Wow…A cold out of nowhere

I take my daily multi-vitamin, I take my suppliments, I received my flu shot and out of nowhere, I am whammed with a rotten cold.  I had a speech on Friday for a demo meeting for our company.  I had to call my friend, Larry, to have a lapel mic ready since I knew I could not project through the huge room (usually no problem).  The speech went well, but wow, do I feel like crap.  I slept almost all day yesterday and today. It was bad enough that I slept right through the KU semi-final game in the Big 12.  At least I roused myself enough to watch the final game against Texas.  Hopefully for a #1 seed.  The game is awesome, but I cannot yell and scream.  Bummer.

I was actually going to attend in person and this crept in on me.  I knew that I couldn’t manage the walk well.  Anyway, I suppose the game is fine on TV.  Very energic, very excitng.  Only 1 minute will determine the outcome.   Of course the weather matches my mood – crappy.  Cold, cloudy, nasty.  Is this really mid-March?  Last Friday it snowed, yesterday it snowed.  Whatever!   At least KU will win the game.  79-73 with only 40 seconds left is pretty much a gimme.   Oh yeas!  After losing to them twice – I am so happy. 

Life is settling down a bit. My daughter is back to work.  Looking forward to getting back into school.  She still seems a bit scattered, but all in all, I cannot ask for more. 

We qualified a student to Nationals in Humorous Interp..

A the geek in me really enjoyed Friday and Saturday at the Speech portion of our NFL National Qualifying tournament.  I love the kids, the other judges, getting to see old students return as judges (they must be 2 years past high school graduation).  I love the thrill of the qualifying process.  And best of all, we had 3 students in the finals round this weekend.  One DUO team, one Extemp – Domestic, and a HI (one of the partners from the DUO).  We all cried when CBass qualified in first place in HI.  It was awesome.  This event was announced before the HI event and his partner didn’t realize if he qualified in HI he couldn’t qualify in DUO.  They place 5th which was great anyway because to be honest – DUO was the strongest event this year.  Off to Vegas in June now.  I was going anyway, but now it there will be icing on the cake.  Our PUF debate team was the first alternate. I don’t want them to go because it would be someone else’s misfortune – we already learned how tough that is. 

At the awards – Garrett was recognized.  We all wore ribbons with his school colors all weekend.  When Chris announced the minute of silence she actually began crying which set a bunch of us off.  Those of us who knew Garrett.  It was tough.

 On Monday, I went to a DB2 Users group for KC.  Another geeky thing – I know.   It was fun.  I ran into someone from Toastmasters and that was fun too.  My work friends there said only I could meet someone once and have them recognize me.  Okay that was interesting too because I cut my hair off to donate to Locks of Love.  It is shorter than it has been in 14 years.  I mean really, really short.  It is a bit liberating not to be tied to long hair.

This week is turning out to be okay so far…

Too much in one week..

My daughter is not finally home.  She has a therapist who will begin to integrate her personalities.  One can only hope that it will go very well.  Her poor brother just hates to have her in her room with the door closed and she is actually respecting his fear right now.

 Now onto the rest of the news… I judge high school speech and debate – particularly policy debate  or cross-examination (CX) as it is commonly known.  I have been very active in the western part of Missouri and eastern Kansas as a judge.  I have been doing this for the last 10 years.  I debated in college and did individual events in high school so it is a passion of mine.  I love the kids, watching them grow up, become productive adults.  Friday and Saturday I spent judging debate for our national qualifying tournament in my home district.  I watched some bad rounds on Friday but Saturday was awesome.  It is interesting that the NFL (National Forensics League) coaches have unaffiliated me from my daughter school since I am no longer coaching them.  They did this so that I could judge any team and because they respect me.  I actually judge any time I am asked, but any coach.  Consequently, I know most of the debaters in community.  The weekend was fun because I was actually panelled with young adults that I watched grow up.  One of my favorites is now a married soon-to-be mother of twins (a boy and a girl).  I was so thrilled.

This morning, one of my co-workers stopped me and asked me if I knew a young debater from Blue Springs High School in the KC area.  Of course I did, I asked why.  She said he was killed in a car accident Tuesday morning in rush hour traffic.  This young man was only 18.  He qualified for Nationals with his partner on Saturday in Policy Debate.  Tragically for his family, friends, coaches, teammates, and our debate community he died on impact.  I was horrified.  I just sat stunned.  My friend pointed me to several websites.  He was amazing and so much fun.  I had the honor to judge him in finals several times – just this year.  I admit that I do have some favorites and he was one of them.  He was funny, gracious, so very smart, and chose debate over football and basketball.

I guess it just proves that you have to take each and every day as if it is your last.  My god, the last week has been full of ups and downs.  I actually judged both Friday and Saturday because I love it so very much.  It kept my mind off of my daughter.  She will actually be judging at the individual events National Qualifer this weekend.  We will also attend his funeral – and I admit – I hate funerals!  I guess I am looking at every day from now on with a bit of difference.  I dont’ know if that is good or bad. 

I also admit that I am curious to see how the NFL handles the qualification of his partner.  I am assuming that the NFL will give him an automatic berth into Lincoln Douglas or another individual event since his partner passed away.  I also assume that means that the alternate team will go in their original berth.  I know that they will handle this well.  I am actually attending the funeral with a NFL VP who is one of my favorite people in the world.  It is just so sad!