Superbowl Shuffle

This is my first open blog. The subject I’m choosing seems to be very controversial here in Wisconsin (by the way, I was born and raised in Wisconsin), but it’s something that I need to get off my chest. DA BEARS! There. I said it. Say what you will. But it had to be said. I can’t help being excited. The last time the Bears were in the Superbowl, I was in a birth canal (not to the day exactly, but close enough).

All my life, I have been harassed for being raised a Bears fan. I went to Catholic school 1-12 grades. In grade school, we would get the opportunity to wear jeans instead of the uniform on theme days: Packer/Bear day. I would be ONE of roughly five children in Bears clothing. Let me tell you, I was decked out: Zubaz, sweatshirts, jackets, hats, socks, everything (see page left..my little brother and his friend in some of my old 'fits). I would get pushed on the play ground, or made fun of. Two other girls in my class would be my allies on these days, and I love them for it (the mother of one of these girls recently lost her hair due to cancer treatments and is planning on painting a huge, orange “C” on her new canvas in honor of the momentous occasion on Sunday). Then, I became aware that Catholicism apparently requires you to support the Packers. The school changed Bear/Packer day to just Packer day. If you weren’t a Packers fan, you got to wear your uniform for the 126^th day in a row. Being the die hard Bears fan that my father is, no daughter of his was wearing Packers clothing…and off my oldest brother went to school in his Packers gear (he once cried when forced to wear a Bears sweatshirt for a family Christmas photo). Bring on more harassment.

Fast forward to 2007. After 22 years of embarrassment, harassment, our house being egged (my father proudly flies a Chicago Bears flag in the front yard), we come out on top. Suddenly I’m seeing a lot more Chicago apparel on campus. However, the absolute disdain for the Bears is bleeding from the veins of Wisconsin. Local radio stations are offering anti-Superbowl parties that offer to pay for people to go see a movie rather than watch the Bears in the Superbowl. That’s just garbage people. I will proudly sit on a couch and watch a pro-football game, despite my dislike for the NFL, simply because the Bears are in it. And, even if they (gasp) lose, I’ll still love them next year.

Last semester, through the magic of “required courses to be completed”, I ended up in a communication arts class. The focus of this class: rhetoric and human behavior. Prior to this experience, I didn’t really think about rhetoric or what it meant at all. The only time I ever heard it used was as “That is a rhetorical question”, or “If a tree falls in a forest…” etc.

In taking the class, I came to be more aware of the nuances and functions of rhetoric. For example, the way it impacts everyday life and how we often exercise our rhetorical skills without even knowing it. Before I read today’s selection by James Herrick, I would define rhetoric as a piece of work, spoken or written, that is used to bring awareness to a group of people about a given topic and viewpoint. The topics can be trivial (such as what we should watch on Wednesday nights: Real World or Top Chef), or significantly more important (i.e. Should gay marriage be banned in the state of Wisconsin).

After reading the piece by Herrick, I would stand by my definition, but perhaps elaborate a bit more to include his functions of rhetoric. I suppose I never really considered how rhetoric could be used to build a community, or form what we know to be “knowledge” (Herrick, p. 22). While I was aware that rhetoric is often used without realizing it, I was not aware how the simplest situations could be considered to be taking a rhetorical form. According to the reading for today, it seems that every decision made among a group takes the form of rhetoric; each group member puts forth an idea to be considered and why his/her idea would be the best for the group, and then the group decides which idea would be best, most likely based on the best argument presented.

While I thought I had a pretty firm grasp on the concept of rhetoric and its functions, today’s readings made me realize that its definition is ever changing and modifiable, making it applicable to many aspects of everyday life.

This is me

Hi. My name is Randi and I'm a first year senior at UW-Madison; I say first year because my senior year is going to be a two part installment, concluding with a victory lap. This blog is set up for a class I'm taking this semester, so most posts will probably be related to that.

Now, the name of my blog: These Aren't My Pants. I want to try to explain this in the shortest way possible. Ok, I don't know if you know this, but UW has a slight drinking oriented environment. Awhile back, I partook in said environment. I maybe partook a little too hard. Anyways, I woke up the next morning, still incoherent. But I had class (and a very hard one) at 850. So off to class I go...to take a nap. Then lab comes. So I sit down, obviously stressed out, and my partner says to me "what's wrong?". I ponder this, survey myself and reply, "I'm still drunk, I have to take a quiz and...THESE AREN'T MY PANTS!" Yea, I was wearing a miscellaneous pair of pants that didn't belong to me. Woops. This adventure continues when I remember that I had strategically made my roommate pack me a sleeve of soda crackers. So as I'm taking my quiz, I "shhhh" the package as I carefully remove a cracker. Needless to say, this was not a high point in my life.

But anyway, I named my blog this because it's the first thing that came to mind because we (the roommates and I) were reminiscing last night, and I was asked immediately before coming to class if I was, in fact, wearing my own pants.