Plus de Chicago

So anyway, Saturday evening rolled around, and it was time for food again, as it often is. I spent the afternoon juding, but I had one round off so I strolled around Michigan Avenue with Dave and Amy (coaches at Mac). It was a very nice day so I wasn't cold or hot, if I would have had something to eat it would have been perfect. Regardless, I hadn't been there in a long time, and all the shops are kind of neat. I didn't have much desire to go into the Gucci store or anything, but it was much cooler to see them now that I have some appreciation for the quality and expense that actually goes into the whole deal.

I ended up judging the folks from Concordia, as a matter of fact, those folks specifically being Dan Faulty-sack and Nikki. I think Nikki was actually like the second person I saw when we walked into the school, but it was still a little weird when I found out I would judge them. Technically there is obviously no conflict. I mean, I have been friends with Nikki, but obviously there is no restriction against judging your friends. Still, it seemed awkward to be judging someone who you have known as a "peer" for so long. I will admit that they were pretty good, not incredible, but pretty good. They are all psychoanalytically kritiky now, as is hip, but they seem to have a decent understanding of the material. From what Nikki told me she is doing all of her collegiate work on Zizek (I don't know how much work you can do on Zizek when you go to Concordia and don't have a professor in 200 miles that can explain the objet petit a (then again, maybe I am being harsh, I don't know who teaches around or even at Concordia, I shouldn't exclude the possibility that there is someone there who can figure it out) but still) and its obvious that Faulty-sack likes to read this shitty.

I mean, you can only know so much about Lacanian shitty when you don't have a professor who knows more than you do, but still, they at least made some distinctions between the symbolic and the name of the father and the real and some shit. I mean, there are some confusions there, but I wouldn't expect any less. With the exception of this woman from NYU they were the most impressive people on Zizek debating this year. Maybe they were tied with the Rochester team, still, you get the point.

In the quarters debate I ended up judging the next morning there were three people from Minnesota who I knew, and two whom I had routninely judged against each other. Nikki and Dan from the dot faced off against Andrew James of Edina fame and his unnamed partner. Mr. James also appears to be a Zizek debater and rolled nine minutes of it against the folks from Moorehead. He got beat, not like viciously or anything, and not so much on the substance of the debate as simply because he was against two better debaters, with more experience and such. It was weird though, I felt totally comfortable with them, like the other two dudes on the panel, who were in all reality much more qualified to be on a panel at a college tournament, were in fact oout of place. Regardless, it was a quality weekend at least on that front. Some entertaining but easily decideable debates which didn't require any thought or argument on my behalf.

On the negative side of this whole proposition, it seemed a little sketch that I judged open debates all weekend and indeed high level open debates for the most part (a couple of undefeated open rounds on Saturday) when I have no qualifications and no legitimate means to be there while several much more qualified women (Katie, Natalie Woodward, and Amy) were all judging novice for the most part. I understand that some of this scheduling was difficult because all of the people mentioned were struck against Macalester, but so was I. I can even understand my being in half these debates, but all of them versus none of them seems more than a little off. Katie and I both thought about saying something, but we weren't exactly sure how to go about asking "Excuse me, did you purposefully put the drastically overqualified women in the pool in novice because you wanted the chicas judging the ninos or what" without being pretty rude to a potentially random or accidental scenario. Its not like there were no women judging in open, but it was weird.

Besides the whole debate thing we also ate dinner on Saturday. I mean, we ate dinner on Friday too but it wasn't that interesting. We went to the PF Chang's down the street and while I enjoy PF Chang's I don't think that I would ever select it as the place to go. I mean, if I want Chinese food I will roll to a full fledged Chinese restaurant. If I want Americanized Chinese food I will go to Leann Chin. I suppose that if I were in a city that was not Minneapolis and I had an incredible desire for Americanized Chinese food than I might consider going to PF Changs. Fundamentally, however, their food is just good, its not great. It is however, more expensive. Its not ridiculously so, its like 11 bucks-13 bucks for a dinner entree, but that is more than you pay at a random Chinese take out place. The more significant and related problem is that there isn't enough food. When I order General Tso or Egg Foo Young I expect to either leave fucking stizzedy stiz-nuffed or with leftovers in a little white foldy box. At PF Changs Katie and I each ordered an entree and as per usual Katie ate only about half of hers. Meaning I had 1.5 full entrees at PF Chang's and still would have been very happy to eat a considerable amount more. Had there been a McD's on the way home I would have stopped in for a value meal. I think I still would have ordered the number four, but probably not supersized it. I mean, I might have supersized it, but more to get the free Best Buy bucks than anything else.

Regardless, on Saturday night we walked around looking for somewhere to go. It was an annoying time to go out looking for food, especially in the area which we were. There are plenty of restaurants, but also plenty of tourists and general homeboys-girls who wish to enjoy a night on the down fucking town. We ended up at a Chicago institution anyway, that being Pizzeria Due (the accross the street overflow version of Pizzeria Uno obviously) and enjoyed some delectable pizza. I must admit that as the years go on I learn to love deep dish Chicago style shitty more and more. We rolled a spinach pie and it was hella good. All garlicy and cheesy and shit. Even Katie enjoyed it, though she also had a piece of the pepperoni that the debaters brought home from Giordano's down the street.

So, yeah, that was Chicago.

Peace,

MB-K