Since July 4 fell on a Thursday, the team didn't take part in any ChGK tournament, and outpatient services were closed. It also meant the Congressional debate club's Thursday session was postponed to Friday.

Come Friday night, where the patients in the club learn, depending on where they are in the learning curve, notions of logic, critical thinking, speechcraft, government or other areas of civics the club volunteers and administrators deem important for the patients to be able to function in the outside world. Once again, Catria meets with both Ainslee and Patricia after that session ends:

"Finally, I got my ACT score back. I got a thirty-one" Catria announces to her.

"Now is the time to finish your application and then submit it! My only reservation is that you need to keep a close watch on any alcohol craving you might get in college" Ainslee warns her patient. "It's not that you're not smart; after all I saw people who aren't anywhere near as smart as you graduate from college"

It's in the bag! There might be other colleges who might be better academic fits, but Ainslee was right: alcoholism was a risk that's much harder to control if I went to college anywhere outside this city, Catria muses as she finishes reporting her ACT subscores into UMKC's system and she then stands ready to submit it.

"May you remain alcohol-free and study well in college!" Patricia makes her wish.

But before Patricia could even think of getting a mortgage preapproval, she believes the time has come to start looking at the house call data she has in greater detail, and then start looking at the neighborhoods with the most house calls within KCK. Personally, I'm not much of a renovator, so I'd rather buy a home with small-time repairs at most, which I believe I could handle with a bit of patience. Or otherwise without having to throw too much money at the repair, Patricia starts thinking while she peruses the house listings in the neighborhoods.

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And so it happens that so many of those properties fitting her criteria are foreclosures. But she heard a couple horror stories about foreclosures from her father that she stays away from foreclosures. Which means she might need to fork over more cash to get the same size of home, even in a neighborhood that otherwise fits what she wants out of a property. Not that she necessarily feels like she needs that much home to live the way she wants.

"This starts to worry me. You say you want to move into some of the more drug-ridden and dangerous neighborhoods of KCK for... job-related reasons?" Patricia's father asks her.

"You know I work in a psychiatric hospital and house calls can save patients' lives. Sometimes a house call may require paperwork being filed in an emergency for the patient to receive life-saving treatment. You should know by now how vulnerable an addiction outpatient can be, especially at early stages of recovery!" Patricia retorts.

"Please forgive me for not knowing about addiction recovery. Sometimes you sound like a drug addiction counselor. But even if you could inspect, appraise a property, and all that, foreclosure can be a nightmare because a title search will turn up liens and other claims on the property by their former owners' debtors. Normally the title search should be done by the lawyer you will engage to file the paperwork, and it's a pretty standard deal for real estate lawyers to offer. Sometimes they will offer discounts on one to entice you to do the other. Remember also that foreclosed properties are sold as-is, and banks will often attempt to sell them without allowing the potential buyers to inspect the property, or to visit it. Banks are notoriously opaque as sellers, and often foreclosed homes are in poorer condition"

A lien on property is what makes collateral, well, collateral. It gives a creditor the right to repossess title on property (the collateral) if debts aren't repaid. If the collateral is repossessed and later sold, the liens usually disappear, but not the debts. My daughter can understand that just fine, but there are other things I never told her about foreclosures until now, Patricia's father then muses on what a lien is. However, he does not feel it's appropriate to tell her about lien seniority. Which is more relevant to what happens to the former owner's debts than to the buyer of the foreclosed property.

"But you might be on the hook for certain debts of the former owner if the associated liens survive foreclosure. Most of the time, these are tax debts from the former owner" her father tells her with a manifest of what debts survive foreclosure.

"Thank you, dad. I promise I won't buy a foreclosed home. You told me what made it not worth the headaches" Patricia then prays in front of her father.

"Now I will let you schedule showings whenever properties within your price range appear that you might have an interest in, but if you are interested enough, you must notify me before you get mortgage preapproval for it"

I still hasn't saved up enough to cover the case where I need to replace fridge, stove and dining room! The reason I want 6 chairs so that I can have the team play ChGK tournaments in my new home – Bohdan's wife has been our faithful emissary for online tournaments but keeps quiet in tournaments beyond reading the questions. So, in the end, it's too premature to do so now unless I want to tack on yet another "buy now, pay later" kind of payment, which I know is more expensive in the long run, Patricia looks at her bank balance, and she tries to calculate how long she needs to save up until the house hunt can begin for real.

Then she receives a phone call from Stephanie later that night regarding, of all things, ChGK.

"Hi Patricia, it's Stephanie. I know it's a little early, since it's not due until Mardi Gras, but can you help me organize next year's ChGK state championship?"

"I remember you from this year, you served as the head of the appeals committee. I trust you understand the IAMG's system and requirements, or someone else on the appeals committee does. But I will accept only if I am not tasked with anything related to the actual gameplay"

"Oh for sure, but with me leaving the appeals committee, we'll need someone else to replace me" Stephanie then warns Patricia. "Know anyone who could, Savior of Kansas ChGK?"

At ChGK-State, I was made to feel Stephanie would switch to Krasnaya Armiya questions. But would Bohdan's wife be interested in being on the appeals committee at State? Or my parents? If all else fails, would Catria be a good fit? People don't care about who's on the appeals committee at State, not even the IAMG, State is barely a blip on the IAMG's radar, Patricia's mind is boiling with questions Stephanie raised. Not the least of which is how she even learned about ChGK in the first place. Especially since that game was a complete unknown in this corner of the Midwest.

"Whoever I know could accept would only accept if teams were allowed at most two players from a different state. Not that it would affect existing teams too much for now, but you know by now Kansas City is the center of gravity of the state's ChGK circuit" Patricia points out.

Will Missouri follow suit if we loosened residency requirements? Missouri has the same problem on both sides of the state: Kansas City to the west, St. Louis to the east, Patricia's mind simply couldn't shut off, nor shut up. But even if that restriction was loosened, my workplace is in Kansas, too. Either way, I would prefer to stay on the Kansas side of the region.

"I guess you know the realities of ChGK better than I do. I know about how it plays out, protests included, but no more than that" Stephanie confesses to Patricia.

"How did you even learn about ChGK in the first place?" Patricia asks her.

"I only heard about ChGK through a scholars bowl teammate in high school. His parents kept referring to scholars bowl as brain ring back then. I believe you even played against me at some quiz bowl tournament in Missouri!" Stephanie exclaims when quiz bowl memories surface.

"Because I am playing, I just want to be responsible for room rental and food. I'll get back to you later"

She played for Bishop Miège, too... I assume that Stephanie knows about Nats but no more than that. I wonder if Bohdan's wife would willingly accept to serve on an appeals committee at ChGK-State, or be something other than an emissary at online tournaments, Patricia reflects, while realizing that Sergei has known Stephanie.

She then proceeds to call Bohdan regarding the ChGK state championship. He seems a little surprised:

"Privet. It's Patricia, it's about the ChGK state championship. I know it's a little early, but can your wife serve on the appeals committee at State on Mardi Gras?"

"I guess, the new tournament director was on the appeals committee this year. Vira's ex wasn't a very good organizer. Who's the new TD?" Bohdan asks her.

"Stephanie; she was a scholars bowl teammate of Sergei in high school"

"Even Stephanie would be a better organizer than Vira's ex has been"

"But since the IAMG doesn't consider family ties as a conflict of interest until access to questions is an issue... after all, the IAMG lets your wife act as an emissary at online tournaments, but she almost never talked to us outside of the games themselves because of that"

"I will go ask my wife"

Being an emissary, that is, someone who transmits information from and to the organizers, in an online ChGK tournament doesn't carry the same requirements as being on an appeals committee at the same tournament. Emissaries must maintain secrecy as well as integrity. Appeals committee members must, rather than maintain secrecy, have critical thinking skills, but still maintain integrity nonetheless. I am not sold on Bohdan's wife as a referee but she's more familiar with ChGK than my parents, let alone Catria... Patricia reflects on what it means to be on an appeals committee in ChGK tournaments.

"My wife wants to talk to Stephanie directly first" Bohdan tells his captain.

Patricia then promptly gives his wife Stephanie's phone number, but she then doesn't talk to Stephanie for weeks, even as she watches her husband's team partake in ChGK tournaments such as the Marseillaise the following week.

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Meanwhile, Patricia keeps an eye out for real estate listings in those neighborhoods she identified as having the most house calls requiring administrative intervention, while watching her budget for what she feels is necessary to adequately furnish, as well as all the necessary address change costs, such as utilities, driving license and all that.

The first visit occurs on a Saturday, and then she gets to a home that feels a little rustic and is showing its age but isn't a foreclosed home. This neighborhood is a little creepy, then again, if living here helps me understand better what environments the patients at work live in, what about these kinds of neighborhoods could drive them to become addicted to drugs and alcohol, it would be a net gain for me, Patricia starts thinking, hoping the trip will be quick.

And quick it is: the plot is small, and so is the home. A finished basement with a home office as well as a bedroom and the bathroom. The dining room is a de facto living room since the remaining space on the main floor contains the kitchen as well as the second bedroom.

"Remember: the home is sold as-is, and as such, inspections are welcome, but no repairs will be made" the seller then warns Patricia once the showing is over.

"Thank you. I'll think about it. But this is not the same neighborhood as the last one I visited; I have some questions, especially as it pertains to groceries and other amenities, I know I will use regularly"

By now, house hunting starts to feel like a game of comparing several addict-ridden neighborhoods; however, no use trying to shop around for appraisers and inspectors, or to get pre-approved, until I could narrow it down, Patricia muses, while taking mental notes of several things she feels are relevant to life in the neighborhood. With added emphasis on the near-term: schools and any other items relevant to life with children aren't as important to her at this point in life.

"Why do you want to move in that kind of neighborhood so much?" the seller asks her, while he assumed she was a would-be drug dealer.

"You think I'm a drug dealer or a police officer, but I'm neither. That said, I work in a psychiatric hospital, and I believe it would make my life easier for addicts in recovery if I'm closer to those who need house calls" Patricia then explains to the seller.

"A social worker then? I guess, social workers don't earn a whole lot..." the seller then sighs.

"And saddled with student debt, yes, but while I work with social workers, and certainly those dealing with patients suffering from addiction..."

Little did Patricia know was that similar scenes would play out like this as she went from visit to visit, and she even sensed an opportunity to play home sellers against each other before committing to one property to get a mortgage preapproval for. Like doing X repair to pay an extra of $Y (for those sellers not selling the home as-is) provided the repair isn't too expensive. Or the reverse: agreeing to perform a repair so she could buy the property at a discount of Z.

Maybe... maybe I can pay a little extra for keeping the appliances and only need to pay for the dining room! Sure, my mortgage would be a little more expensive, but I would only need to pay part of these since said appliances would be included into the price of the home, probably for a fraction of their replacement cost. But I should be able to get pre-approved without a hitch, Patricia then muses, while being reminded of how long these appliances last. They won't last nearly as long as the mortgage, but she estimates that when these appliances will give out, she will likely have paid off her student loans in full.

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But at the end of one of these ChGK online tournaments Patricia plays in to take her mind off this whole house-hunting quest, Sergei confronts Patricia not about her search for a new home, but another topic altogether.

"Stephanie told me that you wanted to be on the organizing committee for next year's ChGK-State?" Sergei asks Patricia, almost willing to hide his mouth.

"The cat is out of the bag now. Bohdan is the only other person here who knows about it, about how early Stephanie started assembling the appeals committee. It is a little early, but I would like everyone to hear from Bohdan's wife, our faithful emissary, about the appeals committee at State" Patricia confesses before turning to Bohdan's wife.

"I apologize for never having introduced myself to you, Patricia. I'm Lanisha. It's just that, as an emissary, I thought it would be best for me to keep quiet, to stay out of the social aspect of the team itself, even though we know no one else on either side of the Kansas City region would be playing, say, the Marseillaise or the International League. But I know the other two members of the appeals committee, assuming Stephanie kept the other two by moving from head of the appeals committee to tournament director. I believe it's ok, they aren't relatives to players on more than one team"

"Stephanie has also announced that future teams at ChGK-State can have at most two non-Kansas residents playing, starting this year" Sergei adds, while handing his phone to Lanisha so that she can tell Stephanie.

"Hi Stephanie, this is Lanisha, Patricia and Sergei both told me about how you wanted a third person on the appeals committee..."

While people didn't care about who the emissaries were, so long as procedures were followed, I'm nervous to be on the appeals committee in an in-person tournament. Inter-racial marriage is one thing, but I mean, this is my chance to show that ChGK is more than just about Eastern European ethnicities! I wonder how the circuits in, say, Kyiv or Baku deal with racial issues, Lanisha muses, realizing her blackness might open a can of worms. Then again, Lanisha is also reminded of how some media outlets, including but not limited to RT, painted the IAMG as "libtard" (by Russian standards anyway).

"As far as I am aware, the state championship reflects on the entire state in the ChGK world" Lanisha then tells Stephanie while she is shaking on her chair. "My only experience of ChGK is as an emissary and it's very straightforward since there is only us competing. Appeals committee is a whole other beast"

"Better emissary experience than no experience of ChGK, I guess... I couldn't find any other taker and people roll their eyes when I talk about ChGK with other people I know. We don't have a choice..." Stephanie sighs upon realizing that fact.

I will need to decide soon where to move so that I can focus on what I do best, be it work or playing ChGK, even when the neighborhoods of KCK I wish to move into are buyers' markets right now. At the same time, if I am patient, I can get a lower price and hence reduce my down payment as well as debt load, Patricia then realized just how tight the balancing act is. Other young professionals who would still want to live in KCK would rather live in condos in different neighborhoods. That, even though KCMO (the Missouri side of the city) holds more of a cachet.