I am looking forward to Rhetoric. I’m eager to learn how to communicate more effectively. Too bad I won't have a chance to study it before Wednesday, when our homeschool group gets together for Park Day. I was asked to introduce The Well Trained Mind to the group.

Know why I blog? Because I love to blather on and on about topics that interest me, but in real life, I'm a terrible conversationalist. It's much easier for me to type it all out. Small talk kills me, trying to think of something worth saying, and when something does interest me enough to share, I get tongue-tied, lost in the details, trying to pack a multitude of thoughts into one coherent statement. Add that to an introverted personality and well, you can see why public relations rep was the completely wrong career choice for me.

I couldn’t have cared less if nobody ever came to our shows, couldn’t make fake, happy party chitchat with reviewers, directors, or producers, and I couldn't ever think of anything dazzling enough to say to a celebrity that they wouldn’t instantly forget, having heard it countless times before. I was Andy Warhol, hanging back, observing, taking notes.

Add a little fatigue or stress and the situation deteriorates. Mixing metaphors, I am Mrs. Malaprop. Once, forced to temporarily handle six lines of incoming calls for a vanished receptionist while simultaneously juggling one grouchy CEO and two impending printing disasters that had been the responsibility of my now out-of-town boss, I attempted to relay the information to the very impatient caller that Cyndi, my boss, was on holiday and ask if I could take a message. What came out was, “May I please take a vacation?”

Give me time to compose my thoughts, edit, and revise them and I do a little better. Maybe Wednesday won't be too much of a disaster.

Th-th-th-that’s all folks.