B for Burnt Out!!!

The subject line above sums up my feelings pretty accurately. It has been a challenging, crazy, hectic, pretty much ridiculous two weeks, but I’ve somehow survived it. My last post illustrated how the past two weeks were supposed to go, but here’s what actually happened:

Monday, July 5: Speech project was about three quarters finished. I had compiled research and began to put it into a crude outline. I started to wonder if I should just take the incomplete grade, and not bother showing up on the 14th. I somehow managed not to cry over how frustrated I was.

Tuesday, July 6: I spent much of the day at work compiling my Sociology group’s data together into a script for our fake talk show. This should’ve been done by now, but the group members chose to enjoy their holiday weekends instead of actually sending me their research. I cursed them (and imagined some not so nice things happening to them) while also trying to commit enough of my Sociology notes to memory to somehow pass the final.

English class started. I heard the words “group work” and nearly walked out of the class. Found out during break that group work is all done during class, and calmed down. First assignment: read 60 pages of book before Thursday. Doesn’t seem like it will be such a bad class—two small essays and a larger final writing project seems quite manageable!

Wednesday, July 7: Spent some time at work studying Sociology notes. Hoped fate would miraculously intervene and the final would be cancelled. Fate screwed me. Took Sociology final. Realized my brain retains a lot more info than I give it credit for. Felt as though I did pretty well on final. Ran through talk show with group members a few times. Went home and did a little reading for English assignment.

Thursday, July 8: Finished reading assignment for English class during lunchtime at work. Attended second session of English class. Starting to second-guess this class. Seems like a lot of reading for what is supposed to be a writing class. Assignment: read 44 pages of book.

Friday, July 9: Took the day off of work to get a haircut, in the hopes of looking halfway decent for cousin’s wedding, and to work on speech. End up napping on and off most of the day. (Was obviously exhausted.) Get haircut. Do a little shopping to try to find something to wear to wedding tomorrow. Work on speech outline and finish up competence narrative. Freak out that speech won’t be long enough. Do crude read through aloud to figure out that I do, in fact, have enough data. Proceed with writing speech outline.

Saturday, July 10: Realize that there are some Lifetime Fitness class assignments due Sunday. Oops! Good thing I noticed on time! Attend cousin’s wedding. Wish I would’ve just stayed home, because though it was good to see siblings, niece, and dad, my time would’ve been more valuable spent working on speech. Get home relatively early in the evening and work on Lifetime Fitness assignments. Once again contemplate taking incomplete grade on speech. Try hard not to cry.

Sunday, July 11: Monster headache. Upload completed Lifetime Fitness assignments. Realize how far behind I am on reading for Lifetime Fitness and am thankful it’s an online class. Finish up reading for English class. Practice speech, and make note of how much work it still needs. PANIC! Before bed, I tell MusicMan it just might be best if I don’t go to the Public Speaking Competence. Worse case, I’ll lose the money, but that’s gonna happen anyway when I go and fail it. He stays silent. He knows the stress has hit, and that it’s claws are pierced deeply through my skin.

Monday, July 12: Go to work and tell boss I’m taking tomorrow off for appointments. I’ve really gotta finalize my speech outline and practice, practice, practice. Realize I have no idea where to go to give speech on Wednesday. Call school to get info. Go to final Sociology class. Find out I got an A on the Sociology final. Not really sure how I pulled it off, but excited and pleased that I did. Group presentation goes surprisingly well. I laugh when many classmates tell me I should be a talk show hostess in real life, because I did such an amazing job. Ego boosts makes me start to think that maybe, just maybe, I can do this speech on Wednesday.

Tuesday, July 13: Finish speech outline. Practice. Speech is too long! Cut some stuff out of outline and practice again. Dogs listen attentively. Speech is about 11 minutes, which is pretty much perfect considering guidelines state 10-12 minutes. Transfer important notes to note cards. Realize I need bigger note cards. Shower, run to drug store, buy 4x6 note cards to replace too small 3x5 note cards. Transfer important notes to new, bigger note cards. Practice speech again. Realize I need to change some things on the note cards. Write new cards once again. For the first time, start to feel like I just might have a chance at passing Public Speaking Competence.

Eat a very very quick dinner with MusicMan and go to English class. Starting to hate English class. The class is called “Research Writing in the Disciplines,” hinting that it’s a writing class, however we seem to spend a large amount of time analyzing what we’ve read (in small groups of course) and pulling quotes from the book. To me, this is a waste of time, and I do not have time to waste. Assignment: read 117 pages from book and write 2-4 page draft of first essay…BEFORE THURSDAY! Truly hate English class and instructor now. Realize instructor is obviously bat shit crazy. Try not to cry, scream, or lose my shit, which is hard to do when exhaustion set in long ago.

Go home and practice speech. MusicMan listens attentively and is very encouraging about how great speech is. End at 11 minutes 56 seconds—just under the wire. Go to bed too exhausted to care. Stress is at an all time high. Decide—worst case—I’ll fail the competence tomorrow, losing money I would lose anyway if I don’t show, and I’ll have to pay and find time to take the class. There is no way I’ll have the fortitude to attempt the competency again if I fail, making the only option squeezing the actual class into my already packed schedule of classes I have left to take to complete my associate’s degree.

Wednesday, July 14: Read through lunch. Get less than half of English reading assignment done. Contemplate just skipping the rest, and remember there are quizzes on the reading. Ponder how I’ll finish it on time and wish horrible illness upon instructor. Experience odd sensation of driving home after work rather than directly to school. Have dinner with MusicMan. Drive to campus to give speech. Think about how sick I am of being on campus. Listen to a few dismal speeches, and start to think mine might not be so bad. Go up to give speech…

Nerves set in, even though audience contains only seven people (including instructor). Start speech. Totally skip over thesis statement. SHIT! Panic when I realize this, but keep going. Feel like I’m flying through it—almost can’t catch my breath. Finish speech. 14 minutes!!! OMG—How did that happen?! Think, “Well, better to be over then under.” Nothing I can do about it now. It’s done. Almost cry when I actually realize that it is, in fact, done. Pray that I passed it. Listen to final two speeches. Hear instructor say, “You all passed this part of THE competency…full results will be sent to you in 4-6 weeks.”

Think: “WOOOOOOOHOOOOO!”

Then: “What the hell?!?! WHY did I work so hard, and stress so much, over this when, apparently, one just needed to show up and speak to pass?!?” Seriously! There were people who just stood up and read their outlines, with no visual aids in site. There was one woman whose speech I couldn’t explain to you if I tried, because I could not for the life of me understand what her subject was or what the fuck she was talking about. Apparently I was the only one who read all of the guidelines and tried my hardest to meet them all.

Drive home relieved that it’s over, but pissed off that I worked so hard when it was quite obvious that the six other people there didn’t. Also realize that I took 10 credits this summer, which is just 2 credits short of full time student status. Wonder what in the hell I was thinking.

Arrive home. MusicMan consoles me with, “At least it’s over. Your hard work will pay off in the form of a higher letter grade equivalent than what the others will get.” Think about how lucky I am to have such a great husband. Go to bed completely spent, but with a profound sense of relief that the speech is finally over.

Thursday, July 15: Finish English reading during lunchtime at work. Curse instructor once again. Tell boss I’ll need to use an hour of the afternoon writing a paper for class and that I’ll make it up by working through lunch on Friday. He gives the okay. (What else can he do, really? The alternative was that I was going to leave work early to go home and work on the paper.) Pound out a ridiculously bad draft. Head to class.

Nearly leave class an hour in, because I’m so frustrated over how much time we’re wasting once again analyzing the book and pulling quotes instead of actually reviewing each other’s papers and getting info on how instructor will grade papers. Commiserate with classmates during break—glad to find out I’m not the only one who thinks this class is getting ridiculous and instructor is bat shit crazy with a capital C. Head home from class 15 minutes late, because instructor only gave us 4 minutes to review each other’s papers, so many of us stayed late to get it done. Curse instructor and class. Realize there are only three weeks (6 classes) left, and that if I’ve made it through the past two weeks, I can make it through this.

Arrive home. Have hard time settling down, because I’m so worked up. Feel as though I should be doing something, because I’m so used to being in constant motion at this point. Go to bed thoroughly exhausted, wishing it was Friday.

So, that’s it, lovely reader! I somehow made it through. I’m not thrilled about having to take two days off of work to do it, but there was no way I would’ve gotten everything done if I hadn’t. I never could’ve anticipated, at the time I registered for classes, just how overwhelming these two weeks would’ve been. I hope to never have to deal with similar circumstances ever again. I still can’t believe it’s over, and I survived relatively unscathed. It's going to take me a while to de-stress though...I keep feeling like I'm forgetting something or that there's something I really should be working on. It's amazing how much of a weight that speech was on my shoulders.

This weekend, I have to catch up on reading three chapters of the Lifetime Fitness textbook to prepare for the exam next week. Thankfully, the class ends Thursday. (I'm hoping the instructor opens the exam sometime before Thursday, or I'll have to take it during lunch at work or after I get home from English class.) Then, of course, I have 119 pages to read for English class. Finally, I have to write the final copy of my first essay, which is due Tuesday.

I have missed you, lovely reader. I’m so glad to be back! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you sooooooooo much for the fabulous comments you’ve left and emails you’ve sent giving me support and letting me know you’ve been thinking of me. You all really helped me to get through these past couple weeks, and for that I am endlessly thankful. You all are seriously the best!!! I am working on catching up on your blogs and responding to your emails. I will eventually get through it all. Thanks again, lovely readers, for being so freakin' fantastic! I pink puffy heart looooove each and every one of you!

P for Progress

Well, lovely reader, I survived the Sociology midterm. Now, I eagerly await the results. I’m really hoping I earned an A, though I doubt it, so I’m hoping for a B at the very least. I studied hard and really thought I knew my shit, but as soon as I started writing my exam answers, I blanked out on some very important stuff.

You’ll probably remember that Sociology exams are blue book exams. This was my first experience with blue book style exams, and I’ve gotta say I’m not a fan. Not at all. First of all, they take a really long time to complete. Secondly, there’s no way to gauge how well you might have done. At least when you take a “normal” exam with multiple choice, true/false, and short answer type questions, you can kind of gauge how well you did based on how many answers you know you got wrong and how many you think you could possibly have gotten wrong.

All of that to say I have absolutely no clue how well I did on this exam, because I have no clue how the instructor is going to grade it! I hate having absolutely no idea or inkling as to how it’s going to turn out. I tried my best, and all I can do now is hope that my best was good enough. It would be a real bitch if this class were the one that ended up dethroning me from the kingdom of 4.0 GPA land! (And it would look especially bad considering that I’m planning on going into social work.)

The exam was broken out into three sections:

Section 1 was about Marx’s Dialectical Materialism versus Hegel’s Dialectical Idealism. There were three questions, each with multiple parts, and we had to select two to answer. The only thing I really got hung up on was the difference between the two theories, which isn’t exactly a small detail to forget. However, I could not for the life of me remember the distinct difference between the two. I’m the type who talks (or in this case, writes) as I think, so I hope that the instructor doesn’t think I was bullshitting her with my incorrect answer, because the consequences of that could be dire (more on that later).

Section 2 was about C. Wright Mills’ Six Classes. There were two questions in this section, and we had to choose one to answer. I had a good handle on what the classes were—Capitalist, Upper Middle Class, Lower Middle Class, Working Class, Working Poor, and Under Class (your welcome for that little piece of knowledge, lovely reader)—and the distinctions between them. I floundered a bit on Mills’ definition of “white collar worker” and why it’s so hard to determine who/what a white collar worker is.

Section 3 listed fourteen terms from Karl Marx’s theory, and we had to choose twelve to define using examples of scenes from a movie we’d watched in class. I had no trouble with this section. In fact, these answers were the only ones I was 100% confident of.

I finished the exam in about an hour and a half, which was nice, because I arrived home about an hour and a half earlier than usual. I’m so glad that this marks the halfway point for Sociology, because I just want to be done. I do have to say that the instructor has definitely grown on me though. She's a total badass.

As she was telling us what to do to prepare for the test and what we could expect in terms of the layout, she told us one of the most important things we needed to know: “DON’T BULLSHIT ME, GUYS!! These exams are a lot of work for me! A LOT OF WORK! I have to read through all of these exams, deciphering your writing and trying to follow your thought process all the way through. It takes me a lot of time, so don’t try to bullshit me!!! It’s a waste of your time and my time if you bullshit me! I don’t like my time being wasted; it pisses me off! You don’t want me pissed off while I’m correcting your exam! I’ll respect you a lot more if you write, ‘I cannot fully answer this question, because I forgot A, B, C.’ than if you try to bullshit me!” Yeah. So that’s why I’m hoping she doesn’t think I was trying to bullshit her.

I’ve completed the last paper I’ll ever have to do for Sociology, so now all that’s left for homework is group work. I’ve tried to get my group to change our topic for this project, because I still fail to see how sex addicts are discriminated against, but my attempts to enact change have been in vain. I will give my full effort and participation to the project, and that's about all I can do at this point!

I’ve completed my fitness plan for Lifetime Fitness class, which is one of the bigger projects I had to get done. I think I did a really good job on it; I hope my instructor feels the same way. He gave us little to go on in terms of measurable guidelines and examples, so hopefully I gave him what he’s looking for. I plan on taking the midterm for that class tomorrow. I’m really not sure how to study for it, but I’m going to assume that I have the knowledge I need to take this test, because I’ve read all of the assigned chapters of the textbook. Because the test is online, I should be able to refer to the book for help answering any questions I get hung up on. I believe the test is timed though, so I won’t be able to look up every single question. Hopefully I know what I need to know!

I thought I would be buried in a mountain of homework this weekend, but I’ve made good progress this week and this evening! All I have left to do is a fitness lab, which I’ll complete at the gym tomorrow, and my biweekly fitness log, which I’ll turn in on Sunday. Then, I have to do some research for the Sociology project.

I’m going to finish up my competency narrative for Public Speaking tomorrow, and I’m finally going to start writing my speech. I’ve found some good research, and I’ve narrowed down the direction I want to go in, so I’m hoping to get the speech together relatively quickly. I’m feeling a lot more positive about this than I was a couple weeks ago, which is very good, because I only have 18 days left to complete the written stuff (competency narrative and speech outline), prepare my visual aids, and practice my speech! I’m going to be sooooooo relieved with this is finally over!

S for School, Sick, and Spam

Hello, lovely reader! I’ve missed you! It’s been over a week, so I have lots to tell you. This post is going to be kind of sporadic and random, so it might not flow very well, but it will give you an idea of what’s been going on and what’s all floating around in my head at the moment.

School
Classes are keeping me quite busy! Lifetime Fitness has definitely been interesting and eye opening. It inspired me to finally have Music Man add me to his gym membership so that we can start working out regularly. Right now, our plan is to go one day a week and once or twice on the weekends. Thanks to the class, I’ve been able to put together a good strength training routine. I plan to try to do strength training once or twice a week and cardio two or three times a week. It will help to have my wonderful husband as a gym buddy!

We went to the gym together on Sunday, and I felt so great afterwards. I’ve been leery to go. I’ve always thought health clubs were intimidating, because you have to worry about trainers following you around everywhere and people staring at the fatties (errrr, me). I was happy to find out that wasn’t the case; in fact, I felt quite comfortable there. I’m excited to go back, and I think Music Man and I will both be more successful in going regularly now that we’re going together.

Sociology has most definitely been an interesting class. I wouldn’t exactly say that I feel as though I’m learning a lot, because a lot of the stuff the instructor has lectured on so far is really common sense. We’ve mainly learned about inequality among social classes, and the concept is really quite simple: people who have the money have the power, and the people who don’t have it try to get it, which create conflict and inequality. DUH!

We have formed our groups for the group project, and I’m less than thrilled with how that’s going so far. Half of my group-members have been complaining for the past couple weeks about how they don’t know when or how they’ll find the time to do group work on top of work for other classes and various other commitments. While I understand that, because I've had similar thoughts, it's disconcerting to me. The thing I don't think instructors get, especially with adult students, is that we have complicated lives that make meeting in groups tough. For example, in my group: one woman is going to be out of town every weekend until the end of class, so she can’t meet on weekends and another girl can’t really meet on weeknights, because she has classes every night of the week. This should be interesting to say the least. The thing that’s saving my sanity at this point is that I’ll get to evaluate my group members, and those evaluations will factor into their final grade for the project. It's good to know that there's recourse in case someone doesn't share fairly in the work, which is sometimes the case in groups.

Yesterday, we had to come up with our topic. We needed to find a group of people who are discriminated against (as in treated unequally), and come up with a creative presentation for the class. I threw out a couple ideas: the deaf and hearing impaired (Music Man has tons of info and data on this, and can give firsthand experience), children from non-traditional families (Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are hard for kids like my nephew, and they struggle with classmate’s questions and judgments surrounding not having parents or having two moms or two dads), and victims of domestic violence (usually suffer in silence, many times remaining in a bad situation for far too long because of the shame they feel as a result of society’s views that violence against women is a funny joke and/or that women should “just leave.”)

My ideas were rejected. The group ultimately chose sex addicts/addiction. How sex addicts are discriminated against/treated unfairly, I’m not sure, but the group is convinced that this is a great topic. I think it definitely has the potential to be interesting, but I just don’t know that it really meets the criteria for the project. We are going to present it in a talk show format. I get to be the hostess of the show. Wooooohooooooooo! Yeah...I'm not entirely thrilled. I just want it to be over at this point.

As of Wednesday, I’ll be halfway through Sociology. I need to spend tonight and tomorrow afternoon studying for the midterm that we have on Wednesday. I have to do research for our group project, because we’re getting together next Monday before class to discuss our findings. I also have two chapters of the Lifetime Fitness textbook to read this week and a test this weekend. And, of course, I need to continue working on the Public Speaking Competency—July 14 is coming too quickly!

So, that’s that. I’m super busy, stressed, and exhausted.

Sick
I hate when people come to work sick. HATE IT! What is a “small cold” to someone else can easily turn into a major issue (i.e. bad sinus infection) for me. My cube neighbor was really sick the week before last. I almost thought I was going to go homicidal a couple times because of her constant coughing. I’m totally not exaggerating, lovely reader, the coughing was constant. I tried really hard to drown her out with my ipod, but wasn't very successful. When I overheard her tell someone that it was a viral infection that had worked its way into her lungs, I nearly lost it. Why are you coming to work if you’re that sick?!? Stay the fuck home!!!

This individual has a supervisor that is very strict—she really cracks down on her employees for every little thing—so I know that probably had something to do with this particular employee coming to work even though she was so sick. I think it is so incredibly rude and slefish not to consider that you can infect those around you with whatever happens to be plaguing you.

I was pretty irate over it, and even made a few nasty comments to my boss about how I didn’t appreciate people coming to work so sick. Not that there’s anything he can do about it since the sick employee and her supervisor are not in our department, but I considered it fair warning to my boss that I could possibly get sick.

Surprise, surprise, surprise…I was quite sick last week and ended up staying home from work the last three days of the week. I’m still not quite feeling 100%. I thought I was getting better, but the headaches and heavy head feeling have returned, which make me think I have a sinus infection. If I don’t feel better in the next couple days, I’ll have to go to the doctor. I’m pissed! No. LIVID!!! I can’t afford to be sick right now; I just have way too much to do.

Spam
My blog must be getting noticed, in some small way, by the search engines. I’ve been getting quite a few spam comments lately. I delete them one day, and the next day they’re back again! Whose idea was it to spam blogs through comments?!?! What genius came up with that idea?!?! Do the spammers really think this tactic is effective?! This can't possibly work. All it does for me is piss me off.

I am annoyed, and I feel a little bit violated. This blog is mine. It’s like my little home on the internet. It’s where I share my personal thoughts, experiences, and opinions with all of you. To me, a spam comment on my blog is the equivalent of someone coming into my home, uninvited and unannounced, and shitting all over my furniture and/or vomiting all over my clean floors. It’s foul and infuriating!

The Birthday post seems to be particularly spam-worthy for some odd reason. I’ve implemented comment moderation for posts older than 7 days, which I’m hoping will help. If not, I might have to implement stronger measures. Which do you find to be less annoying when commenting on blogs, lovely reader? (1) word verification or (2) comment moderation (i.e. not having your comment appear right after you hit post). Whichever you find to be less annoying is the one I’ll implement if the need arises.

Wayback Wednesday
Music Man pointed out that I missed Wayback Wednesday last week. Those are pretty much the only posts he reads, so he was sad that I dropped the ball last week. Since it was the very first day of me feeling really, really, wicked sick, he understood. I hope you do too. I had promised you that, at the very least, I’d try to keep up with that, and I failed. I am going to do my best to hold my commitment to Wayback Wednesday. There will be one tomorrow.


That’s all I have for you now, lovely reader. I’m hoping things will calm down soon, because I have a list of things I’d like to write about. I’m also trying to get better about using Twitter, so please follow me there too.

I hope all is well in your world, lovely reader! I’ve been reading many of your blogs, and really enjoying what I’ve read, but my brain has been too scrambled to leave coherent comments. I’m going to try to get better about that too!

R for Recap: Summer of Hell (Week 1)

With the first day of my first two summer classes out of the way, I have some gems to share with you, lovely reader. I hope you enjoy this peek into my life as an adult college student.

Lifetime Fitness started on Tuesday. Because it's an online class, class discussions are done in a message board format. Our first assigned discussion was writing an introduction post in which we were instructed to tell who we are, why we’re in school, and what our favorite physical activity is. Knowing what I know about students I’ve sat in classes with before, I was half expecting to see someone post that their favorite physical activity was “doing it.” Alas, my hopes for such entertainment were dashed.

After reading through all of the posts, I came to the realization that class discussions are going to be excruciating for my grammar and spelling obsessed self. Now, I’m not perfect (no one is), but I do have what I would consider to be a really good grasp on grammar and spelling. I don’t understand how even the simplest grammar concepts seem to elude many of my fellow college students, and with spell check being readily available, I find spelling errors to be a sign of pure laziness. This little gem had me screaming, laughing, and crying all at the same time:

Hello my name is [name removed to protect the ignorant], my favorite physical activities would include swimming, football and basketball. In high school I participated on the swim team, I swam the 200 I'm medley, Some people call me the cooler Micheal Phelps. At one point I was gonna be a lifeguard I went threw the certification and everything I just never put it into action. Football with the fellas on da weekends has always been a great past time. Basketball I play from time to time especially during the summer.. I find it as a great way to "grove my body". I'm super excited to learn and be aquintanted with each and everyone of you.

I post this exactly how it was written. Anytime someone mentions high school when they are no longer in high school, I think about my sister’s loser baby daddy who is in his 30’s and tries to relive the glory days of high school every chance he gets. So, douchebag factor aside, some of my favorite things about this post:

Apparently “Micheal [sic] Phelps” here believes that commas can function just as periods do. He seems to treat punctuation marks as mere decoration; like little knick knacks to break up blocks of writing to make them more visually appealing. I have no clue what the “200 I’m medley” is, but it’s abundantly clear that Mr. Phelps most likely rocked it.

I can’t tell if he “threw” the lifeguard certification on purpose or not, nor do I understand why one would do that. Assuming that he meant “through,” as in he completed the certification, Mr. Phelps might have the skills to save me from drowning in water; however, there is nothing that can be done to save me from drowning in my disgust and sorrow for the future of humanity at the hands of those who place absolutely no importance on proper spelling and grammar.

(And Mr. Phelps is only one example of my classmates' abilites, or lack thereof, in the spelling and grammar department. Out of thirty posts, I’d say at least half were practically unreadable and/or nearly impossible to understand.)

I love that he took the time to type out “the” in “Football with the fellas” but then decided mid-sentence that we’re all friends now, and as such, he could use the more casual “da” in “on da weekends.” I don’t even want to know why one would want to “grove” his body, or how Basketball would accomplish that, and I absolutely wouldn’t want to see what that involves. I can tell you this, lovely reader; Mr. Phelps will not be “aquintanted” with me in any way. In fact, I don’t want to even be acquainted; shocking, I know, especially when you consider that he has been called the “cooler Michael Phelps.” I’m sure his space bar was just broken when he typed “everyone.” It is pretty obvious that he meant “every one.”

Yep. Class discussions are going to be painful. Perhaps I’ll treat myself to a nice Mojito before logging into class discussions. It might help to take the edge of, and it is summer after all.

I hated Sociology within the first ten minutes of class. The instructor is loud, obnoxious, and arrogant, which is not a good combination. I like that she speaks her mind, but I think I'd respect her more if she could manage to do it without swearing like a sailor. Don’t get me wrong, lovely reader; I have been known to have quite the potty mouth. However, I know when it’s inappropriate to use profanity, and I refrain from using it in those situations.

This is my first class in an actual classroom on campus, so I was unprepared for how incredibly uncomfortable the tiny little desks are. They’re similar to the picture on the left; except, in order to make them extra uncomfortable (and to make the occupant feel extra fat), they have arms on both sides. It doesn’t help that I sat in a desk made for a left-handed person when I am right-handed. I am ashamed to admit that it took me about an hour to even figure out that there was, in fact, a difference between desks. Then, I felt like everyone must be staring at me, the idiot who sat in the wrong kind of desk and kept squirming around in unsuccessful attempts to get comfortable.

As I opened my bag to pull out my class materials, I realized that I’d completely forgotten to pack my Sociology book. Nice one, Elle! Since it was the first day of class, I figured we wouldn’t be using the book much anyway. I was relieved that I was correct.

The instructor was telling us some of her "no nos." One was no cell phones or electronic devices on in class, which is a given. That one shouldn't be too hard to enforce considering that my cell phone loses its signal almost as soon as I walk in the door of the building. The walls are concrete and must be a couple feet thick, for cryin' out loud! She was talking about being on time to class when she said, “Did you know time is a social construct?!?! But, don’t try to use that as an excuse for being late, because I’ll be pissed. By the way, I swear every so often.”

Oooooooooookay. “Every so often” proved to be quite the understatement, unless it means at least once per sentence. Pissed, Asshole, and Bitch seem to be her favorites so far. I also find it very interesting that she’s teaching a class on social inequalities, and yet, she uses the un-politically correct term “secretaries” to describe the office staff.

She handed out the course syllabus and gave us a few minutes to read it. I managed to keep “FUUUUUUUUCKKKKKK!” in my head, instead of screaming it out loud, when I read that there would be group work. Oh, but not just your typical research and present to the class type group work, lovely reader. Oh no; we have to be creative. In the past, students have produced videos, put on puppet shows, put on fake game shows or talk shows, etc. We’re to break up into groups of 4-6 people for this project in which each group will present for 30 minutes on the last day of class.

I’m not exactly clear on what it is that we’re supposed to focus on for this assignment, but that information will apparently come later. I nearly cried. I’m not kidding. I loathe group work that much, and with how busy this semester already is for me, it’s going to be really hard to get together with 4-6 people even once to develop the project let alone multiple times to work on and complete it. Stupid fuckin’ touchy-feely, let’s all learn to work together bullshit!!!

On top of that, we have to read a 10-15 page essay from the textbook each week and write a 2-3 page paper on it. I don’t have too much of a problem with that one. We all know that writing isn’t much of an issue for me, and 2-3 pages, double-spaced, isn’t much writing at all.

There are two exams: a mid-term and a final. Both exams are Blue Book essay exams. The instructor believes that multiple choice exams do nothing to prove what one has learned, because they’re really multiple guess. Also, true and false questions are a tool of psychological fuckery (my words; not hers, surprisingly) designed to allow instructor’s to sadistically try to trip up students by using subtle wording and syntax changes, etc.

I thought Blue Books were an outdated torture device from the past. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to have the opportunity to take not one, but two, Blue Book exams! (You missed the sarcasm font; didn't you, lovely reader?) Exams are based on the instructor’s lectures, which should be interesting. I just have to develop a good note taking method to deal with an instructor who lectures like a hyperactive toddler who’s not napped for the day, eaten a shit ton of candy, downed a few gallons of Mountain Dew, and screams at the top of her lungs.

She knows that she’s loud and hyperactive. She said she almost felt bad that this was a night class, because after dealing with her for four hours, we’d arrive home unable to sleep even though it’s late. She mentioned it dozens of times. Her other favorite topics to repeat over and over again were:

She loves Karl Marx, not necessarily as a communist, but as the father of conflict theory. I’m not kidding when I tell you that she would have his babies if he was alive today (and she was about 20 years younger). Poor Mr. Marx would not know what hit him.

She lives over an hour’s drive away from campus, and as such, she will not be staying after class for anything. If it’s an absolute necessity, she’ll try to come in early, but no promises.

She is royally pissed off over the oil spill. While I share her feelings, I found this particularly interesting considering that she refuses to use the available online tool to accept our homework electronically and she uses Blue Books. Apparently killing trees isn’t as awful as killing the ocean and the life within it.

She just returned from a one year sabbatical, which (combined with the fact that it’s summer), is partly to blame for her “energy.”


It is going to be a trying semester, lovely reader. Not only will I be learning about fitness and social inequalities, but I’m also going to have to learn to exercise extreme patience and to try to keep the snark under control. May that mythical ghost up in the sky help me; I’m gonna need it!

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Housekeeping Item: I bit the bullet and joined Twitter. I figured it might be a good way to keep in touch, and to quickly let you know how I'm doin', if the semester gets out of control busy. You can follow me by clicking on that green leaf icon with the pink "t" on it. (Over there ----------->)

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Edited to add: You know that saying, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression"? Well, I don't know if I really buy it. Despite my first impressions of this instructor, which I think were colored by my stress over the semester  more than anything, she ended up being one of my most favorites of all time. I liked that she told it how it was, including swearing. I adored her idealism, her love for the subject matter, and the fact that her class really wasn't that stressful at all, because I knew exactly what she expected out of me. Let that be a lesson to all of us. Sometimes, we should give people second chances after bad first impressions. Sometimes those bad first impressions are our own fault.