NEXT APPEARANCE:
Saturday, March 27th, Virginia Festival of the Book, 2:00
I'll be sitting on a panel entitled Publish and Flourish: Networking through Readerville.com, along with an ever-shifting group of my online chums: M.J. Rose (Sheet Music), Roxana Robinson (Sweetwater), and Andrea Buchanan (Mother Shock: Loving Every (Other) Minute of It). Readervillean, writer, and radio commentator Janis Jaquith (Birdseed Cookies) will moderate. Visit www.vabook.org for more information.

Whew.

Exams are graded, comments are written, grades are turned in, and I've got a few minutes to breathe heavily.

This weekend was a whirlwind of the first division. On Friday I gave my English exams, which ended at 10:00. I then shifted totally into Debate Coach mode, driving my ten qualifiers for the Va. Catholic Forensic League State Tournament to the Fairfield Inn in Chester, VA, to spend the night closer to the competition. We dined at Cracker Barrel, took in Starsky and Hutch (which sent at least one of my team members into serious Gran Torino envy), and retired.

On Saturday we woke up and headed off to competition. I spent the day serving as parliamentarian and presiding officer in the Student Congress chamber. The former is a pretty dull job, so I was somewhat pleased when the Congress director suggested I offer to serve as P.O. as well. Usually the P.O.'s job is filled by a student, one elected by the members of the chamber, but at Nationals, it's done by one of the judges; I served in that capacity in the semi-finals back in 1999 at the CFL Nationals in Pittsburgh. It seemed to work well Saturday; instead of bickering and showing off their parliamentary knowledge, the speakers actually debated the issues before them, and they got through 57 speeches, rather than the 40 or so that usually get delivered. All in all, a pleasant day.

Better still were the results of the competition. Though WFS students have done well at VCFL states, finishing as high as second place and earning five berths at three CFL National Tournaments (1997, 1999, and 2002), we've never had a state champion--or at least, we had never had one as of Saturday. At the end of the awards ceremony, however, the team had tied for second place in the debate division and we had two state champs, in Student Congress and in Lincoln-Douglas debate. We're going to Boston in May! Better yet, the Red Sox are at home that weekend!

It was a fun drive home, but since then it's been grade, grade, grade.

Luckily, I'm done, which means I'm free to take off for a week or two. Don't expect me to post here until the 21st or so, because my father and I are off on a He-Man Adventure. Yep, we're going into the wilderness, just two guys, belching, grunting, and putting the convertible top down. Actually, we're driving down to Florida to visit a place I've never been before: the Everglades. I've been wanting to see it since I was five years old and I got a copy of Eleanor Francis Lattimore's Davy of the Everglades, and now I will. Naturally, I'm bringing the binoculars and several field guides, because South Florida has bird species that simply don't occur in other parts of the country (or even the world). And with any luck, when you hear from me next, I'll have moved past the 300th species on my life list.

I hate being away from Kel & the boys for so long, but since they're not on spring break and I am, I have to take my pleasure where I can find it. And if that entails a trip to the River of Grass, a look at a Snail Kite, and maybe a bowl of fresh conch chowder, it's a pleasure I'm prepared to take.

Happy March, everybody! See you at VaBook 2004!
11:30 AM

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