
Duo- Dramatic interp for two. <or=10min scenes from plays… or programs…>
Prose= first person storytelling… usually. focuses moreso on the story
Pers- Persuasive speaking. Mine is about penny auctions
Flight A/B- divisions of competitions so that you end up performing each even twice
rounds- when you go perform. usually there are 4-5 other people/couples with you in a round.
breaking/breaks- when you did so freaking awesome that you make it to finals (or semis, depending) and get to perform again for a chance to win
*
Well.
Here I am.
End of the day at my second forensics tournament.
I kinda feel like it is my first “real” tournament since I only competed with one event at TSU and spent the rest of the time watching rounds and freaking the heck out.
Anyway, we are in Berea Kentucky at Berea College (maybe Berea Christian college? not sure)
and… i just thought i would recap whats happened so far.
First of all (and since this is my blog I feel it appropriate that I be able to talk about myself) I am sick. Not like, SICK sick- no vomiting, no crazy butt explosions, and thank GOD no allergic face swelling. No, just run of the mil sick. It’s the same kind of sick I always used to get when I auditioned for stuff during my band days. It never failed. Stuffy nose, then runny nose, headaches, hot flashes like a menopausing woman… sneezing and popping ears.
Chip was so kind as to give me money (well, the money allotted to the team from the school) to go get medicine at Meijer… where we (Rocko and I) walked. And it was a lot farther away than we expected. But. We made it so. No harm no foul I suppose.
Let’s fast forward in to today. I woke up at 8:55 when I heard Kate about to leave the room to breakfast at Bob Evans with Chip, Jana, and Rocko. Long story. Anyone was invited to go but I didn’t feel like putting clothes on.
I woke up and went downstairs in my PJ shorts and *new team hoodie!* and got some breakfast from the continental deal they had going on down there.
Oh. I forgot to mention.
I’m totally doped at this point.
I’d taken medicine (Tylenol Severe Cold and Sinus)the night before at 7:45, then again at 11, and again at 2:45 right before I fell asleep. I woke up at 6 cause I couldn’t breathe, blew my nose, might have peed, took another dose, and went back to sleep. I took another one at 8:55 when I woke up.
I think it must have been the lack of food in my stomach with the closely timed doses of Tylenol that really did it for me. When I got out of bed, I almost fell in to a wall. Going down the hallway, same story. I mean, as long as I had something to hold on to… I was solid. But dude. I was MESSED. UP.
Anyway, I got some breakfast…. kinda beastly breakfast actually. Froot Loops with 2% (gag, I wanted skim) and a bagel. Yeah… ravenous. I know. But dang. Those Loops were GOOD!!
Uh. Well. At some point we got all fancied up and went…. to Steak and Shake. Good. Now my suits gonna smell like grease farts. Haha. It was good though. I had a salad and cottage cheese. I got some apples and grapes too but… they were pretty stank so… I’m fairly sure they are still sitting in a to go cup in the Jana van. Oops.
We got to the tournament and had like an hour to chill, get our schedules, and work on our pieces. There were people like standing around performing for trees, but… Wheezey and I opted for the cooler option and sat on a bench. After we both mumbled speeches to ourselves for a while, I told him about “My mother, she could not stop tying her shoes” (aka, my prose) and then he replied by telling me about a therapist who changed his life (aka, his prose) and it was a jolly good time for the both of us. I think. I’m glad we get along.
Then we headed our seperate directions for 3pm rounds. I went to frost building for prose, wheeze went to the main bldg for the same thing, different section.
I felt really good about the round… until I got to my second page in my book… at which point I dove into the part of my story which is like on the 10th page of my book. I couldnt think fast enough to recover, and said the dumbest thing, EVER. (Quietly) “Wow…. I am sorry.” I got back on track with my prose, which after the intro (which I was so mad about effing up so early on that I stumbled, but fought through) went pretty well. There was a guy in the round who was nodding his head and smiling after I almost fell apart- in a way that I took as “its okay, just keep going, you are going to be fine.” I mean, even if he was just laughing cause I bombed, i felt like he was encouraging me. After the round I thanked him for doing so.
I was a little miffed about that… but I shook it off and went to my Persuasion. there was another girl in there who was SO incredibly sweet. She had a really harsh speech impediment and seemed to have some developmental issues, yet here she was, competing in forensics. RESPECT.
I was first up in the round since I was double entered and had to go to Duo afterward. Persuasion in that round went AWESOME, especially considering the amount of freaking out I did about it (see the whole “im sick from stress
paragraph). I think it really helped that the judge wrote a lot and I didnt have to make a lot of eye contact with him, so I was basically having a conversation about penny auctions with the sweet little girl. After it was over (and I think I saw the judge write 7:19 for my time on the score sheet… oops. Got nervouse and sped up… its supposed to be 8-10) I sat down. I only wanted to have my water bottle in my hands again. Then the judge asked me if I was double entered and I realized whoops… I should be leaving. I laughed and said Sorry! I got really focused on getting a drink of water! and then asked to be excused.
I got to my duos round and hallelujah that there were a bunch of talkative people in there. I hate the awkward silence in between performances. Actually the one initiating the conversation was the same guy who was nodding at me during prose. His name is Doug. Haha.
Wheezey showed up and we peformed our duo. the room was TINY and I backed into the chalkboard once and probably grazed Wheeze on accident too. Oh well. haha. After out duo a couple of girls from TSU went, who were in our round last time… AT TSU. They did this duo about these girls robbing a bank. I really liked it… even though the little one held me at black book point (yeah, she had a gun) at the very end of it and I was a little freaked out about what to do…. so I just kept making eye contact but not reacting…. she literally had the corner of the spine of her book like a half an inch from the temple of my head. Intense.
We finally got out of that round and I headed off for flight B round 1 prose. It went. AWESOME. I was a lot more focused on NOT screwing up… and I think it helped. Also, I was in a room with the judge and one other girl and not a room full of guys who dont get girl things as well… haha. So that helped a whole lot. The only problem i had in that round was my page not turning… but I didnt freak or let it bother me, I just turned two pages on my next one. WIN. Again, it really really helped that the other girl that was in the round with me when I performed was listening to my performance and it was easy to just be conversational with her rather than be stiff and read a script kinda deal.
The last person in that round took FOREVER to show up, by which point all of our stomachs were knawing on our backbones cause there was food right outside our room and we couldnt get to it yet!
After the round, I ended up not getting to eat anyway… cause it was chicken fingers. Bleh.
I signed in to Flight B round 2 persuasion and left to perform duo first. It went fine. I didnt feel bad about it at all. I took some tylenol right before we performed that… and it didnt hit me… until…
I’d left the bldg where our duo was and was walking to Draper (the main bldg ) and started to get kinda sweaty… even though it was really chill outside. When I got in to the PERS room, I started feeling like I had that morning, like everything in front of me was scrolling upward and I wasn’t really sure why. I started in to my persuasion and just…. lost it. I was really feeling like I might fall over and was so busy worrying about that that I couldnt remember what on Gods green earth I was supposed to be talking about. “The september… the september 19, 2000…… 10… the september 19, 2010 edition of the… age….”
and that is pretty much how bad it was for a minute. At one point in my
“problems” i knew i was really close to the door to the room, and had a serioud thought about just bolting. I just wanted to cry. At some point, I was drawing another blank and I just put my hands on either side of my face and said I am sorry… Im REALLY losing it. I tried to fight through the speech but I couldnt keep in my head where I was, what I had said, or what came next.
I finally got to sit down. I really felt like I could vomit at that point. I held my head up with my hands on my face for the rest of the round, for fear that if I moved my hands, i would A) vomit B) pass out or C) vomit, then pass out.
FINALLY, the round was over. Jana was in the hall and I just said “I need to lay down” and started crying. I just felt so stupid because I totally BEASTED the persuasion the first roung and couldnt even keep my head on straight this one. Sigh.
Per Jana’s suggestion, I went and sat in the chapel thing where you can just hang out in between rounds and stuff. I sat down in a chair.. and at some point I fell asleep but I kept waking up when I felt my head slide across the wall that I was leaning against and using as a pillow. I tried to think through my speech, but i was totally fried and couldnt make it through my introduction without falling asleep… again.
After about 15 minutes of that, I got up and left the chapel and ran in to drew, who you can always count on for a freaking awesome hug. He, I, Rocko an Josh went outside and Rocko and Drew talked about debate for a while… I just kinda listened while i was leaning my head on drew’s shoulder cause he still had his arm around my shoulder… which was good cause I probably would have fallen over without it.
Anyhow, we finally met up with the rest of the team. Alex, Drew, Kate, Nathan, and Wheezey all broke in events… but I dont remember exactly what. Sorry guys. But great job! =)
We went and ate at… a place that starts with a C… and they have custard…. uh… well… anyway. it was good. thumbs up for them. On the way to the restaurant Alex and I listened to music on his iPod… i think it might be our van ritual. maybe. I love that kid.
Well… we are back in the hotel now. Chip will be really mad when he sees that I am still awake at 2am… but my eyes were not tired until now.
More to come, I hope.
Peace, Love, and 4N6.
-F
