November 18, 2012

  • To Do Lists

    I am not able to sleep in much anymore.  I made it to 8am today and that was nice.  It was a long day yesterday.  I drove a van of kids to a debate tournament and spent the day judging debate rounds.  We left at 6am and got back at 9:15pm.  Oof.  I came home, dropped my bag on the floor and lay on the lounge and watched tv while I ate swedish fish and drank wine.  I could not talk.  My bran was still running and I needed to shut it down before I could sleep.

    I expected to sleep in this morning, but I got up, took care of animals and read the paper.  My to do list is sitting here next to me (I did not put "blog" on the list, but I am doing it anyway).

    (I am at that point in my blog drafting where I am realizing that I am going to go in a different direction than I intended when I sat down.  That happens to you, too, right?)

    I judged all day yesterday.  I didn't get a single round off.  It was exhausting.  I have been out of debate for over twenty years and while it is the same in many ways it has also changed.  My beloved Lincoln Douglas debate has gotten more "policy debate" like with kids running crazy arguments and speed talking.  I prefer a more genteel and persuasive style.  I like the arguments to be logical.  I felt a little crabby about it at first and I worried that my ballots would cause problems for my team (sometimes judges get reputations and can even be vetted by a school if there is a reason to do so).  My daughter's coach laughed when I brought this up and told me that everyone loves my ballots and that I just need to judge my way and it's ok.  I was on two panels yesterday (quarter finals, semi finals and finals are judged by three judge panels) with new style judges (all college kids, who, frankly, intimidate me with their intelligence) and both decisions were 3-0 decisions, meaning that we all picked the same winner.  We gave an oral critique that definitely showed our differences in judging, but really we all made a decision based on the same things.  That was interesting and reassuring to me.

    I got some time to visit with my old coach about stuff - Obamacare and retirement and how fun it is to hang out with debate kids all weekend.  He's thinking about an early retirement and working in a less time consuming way with debate - maybe at the middle school level.  He had little kids when he was my debate coach and I think back now and realize that he and his wife worked all week and then he was gone all day Saturday and sometimes more if we traveled overnight.  I am grateful that I had him and others like him.  I am aware that my daughter's team looks up to me and now I have kids from other teams who recognize me and chat with me outside of rounds.

    I have a day of to do list tasks - housework, pay bills and spinning class this afternoon.  None of these will exhaust me as much as sitting on my ass and listening to smart teenagers argue.