Weblock, Irony, Peanut Butter, and the University of Puget Sound High School Forensic Tournament

HELLO!

I am writing very comfortably after competing all of yesterday at the Saturday portion of the UPS 75th HS Forensic Tournament. It was awesome. I didn't compete in the speech events Friday because it was dad's birthday, but I did congress yesterday. Let me impress upon your mind just how enormous this tournament has become. There were 45 schools there and roughly 400-500 students competing. Speech alone had 580ish entries, Congress had 80ish and Debate had 300ish.
My first congress session lasted from 9-11:30. In it, I gave an authorship speech on my coffee resolution (it passed, finally) and gave an aff speech on a resolution to Ban Violent Video Games. Next session was from 12-2:30, where I served as Presiding Officer (hereafter referred to as "PO") and gave an aff speech on a resolution for Truth in Political Campaigning. The final session was from 3-5 in which I gave a neg speech on a Divorce Equity bill and also an aff speech on a resolution to establish a Day in Honor of Humanitarians.
There were 19 other representatives in my Open House. Congress was divided first into Novice and Open (I'm open, sadly) then each devision had a House and Senate. My biggest competition was Hare (Snohomish), Bennett (Eastlake), Yhann (Kentridge), and to less extents Rice (Central Vally), Colvin (TJ), and Bradl (somewhere). I also checked the results from Auburn-Riverside with Dawna, and I am 98% certain our parliamentarian made an innocent mistake in recency which cost me a trophy there. That made me feel good, as well as how close I was to getting a trophy, even without the extra speech. :)
We again had to assemble in our stark, white prison at 6 to vote for top PO and top speakers. While we were waiting the guys started doing absurd push-ups (double clap, one arm, etc) and one of them eventually did a 'chin push-up', split his lip open, and was promptly taken to the hospital. Poor Representative Bradl. So at 7:20, we finally got our freaking ballots and could vote. We were given a list of the top 9 speakers (I was on it, as well as Hare, Rice, Yhann, and Colvin) and a list of the POs (there were six). We were supposed to arrange them in order of our first to least favorites, then we were FREE!! Oh my gosh, I HATED that room, and the chairs got really uncomfortable after seven hours. But all for the love of Congress...
After that, Ali and I took a walk around the campus. It was beautiful, even at night.
Oh, and I also went over and socialized with the Kingston brothers. By then my brain was shot and I honestly couldn't tell them apart. So then they started messing with me, and I had to have them show me ID so I could get them straight. But it was all good, because they couldn't remember my name, so they called me Chelsey. haha.
Ali unfortunately did not make into LD octafinals, so all chance of a trophy from this massive tournament rested on me. Pressure was on.
Ali and I watched one of the JV semi-finals (the resolution is about whether or not the US is justified in pursuing military options against nations which pose a military threat)
The tournament ran really late, and as a result some of the finals are going to be held later.
Eventually, it was awards time, and I won 2nd place Speakers Choice award in Open House. Hare won first, as well as first in Judges Choice and top PO. Rice won 2nd Judges Choice. I was really touched, because that meant that all my peers in the room voted that I was the 2nd best speaker in the entire room. :D
So that was my life of yesterday.
Tonight I have my first confirmation class with Grace, so that should be fun.
Love you all!