My bags are packed, my travel reservations are confirmed, I’ve
got my visa secured and set up my TSA PRE: I’m going to Lakeland this weekend.
There was one Land o’ Lakes, a few years ago, where I had no
students and didn’t go, leaving Kaz to go it alone. She said it was fine, but afterwards
she came at me with a butcher knife, so I figured I probably shouldn’t do that
again. After all, Lakeland is in the next town over, so it’s no big deal, and I
sort of like tournaments that are, shall we say, unique. Land o’ Lakes has 9
debate events, not counting the PF RR in Manhattan that precedes it, everything
from Middle School Parli to Varsity bid-level CX and, for the first time, a
finals bid in PF. Everything runs relatively normally, except a lot of
eyeballing is necessary in the smaller divisions, plus CX has rounds committed
versus judges just going and judging the damned thing. The VCA knows how I feel
about that. Yes, it does allow the judges more time to nap and eat donuts, but
it means that the teams’ prefs are made less desirable. Who is the customer
here? Still, tournaments get to do what they want to do, and while I offer
oodles of good advice in the TD toolkit, that doesn’t mean anyone ever reads
it, much less follows it. Whatever. In any case, with this many divisions, one
way or another something is always going on, and it’s fun, albeit tiring.
The good news is that we will have a nice dinner Friday
night, at the restaurant whose existence I refuse to reveal, otherwise you’ll
be there, you spalpeen, taking up my table, and we’ll be able to plan for the
next weekend, when we’re thinking about hitting NYC for fun and frolic. After
that it’s NYCFL qualifying, and then, over and out for a while, at least
debatewise. I see you quiver with antici
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