Transfer-Wk 13,Thurs.-Drive through-2nd attempt

I had a follow up to my therapy yesterday. Lori, my therapist, is happy with my progress and current speech pattern. I was in pretty good control of my targets and my self corrections were good. That was nice to hear, since I wasn’t consciously self correcting.

The past few weeks have been difficult for me. My practice has dropped off again due to the project I’m working on … actually my problem is more of an inability to manage my time properly. Time compression in a “flow state” to be precise.

As a result of my lack of practice, my speech has been sliding a bit. Recovery is more difficult, and blocks are increasing. However, out of the 6 starting members of my class, I was the only one in yesterdays follow up, so I think I may be ahead of the curve.

After my follow up, my speech was flowing so well, that I thought I’d try the drive through thing again. This is how it went …

“Medium vanilla milkshake” … no problem! Perfect execution!

Who da man? … you da man! … who? …. that’s right … ME! ha ha

So while I’ve got that bit of idiocy running through my head, the girl working the drive through, being in full control of her faculties, continues her end of the order taking.

“Is that it?” She asks

Huh? What? … Is that it? …. “Uh yeah, that’s it” … no targets on “Uh” or “Yeah”, but used them in “that’s it”

“Do you want fries with that?”

Huh? Oh yeah.. fries … “Uh no” … poor target execution.

“Just the milk shake?”

What? Every question takes me by surprise.

“Yes” … no targets … slight stutter, no big deal … but no control.

“That’ll be $3.??, come to the second window.”

Sooo … maybe next time I’ll save the back patting for after I pay.

Who da man? … Not you dumb ass … wake up!

;-)

After dinner, I went to Toastmasters. I volunteered for the grammarian role, so I counted the “ums” and “ahs” and it gave me a bit more speaking time that usual. But my fluency wasn’t the greatest. Targets were weak and used mostly in recovery.

I was tired too. I was up since 2am and only had 3 hours sleep the night before. I’ve heard a lot of PWS (People Who Stutter) mention how the lack of sleep increases their stutter, but I’ve never noticed it before. But I think I felt it last night.

Anyway, I’ve been anxious to do my second Toastmasters speech, and signed up for the next available spot. It will be on February 15th. However, this is the night of the annual club speech contest. So, I’ve inadvertently signed up for a speech competition.

Holy Crap!

In over my head? Nah … but I don’t expect to win it. ;-)

I don’t know what I will talk about yet, but I had better increase my speech therapy practice though.

---

Not meant as advice, please find a qualified therapist if you are interested in similar therapy.