S for Smattering of Thoughts

To say that I am overwhelmed by your absolutely wonderful responses to me being chosen as BON would be a complete understatement. You all sure do know how to make a girl feel good! I loved each and every one of your incredible, kind, funny, witty, amazing comments! I appreciate all of you who took the time to stop by and offer your congratulations and to spread the comment love!

I have tried to reply to each of you personally. If your email address is attached to your profile, you should’ve received an email response from me and I’m working on visiting your blog if I haven’t already. (Unless you commented last night or this morning; I haven’t gotten to those yet!) If not, I have visited (or will be visiting) your blog. Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart—you all really made my week!!

I have all sorts of things bouncing around in my head lately, lovely reader, so you’re going to get a smattering of the contents of my brain today.

·      Geology Update: We had our first quiz on Monday. I had taken the day off of work in order to study and to hopefully catch up on my public speaking competency, but I ended up getting a horrible migraine instead. After spending the day nursing my head, I didn’t study as much as I would’ve liked. I went to class miserable with the lingering effects of the migraine, and was surprised that I even managed to make it through the quiz let alone the entire evening.

The quiz was a lot easier than I thought it would be, and I’m proud to report that I got 31 correct out of 35 total possible points! The instructor had informed us that most people either do pretty good or really bad on the first quiz. He was right; there were plenty of “dismal” scores and unhappy students. I know this because he wrote out the distribution on the board, so we all got to see that 1 person got 33 points, 3 of us got 31 points, a few people fell into the 30-26 point range, 4 people got 25 points, a staggering 6 people got 19 points, and 2 people got 18 points.

The instructor had organized the quizzes from highest to lowest score in order to write the distribution on the board, so that’s how he handed them back. People caught on quickly that this was the case, so as the stack of quizzes in his hand diminished, people got more and more worried as they waited for their quiz to be returned. Sadistic and cruel, but I understand that he didn’t exactly need to waste time randomizing the order of the quizzes just to pass them back to us.

Apparently, it’s too early to tell what letter grade equivalents are, because he grades on a curve; however, that curve is based on the combined score of all quizzes. So, according to him, we all still have a chance to “catch up.” He also announced that he doesn’t give D’s or F’s unless he “really hates” you, so we shouldn’t worry too much about that. Great. Lovely. Well, I’ll just keep on keepin’ on and will work as hard as I can to earn that ‘A!’

I’m officially half way through Geology! Only four weeks left!!!!!!!!

·      As much as I hate to do it, I’m going to drop the public speaking competency. With April 17 only a little over a week away, I am just not prepared, nor will I be. I’m trying to get in touch with my student advisor to talk about my options. Ideally, instead of dropping it completely and losing out on the money I’ve already paid, I will transfer to the summer or fall schedule. Then, I’ll take the four weeks off between the end of this semester and the beginning of summer semester to get all the work done so that I’ll be ready to go when the next competency date hits.

I’m not entirely sure that transferring to another date is an option, but I’m really hoping it is. I knew when I registered for the stupid thing that I probably wouldn’t be ready, so I just shouldn’t have registered for it at all. I was feeling pressured about having to drop Psychology and anxious about being behind schedule. I shouldn’t have made a decision when I was feeling so much pressure. Oh well, live and learn.

This is all completely my fault, and I accept that. At this point, I’m fine with cutting my losses if dropping the competency is the only option. I can’t continue to stress about or lose sleep over this. I have to face the facts: despite my best intentions, I’m just not ready. I kinda feel like a failure at this point, but I’ll get over it.

·      The weather in Minnesota was beautiful last week—spring has arrived!! It was so nice outside that I got to drive my car with the sunroof open last week. (It’s been a little chilly this week.) I’ve never owned a car with a sunroof before, so I’m learning a few things. Such as, when the sunroof is open, the people around you can most likely hear you (even if the car windows are up), because if it’s nice enough for the sunroof to be open, it’s also nice enough for car windows to be open.

So, if you shout something like “Green means go! Stop texting and drive, douchebag!” to the big SUV in front of you, that driver might hear you. Apparently, people do not like being called douchebag; unless, of course, that guy had a hand injury that prevented him from waving at me with his full hand. Somehow I doubt that though.

Also, the people around me can hear my music, which the guy at the bus stop the other day seemed to appreciate. It’s always nice to find another person who shamelessly enjoys Lady Gaga; dude did exactly what she said and "just dance(ed)," and he had some moves! However, when I’m belting out a tune at the top of my lungs, people can still hear me. I shouldn’t wonder when people turn and stare. The look I got the other day said, “You are not the next American Idol!” Which, ya know, I already knew, but it still stung a bit!

In my defense, Beyonce’s “Halo” isn’t exactly in my key. Then again, I don’t think many songs are in my key. I probably don’t even have a key. Okay, never mind. Also, I’m sure it looks odd to see a middle aged white woman belting out Kanye West’s “Gold Digger,” but that song wakes me up and gets the blood pumping on the morning drive to work! So, yeah, I guess I need be cognizant of the fact that people can hear me if I don't want them staring and/or pointing and laughing.

·      I really wish I could figure out why I’m so damn exhausted lately! I seriously feel like I could sleep for days and days. I suspect allergies might be the culprit, which makes me glad I’m going to see the doctor for my annual checkup next week.

That’s it for now, lovely reader. I’m thinking about starting a Flashback Friday in which I’ll post old blog posts from my myspace blog; particularly posts regarding Music Man and I meeting, falling in love, and getting engaged. I figure it will be a good way to preserve some of those memories here (Also, I’m trying to figure out a way to save those posts in order to delete my myspace profile.), and it might be entertaining for you. Let me know what you think!