One Last "Hoorah!" For Summer

Buckle up, friends. This might be a long entry. To make it up to you, I'll break it up with amusing pictures.




All my friends started school Monday. Oh, well.
"Constitutional Law is like a party at your house minus you." Sad, sad day.






So I spent the weekend in St. Louis. Thursday night I saw the Something Corporate reunion tour, which was a highlight of my summer. FOR SURE. God, I love Andrew McMahon. I requested the weekend off a LONG time ago because I was supposed to go with someone I was quasi-dating. But we all see how that turned out, right?





Oh, well. Those of you who know me know that said nuclear explosion was not only inevitable but also long overdue. So I'm okay with it.
In any case, I decided, "Hmmm. What should I do with my weekend off? I know! I'll go to St. Louis and spend the weekend hanging out with friends I haven't seen in a while."
In short ... really good decision.







The long version of the story is much more amusing.


So I got to St. Louis an hour late because I had a very stressful morning Friday. I hadn't slept much the few days prior (and I still haven't; in fact, I can't even believe I'm still awake right now) and got up early to hit the road early. I decided to test out my old LG Shine to see if it worked because ol' flippy (my REALLY horrible Samsung phone that just straight up didn't work) wasn't going to cut it in a new city. It only worked, like, 77% of the time. But LG Shine magically worked when I put my sim card in it ... it was just COMPLETELY DEAD. So I went to Wal-Mart to buy a car charger for it. When I got to check out, I discovered that my driver's license and my debit card were not in my wallet (probably still in the pants I wore out Wednesday night). I muttered a few swear words under my breath



and went home to find my shit. I tore my room apart looking for my debit card and my driver's license, only to discover that they were in the pocket of the shorts I was wearing the whole time. Refer to the above picture to image how I was feeling.

Anyway, I got to the St. L around 3:30. I was meeting an old friend I used to go to church camp with at the art museum in Forest Park. We then went to the Loop and chilled at this bar/restaurant called Blueberry Hill. We went to this played called Vintage Vinyl, which I am still convinced should actually be called "Championship Vinyl."




See what I mean? Totally High Fidelity.

Anyway, first amazing and stupid experience: lost my car in downtown St. Louis.
Nathan and I decided to buy a few beers before we went to chill with Jon, my amazing friend who was hospitable enough to let me stay with him. Love him. He's wonderful, just for the record.
I borrowed my dad's GPS, so I thought I was INVINCIBLE and IMMUNE to getting lost. Trust technology. Always. This was my thought. GPS said "go to this downtown grocery store to buy beer." So I believed it. The whole time, Nathan is like, "Dude. This is the worst idea in the world. Seriously." But I'm a very proud woman, so I said, "No way. We will totally be fine." Parked my car on the side of some building, got a 12-pack of Honey Moon ... and then walked around with this 12-pack of Honey Moon for a good hour and half, during which I was whining and feeling like a dumbass.


I HAD NO IDEA WHERE MY CAR WAS.

So we called Jon and drove around for about 10 minutes, but we did eventually find my car and it was totally fine.

Went to a party Friday night with a bunch of law/grad students. Made me feel a little worthless, but then I realized, "Hey. How many of THEM are taking a road trip right now and enjoying their youth?"
Whitney: 1; Law Students: 0

Saturday was a fairly uneventful day, at least until dark. I went to lunch with Jeff and we walked around The Loop again for a bit. Then I went to dinner with Jon. Saturday night, I met Nathan to get a tour of his hometown ... which was 45 minutes west of St. Louis. We went to a little dive bar on the night of its closing. About an hour into our chilling out, some cowboy grabbed the ass of another cowboy's girlfriend and then they started beating the crap out of each other. The cops (EVERY COP IN WASHINGTON, MISSOURI) showed up and someone got tased.



Which was AWESOME.

Sunday, Jon took me to the most AMAZING barbeque place in the United States. Called Pappy's. There was a line out the door when they opened. It's just a tiny little hole-in-the-wall. That's how legit this place is. It's pretty much amazing. Highly recommend.
Then Jon and I watched Rock N' Rolla and Inside Man (both are fantastic movies). Then I started the four-hour drive home.

In short, amazing weekend. So much fun. I will visit the St. L again soon.

Reflections of a Debater

I recently had an interesting conversation with Steve from Pacific in which he told me that he thought debaters should actually adapt to IE judges.
Now, this, of course, threw me through a loop. I mean, after all, it is the debaters' activity. Jargon exists within the activity for a reason. Debaters should be able to run the arguments that they think will win them the round ... and, in a perfect world, winning the round means winning the ballot, as well. Hell, I wrote about why speed is good for debate! Of course I loathed adaptation.
I was never the type of debater who adapted very well to the judge. It's not that I was bad at explaining things to judges who were unfamiliar with debate; it's that I didn't feel it was my responsibility and that they were the ones bastardizing my activity.
NFA this year was a perfect embodiment of this sentiment for almost the entire debate community. During round six, which was many debaters' break round (every single member of my team included because all of them were 3-2 going into round six), five seemingly legitimate judges were on stand-by, without ballot ... while many IE/hired judges had ballots. IN BREAK ROUNDS. There was a huge upset in the community surrounding many of the decisions made in out-rounds.

I guess the reason I'm writing this is that I've never really thought about how I feel about adapting to the judge. On the one hand, I understand that part of being a good debater is not just being able to run the positions that you know you can win, but being able to persuade someone that you should, in fact, win. If debate was about running your favorite positions all the time, it would be reduced down to generic disadvantages, topicality, counterplans or critiques every round and there would be little in-depth case debate. On the other hand, though, debate is not suited to the lay man and debaters should be able to have control over their own activity.

Perhaps the most interesting spin on the argument that one should adapt to the judge came from people from Pacific. Their coach was talking about how the judge is never wrong. It is their ballot and if you did not do everything you could to capture that ballot, then you did not do your job as a debater. He was very straight-forward about it, and the ironic thing is that people from Pacific are generally thought of as faster debaters. The other thing is that Steve said that debaters disrespecting IE judges is indicative of a greater amount of disrespect that debaters have for IEs, in general. He said that neither event is more important than the other and we should, as a result, have mutual respect for one another and one another's events. I liked thinking of it this way.

I don't know if I've reached a conclusion, but I intend to reach a conclusion on this very subject one day. Today is not that day, but I do anticipate many more debate blogs to come.

A list of things I dislike

peanut butter, seafood, people trying to get me to eat sushi even though I don't like seafood, boogers, split ends, Yaz commercials, being poked in the belly button, creases in my eyeshadow, Spanish homework, finding a parking space at Southern, College Republicans meetings, having no plans for my future, arrogance, Bump-Its, the way my clothes smell after I work at Carino's, managers who play favorites, being cold, the fact that my phone is always dead, dry winter skin, people who over-accessorize, Nickelback ... I really hate Nickelback, tequila, people who have opinions on subjects they know nothing about, working on Tuesdays, talking on the phone, driving long distances, most shows on Bravo, zits, crowded bars, bad tippers, airplanes, urinary tract infections







fin.

End of the Semester

Some pictures.





















I'm done with school in May, and senioritis is kicking in like none other.

I've also decided that I'm taking a year off from my life as a student to travel and learn about whitneyhart for a while. I think it's one of the better decisions I've made and those whose wisdom I value seem to support my decision. I don't really know where life will take me, but I hope it takes me to exotic locations and learning experiences.







Not a whole lot going on. Just a lot of procrastination on homework and figuring out how to win at college right now.
Lots of coffee, late nights, and setting up a pretend Christmas tree with the roommate.

















Also realized there are a lot of quality people in my life. I am blessed.

Blog.

I'm watching Stephen Colbert play tennis instead of doing homework.

Family

I've always been amazed at the quality of my family. I have a father who is a strong male role-model and has shown me forgiveness, gentleness, and more kindness than I deserve sometimes. I have a mother who has taught me how to love myself and others, compassion, patience, and how to listen to my heart. The combination of their strength and encouragement has made me a better human being. I could never thank either of them enough for loving me so unconditionally and always being there when, literally, no one else was. They've seen me at my best and encouraged me to pursue what I was good at. They've seen me at my worst and helped me put the pieces of my broken life back together.

Larissa and I went to Waffle House tonight to share good conversation over coffee and greasy food, and I started talking about my parents and how grateful I am for their support. Sometimes I take them for granted, but that's only because they've been so present in my life. I would not trade them for anything, and I guess vocalizing that to someone else really made me realize just how important they are to me and how much I value them. Not just as parents, but as human beings. They are wonderful people in addition to being wonderful parents. Seeing them play with Kloee makes me smile because I know someday they will be the best grandparents in the world.

Barack Obama.

I am really sick of this country sometimes.


I am sick to death of seeing "NObama" bumper stickers.
And I'm sick of outrageous claims that Obama's birth certificate isn't real.
And I'm sick of claims that he isn't a citizen of the United States.
He's not a Muslim. He's not a socialist. Go to China for a day and tell me Obama is a socialist, alright?


Dear idiots with these bumper stickers:
BARACK OBAMA IS PRESIDENT. SUCK IT UP AND FIND INTELLIGENT REASONS TO DISLIKE HIM.
You can disagree with his policy choices. You can disagree with his approach to appointing members of his Cabinet. Hell, you can make fun of his above-average sized ears (as long as you don't make racist comparisons to him being a monkey). But stop plastering your vehicles with stupid bumper stickers.

Things like this are intended to get a rise out of people. They're not intended to make an intelligent political statement. They're not even clever. They're silly. And the people who put them on their cars are silly, also.
These bumper stickers are ad hominem. They distract people from intelligent discussions and encourage an "us against them" attitude. We should be in this together. You don't have to agree with everything that a President does, or any other elected or appointed public officials, for that matter. But we're Americans. We should be working together and debating to find solutions to problems instead of insulting each other. Insulting members of the other party does not encourage constructive decision-making but instead divides us.
I love the First Amendment and I support a person's right to put a bumper sticker I find offensive on their car. But I believe the First Amendment should be used to stir constructive conversations and not to be unnecessarily combative.

It's so weird to me that some Americans are SO RESISTANT to this particular President. I didn't like the "I'm really sick of this Son-of-a-Bush" bumper stickers, either, but those were nowhere near as common as "NObama." I mean, he swept the popular vote, but there is a camp that really hates him for seemingly no reason and it concerns me.
You know, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but most Republicans didn't really even LIKE John McCain. He wasn't all that conservative during the primaries, but Republicans jumped on the McCain bandwagon once they saw that their alternative was Obama.




And while we're at it ... I saw a holographic poster of Obama right next to one of Wolverine from X-Men at Wal-Mart the other day. So those who have the posters, the commemorative plate, and the bobble-head ... you're idiots, too. He's not a celebrity. He's a President. Stop idolizing him. He's not Jesus. He hasn't even been all that great yet. You look just as silly as "NObama."