From nothing to 64 teams in 9 years...

NPTE is the national debate tournament Hubby and I helped found.

It was his idea almost 10 years ago. I thought it was a pipe dream -- another one of his big ideas...
but then he went ahead and did it.

Sure, I helped. I was elected to the first board and have been on the board ever since.

I was his second set of ears working on the original rule set. We've discussed the changes as they've happened. For the record, we don't always vote together. Also, I'm not a f-ing "mental incompetent" as some jerky former-debater called me when he was rejected from the judging pool. Also, jerky former-debater is also wrong, I've never been hired to judge the tournament -- I always get to do the ballot table ---- so, screw you, asshat!

We'll do it again this year at Berkeley. It will be three days of hard work, two days of travel and at the end some other school will have a national championship --- taking home a traveling trophy that Hubby and I picked out a few years ago.

But --- of course -- debaters have short memories and no sense of history. They don't know what it was like before NPTE. They have no clue what it took to start the tournament. They have no idea how freaking good a debater Hubby was --- but, I really don't expect them to.

What I do expect, because Hubby and I've earned it, is a bit of respect from the little twerps. Not that we'll get it -- but, I think a little respect is due the only two people who have been at every single one of these things....

Sadly, mark my words -- by Tuesday or so there will be twerps complaining about it. If it's like last year they'll "call" for our resignation or some such crap. It isn't that the debaters do this kind of BS that bothers me--- rather it's that their coaches don't take their heads off for doing it. In fact, they seem to encourage it.

So --- I'm off to give the last three days of my spring break to debate. While it's better than last year, it's still a sacrifice. I'm not sure I'll do it next year --- maybe they won't demand my resignation and I can decide if I want to resign or not.