at least she didn't have cats: Drama, Drama Everywhere, and not a Drop to Drink

Very freaky week. And amazingly, NONE of it had to do with any family member of any kind. Ordinarily this would be one of the most pleasant experiences I could imagine; HOWEVER...Be careful what you wish for? Two summer school classes and it is almost midterm time already.

Group Process class is progressing nicely. Excellent instructor, enthusiastic classmates, stimulating assignments. Then comes the GIANT MONKEY WRENCH. My small group is studying the roles and dynamics of another small group and one person objected to the way our questions were worded. No biggie, right? She tells the other group members in no uncertain terms NOT TO RESPOND (and, yes, she did use the bold face all cap font); accuses my group of possibly being unethical (bye-bye to four careers before they even begin); and she drags in the department chair (felt like being called to the Principal's office.) After a very stressful week of email backing and forthing, I think/hope/pray the situation has been resolved. But I tell ya, this would have been the week for many, many cigarettes!

Online Health and Nutrition class, not any fun. I don't know what I was expecting. This is my first online class and I admit I was dreading it. I LOVE being in the classroom; the dynamism feeds my academic soul; and so my attitude toward an online learning experience was, as my daughter says "somewhat meh." Three to four long reading assignments, journaling, commenting on the journaling of other students, and at least two 20 question quizzes every week. The writing stuff is fine for me. But this past week we had severe thunderstorms five nights in a row. Kind of limited the online time unless one cared to risk a lightening strike and loss of everything. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the instructor usually does not "enable student access" when the assignments are posted on godforsaken Blackboard. We lose two days sometime trying to convince her that SHE needs to click the correct clicker so we can do our work.

The conclusion of this part of the rant is this: Even though they are open book, I am stinking up these quizzes. 60 minutes for 20 measly questions should be plenty of time, right? And by stinking I mean 15 correct. My personal standards are usually much higher. So when I finished the latest quiz just now, submitted my answers and learned (HALLELUJAH!) that I scored 20 out of 20 correctly I freaking burst into tears. I will be so happy when this course is finished. It is just too much drama for me.