Debate: The NYPFL

That's the New York Pagan Forensic League. We shake off the church and go to our roots for All Hallows at Regis. It's a tradition, and no one has yet to call me out on it. How can I stop?

For reasons that are too annoying to detail, I had no students, so I drove down straight with only one stop at Starbucks. Early, zipping along, listening to random stuff on the iPod, of course all of the East Side of Manhattan was blocked off so that people could warm up for the marathon. Warm up for the marathon? I have to get caught in traffic because you can't run in the park like you normally do? And I have to admit I've never been interested in marathons anyhow. Maybe if the Persians were invading, I'd think differently.

I did manage to arrive before 9:00, though, as did all the teams. All present and accounted for, I was told, and we came close to pulling it off without a hitch. Only two schools had judges that didn't show up. Fines were levied, irritation expressed. It really is hard getting pissed off at the same people for the same reasons over and over again, and nothing ever changes. You've got to wonder.

Regis set me up with a computer to do my printing, and it almost worked fine, except it wouldn't read my USB drive. As always, a PC set up to be a PC can't understand a Mac. I guess I could have reformatted it, but instead we used Kaz's panda; she'd left her chicken at home. I'll have to get a panda or a chicken for myself in the future. In any case, things worked fine. And we got all four rounds out and were at the awards before 6:30. We even managed four rounds of a tiny varsity division despite a judge who singlehandedly tried to bring the whole thing down. Where do they get these people from? I won't tire you with the details, but here's how judging is supposed to work: we put out the ballots, you pick them up and judge the rounds and bring them back. There's nothing else involved. Trust me on this.

Now I'm sitting around waiting for the electricity to go out. I'm trying to shake the loose leaves from Bump, the people without judges who are definitely going to drop but are taking their sweet time about it. I want to give those slots to others in a timely manner, but I can't do it if they're still holding on. I keep sending emails and they keep not dropping. I have to admit, the temptation to dump Bump arises every year, and going forward, with no LD alums, it's going to be even more tempting. But you just get so locked into things that it's hard to change them. O'C would probably come up that weekend anyhow for a couple of years before the reality set in. Then again, I'm not the one going to a wedding in the middle of it this year...