Study Session

I passed 3 of the 4 sections on my CSETs when I took them last month. The section that hurt me was the Speech, Media, and Creative Performance section. It has questions like asking the importance of lighting in a play and you have to explain how a light might be used on a character and the significance. Sound easy? Yes. I thought. It seemed easy enough, but I realized after talking with The Guy a couple of my answers were sort of cheesy. This section was cheesy in my opinion, though. We discussed my answers a few weeks ago and he said he'd be more than willing to sit down and help me study. I called him yesterday to ask when he'd be free. We both had a few hours today.

I was surprised to have an email from him this morning. Not a text. I was at school when he sent it and he told me how excited he was to meet at 3 thirteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. We had a really fun convo, I thought, about the most random stuff. Enchiladas, being Mexican, bacon, and the devil. LMAO. We cover all bases. That kept me occupied in Women's Studies today when I should have been paying attention. No worries there! Didn't miss anything. I can pay attention and multitask.

I get to his place at 3:30 as he emerges from his cat nap in the bedroom. We both use the bathroom, then go sit down on the couch with the dog. The Guy asks what I need help with and I show him the material. He says great and I give him the book. He jokes around eyeing back at me while I'm sitting there and reading in funny voices. I told him the best way to help me would be to read me the scenario and have me respond because it would be thinking on my toes, like with the test, but also he could provide his feedback.

He asked the first question and I responded. He kept telling me to back up and he interjected his thoughts. I noticed I was becoming a little defensive and he told me an area I could have probably said more or done better. I stopped that immediately when I realized he probably had something valid to say. We chatted and worked through each one. When he was giving me examples he worked sex like "Bob met Sally at the door, they hugged, embraced, then he grabbed her body, and ran up the stairs and raped her." Random stuff like that. He precautioned me however, not to use examples like his.

He made the determination probably what killed me on one of the questions that was worded very simliar to another question I had done on the actual test was that I made generalizations and kind of skirted around the issue. I think I got some good feedback and that was cool. I feel better.

We studied for about an hour, then we discussed a random Maya Angelou poem because I was breaking it apart looking for literary devices (figurative language, tone, alliteration, onomatopeia, etc.) and I was honestly hearing him break down this poem. He is the Masters in Lit, or soon to be, however. He seems amazing when he talks about stuff, so I just said I wanted to know how he'd talk about this poem. It was amazing. I am nowhere near his level. He asked me what I'd talk about- I said onomatopeia, rhyme scheme, and alliteration like they suggested and how I'd mention those, but he took it further. He brought in so much background and stuff it was just incredible to sit there. I was in awe. I can sit there and discuss literature like that, sound fairly intelligent, but he is the one who takes it a step further. He said that alliteration wasn't the big literary device used like the study book suggested. He argued the more important part was the rhyme scheme and how beautiful and how much that added to the poem, as well as the slant rhyme. I was blown away and glad I asked just for the hell of it. I can't find the poem online, it is in one of her books, otherwise I'd post it here. It was called "Worker's Song."

The Guy went in the computer room and we looked at guys on match.com and he winked at them. We discussed hot guys. He thought he looked better than the "older" mid 30s guys on there. He did. He had hair, he joked. We chatted about work and how things are going for both of us.

We went into the kitchen and he made us a smoothie with acai, orange, acai with blueberry, blueberries, and strawberries. It wasn't as tarty as usually, but had a sort of bitter tone to it. It was good, though, and I drank the whole thing.

He had to leave at 6 to go workout, but we had a good time, and I feel a lot more prepared. He made me consider a lot of things I might not have for the test. I'm ready for Saturday...