N for Nothing To See Here

Since it’s been so long since I posted, I thought I’d just give some quick updates on what’s been going on in my life since my last post. I am not even going to try to explain my long absence. I hate making excuses, and everything I have to say will likely just sound “excusey.”

I have officially survived my first semester of social work school and am now just under a year away from graduation!!! The second term (or last half of the semester as semesters are broken out into two 8 week terms) was absolutely brutal. Mega huge and time consuming writing assignments and group presentations were the order of the term, which culminated in a lot of work and one exhausted Elle. I somehow managed to earn A’s in all of my classes, and I feel pretty damn good about that. I am proud to say that I also landed myself on the Dean’s List! Gotta love it when hard work pays off.

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Know what else I feel pretty good about? The major changes I’ve made over the past year. I’ve been kinda down on myself due to gaining a few pounds over the holidays. But when I really consider all that I’ve accomplished this year, I’m pretty amazed.

I’ve lost over 46 pounds and will hopefully reach 50 by my one year anniversary on Weight Watchers. That means I’ve been planning and packing 2-3 meals a day to take to work with me for almost a whole year now (breakfast and lunch most days, and dinner on school days). WOW! Though I seem to have hit a plateau in actual weight loss, I can see and feel the difference in my body, which helps to keep me motivated.

New Year’s Day marked one year of not smoking, and I’ve started running. In fact, MusicMan and I started 2012 off right by running a 5k (that’s 3.1 miles) on New Year’s Day. We might not have celebrated New Year’s Eve in grand style, in fact we didn’t even get to watch the ball drop because we had to be up early to get to the run, but we really felt as though we kicked the New Year off right. The aptly named Polar Dash was the third 5k I’ve run so far. Thanks to the cold and the hilly course, it was also the most difficult run I’ve completed to date. I made it through (just barely), finishing in 42 minutes and 53 seconds, and was so freakin’ proud of myself for persevering! I definitely earned the finisher’s medal I got at the end.

I cannot believe I’ve become a runner, but I have!! I looooooove the beginning and ends of races and runs—it’s true what they say about a runner’s high. However, I sometimes really hate the middle part. LOL. Running is hard! I find that sometimes I really have to push myself, and my asthma makes it even more difficult, but running intervals really helps. I currently do a ratio of running 30 seconds (which doesn’t seem like a lot until you’re doing it) and walking 60 seconds. My nifty Gymboss helps me time my intervals. I’m going to move to 30 second running and 45 second walking next week to see how it goes.

I have a goal to complete a 10k (6.2 miles) by the end of the year. Musicman and I are running a race sponsored by my company this Saturday (5k for me and 10k for him), are signed up to do a Valentine’s 5k in February, and will be signing up for a Lucky 7k (4.3 miles) in March. I find that, if I sign up for a race a month, it gives me a goal to work towards and keeps me running. I’m a proud slow runner. I’m not trying to be the fastest or to win any races. I run to improve my health and fitness. I run to run.

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I am super excited for the year ahead. I’ll start my first internship in March. I’m pretty happy with the results of my application. There’s one really awesome domestic violence opportunity and a couple opportunities to work with homeless youth. You’re supposed to go out of your comfort zone for the first internship, because it gives you the opportunity to stretch both personally and professionally, so I was thinking of accepting anything but the domestic violence position. Then I realized that anything at this point is out of my comfort zone as I have virtually no experience working with clients in a helping capacity.

Now I really am leaning towards the domestic violence option, because I think it will be a good opportunity for me to find out if I truly do want to head down that path and am cut out to work with domestic violence victims, or if I’m just pursuing it because it seems like where I should go given my personal experiences.

I will also have the opportunity to reflect on why I want to work with domestic violence victims. Am I doing it just to save women like my sister, because I couldn’t save my sister? If so, I could be setting myself up for serious disappointment, frustration, and sadness.

OR

Am I doing it because I genuinely believe my personal experiences with domestic violence give me the unique ability to really relate with victims, which will allow me to potentially help changes the lives of many women?

It will also be a good opportunity to see if working with victims is traumatic for me in any way and, if so, to do the work to deal with that trauma or to find another population to serve. (I’m also interested in hospital/crisis social work and child protection at this point.)

That’s all for now. It looks like this semester is much more reading intensive, and almost all my classes have a journaling requirement that will perhaps fit very nicely with blogging, so I hope to be around more regularly.

S for Summer Break (Already Over?!)

Two weeks wasn’t a long enough summer break. Of course, I knew it wouldn’t be. Still, I am shocked and sad and downright grumpy over just how quickly it managed to fly by. I cannot really tell you what exactly I did, because I didn’t really do anything incredibly noteworthy. The best I can recall is that I was pretty much lazy, which hindsight tells me is probably exactly what I needed. I enjoyed a few weekend naps here and there, which was lovely. Oh! I also got to read a few books for pleasure instead of learning. THAT was incredibly awesome!! I still absolutely adore my Kindle and cannot wait to return to the days of reading for pleasure and fun.

Oh, and I did a 5K on May 22 (the day before my birthday). Musicman and I did it together, and we walked most of it (due to my breathing issues and having had to abandon C25K temporarily) with sprints here and there to get through the crowd. We finished in less than an hour and were super proud of ourselves for having completed our first 5K despite the fact that we were rained on for the whole first half. I tweeted a little bit about it and ended up winning a Sketchers prize pack from Weight Watchers, which I was pretty excited about. (I have yet to receive said prize pack, and am pondering whether I should contact someone about it or be patient and wait a little longer.)

Then, I got sick. I have been in a downward spiral health wise since around my birthday, which I attributed to allergy season. It’s just gotten worse and worse, and I’ve gotten more and more lethargic, culminating in my missing the last two days of the work week last week as I battled what I’m pretty sure was a nasty sinus infection. I slept pretty much all day both of those days and still felt as though I didn’t get enough sleep. I’m slowly getting my energy back, but Minnesota is currently having a really rough allergy season, so I don’t expect to be completely back to normal anytime soon.

And I hate that. I’m frustrated at the lack of energy especially; I don’t do well with feeling tired. It just serves to make me even more grumpy and less tolerant of pretty much everything. I actually broke down crying on Sunday because I was just so sick of feeling sick and I just feel so lazy and worthless. Musicman, of course, was super supportive. He reminded me that I might also be a little burnt out considering that I’m doing the work of 2-3 people at work, I just finished a really long and trying semester at school and am now facing yet another trying semester, and I’m still working hard to be a good wife and puppy mom (and sister, daughter, daughter-in-law, aunt, etc).

When put like that, it would seem my plate is quite full. It would also seem that Musicman is an awesome and super understanding husband, which of course he is. (A quick side note: Musicman graduated from C25K yesterday. I am so super duper proud of him for completing the program! He’s still going to work on increasing his speed and distance and is thinking about when he’s going to try running his first 5K. If I’m being honest, I’m a little jealous. I should’ve been finishing the program at around this time too, but my stupid body refused to cooperate. I’m hoping to pick it up again soon.)

I should probably try to find the time to go see an allergist and maybe get on some new allergy meds, and I should get back to the doctor to talk about my asthma. But, I don’t have the time right now. I also really don’t have the patience, considering that my doctor kinda just glossed over my asthma concerns during my annual visit about a month ago. I’m especially frustrated that I made some major life changes—quitting smoking (it’s been 5 months!) and losing weight (down a little over 23 pounds!)—that should have improved my health by now, but so far, I haven’t reaped many of the benefits I was looking forward to. I’m specifically talking about the energy increase both were supposed to provide. So far, that has not happened for me, and I’m a little pissy about it.

Summer semester is in full swing and I find myself really not giving a damn. It’s my last semester at Community College, and I want to give it my all in order to leave with a 4.0 GPA, but I find myself just completely apathetic about getting anything done. I think it’s a combination of the fact that it’s my last semester, thus I already have my sight set on bigger and better things as I finally embark on the social work curriculum, and I’m just burnt out on school (and in general).

I have two competencies, Prior Learning Assessments (PLAs, which are self-directed projects), to get done and one online class that starts in the beginning of July. One PLA, the Psychology of Death and Dying, involves reading an entire textbook to familiarize myself with principles and concepts that I will use to write some papers and which will also be discussed at the meeting in the middle of July where we’re expected to hand in our work. There’s also a two part writing assignment. The first part is a “deathography” in which I must write about my significant experiences with death, applying at least 5 concepts from the textbook. The second part involves researching and responding to the ethical questions surrounding two death-related topics from a list that includes: physician-assisted suicide, capital punishment, withdrawal of life support, green funerals, stem-cell research, etc. I’m just not thrilled about this one. Death isn’t fun, and it’s certainly not entertaining. This one is just plain difficult to work on and complete.

The other, Sociology of Family and Society, involves reading ten 2-6 page essays regarding various family matters from an assigned book and writing ten 2-5 page summary/reaction papers, incorporating various sociological principles and my personal life experience into these narratives. This one shouldn’t be too hard. I had this instructor last summer for my other sociology class, so I know exactly what she expects out of these papers. I did a fine job of bullshitting my way through the four papers we had to do in that class, so I should have no trouble doing the same for these ten. It’s simply a matter of buckling down and getting it done.

Basically, I need to do lots of reading, research, and writing. I seriously don’t know why I ever thought PLAs were a good idea for a procrastinator like me. I don’t do self-directed well. I don’t know what it is. I guess I’m just not disciplined enough, and I get too involved in the minute details, such as breaking larger projects into smaller pieces. I try to get everything done at once, end up getting overwhelmed, stop for a while, and then panic as the deadline approaches. I’d really rather just take the classes, but there’s no time for that now. I must finish these two projects and the upcoming music class in order to have all the credits I need to start at St. Scholastica in the fall. THAT’S the only thing keeping me going at this point; knowing that, if I screw this up, I screw up starting my bachelor’s degree.

So far, I’ve managed to read almost two (out of 15) chapters of the Psychology textbook. I’ve also spent a few hours making up a fancy calendar and schedule to plan out how I’ll complete these projects and to track my progress. I’m already off schedule. Shocking, I know. I blame getting sick last week; however, I have to admit that I haven’t exactly been chomping at the bit to get caught up. I still have plenty of time to get it all done, so I’m not too worried at this point. Unless, of course, I can’t get out of this funk; then I’ll be in trouble.

What do you do, lovely reader, when you’re generally just overwhelmed with life and in a funk? How do you get yourself back on track?

U for Update

Hello, lovely reader. Since I haven’t posted in a while, I thought I give you all a quick update of what’s going on in Elle’s world:
School is going pretty well. Busy, as usual. I’m surprised at how quickly I’m catching on to a lot of the algebra concepts. I’ve somehow managed to maintain an “A” so far, but things get harder and harder every week, so we’ll see how it all plays out. This class is super accelerated, because it’s two classes—beginning algebra and intermediate algebra—jammed into one semester. We have lectures Monday and Wednesday evenings with the test(s) for the chapter(s) we’ve learned that week due Sunday at midnight (chapter tests are done online). It’s pretty intense.

The final for beginning algebra is next Wednesday, so I’ve got to find some time to study and practice problems from the first six chapters we’ve covered so far. Even though I’ve done really well on the weekly tests and the midterm, I still want to make sure that I’m comfortable enough with all of the material to do well on the final. In order to move on to intermediate algebra, one must get at least a “C” in beginning algebra, and judging by how far behind some of my classmates currently are, I think there are going to be very few of us (like maybe a dozen) moving on.

Psychology has been interesting so far, but I don’t like taking a Saturday class at all. Class meets from 1-4:30 Saturday afternoon, which seems entirely too long most of the time. The instructor spends the whole time lecturing on the chapter(s) we were assigned to read the previous week and possibly showing a video or two related to the material. Weekly homework is usually a chapter or two of reading, an online tutorial or two related to the material we’ve read (with a worksheet to fill out and hand in), and a video to watch and summarize (one typed paragraph). Overall, the class hasn’t been too tough.

I won’t take another Saturday class again unless I absolutely have to. I hate that half of my weekend is spent on homework and being in class. I typically spend Friday evening finishing up whatever assigned Psychology reading I haven’t finished yet and completing the online tutorials and video summaries. Then, I spend half of Saturday sitting in class listening to a lecture that’s just regurgitation of the material I’ve already read. It feels like a big waste of time.

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MusicMan’s sister and her husband were visiting from Hawaii recently, so we went over to his mom’s house for an obligatory family dinner. I wish I could be closer with my sister-in-law (SIL), but it’s hard when she lives so far away and her husband is a giant douchebag. Just to put it in perspective for you, the last time I saw sister-in-law’s husband (Dbag) was a couple years ago. They spent the Christmas after my sister was murdered here in Minnesota. In fact, the night they flew into town and we all met at my mother-in-law’s for family dinner, to meet in person for the first time ever, was the night my sister was killed.

At first, this bonded us all together quite quickly. I was surprised at the support sister-in-law and her Dbag gave me and the sadness they showed over the loss of my sister, whom they’d never met. But, a few days after Christmas and less than a week after I’d lost my sister, we had SIL and Dbag come to our house for the evening to have some drinks and hang out so that we could all get to know each other a little better.

During their visit, SIL’s husband (we refuse to call him brother-in-law because he’s such a giant douche), Dbag, spent part of the evening lecturing me about how we all had a responsibility now to make sure that Li’l D grows up to be a better person than his father (obviously!) and his mother (WTF?!)! He’s lucky I was still exhausted and in shock, because the conversation wouldn’t have gone as calmly as it did had I not been. In fact, thinking of it now makes me want to throat punch him, followed by a swift kick to the groin, while explaining to him what a great person my sister was and telling him that, if her son grows up to even be the slightest bit like her, he’ll be an amazing person, unlike Dbag.

During this recent visit, Dbag barely even spoke to MusicMan or me; except to tell us that one of our dogs, Lucy, is “out of control.” His reasoning was that she “attacked” his dog. First of all, his dog isn’t socialized to other dogs; unlike Lucy, who has regular daycare visits and overnight stays, resulting in her being a well socialized dog. As a result, SIL’s dog doesn’t really know how to behave around other dogs. Second of all, Lucy didn’t attack his dog. She tried to play with his dog, his dog snapped at her, and she responded in kind. A little tussle ensued, which MusicMan and I have learned to just let go for a bit to see if the dogs will work it out because usually they work it out themselves and everything’s fine.

Apparently, Dbag was unaware that dogs should be allowed to work it out (as long as no one was being hurt, which no one was), and he picked Lucy up by her harness and tossed her off of his dog. I was appalled, but held my tongue, keeping Lucy with me the rest of the evening. A few days later, Lucy started to squeal if she was touched the wrong way and she refused to jump up onto the couch or the bed. We knew something was wrong, but we didn’t know what. A vet visit and $75 later, we found out that she had a pinched nerve in her shoulder, likely a result of someone picking her up by her harness as though it were a handle. Thankfully, after a week of rest and medication to reduce pain and swelling, she was back to her old self again.

Needless to say, I was livid. I wanted MusicMan to march over to his mother’s house with the vet bill and a few harsh words to Dbag or I was going to do it. Instead, we decided it best to inform his mom as to what had happened, and MusicMan left Lucy at home when we went to dinner a week later to say goodbye to his sister and Dbag (lucky for him, I had class that night and couldn’t attend dinner at mother-in-law’s). Mother-in-law, who excels at passive-aggression, made a few digs at Dbag here and there during dinner, according to MusicMan, but I’m still not happy that no one (including myself) said anything directly to him about the fact that he had injured our dog and he is a giant douchebag.

I don’t typically hold grudges, but I’m so done with Dbag. Though I love and respect my mother-in-law, I will no longer run to her house for obligatory family dinners simply because sister-in-law and Dbag are in town, granting us simpletons the honor of basking in the glow of their presence. No thanks. Despite what they seem to think, and how other family members seem to act about their visits, they are not special. Since they can’t even manage to thank us for switching our schedules around to take the time to visit with them while they’re here, nor can they seem to manage to even fake enjoyment over seeing us, I see no reason to make a big deal out of their visits. The limited free time I have can be spent on much, much better things and with much, much better people.

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I’ve had a serious case of writer’s block lately, which is why I haven’t been posting as much. My carpal tunnel seems to be flaring up quite a bit lately too, which sends shooting pains up my right arm and the back of my hand and has my fingers constantly cramping and aching too. No good!

MusicMan has finally uploaded all of the Lake Tahoe photos, so I’m going to pick some of my favorites to post soon. I hope all is well in your world, lovely reader!

C for Chaos!

Before I jump into today’s post, two things:

1. I’ve implemented the Disqus commenting system. I like the idea of being able to reply to your comments in a threaded format. I’ll be able to stay more on top of replying to your comments if I can reply to them on the fly. Sometimes, I get too far behind on reading and replying to emails, and then I feel absolutely awful about ignoring your comments for so long. What do you think of Disqus? Would you be a sad, sad reader if I no longer replied to your comments via email? All honest thoughts and opinions are welcome; you won’t hurt my feelings.
2. I’m far beyond ecstatic that, not only did I survive the summer of hell, but I also managed to maintain my 4.0 GPA!!!!!! Official grades were finally posted, and I got an “A” in Lifetime Fitness, an “A” in Sociology, and an “A” in English, and I passed the Public Speaking competency!!! (Competencies are only graded on a pass/fail basis and don’t play into GPA; I’m still awaiting the grade level equivalent form, and am of course hoping for an “A.”) I worked so freakin’ hard this summer, and I’m really thrilled that it paid off. I’ve officially completed a year of school, so I have a year left before transferring to the bachelor’s program. I’ve worked hard in all of my classes, but for the first time, I really feel as though I earned these “A’s.” Though I’m typically quite modest, I have to say that I’m really, really, ridiculously good looking* proud of myself right now.

Kathie at Just a Happy Housewife tagged me for the “Daily Scoop of Chaos” award. If you haven’t visited Kathie’s blog yet, you really should. She’s wonderfully entertaining and she loves helping animals. To accept this award, I have to answer the questions below and pass it on to eight bloggers. Here we go!

What is your signature color?

Hot Pink/Magenta/Bright Pink. I just love how bright, fun, and happy the color seems to be.

What is your most embarrassing moment?
One of the most recent I can remember is when I saw my brother’s friend’s wife, who I hadn’t seen in quite some time, at my sister’s funeral and I congratulated her on being pregnant. Which she wasn’t. And I didn’t just congratulate her. Nope. I patted her tummy too. (I know! I’m squirming right now just remembering it.)

In my defense, I could swear that I had heard that she was pregnant, I was emotionally exhausted and not thinking straight, and the puffy winter jacket she was wearing added to the illusion that she was in fact pregnant. I was absolutely mortified when she kindly informed me that she wasn’t pregnant. She’s one of the sweetest, most innocent, nicest girls I know, and she handled it with grace. I apologized profusely, of course, and vowed to never again congratulate anyone on being pregnant unless (a) they told me right to my face that they were or (b) they were actually in labor. I still cringe whenever I think of this.

Would you ever get anything pierced other than your ears. If so, what?
I used to want to get my belly button pierced, but I always said I’d wait until my belly was small enough to show off. There’s no sign that that’s going to happen anytime soon, since my belly seems to have gone in the opposite direction, and I think I’m getting too old to be showing my midriff anyway. Oh wells…

Are you a social butterfly or a homebody?
It really depends on my mood. I guess I’m mostly a homebody. However, I do like to go out for dinner with MusicMan and friends, and MusicMan and I do occasionally like to host gatherings and entertain at home.

Are you done having babies or do you want more?

I haven’t started having babies, and I probably never will. (Were I to have kids, I’d be a perpetual Mombie—I don't "do" constant stress and lack of sleep very well at all, and no one wants that; trust me.)

Are you loyal to your hairstylist or do you try every salon in town?

I’m not particularly loyal to a certain hairstylist, but I am loyal to the salon I visit.

How many times have you moved in your life?

Too many to count! But, since moving away from my parents’ home at the age of 22, I’ve moved six times in my adult life.

If you could plan your vacation with just you and your love where would it be?
San Francisco!!! I’ve been twice for business trips, and spent a little time on one of the trips exploring the bay area, and I absolutely fell in love. MusicMan, a huge Grateful Dead fan, has always wanted to go, and I’ve always wanted to go back. We hope to plan a vacation there sometime after I’ve finished school.

I tag all of you, my lovely readers! If you want to play along, please do, but make sure to come back and let me know that you did. Hope you all have a great weekend!!

* I don’t think I’m really, really, ridiculously good looking, but I think you’re awesome if you know what movie that’s from.

D for DONE!

Hello, lovely reader!!! I must apologize for my long absence. Silly me thought that, after the two weeks of hell were over, classes and summer would calm down enough for me to blog again. I was sadly mistaken. The English class I took was a doozy. I mentioned in my last post, that the English instructor was bat shit crazy, and it just got worse.

The problem basically boiled down to the fact that she was a terrible planner. She’d assign 120-200 pages of reading on Tuesday with a Thursday deadline, and she’d give a quiz on the reading on Thursday. On top of that, we’d have a 3-5 page draft of a paper due the same day. Of course, instead of handing out the explanations of what was required for the paper in time for us to maybe get a jumpstart on it, she’d hand it out Tuesday. Then, each paper had to include quotes and other citations from 2-4 research sources. That meant assigned reading, research for the paper, and writing of the first draft all had to be done within a day. Because I work full time, that wasn’t entirely manageable.

Of course it goes without saying that I am eternally grateful that English class—and all summer classes for that matter—are done. Over. Complete. Finished! I spent this weekend just relaxing and plotting how I’d spend my two week break with no homework to work on or worry about and no deadlines looming. I have been so used to always having something that I absolutely must get done, and working hard to make sure I’m staying on track and on schedule, that it actually felt kind of uncomfortable to just sit for a moment and do nothing except space out in front of the TV or knit a little bit. I didn't really know what to do with myself!!

Yesterday I got an email from my instructor for the math course that starts August 23. (A.K.A MusicMan’s and my two year wedding anniversary! Happy Anniversary to us. We're planning on celebrating the weekend before.) Now it's goodbye two week break. Within the next two weeks, I have to log into a couple different online systems to read the class syllabus, get the schedule of classes and assignments, and try out the online systems. I have to read Chapter 1, watch a video lecture or two, and dabble with an online homework assignment before class starts on Monday, August 23. Nice.

*PITY PARTY ALERT* You know; just once it would be nice for instructors to consider that maybe—just maybe—some of us didn’t take the summer off. Maybe some of us took classes all summer, which means we’ve worked hard to earn a piddly two week break that she’s now ruined. Dammit! *END PITY PARTY* I know that the world doesn’t, and unfortunately never will, revolve around me, but I’m so bummed. Really, really, really bummed.

I’m going to try not to let it get me down. I’m going to just do what I can, but not push myself too hard. This isn’t a college level math course. It’s an algebra refresher, which I have to take before being able to take any college level math courses. Unfortunately, when I took the college entrance exams, it had been way too long since I’d used Algebra, so I’d forgotten most of it. I’m hoping that Algebra is like riding a bike; once I get started again, I’ll remember it and just fly right through.

I’ve earned this two week break, and I’m going to make sure I get some leisure time in. I have some fun stuff planned already. I will be missing the third day of math class to go see Lady Gaga!!! MusicMan and I are planning on taking a day off of work at the end of August to go enjoy the Great Minnesota Get Together, or the Minnesota State Fair. Oh! And, I’ll be missing a week of class in the middle of September, because—get this—work is sending me to Lake Tahoe for a software conference!

Lake Tahoe!!! I am so super excited. I’ve never been, but I’ve heard great things. To make this even better, MusicMan is going to tag along with me! We’re flying in on a Sunday and leaving Wednesday evening. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights from Minnesota to Reno, so we’ll have to deal with layovers and connecting flights and about a one hour shuttle from Reno to the hotel in Tahoe. The first day of the conference only has one late afternoon session on the agenda, which is only a few hours long, so we’ll get to enjoy Tahoe together on Monday. Then, we’ll spend a little time Tuesday evening after the conference exploring Tahoe a bit, and MusicMan can go out and enjoy it a little more Wednesday while I’m at the conference. It will be nice little getaway for both of us—more so for MusicMan, since he’ll have no other obligations, but I should be able to work in some downtime too while we’re there.

I’m catching up on all of your blogs, lovely readers, but I haven’t left a lot of comments lately. My brain has been entirely too fried to leave coherent thoughts. I’m hoping to get back into the swing of blogging, reading, and commenting this week, and I’m so looking forward to catching up with all of you!!

How have you been?
How is your summer going?

L for Let the Crazy Begin!

First things first, lovely reader. I earned an A on my Sociology midterm!!! I am super duper proud of myself. As you know, I wasn’t sure I did all that well on it (partially because it was my first experience with blue book exams). Remember how I was concerned that the instructor would think I was bullshitting her? Well, apparently she didn’t see it that way at all. In fact, in some of the areas I thought I bullshitted the most, she wrote things like “Exactly!” “Yes! Yes! Yes!” “Absolutely!” and “Perfect!” This means I’m getting an A in the class, so hopefully I have a little leeway for the group project, which I don’t think is gonna be great (or even good). Then again, I have been accused of being a pessimist, so I could be totally wrong.

This weekend marks the beginning of the two busiest weeks of my summer. While I would like to be able to say that I’ll spend the long holiday weekend resting and relaxing in order to prepare myself for the hectic schedule ahead, that’s simply not true. I will be spending the weekend finishing the work for the Public Speaking Competency; the writing of the speech in particular. I’m down to the wire now. I’ve put myself in this situation in which I now simply have to force myself to get it done. As long as I pass this competency, I’ll be happy at this point. I just want it done.

Here’s what the next two weeks looks like:

Monday, July 5: The speech project will be done or nearly done. (Hopefully time for a little rest and relaxation?)

Tuesday, July 6: English class starts. This writing intensive course marks the beginning of five weeks of large, time consuming writing assignments.

Wednesday, July 7: Sociology final. (Hopefully I'll do as well as I did on the midterm!) I'm hoping my group will gather after the exam to practice our presentation. There are some group members who seem to think we should meet an hour before class while others of us would prefer to spend that time studying for the final. We’ll see how it plays out.

Thursday, July 8: English class. Cross fingers, wish, hope, and pray that there’s no assignment for at least another week.

Friday, July 9: Catch up on Lifetime Fitness reading and homework. Work on inevitable English homework.

Saturday, July 10: Tie up any loose ends that remain for the Public Speaking Competency. Work on first writing assignment for English. (I just know the first one will have been assigned by now.) Attend cousin’s wedding from late afternoon on, calling it an early night in order to get home and back to working on homework.

Sunday, July 11: Practicing speech. (I hope.) Work on English assignment. Practice for Sociology group presentation.

Monday, July 12: Last day of Sociology class! Group presentation.

Tuesday, July 13: English Class.

Wednesday, July 14: SPEECH!

Thursday, July 15: English Class.

Friday, July 16: Catch up on Lifetime Fitness reading and homework. Begin new English assignment. Celebrate that the two weeks of complete and utter craziness are over. Begin worrying about results of Public Speaking Competency. Work to reconnect with MusicMan, because I will not have seen or spent hardly any quality time with him the whole week.

It’s times like these when I really start questioning what I’ve done. What have I gotten myself into? Do I really have what it takes to do this for three more years?! Then, of course, I remind myself that this will all be worth it in the end. Then, I wonder if social work is really the right path for me; it’s hard work with not much monetary payoff, there’s a quick burnout rate, and sometimes I think I hate people too much to want to try to help them. Then, I spend about a millisecond thinking about quitting it all and taking my life back. Then, I remind myself that this will all be worth it in the end.

It hasn’t even started yet, but I’m already exhausted!! I’ll get through it. Somehow...someway...I will get through it.

Hopefully with most of my sanity still intact!

I’m working on a couple posts that I’m going to try to complete and schedule for the time that I’m away. At the very least, there should be Wayback Wednesday posts both weeks. I’m also working on passing along some blog awards that a couple of my wonderful readers have passed along to me.

For my American readers, I hope you have a wonderful (and safe) holiday weekend!! (Of course, I hope my non-American readers also have a fantastic weekend!)

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!

S for Summer of Hell (Week 1)

I can’t believe it’s June already! Where has the time gone, lovely reader?! My first summer class starts today, the second one starts tomorrow, and I’m so not ready! What’s that thing “they” say about the road to hell being paved with good intentions?! Yeah. I had the best intentions to have most of my Public Speaking competency wrapped up by the time summer classes started, and I’m sure you can guess just how much of that goal I’ve accomplished.

Let’s just say that road to hell got quite a bit longer thanks to me. I did get a little bit of the competence narrative (a write up of my experiences and abilities) finished, but that’s about it. I have to give the speech and hand in the written narrative and speech outline on July 14. I really need to get moving! The problem is that I pretty much have no motivation to do it. I mean, sure, there’s the motivation that it will be one more competency completed and out of the way, which is one step closer to completing my degree; however, independent of that, I just have no motivation to get it done.

I don’t have a problem with the speaking part at all; it’s the writing and research part that I’m dreading. I’m also having trouble thinking of a subject that I’m passionate enough about to speak on for 10-12 minutes. Domestic violence is a huge thing for me, but doesn’t play well into the visual aid factor, and I can’t really think of a call to action. I think I’m going to end up talking about a couple easy ways to go green by using reusable water bottles and shopping bags. The visual aid factor is simple; I can show my own reusable bottles and bags. The research part is proving a little difficult in that I’m not finding scholarly journals or any other sources (besides websites) that really talk about the waste reduction and other benefits of reusable bags and bottles. I need to use three different types of supporting material (i.e. internet, magazine, scholarly journal, book) and five researched sources.

The whole thing just has me super crabby! In my head, I’m constantly throwing toddler-like temper tantrums; kicking and screaming and yelling, “I. DON'T. WANNA!!!” which isn’t exactly helping things along. I feel as though I'm moments away from a full blown meltdown. This just isn't like me. I don't know what it is about this competency that has me in such a fit, but I do know that it's a huge problem that I just don't want to do it. I feel the loathing and resistance in my core, coursing through my veins.

My Lifetime Fitness class started today. It’s an online class, so I logged in this morning to check things out. Overall, it doesn’t look like it should be too bad. We’re required to read so many chapters of the textbook each week, complete the labs for each chapter, complete a fitness log each week, participate in online discussion, develop a fitness plan, and there will be two big tests over the 8 week period. Hopefully I’ll learn some good tips for working exercise into my day. We’ll also do a nutritional assessment at some point, which should be interesting and helpful.

Sociology starts tomorrow. I’ve heard it’s more of a lecture course, which I’m really hoping is true. I don’t want to have a lot of homework in this class, because I have enough already with trying to finish up the speech and doing my fitness stuff each week. I’m really really really hoping there’s no group work. I Loathe (Yes, with a capital "L") group work, and the social science classes seem to love the technique of forcing people to work together.

I am glad that my summer classes are actually on campus instead of at satellite locations (excluding the online one, of course). The campus is pretty quick and easy for me to get to from work, and I feel more like I’m actually going to school when I’m on campus. Monday and Wednesday nights are going to be late ones for the next seven weeks though; Sociology runs from 6 to 9:40! This means I won’t actually get home until around 10 or a little after, which is past my bedtime.

Music Man and I are heading to Duluth again this coming weekend. Yes, the week just started and I’m already thinking about next weekend. I’m sooooo not ready to be back at work this week! Once again, I’ll sit in the hotel working on homework as Music Man plays his gig Saturday night. It will be a nice little getaway though. This time the weather should be nicer, allowing us to walk around a little bit once we arrive on Saturday. I am hoping planning to get a lot of work and research done for the Public Speaking competency Saturday evening.

I’m also hoping to get the opportunity to pre-write a few blogs posts this weekend. Since my hectic summer schedule has officially started now, I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to blog. I’m going to try my very best to keep up with Wayback Wednesdays, and I’m setting a goal of having at least one other post each week. I will try my hardest to stick to that, lovely reader. I will also try hard to keep up with reading your blogs, because I miss you so much when I don’t. Please be understanding if I suddenly seem to have disappeared off the face of the Earth. Know that I’m thinking about you and missing you and that I’ll return as soon as I can!

W for What the French, toast?!?

Music Man and I are looking into upgrading our cell phones. We typically do this every two years when our contract is up, because our service provider offers great deals on upgrades. We decided that we’re finally going to join the grown up world by getting Smartphones. You know; the kinds where you can surf the ‘net, check email, manage your calendar, etc. We realize that we are behind the curve on this, and nothing made that more apparent than an online review I read:

“I am 13 years old, and I absolutely love this phone, this is actually the first time I have touched my computer since I got it. It is fast and ideal for facebook, and other internet applications. I love the photo quality and I love the texting features, it is easy to work, and the touchscreen feels great.”

Apparently, there are 13 year olds out there with Smartphones!  Ummmmm…what?!?

Now, Music Man and I don’t exactly need these phones, but we will be able to make good use of all of that extra functionality. I’m particularly excited about the calendar, because I need a good, easy way to keep track of my schedule (especially my class schedule) and to do lists. I used to love the Palm that I carried around, but it got to be too much having to regularly check, and lug around, a cell phone, ipod, and Palm. Having all of it combined into one phone really will save me a lot of time; though I do still plan on using the ipod for music and games.

I’m also excited about the ability to check email on my phone, and to have the ability to access the internet; this will come in handy when I want to check personal email while I’m at work or waiting for class to start or when Music Man and I are on one of our mini-getaways and want to find restaurants near us. The GPS feature will be great for getting directions to locations we’ve never visited before.

What I don’t understand is why a 13 year-old would need, or have, a Smartphone. I can maybe understand the necessity of a pre-paid cell phone, because it seems pay phones are in short supply nowadays; in case of emergency, I’d probably want my kid to have a cell phone too. However, I cannot fathom why you’d want to give a 13 year-old the ability to access the internet anywhere and everywhere, to play games whenever they want, and the unlimited ability to text. Seriously! What good can come of this?!

Some of my classmates enjoy spending class time texting, surfing the net, and doing who knows what else on their phones during class. These same classmates are the ones who complain about not understanding the subject matter, not knowing (even though it’s been said at least once per class) what material will be on the upcoming quiz, and not understanding how to complete the labs. Now, if those 18 and up can’t exercise self control, and don’t have the ability to understand that class time is for learning (not texting), I can’t imagine that putting that temptation in the hands of a 13 year-old is a good thing.

I’d imagine that it has become necessary for elementary, middle, and high schools to have cell phone policies now. So in addition to shaping young minds and dealing with difficult parents, it is now the teacher’s job to act as cell phone police. They don’t get paid enough to do their jobs to begin with, and now they must waste time fighting with a 13 year-old over his or her cell phone. Unreal!! Is it any wonder that the entitlement whore epidemic is sweeping the nation?!

Perhaps it is a good thing that Music Man and I probably will never have children. We’re way too out of the loop and old fashioned. That online review sparked a conversation between us that shows that, not only are we on the same page as far as parenting is concerned (which we already knew), but also that our kids would absolutely hate us. When they got old enough to need a cell phone and to understand its uses, they’d get a pre-paid cell phone for emergency, or call mom and dad, use only. There would be no internet capability and no texting.

Yes; our kids would absolutely loathe us, which wouldn’t be at all surprising when you consider the teasing and shunning we’d be condemning them to by not allowing them to have a Facebook account until they were at least 16; and even then, we’d need the id and password in order to be able to check up on them. Also, computer time for non-educational purposes (i.e. to hang out on Facebook) would be seriously limited and would only be done on a computer centrally located in a public section of our home (i.e. not our child’s bedroom).

I just really don’t understand a lot of parents nowadays. What’s happened to parenting?! It seems that far too many parents are more concerned with being the “cool parent” or the friend than with disciplining and educating their kids! This creates parents that give in to their child’s every whim, because god forbid Junior doesn’t have the cool cell phone that all the other kids have. What statement would that make? Obviously that we don’t care enough about Junior’s social development, or that we cannot afford such luxuries, and we must not allow people to think that!

These same parents are shocked when their kid falls victim to an internet predator, ends up pregnant as a teenager, gets caught drinking underage, falls behind in school, etc. Maybe it’s one of those things you have to be a parent to understand, but I doubt it. I swear, lovely reader, sometimes I feel as though my head will explode when I try to figure out where common sense has gone!!

In other news, Geology still sucks, but there are only five weeks left! (Then, I get a couple weeks all before jumping into that crazy summer schedule!) The class location is still absolutely ridiculous, and I will be writing that into my class evaluation at the end of the semester. I walked into the building at 6 o’clock last night, and I saw my classmates on the elevator as the elevator doors closed. I finished checking in with security, and began walking to the elevator.

I was stopped by the guard. “Ma’am you have to wait. You can take a seat over there in the lobby.”

Me: “Ummmm…that was my class on the elevator; I just missed them.”

Guard: “Yep. And you’ll have to wait. I can’t have you going up there and getting lost somewhere.”

Me: * Disarming laugh* “This is my third week here. I know where I’m going. Besides, by the time I get off the elevator I’ll only be about five feet behind my classmates. I’ll be okay.”

Guard: “Take a seat in the waiting area. I’ll give them a couple minutes to get to the classroom, and then I’ll call up.” (Obviously disarming laugh didn't work)

Me: *Thinking WTF?!? Are you serious right now?!?* “No thanks. I’ll stand here and wait, because I’m now late to class.”

I know, I know; poor me. (Who’s the entitlement whore now, Elle?!) I get that it was entirely my fault that I’d just missed the class. I know this guard was just doing his job. However, he’s seen me for the past two weeks now, and he knows I’m part of that class—he’d even commented as I was checking in on how I’d just missed them! I don’t understand why I couldn’t be allowed to join them.

Five minutes passes; two other classmates have arrived. I’m getting incredibly impatient. I glare at the guard. He finally picks up the phone and dials up to the room. The classmate whose job it is to lead the latecomers up to the room arrives, just as one of our late classmates had decided to go use the bathroom. (Really?!? She couldn’t have waited one godforsaken minute for us to at least get up to the floor the classroom is on?!)

I’m very, very agitated at this point. I hate being late, and due to circumstances beyond my control, I’m now over 10 minutes late to class!

We arrive in the classroom as the instructor nears the end of attendance. Good thing my name is near the end of the alphabet; he calls it out right as I sit down. I didn’t miss out on anything, but I’m still pissed. It is inevitable that, on any given class day, someone (or a few people) will be up to five minutes late. It happens—you hit a long red light, you get stuck behind the slow car, you’re halfway into the building and realize you forgot something in your car…

That being the case, I don’t know who thought it would be a good idea to hold classes in an offsite location that has such strict rules for coming and going. It’s asinine, and that’s exactly what I plan to write in my review at the end of the semester!

Final thought: I’m ridiculously busy lately! I’m trying to stay caught up with Geology homework, which seems to increase by the week, and I still haven’t started working on my Public Speaking Competency, which is now just over two weeks away! I’m feeling very stressed out and overtaxed.

I had a minor meltdown yesterday, and poor Music Man suffered the brunt of it. It's moments like those that I'm glad to have such a kind, patient, understanding husband. I realized, thanks to him, that I just need to ask for help. Novel idea; I know. If I need him to pick up some of my household chores, I just need to tell him. I know that deep down, but I just hate feeling as though I'm not doing my part. It's not fair that Music Man has to be the sole person responsible for keeping our household in order!

That said I have to apologize for not making it around to visit and comment on all of your blogst. I haven’t forgotten about you, lovely reader, and I will catch up on my blog reading and commenting as soon as I can!

The title for this post comes from one of my all-time favorite commercials. I need to start working "lint licker" and "cootie queen" into my vocabulary.

M for Mash-Up

Before I get into today’s topics, I want to send a heartfelt thank you to all of you who commented on my last post. I was a little scared when I hit the post button. Your amazingly well thought out, supportive comments warmed my heart. You are my people!!! I’ve found my bloggy tribe! I had visions of a max exodus of readers from my blog. You can imagine how astonished I was not only to not seem to lose readers or followers, but to actually gain some as well! Awesomesauce!!

Okay; now onto week two of Geology. This week was a little bit better than last week. My expectations were obliterated, but in a good way: only one person was late to class and only by ten minutes! That means the classroom phone only rang once. It also means that class wasn’t disrupted, because the professor was just doing roll call. He insists on doing it old school style; calling out names and waiting for a “here” or a “present” or a “yep.” My faith in my classmates is temporarily restored!

Because I didn’t do a very good job managing my time last week, I had to get all of my homework done over the weekend. It was not cool, but I deserved it for not doing a better job of spacing out homework over the week. After going to my niece’s fourth birthday party on Saturday, I took up position on the couch and began reading the three assigned chapters of the textbook. (An amazing feat in and of itself, because I would usually crash and nap on the couch after a children’s birthday party)

I nearly fell asleep several times, and I really started to wonder if it was truly possible for someone to die from boredom. I allowed myself to take a ten-minute break here and there to check email, read a blog, or check up on Facebook. I surprised myself with how good I was about reigning myself back in after ten minutes and pushing my nose right back down to the grindstone. I was proud of me!

Four hours after I started, I had the three chapters read and outlined. That seems like a ridiculous amount of time—I know—but I was being really anal retentive about note taking, because I just wasn’t sure about how to approach this class, and the chapters were surprisingly long (like ridiculously long). I figure it’s better to do too much than to do too little though.

I watched two of the three assigned videos on Sunday and the third one at work during lunch on Monday. I was pleased to discover that the videos did a really good job of summing up the topics from the chapters I’d read in the textbook. The videos weren’t as bad as I thought they’d be in terms of content. The one on volcanoes was actually quite interesting!

The ‘80’s haircuts and clothing of the narrating professors left something to be desired though. Wow! Have we come a looooooong way since the ‘80’s!! Did every guy seriously walk around looking like “Chester the Molester” with the Tom Selleck moustache, out of control sideburns, and short shorts that would rival those worn by many a teen girl today?! I honestly can’t recall; maybe it was just the geology professors that favored that particular style.

I felt pretty prepared walking into class (well, into the building to wait to be led up to class) on Monday. The professor lectured for two hours. I was able to keep up with what he talked about, even referring to appropriate areas in my notes. I took that as a sign that I did a good job on my notes. We took a fifteen-minute break, and then it was time for our first lab.

Since we’d just finished learning about igneous rocks (summarized for you, lovely reader, as rocks formed by lava), the lab was designed to test our knowledge by having us identify twelve rock samples. We needed to come up with the mineral content (based on color) and the texture: glassy, aphanitic (or fine grain), phaneritic (coarse grain), or porphyritic (two textures).

That information decided, we referred to our handy dandy rock charts with mineral content on the x axis and texture on the y axis. Where our mineral content and texture crossed, was the name of the rock. To double check our work, we could refer to pictures in our lab manual that showed dozens of rocks and their texture. I am proud to report that I got 10 out of 12 correct! WOOOOHOOO! This Geology thing might not be so bad after all!

Well, except for the fact that I snagged my fingernail on the pumice sample, which then left me with a ragged fingernail, which just about drove me nuts by the time class was over. I cannot stand having snaggy fingernails!! Oh, and it’s still really, really boring material.

I have two chapters and videos as homework this week. I’m halfway through chapter reading, and I plan to watch the videos on Sunday and Monday. I’m doing much better on homework this week.

I had a moment of panic today when I realized that April 17 is coming fast, which means I need to get my ass in gear on the Public Speaking Competency! I still have no idea what I want to do my persuasive speech on. I’m thinking maybe something about domestic violence or animal rescue—both things that I am quite passionate about. I have to prepare a ten-minute speech, do a “sentence outline” of the speech, and prepare the competency narrative (basically a resume of my public speaking knowledge, abilities, and experience). Hopefully I’ll be able to focus on that in the weeks and weekends ahead! (No, not hopefully; I must make time to focus on it!)

I registered for summer classes yesterday. It was slim pickin’s, and my summer schedule will be a doozy!! I’ll be taking Lifetime Fitness online. Here’s the class description:

Studies physical fitness, nutrition and stress as they relate to health. Through testing and self-assessments, the student's current status is analyzed. After the information on improving skills in each area is presented, the student will develop a plan for implementation. The course will include information on cardiovascular and cancer risk reduction, aging and health, sexually transmitted diseases, and substance abuse control.

The cool thing about this course is that it’s a two-for-one; it covers both the health and physical education requirements. I think it will be an interesting class, and I can most definitely use information/motivation to become more healthy and fit. It’s my first online class, so I’m a little nervous; I don’t know exactly what to expect in terms of time commitment and workload. Class starts June 1 and runs to July 22.

I’ll also be taking Social Inequalities: Race, Class, & Gender. This class is bound to be fascinating, and I’m really looking forward to it. The class name is pretty self-explanatory; I’ll be learning about economic inequality (poverty), ethnic inequality (racism), and gender inequality (sexism). Class runs from 6-10 PM Mondays and Wednesdays, starting June 2 and ending July 12. This will be the first time that I have a class that meets twice a week.

I’ll end the semester with my final required English class: Research Writing in the Disciplines. The reason I decided to take this class this summer is that I eventually have to take creative writing to fill a fine arts requirement, and I didn’t want to be stuck having to take two writing intensive classes during the same semester. I like writing, but there is such a thing as overkill! This class runs from 6-9 PM Tuesdays and Thursdays, starting July 6 and ending August 5.

When I plotted this all out on an actual calendar, I wondered what in the heck I’d gotten myself into! There is some overlap that’s going to cause the week after the 4^th of July, and the week following that, to be pretty hectic. I’ll have my two English classes both weeks, and one Sociology class each week, so I’ll be in classes for three nights both weeks. I’ll also still be involved in Lifetime Fitness online. I think I’ll be able to manage it all, but it’s going to be a crazy few months!!

Photo: Zazzle.com

(I might end up needing to invest in one of these! It's only fair to warn those around me.) 

Good thing I’ll have a few weeks off after the summer semester ends. I think I’m gonna need a vacation!

After summer semester is over, I’ll be halfway done with my associate’s degree, which is super exciting. That means I’ll only be a year away from joining the social work bachelor’s program. I’m so psyched!!