Well, in short, I didn't get the land. Ten minutes before I was supposed to meet the realtor to see the property, she called me, said she had just spoken to the listing agent, who was getting papers for it signed right then. Three days later, I found out that the money I thought I was getting that would have paid for it wasn't coming and wouldn't be there until next year. Anyway, I'm sure this just leaves me open for a a better opportunity in the future. Like next year. Now, I have discussed the whole patience teaching thing in the past. I've got it down pat, O Omniscient Being, you've taught me well. Please Stop!! ( It's nice to have someone else to blame, lolz)
In other news, that laughing demon of public speaking has finally been soundly thrashed. Ok, maybe just got his butt kicked and is hiding in the alley, but still, I took the fight to his corner. I joined Toastmasters last week.
My first week, I spoke for all of two minutes, and left the front of the room for my chair, shaking and blubbering all the way. It's not like acting, where you can pretend to be somebody else. That's fun, from what I remember of it. You have to be YOU up there for this kind of thing. THIS week, however, I survived through a 8 minute plus speech, one planned and organized, it even had an outline. Now, If can just keep from hiding behind a piece of paper, and stop trying to find my place from it, and stop saying 'ah' and "um" and "uh", I'll have the beast dealt with. Woot!
Why did I join toastmasters, you ask? Well, in selecting my college subjects, I found I could take Public Speaking. On a whim, I decided to take the course, not really thinking it through, just knowing that it was something I needed to work on and that it would fill a communications requirement for my degree. So yeah, it was all hunky dory until it dawned on me that I would actually have to SPEAK like I knew what I was talking about in front of PEOPLE. Yeah. Like signing up for the course would defeat the demon, right.
In addition to public speaking, Geology is awesome, but I need to study more. German is awesome, and I need to study more. It has affected my capitalization in English, that's for sure. I have to write everything twice. Cultural Anthropology has been a breeze, and almost pointless. It seems almost purely subjective and the least scientific or logical course of study I've come across.
I am thinking of auditioning for some sort of theatrical performance next summer. I won't have to go to North Dakota until the summer after next for school, and after the public speaking stuff it should be entertaining. I wonder what will be available then? Is there a "summer season" for theatre?
And on a completely different note, why do I like the British spellings of words so much more that the American versions? I have a friend who would say it's because the English version is correct, but she's British. 'Theatre". "Travelling." "Centre." Although I like that American English uses "z" rather than "s" in a lot of words. I think "Z" is my favorite letter, come to think of it.
I still need to conquer my use of parentheses. Also, I need to find something besides "in other news" and "and on a different note" to introduce random subjects. How does one look up that sort of thing? Is there a thesaurus for phrases?
I need to start writing again. I have a paper due in Anthropology by Oct. 10th, and a 10 sentence German essay this week, which will keep me writing, I guess, but that isn't quite what I mean. I need to start my novel over, after staying away from reading novels for a while. I still have a tendency to adopt the voice of whatever author I've been reading, rather than developing my own. the blogging thing may help with that, but my grammar needs LOTS of work there, as I'm sure you can tell. :P
So, enough mental vomit for one post, Adios! Or, rather, Auf Wiedersehen!
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