Yes, all RIGHT

I would like to begin with a pointed look in the direction of The Violent One Who Knows Who She Is. Okay, I'm posting, already.

I do think it's a bit excusable that I haven't been posting much (um, at all) in the last month or so. My life's been mostly made up of school and studying for Great West, which was this last weekend. I mean, much as I love quizzing, I'm pretty sure most of you don't want to read about the latest chapters I quoted, or how many times the word 'deceived' appears in Galatians/Ephesians/Philippians/Colossians. But Great West is over, so I now have actual news.

The weekend was pretty hardcore. We arrived Thursday evening at about 5:30, and waited around for the other Western Canadian quizzers to arrive (there were 25 of us) and then had pizza together and sat around talking while Sandy (Hoppus) tantalized us by not telling us what teams we were on. So we ate dinner, and then all had to introduce ourselves (name, church, grade, length of time you've been in quizzing, and the superpower you'd most like to have. Thank you Rob for the last one. Mine was to change into fictional characters at will) and THEN found out our teams. The way it worked felt quite a bit like picking teams in the playground. Every coach had a list of who was on their team, but they all took turns reading one at a time. Guess who got to get picked dead last?

That would be me. Irritating, I tell you. Most supremely irritating. But I did find out eventually. Then we played huge-sized full-contact Dutch Blitz with cardboard 2' x 3' cards, which was AWESOME, while the coaches had their meeting, and afterwards went to our billets. I always like billeting, it's fun. These people had an amazing grand piano in their living room, too, and I played it. Fun stuffs.

So next day, Friday, we got to the church (which was Foothills Alliance in Calgary, by the way) and had a practice mini-tournament. I actually did fairly well, as did our team. So that was fun. After that, we went to Chinook Mall for lunch and bowling. I lost bowling, but since I do it about once every three years, no huge surprise there. Then we got back, and after dinner and the arrival of the other districts, hardcore quizzing started.

Incidentally, the districts involved were Western Canadian (Alberta), Canadian Midwest (Saskatchewan/Manitoba), Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon) and Rocky Mountain (Montana). I am being entirely truthful when I say that Canadian quizzers PWN. Anyway, Friday night was VERY intense. I've never been at a quiz meet that intense before. It was kinda tough, cause I was finding it very hard to get up and the one quizmaster dude-who-ruined-CVR-question (*mutter*) rather irritated me. But once I got into it, it was okay. Our team didn't do so well here, but that was okay too.

As you can imagine, I was pretty tired Friday night. Saturday there was more quizzing in the morning and early afternoon. The way in which it all works is rather complicated, but our team ended up 12th out of 15 at the end of the day, which was good, because we'd been 14th before the last two quizzes. One of the Western Canadian teams made finals, and the top two quizzers were from Western Canada, which was occasion for much pride. Then we all had supper, in the parking lot of another church because we got locked out, and Foothills Alliance needed us out so they could have their Saturday night service, and went swimming before we headed home.

And I was pretty much exhausted, but it was an unbelievably fun weekend. It's so neat to get to know all the elite quizzers that you always thought were so big and important, and discover that they're really just people like you. I'm SO going again next year. Oh, and pics HERE.

Happy now, she-who-must-not-be-named? :P

-Sil

"Take the average amount of pro football interest in an American city. Multiply by three. Then stick an 'I <3 FACIAL STITCHES' bumper sticker on it. That's hockey in Canada."