Emotional End to Speech Season

The speech season is over for Rachel. The section meet was Friday in McGregor. It was moved to Friday afternoon(we think because the state meet for single A is Friday). Rachel felt like she had done fairly well and was confident she had qualified for the finals. But she didn't. She was very emotional when she called to let us know. But she recovered enough to go and support her good friends from other schools who did make finals. (She ended up 9th, top 8 were in finals).

After receiving scores and judges sheets, we decided that she had bad luck and ended up with three judges who didn't get her creativity. They talked about her professionalism, her great enunciation, her poise and confidence and then ranked her 4th, 3rd and 2nd, with percentages in the low 90s. She hasn't been that low all season. She had also beat every contestant who made the final round at least once this season and several she beat more than once. It was a traumatic experience. But has made her stronger and more determined than ever to do better next year. She is already exploring options for doing a different category or at least playing around early in the season in a variety of categories.

Yesterday she laid low most of the day. This afternoon she was able to get together with Trelawney (good friend from across the river) and they filmed to create a short promotional film for a library contest for teens about why they need the library. I was able to go over to the library with them as they spent 4 happy hours creating, shooting, lighting, directing, acting and lots and lots of laughter.

Now they'll both attempt to edit it in the next two weeks to get it submitted.

Jeff also worked on the next radio production with Dave (Trelawney's dad and sound effects director).

We had a yucky weather day. High of 35 with snow, rain, hail, wind and generally damp conditions. The sewer drains are backing up, the lawns are flooded and the bones are cold and creaky. The weather should warm up (to the 40s) and dry up by the end of the week. I'm ready.

I'd hoped to start seeds in the house this weekend, but discovered I didn't still have potting soil leftover from last year, so we got some today. Hopefully I can get tomatoes, herbs and maybe squashes (I'll need to make newspaper pots too) started this week.

Hope your spring is progressing and you are beginning to see new life. We are still trying to melt our snow and thaw the ground.
Diane