We Have All Had Moments Like This

(HT: MMI)

This video reminded me of a funny story. 

Most of you that read this blog probably also read Justin Taylor's blog.   Justin was my roommate in college and I am glad to say that I eat the scraps from his super blogging table.  We have spent much time together and I could probably start a whole other blog just recounting all the crazy stories from those years at the University of Northern Iowa (I won't).  Seeing this funny clip above reminded me of one of Justin's greatest moments of glory from his undergrad years.

We were taking this required course called, "Capstone" which was basically just a class about the evils of suburbia, recycling, be nice to the trees, ride a bike instead of drive your car, etc.   Justin and I did not take this class very seriously and it was a quite a chore to even show up.  One of the end of the year assignments was to do a group presentation concerning an environmental issue of our choosing.  We had to get in groups of three and figure out what we wanted to do.  Our group was Justin, myself, and this guy Todd who we picked up randomly because he sat near us. 

Well, it was soon time for our presentation and needless to say I was not prepared in the least.  I printed a couple articles off the internet about the evils of Wal-Mart or something like that and was set to go.  Justin, on the other hand, was even less prepared.  Justin is a master procrastinator but since he is brilliant he can usually pull it off without anyone really knowing.  Not this time as you'll soon see. 

I think I did my part of the presentation first then Todd was up.  We really had no idea what Todd was going to say but he seemed like he was pretty well put together.  Turns out he was not.  Todd was completely incoherent.  It wasn't like he was saying sentences that were not correct but it was just like you could not follow in the least how A plus B equaled C.  It was one of the most awkward 15 minutes of my life (until Justin got up that is).  It got so bad that the teacher, sitting in the back row, was signaling to Justin and I with the index finger across the throat sign, like, "Cut this guy off!"  Eventually Todd sputtered to some sort of a conclusion and then it was Justin's turn to get up. 

When Justin gets nervous, sometimes he resorts to giggling a little bit.  If he is tired (which he was in a perpetual state of in college) it doesn't help.  Justin must have had a long night the night before or something but after about two sentences of his presentation the giggling started.  It probably was a combination of nervousness, tiredness, and the sheer awkwardness of Todd's portion of the presentation fresh in his mind. 

When Justin really gets going his giggling is more like squealing.  And that is what this was, high pitched, tears streaming, uncontrollable pig squealing right there in front a disapproving professor and 30 other classmates looking on and laughing nervously with him.  Justin would pause, take a deep breath, try to get going but then the squealing would ineviablely recommence.  Awkward to say the least.  I think he just finally gave up and sat down and had to embrace the teacher giving him a "D" or something for his portion of the presentation.  It was glorious.  One of the few times I ever got a higher grade than Justin in undergrad.