Well, it’s been a very long week for me. My goals for the week were to get as much work completed as possible, but to still enjoy my vacation in Myrtle Beach. I am happy to say that I think I accomplished this. I spent hours at the library last Tuesday, trying to get as much work completed as possible. The only library that would let me use a computer for that long was at Coastal Carolina University. This was only 30 minutes from our condo, but, of course, it took me an hour and a half to get there. I took the wrong road, which took me to the middle of nowhere. I had to travel 20 miles before I reached an exit to turn around. Wouldn’t you know it also started to pour down rain during that time. I finished everything except for my two remaining genres while at the library. I worked on my genres during the evenings while sitting on the balcony overlooking the beach. I am happy to report that I had a very relaxing week and I feel rejuvenated. I’m ready to return to Huntington to, once again, devote most of my time to completing this project. I’m actually looking forward to it. I’ve been thinking of some modifications I’d like to make to my genres. I’ll be working on that at the beginning of upcoming week. Anyway, time to tell you what I’ve been up to this past week (besides laying in the sun, swimming, and spending all of my money :-) ).

First, I sent an email to the class about my mailing list. I’m sure everyone has read by now that my mailing list, unfortunately, was not very helpful. As I stated in my email, there have only been four postings in the past four months, one of which was from a pornographic site. How this made it to the mailing list, I will never know. While this list wasn’t very helpful, I’m glad I had the chance to join one. I never even knew that such lists existed. Hopefully, this source of information will be of more use in the future. Next, I peer reviewed the genres for the ladies in my group. I have been very impressed with their work. Before this class, I have never had the opportunity to review so much of my classmates work, or have so much of my work reviewed for that matter. While at first I was a little unsure of how I would feel about this, I am now glad that we are doing it. I have received many helpful responses to my genres, and I hope that I have provided some useful advice in return. It’s also nice to have classmates tell you what they like about your work. It’s great to know that you are doing something right! You know what I mean? You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t revised my genres yet. Just to let you know, I have been planning on taking care of that in a couple of days when I return to Huntington. I just returned home (to Martinsburg) about an hour ago, after driving for nine hours, so I’m a little tired. I hope you understand. I do have every intention of making many revisions this week. After completing my peer responses, I conducted a little more searching for information about my topic. After reading many of my articles, I started to rethink my essential question. I have found that there are different ways in which Chronic Otitis Media can affect a child’s language. I’d like to be a little more specific with my question by saying, “How can Chronic Otitis Media cause a child to have a language delay?” I don’t think that I will have to make any major revisions to my genres as a result of this revision. However, it will greatly help me in developing my PowerPoint presentation, which by the way I have not yet finished. I have chosen the information that I would like to include in my presentation, but I have not had access to PowerPoint this past week. I probably won’t have this available to view until Sunday night. Don’t worry. I’ll have it posted by midnight! Anyway, I have completed my fifth genre, which is a letter from the clinician to the parent. While I did not have anything to go by, I think that I did this correctly. I was unsure of how much information to include, but I think that I did a pretty good job. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what my peers think of it!

Well, that’s about it for this week. Now that I’ve had a chance to relax and re-energize, it’s time to pull this project together. I’m hoping to get a lot accomplished next week. I’m excited about how my project is going to turn out. I hope it meets my standards. I have a tendency to set rather high standards for myself. I’m a perfectionist when it comes to this kind of stuff. However, I'm not a perfectionist about everything. For example, if any of you have ever seen my dorm room or my new apartment, you know that I am not a perfectionist when it comes to cleaning. I try to be, but when you’re as busy as I am, it’s not always easy. It takes me hours to clean, but less than an hour to mess it up again! Can any of you relate? I know some of you can, at least I hope so. I’d hate to think that I am the messiest person of the group. I’d like to think that I’m tied with at least a few of you. Anyway, I only have one question for this week. Is it ok for me to revise my essential question this late in the game?