rhetoric and a wedding

I started class about 2 weeks ago. I'm taking Spanish I and a rhetoric class which is the main prerequisite for my major. I'm not enjoying Spanish; it's a chore. I don't like the format of the class either. I had the choice to do total immersion or a bilingual class at the local community college. I chose total immersion and now I'm paying the price. Somehow I'll make my way through the semester. But for Spanish II I'm heading to the community college.

The rhetoric class is very interesting, although ironically the professor is not a good public speaker. I suppose that's why he's never done work as a public speaker; he knows his strong points and his weak points. He has worked as a speech writer in the past. You can tell he knows his stuff, but he's clearly not terribly comfortable standing at the front of a room and speaking.

This class is the foundation for many of the other classes I will be taking. I love it because I can see how it relates to so many things in our society. I'm particularly glad I'm taking this class heading into an election year. The first day of class the professor mentioned a quote, I don't remember it exactly, but paraphrased it's something along the lines of, "If you don't understand rhetoric you can be had."

I'm the geek sitting at the front of class paying attention and involved in the entire class discussion. I do not enjoy the fact that it's at 8:00am though. It means that I have to drop Little Man off at his preschool at 7:00am on the days I have my rhetoric class. Which means I have to wake him up at 6:30am. Ever try to wake a 4 1/2 year old up at 6:30am when all he wants to do is sleep until the sun comes up? "Moooooooooom, let me sleep. It's still night time." 8:00am is just too early for me for a class. So I end up yawning my way through the class, even though I enjoy it.

On another note, we went to the Bahama's this past weekend (Labor Day weekend, the last hurrah before fall) for a friends wedding. This is the second wedding we've gone to in the past few years. Both were Jewish weddings. My guy and I both come from Jewish families but we're non-practicing and about as reformed as is possible. However, we did have a Jewish wedding. When we got married I didn't know what a Ketubah was and even if I had known, I'm not sure I would have cared about having one. This summer we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. I think that's significant for our generation. We have Little Man at a Jewish preschool and after attending 2 Jewish weddings I realize a Ketubah is something meaningful and I wish I would have had a better understanding of it when we got married.

Interestingly enough, when I went online and researched Ketubah's out of curiosity and to educate myself, I discovered most companies that sell them offer many different texts for them, one of which is from a Secular Humanist perspective. My guy and I got married in Las Vegas and we always loved what the rabbi said at our wedding service. It wasn't until I read the Secular Humanist Ketubah texts that I realized our rabbi took that approach for our wedding. I kind of regret not getting a Ketubah when we got married.

Cest la vie. I suppose we could always renew our wedding vows and have the rabbi sign it then.