Human Sexuality: The Next Dr. Ruth Westheimer or Female Incarnation of Dr. Drew

One of the classes I'll be taking this fall will be Human Sexuality. It's a prerequisite to many pre-med programs, and an easy one at that. So despite my lack of experience in the area, I may become the female Dr. Drew or the modern equivalent of the ancient (or no longer with us, may she rest in peace if such is the case) Dr. Ruth Westheimer. I've only heard about Dr. Ruth, never having seen any of her actual work. I think we've all seen plenty of Dr. Drew these days even if all we do is channel surf. He's become an expert on virtually everything. I wouldn't be surprised to hit the weather channel button and find him there discussing Tropical Storm Andrea.

I have seen several clips of another lady, Sue Johanson, on her program, Talk Sex with Sue Johanson.   At first I found the program practically roll-on-the-floor funny, because Ms. Johanson looks like she's someone's grandmother and probably is, yet she was discussing sexual topics  in very graphic detail with roughly the same demeanor as one might expect of someone in her age demographic if she were
talking about knitting, quilting,or the finer points of baking pies with lattice crusts. As I paid more attention, I realized there was considerable substance to what she said. I say that with the disclaimer that I have absolutely no experience in the matters she was discussing, and for all I know every single thing she said could have come from conversations with lunar aliens. The funniest part of the program was when she would reveal a different sex toy every week, which had been personally tested by a member of her staff or crew. she would discuss the sex toy's pros and cons and give it a numerical rating.  My brother isn't so easily amused by all things sexual, and when I showed him a few of the clips, even he was laughing so hard he could barely breathe. In my old age, presuming I've had experience in the domain by that time and haven't run off to a nunnery, I want to be Sue Johanson.

As early as it seems, it's now time to schedule fall classes. Music courses (senior recital, junior recital, choral conducting, and accompanist for chamber choir) will make up the bulk of my schedule. the chamber choir accompanist thing is because I have to have a certain number of semesters of performance group participation. I've covered most of it with the a womens' a capella group and the musical theatre participation when I played Chava, but I still need another semester. there will be at least one more accompanist, and we can trade off attendance, which will be nice. The music will be stuff that I can sightread for the most part. If I'm ever sick and can't arrange coverage with the other accompanist, I have my mother upon which to fall back, since she won't be lecturing at that hour. I don't want to abuse my relationship to her, but it's nice to know that she will probably be available if needed.

I'm not taking classes this summer, as I have a few things already on my agenda, including recording voice-overs for the music producer of a Utah film making operation and completing a lab internship.  .Furthermore, I have senior recital in piano coming up, followed by a violin junior recital in  November, followed by a senior violin recital in March. If I'd known what I know now when I started the whole college experience, I would've skipped the piano performance major and just concentrated my efforts on violin, as the violin performance major is the one that's apparently going to make a difference on medical school applications, and the piano performance major at that point becomes, as Knotty's professor or academic advisor called it, "gilding the lily." Still, once I've come this far, it would be foolish to toss it out, and maybe the dual piano/violin performance thing really will make a difference "sometime and somewhere."  It seems that 4.0 math/science majors with dual degreesin violin (most of whom are Asian females) for some reason have a leg up on the competition when it comes to medical school admissions that dual math/science and piano majors do not. Still, the piano major cannot possibly work against me, and since I'm virtually ready for it, I may as well see it through to fruition.

I've also received  permission to use my mom or my Uncle Scott as my accompanist for my senior violin recital. My Uncle Scott is my preferred choice since it will not appear that I'm playing the nepotism card by using him, and if he has a date provided far enough in advance,he can be guaranteed of the time off. He will have third-year resident status by then, which will give him even greater priority in scheduling.  Actually asking him to play the music is not an imposition, as he is good enough to sightread anything I'm likely to throw at him.  I like the option of having my mom as a backup just in the event that his wife were to become ill, which happens once or twice a year. He would still feel obligated to show up unless she were practically at death's doorstep, but I would not want him to be at my senior recital if he were to be needed by his wife at the hospital. The odds are against her body choosing that specific time to become gravely ill, but still, I like the backup plan.  Many recital performers use students - in fact over the next two semesters I'm playing for a cello recital, a voice recital, a violin recital, and a flute recital, for all  of which I will be paid, to cover performance requirements. I'm not willing to use a student. We're all human, but a student is more human than most, and I don't want anyone manifesting his or her humanity at my senior recital. I have enough to worry about without having to concern myself with what performance jitters might do to my accompanist. My mom and my Uncle Scott are pretty much jitter-free.

My brain is again approaching the malfunction stage, which tells me I've probably studied all I should study tonight.  I have a late morning final tomorrow, followed by an early afternoon one, neither of which concerns me terribly. I'm prepared. I've studied all quarter, and I've done a decent review of material that I thoroughly committed to memory much earlier in the quarter. although right now it doesn't totally feel like it, I did most of the preparation almost two months ago. Other than my one really difficult course, I should have been able to walk into the classroom and nail each final without a review. My mildly OCD personality won't allow me to do this, of course, but other than for my Physics/Mechanics of Fractures class, the studying I'm doing isn't as intense as what most of my classmates are doing right now. When I was at the beach yesterday, my company consisted of nonstudents from my university. The few people I saw who were likely **** students on the beach yesterday had textbooks and notebooks open in front of them.

It's technically two finals down, two more to go tomorrow, and the last two, including the blockbuster, on Wednesday. Then it's celebration mode. I'd include a clip of Kool & the Gang's Celebration, but I've always disliked that song.