Marking Territory
The past few years I have volunteered my time to serve as a judge at high school speech and debate meets. OK, I've agreed to judge because Sweetie is a coach and otherwise I don't get to see him over the weekend because the hours are so long. But having done speech and debate in high school I enjoy it in its own right as well. Even if Sweetie weren't involved anymore others could probably talk me into judging for them occasionally.
At every tournament there is always a certain area set aside as the judges' lounge. Sometimes it's the library or theater, where there is plenty of room for everyone to bring all their friends and family along. Other times we're in the faculty lounge and not every judge will have a seat if you're all in there at once. The thing you need to realize, however, is because there are always speech rounds going on all of the judges are never present at one time. The available seat to lounging judge ratio is always at an appropriate level.
Personally, when at a speech tournament I prefer to spend my time judging. Otherwise, it's just a lot of time sitting around waiting to judge. It also plays into that whole work-ethic thing of mine. Although I will take breaks to eat, and occasionally I just do need to take a bit of a break. It is at these times I will take advantage of the judges' lounge.
So today I was at a meet and the judges' lounge was in the staff lounge. I got to arrive late, as the events I was scheduled to judge weren't slated to begin until around 10 am (one of the fringe benefits of having a Sweetie who's helping run the event). When I arrived at the lounge about 1/3-1/2 of the chairs were unoccupied by people, but they were piled high with bags and coats and other detritus that people had left behind to mark their territory. Because their ass had formed an attachment to that particular chair, and God forbid they have to sit somewhere different when they return.
I quickly claimed a chair that was unladen with crap. I didn't bother to ask if it was occupied by someone. I wasn't going to be sitting on someone's lap, so I knew it wasn't occupied, and the likelihood that I'd be there long enough to impact someone's ability to repose was small indeed. I did, however, receive a glare from one of the other women sitting at the table, because apparently I had infringed on her personal space somehow. The only thing I can imagine is that the bottle of Diet Coke I set on the table disrupted her view of an intriguing spot on the wall behind me.
There was a third woman sitting at the table who was working at a laptop. When she was finished with whatever she was doing on her laptop she stood, stepped over to a chair where here bag was holding court. She retrieved something from her bag and set the bag on the floor, as if she were going to be relocating. She then returned to the table to drag the chair she had been occupying next to the chair her bag had been occupying. Apparently she had an invisible friend who was using that chair that she wanted to have a little visit with. Are you not aware that other people are sharing this space with you?
The other thing that astounded me is that every time I returned to the lounge the same exact people seemed to be sitting in the same exact places. When they were passing out ballots for rounds they never seemed to make a move. They never seemed to be leaving or returning. They just sat, eating the free pretzels, staking their territory. And I'm not even bitter that I was the one stuck doing the work while they stayed behind, I'm curious as to what they were doing with their day, just choosing to sit in a teachers lounge because you've got nothing better to do on a lazy winter Saturday?
I really don't understand people sometimes.
The moral of the story: You're never too old to share.
At every tournament there is always a certain area set aside as the judges' lounge. Sometimes it's the library or theater, where there is plenty of room for everyone to bring all their friends and family along. Other times we're in the faculty lounge and not every judge will have a seat if you're all in there at once. The thing you need to realize, however, is because there are always speech rounds going on all of the judges are never present at one time. The available seat to lounging judge ratio is always at an appropriate level.
Personally, when at a speech tournament I prefer to spend my time judging. Otherwise, it's just a lot of time sitting around waiting to judge. It also plays into that whole work-ethic thing of mine. Although I will take breaks to eat, and occasionally I just do need to take a bit of a break. It is at these times I will take advantage of the judges' lounge.
So today I was at a meet and the judges' lounge was in the staff lounge. I got to arrive late, as the events I was scheduled to judge weren't slated to begin until around 10 am (one of the fringe benefits of having a Sweetie who's helping run the event). When I arrived at the lounge about 1/3-1/2 of the chairs were unoccupied by people, but they were piled high with bags and coats and other detritus that people had left behind to mark their territory. Because their ass had formed an attachment to that particular chair, and God forbid they have to sit somewhere different when they return.
I quickly claimed a chair that was unladen with crap. I didn't bother to ask if it was occupied by someone. I wasn't going to be sitting on someone's lap, so I knew it wasn't occupied, and the likelihood that I'd be there long enough to impact someone's ability to repose was small indeed. I did, however, receive a glare from one of the other women sitting at the table, because apparently I had infringed on her personal space somehow. The only thing I can imagine is that the bottle of Diet Coke I set on the table disrupted her view of an intriguing spot on the wall behind me.
There was a third woman sitting at the table who was working at a laptop. When she was finished with whatever she was doing on her laptop she stood, stepped over to a chair where here bag was holding court. She retrieved something from her bag and set the bag on the floor, as if she were going to be relocating. She then returned to the table to drag the chair she had been occupying next to the chair her bag had been occupying. Apparently she had an invisible friend who was using that chair that she wanted to have a little visit with. Are you not aware that other people are sharing this space with you?
The other thing that astounded me is that every time I returned to the lounge the same exact people seemed to be sitting in the same exact places. When they were passing out ballots for rounds they never seemed to make a move. They never seemed to be leaving or returning. They just sat, eating the free pretzels, staking their territory. And I'm not even bitter that I was the one stuck doing the work while they stayed behind, I'm curious as to what they were doing with their day, just choosing to sit in a teachers lounge because you've got nothing better to do on a lazy winter Saturday?
I really don't understand people sometimes.
The moral of the story: You're never too old to share.
posted by Swankette at 8:07 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home