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!