Random Tournament Memories, '08-'09

I originally created this just to post on Facebook, but I put it on here for speech and debate friends who don't have it.

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Last night, when a California tournament was confirmed, I realized that the coming tournament season is drawing very near. Along with this realization came a sub-realization: I'm no longer going to be a timer. Instead of walking up receive a timer award, I'll probably be staying in my seat the entire awards ceremony. ;) Man, I'll miss timing.

Concordia Challenge:

Wednesday night: My brother and I talked to Cody (Who NEEDS a Facebook account) for about 45 minutes regarding computers.

Then Erin, Hannah and I all went to Erin's car (I forget why) and she gave us food. But what did she feed us? These terrible little bunny graham crackers! Every time I bit off a head I felt horrid!
;)

Thursday: So I go to bed around 11. I wake up every half hour, afraid that my mom has forgotten to set the alarm, and we're all going to sleep right through the tournament. Finally, about 5 AM, I just get up and start getting ready.

We get to the campus. WOW. TOTALLY overwhelming. There was probably about 500 people. Needless to say, I was nervous.

Jordan and I head to the library to find our coach and I get shushed by the librarian.

I sign up to time the first debate round. (All the way over in Beta, for those of you familiar with the Concordia campus.) I get lost multiple times. I finally find my way to the room, and only one person from the neg team is there.
"Oh, hi!" She says, "You're aff, right?"
I look at her embarrassedly, and then awkwardly inform her that I'm the timer. Soon enough, aff is in the room. I'm trying to balance on this tiny little stool, and they're just looking at me, wondering why I'm playing on the swivel chair instead of setting up my stickies and prepping my flowpad. One of them looks at me,
"So... How many tournaments have you been to?"
"Um. I'm the timer.."
"OHHHHH..."
Finally the judge gets in there. He decided to look at my timer sheet, and knew who I was. So he comes up with the bright idea to ask ME what all of the speeches are called, and how long they are. Oh, and what the heck is cross examination? So I, the poor little novice who knows nothing about debate, proceed to tell him the best I can. I'm sure I messed up. At last, the other neg team member shows up, lugging around an enormous tub of evidence. After apologizing for being late, she started to set up all her stuff. Apparently looking for small talk, the judge once again turns to me.
"So are you a senior on this campus?"
"Uhm. No... I'm only 12."
"Oh? You're only in 12th grade?"
"Er. No. I'm 12 years old."
"..."
By then, everyone in the room (including a couple parents) is staring at me. One of the aff members saved me by standing up at the podium, clearing her throat, and asking if we all were ready.
The debate starts.
And of course I gave an eight minute 1NR.

Round two, I'm thoroughly exhausted, and I stumble back to the timer table to get another sheet. I find my way to the new room, throw my backpack on the floor, and attempt to stay awake.
Then I asked the dreaded, naive question.
"Are any of you novices?"
I think one of them said yes. It wasn't until afterwards that I learned how rude that can sound.

Alright, time to eat while the LDers have to debate. I find my way back to my Kooler, and pick at my lunch, allowing my friends Ashley, Erin, and Danielle to eat whatever they want.

Lunch is over, and the first speech round starts. I FINALLY find my way to my Impromptu room. WORST. IMPROMPTU ROOM. EVER. There was about six doors all leading to tiny little rooms. All leading out of one slightly larger room. Fortunately this is only novice Impromptu, but there were still a good 40-50 kids crowded around out there, talking, comparing topics (We had abstracts that round), and SWEATING because it was so dang hot. Every once in a while, a timer would poke their head out of one of the rooms and tell us to be quiet. We'd start at a whisper... Gradually getting louder and louder until another timer was kind enough to tell us to shut up.
I finally gave my speech, glad that it was one of my best Impromptus ever (which still isn't saying much), and lasted more than three minutes.

I run back over to Grimm to give my OI. The only terrible thing that managed to befall me then was the fact that I came incredibly close to reciting my HI, yet only remembered at the last second that I was playing a guy proposing, not an irritating little girl.
Later I read on a ballot: "You started out kind of quiet and unsure, but got better." -.-

Round three for debate, I decide to judge my brother and his partner, Ashley, who were going aff. When we got in the room, neg and the judge were already there. Ashley's just about to get up to read her 1AC when the janitor cleans in the room and begins to empty the three trash cans sitting in the back. We all stared at her, bewildered, until the judge asks her to come back. The Spanish speaking lady simply smiled, nodded, stood there for a few seconds, and then finally left.
The 2AC is over and I begin prep time for the 2NC. And then, lo and behold, I press down on the minute button, and it BREAKS. It pushed right into the timer. Everyone is completely unaware but I. I frantically catch Ashley's attention, and start waving my timer in front of me, mouthing, "IT BROKE!!" Of course, by now, neg is staring at me, perhaps forgetting that it's their prep time. Fortunately, Ashley speaks up,
"Uh, judge, Brenna broke her timer, so is it alright if she uses mine?"
The judge nods slowly, glancing suspiciously at me. I walk over to get Ashley's timer, walk back, and THEN realize that maybe I should be recording neg's prep time. But I can't figure out how to work Ashley's timer. My fingers fly across the device as I attempt to learn how to use it. I finally estimate how much they've used.
Could things get any more interesting?
Yes they can.
Prep time for the 2NR, I somehow manage to knock my timer (Er... Ashley's timer) off of the table. But this wasn't just a regular, clumsy, oops. The stupid timer flew of the table, right into the one across from it, pounded against the metal (making a very obvious noise), and then fell on the floor. And of course it landed on a button that sent it off into a beeping tantrum.
Everyone staring at either me or the timer, I slowly snake off of my chair, pick it up, and walk back.
I look down at my feet.
And realize...
I wasn't wearing any shoes. And the whole room had just seen my dirty, ugly, purple-with-pain (those dress shoes hurt a lot) feet. I sink into my chair, trying not to cry, and very carefully time the rest of the round.

I fool around for a little while the LDer's debate. My mom makes me eat a little bit of dinner, so I force down some fruit. By now, it's obvious that postings are up, because there's a huge clump of kids standing around on either side of Grimm, jumping, standing on tiptoes, and pushing themselves up on people's shoulders. I, being tall, brave the vicious crowd of kids, and write down postings for about half the people in my club. Only afterwards do I remember to go get my own as well. -.-
Reaching postings again, I find a girl with red hair. She sees my name tag and starts grinning. OH RIGHT! I'm supposed to be meeting Emily from TPS! So I find myself introduced to a friend from my online school along with her mother, realizing it's getting late, and suddenly rushing off.

Alright, pattern two of IE's. It's darkening by now. My duo partner, Abigail Jacobson, and I go to find our room. We give our speech to three stone-faced judges, awkwardly shake their hands, and rush out.

By now, it's pitch black, and I still have another speech (HI). I run over to my room and wait outside while the person before me gives their speech. Here I meet Alex Nogy for the first time. We chatted for a couple minutes, and then she went to go do her speech for the wall. (Trust me, walls are amazing audiences.) I'm waiting with Ashley and Danielle again. And they're eating all the food I have in my backpack. Realizing that this speech is NEVER going to end, I quickly run upstairs to use the restroom. Upon coming back down, I find my backpack empty of snacks, and my friends nowhere to be found. I hear giggling. I turn around to find Ashley and Danielle hiding under the staircase and inside the shadows. I was going to glare at them, but just then, the door opened. FINALLY. I walk in. Only to find that it was early than I had expected, and two speeches were before me. I sit down and Alex gave hers. My friend from my club, Kelsey, was next. Finally I got up to give mine. I look at the room. It had accumulated about twenty more people aside from the 15 that were in there when I first entered. A sickening feel entered my stomach as I waited for the judges to finish writing out their ballots. I gave the darned speech at last.
It was, perhaps, the second best room ever I've ever given my HI in. No joke, that audience was awesome. The laughter was great, and in places I never even realized were funny.
I sat down and watched the next speech. It was amazing, and I felt belittled.

Debate round four. I flat out refuse to time. It's about 9 PM, and I'm exhausted. Because Ashley asked nicely, I went to watch her and my brother debate. So we head over to their room. (Pretty far down the campus, by the way.) So we get there. And the door's locked. And the lights are turned off. So Jordan and Ashley sent Danielle and I back running to postings to see if we were in the correct room. Turns out we were. We ran back, and the judges and aff team were there. Finally we got a hold of some people working the facilities and entered the room. Danielle and I clambered into the room and settled on the comfortable couch. Apparently late night rounds give you adrenaline rushes. Danielle and I were sitting on the couch, giggling hysterically at nothing in particular. Aff started glaring at us. Then we got bored. So about half way into the 1NC, I whisper to Danielle and ask her if she wants to leave. She nods fervently. So as soon as aff is in prep time, we sneak out, and run back to Grimm. There we see the Tjia girls, and decide it would be fun to play with them.
We also decide that we're hungry. So we start begging adults that we know to go inside the judge's lounge and get us food.
Finally, we go stand in front of the door, and organize a debate. We did three or four speeches. I was affirmative, saying that the tournament people should be courteous to the debaters and give us food instead. I think Danielle ran a counter-plan and said that we should both be given food. In any case, it was fun, and our speech coach finally brought us a cup of food after watching us debate for about twenty minutes.

Uh-oh. Here comes Ashley. Storming mad, glaring at Danielle and I.
"YOU GUYS LEFT?!"

We grinned sheepishly, gave her hugs, and were forgiven.

Finally, my mom comes out of her round, and we head home. Resting time. Tomorrow's an even longer day.

I'll go ahead and post this now since it's getting long, but Friday's coming soon. ;)