I'll take the Over

Today was the culmination of one of my classes in my Master's program. We drove to our home campus at the University of Pacific to each give our presentations. We met Saturday morning at 8:15am in Stockton to begin with a campus tour. After the tour each of us would present to the mock school board to try to get them to agree to our proposal. The suggested time was for individuals to present in less than five minutes, and groups to keep it under ten.

As soon at the first woman began I checked the clock. I found out my colleagues did the same. I even heard them say at one point, "ten minutes." She went 17 minutes and the "2-minute" feedback period from the board lasted 7 minutes more. Quickly our concern became the length of the presentations as each of us are stuck here on Saturday until the completion of all 22 proposals.

Brad asked me if I wanted to bet on each one. He said I'll put the over/under for Monique (the 2nd presenter) at 9 minutes. That was it. Game on. Now all we needed was a watch.

For those of you that know me well, please make a note of this: Brad suggested we bet. He suggested the first over/under. He suggested the $1 per bet. All I did was promptly agree.

I took the over on Monique. She started out quickly, but her third slide went long. It was looking good for me as the clock hit 6, and 7 minutes. Then all of the sudden at 8:05, she says, "In conclusion..." Damn. I've never seen someone wrap up a presentation so fast. 8:40. What a finish! Round 1: Brad. Round 2: my turn to set the over/under.

We agreed not to bet on our own presentations, and by lunch Brad had a 4-2 lead. I came roaring back with 3 straight wins after lunch. We split the next two, and as I write this I'm up 6-5. We'll see how the afternoon wraps up.


***I ended up with a 10-9 victory. I asked him to write me a check for the $1.00, but he paid me in cash.