I'm beat

I've been working at home in the evenings this week.  I have a new duty at work, and this is the first week, so there has been a TON of preparation. What I am doing is teaching webinars.  That means that I'm teaching an online class.  People get online and are in the "classroom" and they listen via the speakers on their computer, or they can dial in to a toll-free number and listen that way.

This means talking for 40-45 minutes With. No. Response.  Now, anyone who knows me knows that I can talk for hours on end.  However, when you take out the interaction of the other person, it's tough!  Plus, I have to have enough material to fill just enough time, but not TOO much (we have to allow time for questions in the hour-long time slot) and I have to speak slowly (HARD FOR ME) and enunciate.

I have a helper in the class (when he teaches his classes, I am *his* helper) and he keeps reminding me to "speak slowly and enunciate."  I'm not good at either.  I tend to slip into hick-talk pretty easily, if I'm not careful.  Plus, I talk FAST.  I'm telling you, this is a totally new and different world.

Let me hop slightly off-topic for a minute.  All of my life, people have told me to shut up.  They told me this kindly (please give me a minute) and rudely (shut the HELL up!) and they told my parents (Rachel is doing well in school, but she tends to visit too much with her neighbor.)  I start talking right after my first cup of coffee, and have no plans to quit until I am falling asleep.  People get annoyed by that.

Guess what, SUCKERS?????  I now get PAID to talk.  I landed a pretty sweet customer service job, and the biggest portion of my day is chatting with people on the phone.  Sometimes, I get to travel for trade shows, and I get to talk to people in person for hours!  Then, I take a few customers to dinner, and TALK. SOME. MORE!  HA!

OK, back on topic.  Now, they've taken my fondness for "conversating" (my favorite non-word used on Survivor) and turned it in to an online class.  I can do it.  I AM doing it.  I'm actually doing decent at it, so far.  I've taught 2 this week, and as long as I can talk slowly and enunciate, I'll be fine.

The second was better than the first, and I think that trend will continue.  After the first one, I thought, "well, that was mediocre at best.  *sigh*) and before I got back to my desk from the quiet zone from which we teach, I had an email and two voicemail messages, telling me how great it was!  That made me feel better.

Now, I have to add more slides to my slide show, draw out the content about another 10 minutes, and SPEAK SLOWLY AND ENUNCIATE.  I have no classes next week, so I have time to do that, without working until 10:30 at night, like I did this week.

Holy crap.  All of that nonsense and over-explaining was to get to this point: I'm not doing anything tonight.  I'm not working on slide shows.  I'm not cooking.  I'm not cleaning.  I'm not doing laundry or hooking up scanners to scan my senior picture.  I'll do that tomorrow. 

Kevin is picking up a take-and-bake pizza from WalMart (I love those things) and I'm going to read journals and watch TV and finish by going to bed early. 

This weekend?  I may hibernate again.  Although, if Mom and Dad are home, I need to do a few things to my car in the comfort of Dad's heated shop.  It was -2 here this morning, and I'm just now starting to get feeling in my toes again.

I hate being cold.

But I love to talk!  Call me!

P.S.  Spell check wanted to turn "webinar" into "weiner."  ROFL