The Great Patrol
(29 September - 8 October 2000)
8 October 2000
-I guess sleeping till 3:30 in the afternoon is
a good indication of being sick & tired. It's also a good indication
of having gone to bed at 6 in the morning.
-Wow. That almost made me cry. This whole distant lives thing isn't
so cool.
-Wallflowers sold out. Shoot. But maybe scalpers? Dubious.
-& now it sinks in that, despite losing in semis, Zirkin & I broke as
the top seed in the largest APDA tournament of the year. You know, that's
kinda spiffy.
-Last night, I was crazily disoriented as we ran around Harvard Square eating
dinner as a team after the tourney ended. On our way to Uno's, this random
band in the Out of Town News island of the Square was playing "American
Pie" as we passed. That was pretty cool. But when we left dinner,
more than 90 minutes later, they were still there & had just started "Tangled
Up in Blue". These little moments of comfort & reassurance are
always enough to pull me through.
7 October 2000
-Absolutely.
-How 'bout Arkansas Y? How 'BOUT them?
-3-0, baby. A good number for sweeping the ChiSox, a good number for Zirk's
& my record so far this weekend.
-If only I hadn't been so sick. Though Zirkin & I being 1-2 in every
round & him being top speaker is fine with me. Top seed, 3rd team
finish, & a 15-0 prelim record are all also acceptable. Things could
be better, but not too much.
6 October 2000
-I have yet to get a vote in favor of staying on
MUN, though Fish declined voting by arguing that he doesn't think & Gris
added his voice against MUN, but has also devoted his voice to many evil-twin-based
schemes in the past. So the jury is still very much up for the swaying.
-People are very unclear on how debate works, which I suppose can't be held
too much against them. I've had 3 people this morning tell me that I should
"go kick some Harvard ass", merely indicating that they don't realize
that this is the ONLY tournament at which said Harvard rear will NOT be up for
the kicking. They RUN the tourney, folks! If we kick them around,
they'll likely bias their judging against us, which would be bad...
-This will be my first trip to Harvard Square all semester. That's how
busy I've been.
-Anyone wanna go to a Wallflowers concert... in 3 DAYS?! Let me know...
5 October 2000
-Four hours... shelving books... in a row... the
florescence... the migraine... the incoherence... the silence...
-First days like that are always the hardest. Now it'll just be getting
used to it.
-The need for sleep has become overwhelming.
-I had a dream last night (yes, this means I got sleep!) about debating with
David Silverman. It was insane. It was like we'd patched up everything
& were getting along famously & were debating together just to prove
it. Somehow we broke as the only undefeated top seed in the tourney, then
dropped a 3-0 decision to Hamilton A on Opp, which depressed & incensed
the living crud outta both of us. Hm.
-My dreams are always altogether too intricate. I could name for you details
about the cases from almost every round of that dream. That's what we
call "sick" for those of you scoring at home.
-9 teams to Harvard is not 15. But it is 9. These words of wisdom
brought to you by my obsession with debate...
-Taking a poll: should I quit Model UN? Lemme know your thoughts!
-Current tally is 1-0 on quitting, in favor... perhaps 2-0 pending another decision.
I think I'll hold the polls open on the matter for about a week, considering
the decision isn't pressing as yet.
-Okay, after five days, you'd think the migraine would just go away already.
-I'm afraid she's more than groggy at this point. Sigh.
4 October 2000
-A new day. Clearly, it can't be as long
as the one prior. Or maybe it can. Either way, the opening theme
for today is "Gutsy". I won't know till later if I have to amend
that with a "but stupid" or not.
-No "but stupid"s about it. 2 for frickin' 2. Things are
looking up.
-M's take 2 in Chicago! Going home & ready to sweep! Hirsch
can't possibly mind prioritization of playoff baseball over his class... look,
Jericho didn't go either & he doesn't even like the Mariners much. This
is what October should be all about: playoff baseball, intensity of life,
keeping very busy, warding off getting sick, & watching the chips fall &
fly. Life is where it should be & that's something practically new
to my life at Brandeis.
3 October 2000
-Hmph. What an endlessly long night. &
such mixed results. I mean, wow. I think, on the whole, I'm just
a little sad. But everyone thinks I did okay. Hm. I dunno.
Part of me thinks that no matter what stacked odds I was against, I still
had to win to be redeemed as a speaker. But then everyone makes fun of
me for that, so I don't know at all. I know that I'm tired right now,
but not as tired as Brandzy.
-Good thing I didn't start work yesterday. Today. Absolutely today.
-There's 2 e-mails I want to write, both of monumental (potential) importance,
& both entirely different in sentiment, & both to people I've never
sent e-mail to before. How 'bout all that? I need to figure out
just what precisely to say in each of them & then see where the chips which
will inevitably fly end up falling.
-This is what things are like not even three full days into the month? October
is ALWAYS like this. If this intensity lasted for 12 months, I don't think
I would.
-So after all that, we won the case. Brandzy's career is saved. On
a 4-0-1 decision. What a relief that is. Now if only I weren't getting
sick...
-Brian Fletcher owns me. Check out the speaker point differential from
the Smith tourney.
Yowza.
-So the M's are in the playoffs & I only get to listen to half an hour of
the game before my 4:30 class, then my Scholarship meetings, then debate. Which
I get to run tonight anyway since Zirk's taking some chem test. The whole
point of one's team making the playoffs is enjoying their playoff run! At
least Library work didn't interfere... that's gonna be quite an easy job. Hopefully
not too easy.
-M's win! M's win! & what's more, I have about one block free
that's more than 2 hours long tomorrow... from 1-3:40 pm. The M's game's
startime tomorrow? 1 pm. Oh baby, so tasty!
-I might actually get some sleep tonight. Imagine that.
-I figure looking out my window at the Boston skyline is about as close to watching
the debates as I'd like to come tonight. Though I can hear half of it
through my wall as it's being blasted next door. Didn't we learn there
was something wrong with bipolar worlds through the Cold War? When does
America put its learning into practice?
2 October 2000
-Mariners get the Wild Card & don't get the
Yankees in the first round. Sounds good to me.
-Today is going to be the most pivotal day of the semester so far, if not for
the whole term's duration. & I'm not even an hour in. Wish me
luck.
1 October 2000
-So now it IS October. How 'bout that?
-Brandzy & I have so much fun. It's ridiculous. Shouting for
3 hours in the middle of the quad about physics & dinosaurs & debaters
& people & moral values while convincing everyone we're waiting alternately
for the Messiah or Godot. Which I guess, in some form or another, must
be Stina, because that's who finally showed up. Wouldn't that turn theology
on its head?
-Okay, if the Mariners win today they go to the playoffs. If not, probably
not. That's some pressure, eh?
30 September 2000
[from Northampton, Massachusetts]
-Zimmy insists his eye is being smote by God for his debating
on Rosh Hashanah. I insist that he has some of the worst luck of anyone
I know. I hope he gets better.
-There is no context for this. None. One doesn't do 1-on-2 debate.
& get to semifinals. There's nothing I can say.
-Smith's fault for calling it the "Gladiator" tournament.
-To finish behind Fletch & above Silverman is all any speaker can ask for.
-Andy's news is over the top. Way over the top.
29 September 2000
-4th row tickets to Paul Simon. That's 9 seats to the left & 4 seats
back of FRONT & CENTER. In an already small theater. You like
dat?! That'll be in December with Freez & hopefully Gris. This
will be a big-concert semester, evidently.
-To pay for all these big-concerts, it's confirmed that I'm going to actually
get to work starting next week. Yay.
-Zimmy & I try to defend our perfect (1 for 1) career breaking record as
a team at Smith this weekend. If I could only get him to relax, or as
we tell him often, "chill"...
Introspection, My Worst Friend* (Current)
Ye Olde Archive (Past)
Tell me this is not the end...*
*-lyrics from an as-yet unreleased song, "The Same Old Frontiers",
by SWClayton.