Stress at Strasburg

I want to thank all who were praying for me to find a ride home Thursday nights. I did find a ride that can get me home every other Thursday. So that covered this past Thursday night and half of my practices. So please continue to pray that I can get the other half of the practices covered. I need those practices, as you will find out soon.

As you may know, it snowed on Thursday night. The good news I got to Tim's house. The bad news is quizzing practice was cancelled. So I spent the night over Tim's house. Mike came over for "practice" (which was limited to circling keywords). I spent the whole night trying to get down awkward, obscure questions. I believe I was sucessful. Friday night we had practice. Chelsea had caught a virus going around, so it was just 5 of us. Since I was on a team of 2 with Bobby, I got ol' skool Ohio style quizouts (4 question quizouts). Still I quizzed out. Despite Tim quizzing out with few to no errors, it was apparent this material was getting harder. Dave showed us a map to get the idea of where Paul and Barnabas were going. I wrote out a "verbal map" to get it straight in my head what was happening where. The team still needed practice.

This Sunday I decided would be a duct tape day, professional style. I dressed up in pants and dress shirt, gray of course, but my tie, belt and cap was duct tape. For my quizzing buddies, I had the duct tape baby and 4 duct tape roses. I came for the church service. Since it was the third Sunday of the month, Spring City had fellowship meal. Tim came late. The quizzers gathered together at a table to study. After the meal was done, the team went into practice as usual. But practice didn't look good. It didn't look like we knew the material. Chelsea was hurting the most because she missed practice. So during break, I quickly tried to shove as much text into Chelsea's mind as possible.

After dinner we got right into the van to head for the quizmatches. Dave helped up as usual by giving us rounds of questions. With every round, we seemed to get better and understand the material better. We got to the church just in time for worship. There we met our fans, including retired quizzer Christine. We had a huge fan base for a distance between from the church. After worship, we had the first match right away. Ready or not, it was time.

The match was against Paradise 2, 15th place in our league. Our quizmaster was Fred, a surprise to us, because Fred is registered only as a judge, not a quizmaster. After scouting from the last week, I decided to take seat 2. The match was not a good one. Halfway through, I had buzzed in 3 times: 1 right, 2 errors. Those 2 errors helped the boy across from me quiz out. When the sub sat in across from me, I could tell immeadiately I wasn't getting any bonuses. I know I had to get this on my own. Buzzing in on question 12 and 13, I answered correctly and quizzed out. It was a heart stopper, but I did it. After question 14, the scored was tied at 80. It wasn't the win we were concerned about, it was the points. One short of team bonus could reach us into the triple digits again. The question began "In what city..." A Paradise 2 quizzers buzzed in, took a guess with pure luck, and got it right. We'd like to sayit was a team bonus block, but with a right answer, it's hard to say that. We lost to Paradise 2 80-90.

With matches between until our next match, I did a lot of scouting of the Strasburgs. I watched 2 matches of Strasburg 4 and a match of Strasburg 2. That was an important match to watch because we quizzed Strasburg 2 next. I watched and wanted seat 4. I didn't know if I'd get it, since Chelsea likes seat 4. But Chelsea wasn't ready to start again, so she let Bobby started instead, and he was fine in seat 3. So I took seat 4 for match.

This match was better for me. I buzzed in 3 times, and got them all right out for a quiz out by question 7. That was the highlight. Tim errored out, without getting a single answer right. Mike was able to quiz out this match, though. After question 13, we were 2 quizzers short of team bonus: Bobby and Chelsea (Dave had forgot to put Alyssa in). After having a bad match before, we needed team bonus now. On question 14, once again, a where question, and once again an early buzz in on the other's team side. They got it wrong. Once again, we'd like to argue blocked team bonus, but we can't contest a foul. We did win 75-55, but our points keep getting lower and lower.

We closed the night with a match against Paradise 4, ranked 5th with 103 point average. I was ready to be in seat 1, across from Joel Delinger, just like last year. But unlike last year, these results were going to be different. Tim regained himself and quizzed out. I was not doing so good. By the time I got to review questions, I had only 20 points, 1 buzz in and 1 right bonus. I had also dropped a bonus, which is never good. After question 13 and 14, I had still not gotten anywhere. The team was losing 65 to 80. The last question was "Whose feet..." and I buzzed in. I thought about a while and I quickly answered. Too quickly. I had a dyslexic moment. Instead of saying "Cornelius fell at Peter's feet" I said "Peter fell at Cornelius's feet." I said it so fast that they originally marked me right, but the judges caught it marked me wrong. So that's how Graham screwed up another perfect season yet again. Because Graham answered too fast and didn't think it out. Because Graham did not shut up at "Peter" but had to be impressive. Afterward the judges apologized for marking me wrong and the quizmaster apologized for convincing me I was right and then making me wrong, putting me on a "emotional rollarcoaster." What could I say? They did the right thing, I couldn't argue. Of course I went back to college disgusted.

Strasburg was stressful and an emotional rollarcoaster. I felt grace, redemption and humility all the same day during those 3 matches. So things are looking bleak for Spring City and its quizzers. Both perfect quizzers fell from perfection, Tim worse than me. My point average is 32 and Tim's point average is 18. While Chelsea scored points, Bobby couldn't. The team is down to a 93 point average. We're gonna sink unless other teams did bad. Things aren't looking any better for next week. The material is getting harder with more places and more people, generalized groups of people. The new standings aren't out, but based on the standings I do have, the teams are tough ones. We're gonna need to study hard, plus we need an extra dose of Holy Spirit. Please pray for the team.