It is now two in the morning and I really don’t feel like sleeping much. Tomorrow I officially start doing work as the “assistant†debate coach at North High School. “Assistant†is pretty flexible term, if it means doing all of the debate work while doing none of the bureaucratic work, then I guess I’m an assistant. I like to think of myself as a “virtual director of debate†because in the time I spent with Memorial I have had enough experiences that I should feel confident enough to lead a new program. Should is the operative word.
But right now, I’m here awake. Either because I’m too excited to sleep or that I feel that I could do more work to be prepared, it really doesn’t matter. Things really don’t feel different. I mean, I’m still asking Tim debate questions when I get stuck, and doing so probably more than I should. But like many young debaters, I too find that when giving advice and making arguments it is often extremely helpful to deliberate arguments with another experienced argument maker.
All of that aside, I am not the only one who should be excited about starting something new. Tomorrow is also Jess’s first day of law school. So she’s understandably excited. Our conversation today was pretty garbled because both of our cell phones were having reception problems.
Tomorrow is also Alissa’s first full day in Wausau. So she should also be excited to single woman living in a new town, with plenty of lose men to enchant. In other words, she’ll be back to Madison before the weekend is over. (It’s funny because it’s true, she’s coming back for our move in party).
On a sad note, tomorrow is also the first time my group of friends has had to return to Sheboygan for a funeral. Jon Bray’s mother passed away. She had been fighting cancer for the last three years or so, and I hadn’t seen her recently. She was always one of the nicest people I think I’ll have ever met. One time, when we were drinking in Jon’s chalet, (we often drank there because we were underage and it was a shack in someone’s backyard that we could drink in) she brought us out roast beef sandwiches because she didn’t want us going to McDonalds at 2 in the morning.
For me this is just the latest in the Summer of Suck. Also leaving us this summer, were the aforementioned John McKay, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, “Futzie†of Sheboygan Bar Fame, Peter Jennings, the last of the three major network anchors, Father Jim, the pastor of my hometown parish. On top of all of these great people leaving us, my brother joined the armed forces. And on a more personal note, I only played golf once this summer, and I missed out on the usual craziness that are my summers. I only saw Hensler once or twice; I saw Paul less, and still less for Doug and Shoe. Sure I saw Steve, but I lived with him, and really, I could have probably have seen less of him. And then there’s Pat. Or as some of us of the Harry Potter persuasion might say, “he who shall not be named.†(I find it funny how many people that I have given that to title over the course of the last year). I didn’t know that it was so hard for two people who have gone to the same school together for the last ten years to see each other, when they live less than two miles from each other. It’s not like I don’t understand, but I don’t understand. Sure he has reasons, but that doesn’t mean that I have to like them.
I’ve digressed a good bit, and rambled into a pretty good incoherence using far too many conjuctions. But to all of those starting a new tomorrow: good luck and may your new journey be a promising one.
