Highlights of All State Speech

I'm so zonked after this weekend that all I can manage is a bullet list.

• The best/cheapest place to stay within reach of the Iowa State campus is the Quality Inn and Suites of Ames. For $49 plus tax, we got a non-smoking double queen room. And it included breakfast. Yes, I'm serious.
  
• The best/cheapest place to have lunch during All-State is La Fuente. Little Mexican hole in the wall, neat hand painted murals on the tabletops (are they murals if they are horizontal? maybe not), tons of delicious food. Four of us ate for $24. It was amazing. We got there just as it opened and by the time we were done with a leisurely lunch the place was packed. Only caveat would be possible sanitation issues; there was no soap in the ladies' room and that makes me concerned about how the staff members wash their hands. Best not to think about it too much.
• Once again, we were amazed by the talent and imagination of Iowa's nerdy drama geeks. What a wonderful day. An eight-dollar arm band gets you in to unlimited acting, musical theater, improv, mime, radio and TV newscasting, reader's theater and choral reading. Just awesome good fun.