Neil Pomerleau

NFL Nationals: Dreams Come True

It’s been such a busy week that as much as I wanted to keep this site updated and stay in touch with people (I’m talking to you, Kim Clark), I simply couldn’t. But let’s start at the beginning. Sunday, we had a southern-style lunch (“Y’all are from Maine?”)…

…followed by a trip to De Soto Caverns, where there were lots of cave things and total darkness when they turn off the lights.

There was a cheesy religious and patriotic light show as well.

It turns out Alabama is highly religious; we counted 30+ churches on just the roads we traveled. In fact, we saw a place called “Church’s Chicken” and photoshopped the sign slightly.

That night, we had dinner at Fire+Ice with the Maine people.

Monday, I had four rounds of OO. Before each round, I got just one Tic-Tac. ‘Nuff said.

Tuesday, two rounds of OO. Just one Tic-Tac for both again. In my 5th round, I faced the “Harvey & Jack” oratory about imagination that won at CFLs, and in my 6th round, I faced the “You Got Served” oratory that was also in the final round at CFLs. They posted after lunch. Here we go…

My speaker code was 222.

It was there. I screamed. Break face:

Rounds 7 and 8 were the same day (no night to worry about it like CFLs), so Mr. Blanchette and Mrs. Deveau went to 7th round (along with Ed, who went to all my rounds by default). For 8th round, they were joined by Ryan and David (DUO), Greta Landis (HI), and her coach Lyndsy Shuman. Despite getting one Tic-Tac before each of those rounds, I thought I was definitely in the bottom half of the rounds. However, John told me after I was done that my performances were the best he had seen and that I was “distinctly in the top half of both rounds.” He objectively placed me 1st in my 7th round and 2nd in the 8th round. I didn’t believe him. I was wrong.

Postings were at the Host Party, which featured a science museum and a hilarious comedy show.

They unrolled the postings.

It’s hard to see, but 222 was there. I screamed more. Break face #2:

I was now in the top 30 (take that, CFLs), and I had that night to worry about Rounds 9 and 10…quarterfinals. We went to the Cheesecake Factory again to celebrate, and John was very encouraging. He did a lot to make sure I didn’t get intimidated by the competition, and that night, we worked for about an hour on getting things just right with the oratory.

Wednesday, the plan had been to do supplemental events (prose and expository). Due to my unexpected success, those two pieces would never be performed. Instead, I was at Spain Park High School, home of the elimination rounds.

I look to my right, and last year’s Charlotte’s Web duo was having a talk with their coach. I look to my left and three people from the CFL final round of OO are walking over to a table. That’s when I realized what kind of company I was in.

I got one Tic-Tac before both of those rounds as well, a 10-round streak. Of course, the competition was tough, and I didn’t make it past these rounds. After seeing 56 oratories (over 9 hours worth), I was pretty much done anyway. I ended up placing 25th out of the 220 oratories. Not bad at all. Here are the semifinal postings, without my code…

…and my plaque.

Thursday was the day of my one and only additional event: Storytelling. This was terrible last year; we were competing late with my supplemental events so I didn’t get to start memorizing until after midnight. This year, I had the whole afternoon and night before to put together a performance. Here we are at Oak Mountain High School, playing Quiddler with Orono.

I was very proud of the performance, and I got 1st in my first round. In the next round, I thought I had 1st as well, but the judge strangely gave me third to two okay-ish performances. I was “down” in the round, so speech was over. Forever. I also had one Tic-Tac for both of those rounds, making it a perfect 12-for-12 at nationals.

Greta Landis ended up doing very well in Storytelling. She made it four rounds (semifinals), and she was only one rank away from final round.

Interp final rounds were that night, and John ended up judging the final round of DUO (Mrs. Deveau judged final round of storytelling).

HI was mediocre, DI was intense, and DUO was incredible. The people from Charlotte’s Web placed 2nd, and my favorite in the round got 3rd.

Friday and Saturday involved various attractions (including too many zoo photos to post) and a failed attempt at traveling home. Our flights didn’t work out, so we had to stay another night and leave for home very early on Sunday.

Regardless, it was fantastic week. I’ll never forget it.

June 22, 2009 at 10:40 pm

About Me

Hi, I'm Neil! I'm passionate about building delightful products at scale, creating music, and performing in theatre and comedy shows.

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