I did some iTunes maintenance this evening only to discover that Tracey is a closet Conway Twitty fan. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the few Twitty tracks in her music folder. One such tune was Red Neckin’ Love Makin’ Night, a country boogie that’s bound to make you go straight out and buy some wranglers, cowboy boots, and stetson hat. Stop by the 7-11 for the Skoal Bandits while you’re at it. Tracey confirmed that this track made her workout mix.
My personal Twitty favorite? Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On.
So Twitty inspired my post. Guess I better type something more. First let me pop in some George Jones.
It’s the Friday eve before the first week of school for me. Last weekend was the break-in with an accounting and math review. I was glad I did the homework for that opening salvo. I’ve been doing homework ever since to prepare for the upcoming week. I’ve gotten the first two full days of assignments done, only three more to go before Sunday. A pot of coffee is on standby tonight, and it will be used. I’ll brew it right after I get this post done.
A funny story from the math review last weekend… Of course the instructor forwarded the class notes with instructions to read through them. I was about lost reading through ten pages of 53. So when we entered the class for that first session I was expecting to be blown away.
Note: The instructor was really awesome. No joke. I’m not sure of his nationality, but the stereotype look applies to him – small foreign person with foreign accent (stick figure with brain), has to be the worst, “how will I ever understand him” teacher. However his passion for mathematics was contagious and I’m absolutely looking forward to his statistics course although I know I will struggle.
Anyway, here we are. Forty-eight of us looking at this man and hearing his accent and I think just about all of us were thinking that the next four hours would be hell. He starts off his lecture, a lecture on mathematics for people in their 30’s and 40’s who haven’t seen much less performed real math for 20+ years, on fractions. The first section was on fractions. Simple enough.
He spoke for a few minutes, his style is pacing the room, making eye contact with each student, observing their body language, seeking interaction… He suddenly stopped in the middle of the room 5 or so minutes in to his download and states as if the fate of the free world rested on the very words flowing from his lungs, “a fraction is any number as expressed as ‘p’ over ‘q’.” The room was silent. The professor swiveled his head and eyes for over thirty seconds making eye contact with all 48 students. “Ok? It is any number expressed as ‘p’ over ‘q’.” Then he proceeded to spend roughly 10 minutes on fraction basics from 3rd grade as if the methods for working with fractions were just discovered yesterday.
I almost laughed out loud. It was everything I could do to contain myself. But over the next three hours and forty minutes I hung on every word. It was only until he introduced logarithms that I hit a wall. Day two on the math review was pretty much a blur. Again I hung on every word and rolled with each joke, such as “math is all fashion. You always put the constant in front of the variable because it looks better. 3x just looks better than x3!”
So as you can tell, I was pretty blown away at the “review” weekend last weekend. I even got my accounting homework correct! So what if I used the text book as reference? At least I knew where to look in the book. That counts, right?
You’re sure to appreciate this… My 48 classmates all come from diverse backgrounds. In the class are a Boeing engineer who builds F-18 Superhornets, a brew master at Anheuser-Busch, a cardiologist, and the local COO for the United Way among others.
I hope I can get my homework complete before tomorrow’s Georgia v. Alabama game. Have you followed this this week? Georgia closed it’s practices to the press for the first time in like a decade because of rumors that Nick Saban was spying. Apparently a current Georgia coach who coached under Saban at LSU, informed Georgia that Saban likes to tape opponents practices or something to that effect. I guess he was motivated by the Patriots story out of the NFL. At any rate it has stirred up some press and allot of smack talk between the two schools and their fans. Go DAWGS!
Auburn will again be flat tomorrow. To add to their RB and QB woes and defensive injuries, now comes OL injuries. Looks like AU will start another true freshman on the OL against New Mexico State. NMS is coached by Hal Mumme. If you recall his offense at Kentucky in the days of Tim Couch was pretty lethal. Woody Widenhoffer of Steel Curtain defense (Pittsburgh Steelers) fame is the defensive coordinator there. I see Auburn struggling again. I honestly don’t know what to predict on the outcome. Rooting against Alabama and any team coached by a Bowden is about all I have left.
Hope you’re having a good Friday and a better weekend.
Salut!
PS: Don’t forget to catch the US Women take on England in the World Cup. The US advanced into the quarterfinals on the strength of their win over Sweden, not to mention Sweden defeating North Korea to give the US the lead in their group. England is peaking right now and this will be a tuff match. If they can get by England a show down with Brazil is shaping up in the semi’s. We have tickets to see the WNT take on Mexico here in STL after the world cup on the 13th. So we’re pretty engaged on the Cup right now hoping we see the World Champs in their first match stateside post-Cup, in the Edward Jones Dome at that.
My appreciation for many types of music (whether pleasing to your ears or not) is a tribute to the many types of music I’ve been exposed to from childhood to now. I’ve become a fan of even ‘2 Skinny J’s’ and ‘John Mayer’ because of you. I’m thankful to have had the opportunity to expand my senses. My devotion to Conway Twitty is my devotion to my Grandmother and my Mother. As a kid, sitting in her living room listening to the radio, all I can remember is her saying in that true Georgia accent, “I sure do love Conway Twitty.” Patsy Cline, Elvis, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams…there is something endearing to me about listening to them simply becaue my Grandmother loved hearing them on the radio. Mock me if you want. We show our devotion to our families in our own way.
Ouch. I guess I had that coming. It should be noted that even I have some country tunes laying around. Point taken.
Hi Tom & Tracy – you’re back in school?? Full-time?? Reminds me of returning to school in 1976 – I had to relearn math and even took statistics because my program started with intermediate stats. Leigh’s husband Tim completed an MBA on week ends – it took 2 yrs. & was busy busy for both Tim & Leigh. They’re glad though!
Love, Kay
Hi Kay. Technically I am a full-time student but the program is over 20 months predominantly on weekends. I just started and it certainly looks as though it will be fairly full for the duration of the program.