Summertime

I’m taking two classes in this first summer session, and both are requirements for my degree (as are all the remaining classes I will take in the next year and a half or so).  They are each three and a half hours long, twice a week.  One is in the morning and one is at night.  This makes for some long days. 

The morning class is an introduction to linguistics, which is something I doubt I will ever use.  So far, we’ve learned the symbols for sounds and fun, interesting stuff like that (yawn).  I can see how this would be useful knowledge for speech pathologists – knowing how the mouth forms sounds, but to be honest, it is three hours of boredom for me.  All of our tests are going to be open book, so I don’t forsee any problems getting good grades.  There hasn’t been any real homework, so I haven’t had to do anything outside of the actual class.  Three hours is a long time to sit still and listen to a lecture…

The evening class is a little better, though it’s more work.  It’s called Oral Interpretation, which is basically reading out loud in front of the class, all the while making it interesting.  It’s actually a drama class, but is a requirement for English teachers.  This one will be much more useful, as it will be my job to make literature inticing for teenagers.  If I’m not excited about what I’m teaching, how can I excite them?  So far, we’ve done two readings.  Luckily, as I have gotten older, I am not as shy as I once was, and it doesn’t bother me to get up in front of the class.  The only problem I’ve had with this class so far is in choosing what to read.  The first one could be whatever we wanted, and I used a blog about Texans.  For the second, I read a bit of Chuck Palahniuk’s book Stranger Than Fiction, and the next one will be an excerpt from The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.  Honestly, it took me about two hours to find just the right selection, because it can only be three minutes long. 

Anyhow, I enjoy this class much more, and it makes me wish I had time to do theater.  I was always in school plays from the time I was in fourth grade.  I always had a lot of fun with it, whether I was in a bit part or the lead, and I went a few times to competition and did well.  It’s something I missed when I got to high school.  My mother made me sign up for band, even though I didn’t want to.  She told me to try it one year, and if I didn’t like it I could quit.  I hated it.  The only time it was fun was during actual band class, when I could goof off with the other drummers in the back.  I was the only girl, and we had a lot of fun being jackasses.

At our high school, the two big things were football and band.  Of course, it being Texas and all, football was king, but our band program is the best in the state.  The problem with this is that if you played football or were in band, you didn’t have time for any other activities.  We had practice during school and after school, then games, games, and more games.  There was no time for me to be in plays, to go to rehearsals, even though I was in a drama class (with a teacher who would later become one of my best pals).  Then I got pregnant with Big J, and I didn’t have time for ANYTHING but him and school.

Oh well, maybe once my kids are grown I’ll have time to do something like that again.  Right now, the kids are out of school and seem to be trying to break a record for most jerky behavior towards one another.  When the weather is good, they’ve been outside most of the day, which is nice.  My respite is at night when they’re in bed, and I can sneak away for a while.  When I don’t have to worry about them fighting, my parents being assholes, when I can just be me.  Is it bed time yet?