Tournament Results

It was good to sleep in a bit on Friday. Normally when I have to get up at 6:00, I wake up sometime around 5:00. I had set my alarm for 7:00 and I woke up around 6:00. Maybe it is something psychological. I took my time and left around 8:45, went to the bank, and then picked up the check for the hotel. We left right at 10:00 and got there shortly before lunch time. I should have allowed a little more time forgetting that often the bus drivers I get don't know how to get around Lubbock. I tried to check into the hotel shortly before 1:00 but they only had two rooms ready. I had the girls change in one and the boys in the other and we left for the high school around 1:15. We had two different tournaments this weekend. On Friday it was at Lubbock High and I was in charge of the extemp draw at this tournament. That means that students who were doing this kind of event had to draw topics, choose one and then spend 30 minutes preparing before they went to give their speeches. I had to make sure they drew their topics, then kept time and told them when to go and give their speeches. It isn't very exciting but I did get a lot of crocheting done. My students did pretty well at the tournament. We placed 3rd in sweepstakes which is pretty remarkable given some of the competition we had there and I only took 10 students.

We didn't get back to the hotel until around 10:30 and I had to stay up until 11:30 to make sure they had lights out at that time. We had to leave for the next tournament on Saturday by 7:00 a.m. We got a late start, but managed to get there on time despite the construction going on all over Lubbock. Some of my students didn't do as well - probably due to being tired, but some did pretty well. We didn't win any of the sweepstakes - a Dallas area school edged us out for 3rd place, but there were some good successes. One of my students that really loves performing is finally placing in her event. Last year she didn't get to go to many tournaments because of sports. Her mother hasn't been very supportive of her wanting to do speech over sports. Another student who finally figured out she is more of a speaker instead of an interper, placed first in debate and qualified for state at this tournament. I have another student who is either close or possibly qualified for state in Oratory. Josh did pretty well placing 4th and 5th respectively at each tournament.

We didn't get to leave the tournament until almost 11:00. We stopped to let the students get food, but it took forever. We didn't leave Lubbock until 11:30 and had a two hour drive back in freezing rain. We got to Hereford about 1:30 but I didn't get to leave until 2:10. My car windows were frozen over and of course, I didn't have an ice scraper. I turned on the defrosters, but it took forever before it started working. One of my students parents was late so I let her sit in my car so she wouldn't be out in the freezing rain. They came but another student thought she had gone to the bus barn so they left looking for her. In the meantime, I finally started working on the windshield with a credit card which worked, but was slow going. Eventually her parents picked her up and I started heading home. The roads were starting to ice over and my windshield wipers were frozen and didn't really work on clearing them so I had to pull over twice to scrape them again. It took me 45 minutes to get home.

This morning I had to get up by 9:30 in order to get to church by 10:30. Josh and I were playing at Mass. (Another note to self, don't plan to play at Mass after a swing tournament). It went fine and I'm glad I went instead of going to the student center this evening. We came home briefly to get my wallet and then headed to the store to get the ice scrapers and windshield wipers. We got some groceries, picked up lunch and came home. I spent some time catching up on the blogs I missed then I took a nap. I got up around 6:00, made supper and now I'm watching the Monk marathon. I'd like to go to bed early tonight, but I have to watch the episode I missed on Friday which comes on at 9:00.

It is going to be a busy week. I have to deal with the class interviews on Tuesday and possibly Wednesday. (I have jury duty scheduled for Wednesday.) That also means I have to get ready for a substitute on Wednesday even though the jury duty could potentially be canceled as it usually is. I also need to put together my semester tests, have papers to grade, stock in talk letters to get out, and tournament stuff to plan. I also have a Christmas party on Wednesday evening so I need to get a gift for that and figure out something to make. I think I'm getting a cold which will make this week all the more enjoyable.